Karissa turned to look at him, her expression curious. But before he could even get started, she was reaching behind her and plucking her sword out of thin air.
A split second later, his inner wolf was screaming danger.
Hale turned to see an ink-black cloud billowing into existence a few feet away from where he and Karissa stood. He didn’t need to ask what the hell it was. Or, more precisely,who.
“I guess this is why your instincts wanted you here,” he said to Karissa as a tall, muscular man with broad shoulders and a mane of dark hair stepped out of the darkness, his shoes crunching on the roof’s gravel coating.
“I guess so,” she said, lifting her sword high. “I almost thought he’d forgotten about Patterson.”
Hale took a few steps to the side and drew his handgun.
The dark-eyed man slowly came toward them, the suit he wore transforming into multiple layers of gleaming leather armor. Hale had to admit it looked kind of badass, even if the guy intended to try and kill them in the next couple of seconds.
Two curved, single-edged swords appeared in the man’s hands, the blades whistling through the air as he began to swing them in a mesmerizing pattern in front of himself. Hale didn’t know what the blades were called, but whatever they were, they looked incredibly sharp.
“I’m not here for Patterson,” Bagley said in a soft voice that reminded Hale of a snake’s hiss. Creepy. As. Hell. “Though I’m sure I’ll get around tomurdering him at some point, even if I’m not actually supposed to. I’m here for you, Paladin. Killing you comes first.”
Hale was still attempting to figure out what Bagley meant about killing Patterson even though he wasn’t actually supposed to when the part about the asshole being here for Karissa grabbed his attention.
Hale stepped in front of her without thought, the need to protect his soul mate overwhelming any other consideration. He ignored the sound of frustration Karissa let out behind him, focused entirely on the man in front of him and his spinning blades.
Until that moment, Bagley had acted like Hale wasn’t even there. But now, the man turned his full attention on him, tilting his head sideways like he was eyeing a particularly interesting bug and trying to decide if he should step on it or not.
“And who might you be?” Bagley asked, stepping closer as that soft voice began to slide across Hale’s body, oozing here and there like it was trying to find a way inside his soul. Hale took a deep breath, realizing his gut was starting to spasm in an attempt to get rid of everything he’d eaten in the past two weeks.
Oh, yeah. The god of dread. Now he understood what that meant.
“Now I recognize you,” Bagley said, giving Halea smile so malevolent that he was tempted to take a step back to get away from him. “You’re that police officer the media caught on camera, the one fighting with our sweet little Paladin in the woods. I have to admit I’m surprised you’re up and about after the beating those Balauri put on you. They’re more animal than human. Everyone knows that.”
Hale found it disconcerting to realize that Bagley knew who he was, but he pushed that thought aside, fighting to control the sense of dread trying to overwhelm him.
Standing tall and straightening his spine, Hale lifted his weapon higher and snorted. “It’s nice that you already know who I am. That means I won’t have to waste time introducing myself before telling you to keep the fuck back or I’ll drop you where you stand.”
Bagley only laughed and moved toward him in a blur. Hale didn’t think. He simply pulled the trigger.
The first round ricocheted off one of Bagley’s swords, a chance event that defied the laws of probability. When the next three rounds did the same thing, Hale knew random chance had nothing to do with it.
He also knew he was screwed.
Hale ducked the sword coming at his head, taking a glancing blow on the left forearm from the second, and was completely surprised by the heavyboot that slammed into his chest. By the time he felt his ribs crack, he was flying backward, not aware of how close he was to the edge of the roof until he crashed into the metal guardrail.
The guardrail crushed under the force of his impact, and for a few frantic heartbeats, Hale thought he was going over the edge. More pain flared through him before he felt something solid under his flailing fingers and he latched on for dear life, praying it held.
Hale slid to a stop with more than half his body hanging over open air. A glance over his shoulder was enough to make him dizzy at the thought of what would have happened if he’d gone completely over. He didn’t want to find out whether a werewolf could handle a fall that far.
Then he heard grunting and the clang of metal on metal, and he forced his mind to stop worrying about it.
This wasn’t over.
Hale clawed his way back to solid ground, looking over to see Karissa and Bagley swinging swords at each other so fast they were nothing but a blur. His soul mate was holding her own, but Hale’s first instinct was still to immediately charge right back into the fight, gun blazing. But since his weapon was nowhere in sight—and hadn’t worked well the first time around—he realized he needed another tactic.
Pausing to scan the rooftop, his gaze came to rest on the crushed remnants of the guardrail he’d almost smashed through. The part that caught his attention the most was the vertical piece that had been attached to the edge of the roof. It had been ripped off its base, the end ragged and sharp.
That was all he needed to see.
With a growl, he grabbed at the length of metal, ripping it away from the horizontal pieces still hanging on to it by a thread. Then he turned and followed his original plan. He charged across the roof, letting out an echoing snarl to let Karissa know he was coming.
His muscles began to twist as he tried to run faster than his human form would let him, and he almost felt the urge to go over onto all fours. But he held back, not sure if that was the best way to fight right now. The next second, he was sliding to Karissa’s left, attacking Bagley from that side.
