Carter was carrying some kind of rifle, which he tossed to Hale before pulling his own off his back where it had been hanging by a long strap. Hale moved closer to stand protectively near Karissa and then he and Carter turned their attention to Bagley.
For a moment, Karissa thought Bagley was going to charge them, regardless of the automatic weapons he was facing. But he must have thought better of it because a second later, the familiar billowing cloud of darkness appeared. Bagley stepped backward into it with a muttered series of words in a language she didn’t recognize. But she knew cursing when she heard it, regardless of the language.
Hale was at her side in a heartbeat, reaching for the wound in her shoulder, tracing it all the way across her back. “You’re bleeding!” he said, his words coming out like someone had punched him in the gut. “We have to get you out of here.”
“There’s no time,” she said urgently as the other people around them on the floor started moving.“We have to get Patterson to safety before Bagley comes back.”
“He won’t come back,” Hale said. “He knows there’s no chance of him beating the three of us, not when we’re this well-armed.”
Karissa wasn’t too sure of that but didn’t get the chance to tell him that as her spidey sense began to clang even harder than it had a few minutes earlier. Ignoring the burning pain in her shoulder, she shoved herself to her feet and spun in a slow circle, stopping when she saw Bagley’s signature wall of darkness reappearing on the far side of the bay. The sense of dread returned as the man stepped through the portal.
But this time he wasn’t alone.
It took a moment for Karissa to recognize the two black-clad men with him as the two Balauri that she and Hale had gone up against in the woods of the hunting preserve.
“Crap,” she muttered as the two men leveled their own assault weapons at Hale and Carter.
“Kill the werewolves,” Bagley said. “But leave the woman for me.”
Chapter 24
Hale had been close to losing his mind when Carter finally turned the SUV into the parking lot of Patterson’s new automotive plant, holding on tight as the tires squawked across the asphalt. They’d made good time, but when he’d seen all the people pouring out the front doors of the darkened main building in a blind panic, he knew they were too late. Thomas Bagley had come after Karissa while Hale had been busy messing around with the Balauri miles away.
He jumped out of the SUV before it had even come to a stop, shoving and pushing through the people who were crawling over the top of each other to get out of the building. He hated going through the crowd like that, but he refused to let anything keep him from getting to his soul mate.
It was easy to pick up her scent the moment he stepped into the lobby of the dimly lit building, even though the place was immense and strung out in a bewildering maze of rooms and assembly bays. He took off running, thankful that his nose worked properly now—at least as far as Karissa was concerned. Then, not five seconds later, his heart dropped into his stomach as another powerful scent hit him.
Blood.
Karissa’s blood.
Hale lost control of his inner wolf then. He was only glad the place was so dark, because if all those panicking people had seen his claws and fangs, it would have terrified them even more.
When he’d finally found Karissa and realized that she was injured but thankfully alive, it was like the weight of the world dropped from his shoulders. Dominic and Glenn Patterson were cowering on the floor along with half a dozen other people. They were all nearly comatose with fear from the dread emanating from Bagley, but as soon as the hit man retreated back into one of those creepy damn portals and disappeared, everyone had started to stir.
Whatever relief Hale felt evaporated the moment Bagley stepped back into the room less than a minute after he’d left, this time with Darijo Tamm and the other Balaur who Hale had fought with at the hunting preserve.
Shit.
How the hell had Davina missed the part about Bagley being able to take other people with him through these underworld portals? More importantly, why hadn’t they known that Thomas Bagley and the Balauri were working together?
“Get Patterson and everyone else out of here,” Hale said to Karissa as he watched Tamm and the other Balauri move toward him and Carter withtheir weapons raised. “Once the shooting starts, we won’t be able to protect all of them.”
From the look on her face, it was clear that Karissa didn’t want to leave him. And that meant everything in the world to Hale. But he could also tell she knew he was right. Someone needed to get the people out of this assembly bay, and she was the only one who could do it.
“There’s no way I can get everyone out,” Karissa said, glancing around. “There are too many.”
She was right, Hale thought.
He spun at the sudden thud of running footsteps, lifting his M4 carbine toward whoever was attacking them from behind, only to pull up when he recognized Deven and Lorenzo. Their eyes went wide in panic at the dread that had filled the room once again, their hearts beating so hard it was a miracle they were still standing.
Karissa started to ask what the hell they were doing there, but Hale cut her off. Deven and Lorenzo could help. That was all that mattered.
“Help Karissa get Patterson and the others out of the building,” Hale said, reaching out to put his hand on Deven’s shoulder. “Hurry.”
Karissa glanced at him. “Don’t do anything stupid,” she warned before giving him a quick kiss. Then she was up and running toward Dominic Patterson, grabbing his arm, and shoving him and his son toward the way out at the same time.
Deven and Lorenzo—where the hell had her oldest brother come from?—got the other people to their feet, cajoling them toward the exit as fast as they would move. It was in the nick of time, too, as Tamm and his buddy chose that moment to start shooting.
