Harper shook her head. “Niall only brought him around to prove to Casey I was still alive. Casey was never held prisoner here.”
Well, there went rescuing them both at the same time. “I’ll look for him afterward, but you need to come with me. If you stay, you risk your pack.”
Wade knew there was a chance he might not be able to keep that promise to her of getting Casey back. She had to know that too, but Harper proved why she was an alpha when she swore before saying, “Okay. Let’s go. I can’t shift though. Too much aconite poisoning.”
That was never good. Wade took a second to pry the fire opal ring off his finger and put it on one of Harper’s. “Fae magic, but the good kind. It’ll keep you safe while I get us out of here.”
She still shuddered, but he couldn’t tell if that was her probably newfound aversion to fae magic or the fact he most likely jostled some injuries when he lifted her bridal style in his arms. He could see the magic wrapping around her, the scent of it reminding him of Órlaith. He knew Harper wouldn’t find it comforting, but Wade did.
The water pouring down on them was freezing. He stepped over the corpses and out of the hotel room, pitching them both down the hallway at a fast run that he hoped wouldn’t hurt Harper too much. He pushed that bit of self through his aura that would make people look away, vision sparkling a little at the edges from a glow only he could see. It was a trick that helped him hide from radar when flying at night and could make people not see him in certain instances, whether in human or dragon form.
It wasn’t completely foolproof. He couldn’t force millions of people to not see him if he flew during the day, but in momentslike this, it worked. They made it to the elevator bank when the doors to the stairwell there slammed open. Wade backpedaled and got him and Harper up against the wall as soundlessly as he could, holding his breath as soaked fae raced by with supernatural speed toward the hotel room, arguing with each other in their language.
Wade glanced down at Harper, seeing she was biting her split lip so hard the skin was white, and it was bleeding again as she tried to hold back an exclamation of pain. She smelled a little like fear and anger to his nose right then, which he couldn’t blame her for.
After the last fae passed them, Wade moved to catch the closing door with his foot, shoving it back open so he could swing them around into the stairwell. The fire alarm hadn’t stopped, and neither had the sprinklers. He honestly hoped all the water damage ruined the hotel. It would be too much to hope that the first responders would discover the room Harper had been held prisoner in. Wade knew the fae would probably use glamour to hide all the evidence of their wrongdoings, giving an illusion of a regular hotel room.
He wished they’d get caught, but if it took eating Niall to make him pay for what he did, then Wade would gladly take one for the team.
Harper was stiff in his arms by the time he made it to the ground floor, the jostling not helping her wounds any. He wanted to ask if there was anyone with her god pack who handled healing but bit back the question. They weren’t in the clear yet.
Which was made abundantly apparent when he hauled open the door to the first-floor elevator bank and came face-to-face with a group of fae heading toward them, probably looking to head up the way they’d just come. The door opening meant theylooked, and Wade knew it would be a fight to keep them from not seeing him.
So he took a deep breath and let out a roar full of fire that scorched the entire area in front of him—including all the fae. The magic in the ring flared up crystal-white around Harper, protecting her from the heat as Wade burned to ash everything around them. He heard someone shout from farther away, and he scowled, sharp teeth catching on his lips.
“Fuck it. Hold on,” Wade warned.
He ran, the world blurring with the speed he put into his stride. The shield held, protecting them from the flying glass of the front doors that he crashed through to get outside. The fire department hadn’t arrived yet, but the piercing sounds of sirens in the distance were getting closer. Police and the fire department were on their way, and he wanted to be anywhere else but on the hotel grounds.
Wade didn’t stop running until he made it to the rental car a couple of blocks away, skidding to a stop in the garage so hard he ended up falling up against the side of the car from the sudden lack of motion. “Sorry, sorry!”
Harper grunted softly. “It’s fine.”
“You know, my alpha says the same thing when he’s bleeding like you are, and none of us ever believe him.” Harper managed a sound that might have been a chuckle, but it turned into a pained huff when Wade finally put her on her feet. She wobbled for a moment, breathing fast and hard as if she’d been the one running. Wade reached past her to grab the car door and open it for her. “Come on. I know a bunch of people who have missed you.”
Harper flinched a little, but the relief that flowed across her face was something Wade understood. There was nothing like the feeling of being free.
He helped her into the car, got her buckled up, and then scrambled behind the steering wheel to start the engine. As much as he wanted to careen out of the parking garage and speed away, he knew that would only draw attention to them. So he didn’t speed out of the parking garage, paid the ticket rather than bust through the gate, and pulled into the street. He was trying to connect his phone to the car’s system while watching the road when Harper swiped it out of his hand.
“You don’t know where you’re going, do you?” she asked.
“If this was Manhattan, I would.”
She side-eyed him with her bruised eyes while plugging in his phone. “You pack a lot of fire power. Literally.”
“They deserved it. They probably deserved more, but I was in a hurry.”
She tapped at the screen on the dash, her home already one of the top choices, considering Wade had been driving between that address, his hotel, and Riordan’s home for the past few days. “Is my pack okay? Niall hasn’t done anything to them?”
“Niall is a bastard, and he’s pissed off a lot of people. He is currently being hunted by two master vampires and their Night Courts.”
Harper stilled, fingers resting against the screen. “Two? Boston only has one.”
“Yeah,” Wade drawled, keeping his eyes on the road. “Lucien was taking a vacation and stopped by to say hi to Abby Boy. Niall thought that would be a good time to drop in for a visit, and guess what? The bastard made things worse for himself, which is a nice change of pace.”
“Lucienis in Boston? Thedaywalker?”
“Yup. And now you know why Niall’s little hostile takeover got derailed.” Wade glanced at her and shook his head at the concern he saw on her face. “Don’t worry. My pack has dealt withLucien before. He’s not going to stick around, and I paid for all the information, not your pack.”
