“What’ve we got?” Tristan asked, ready to rip off his muumuu.
“Fifty people,” Dave said as we stopped in front of them. “All coming up the south side.” He pointed for my benefit. “Half are coming up first in organized lines. They step through the wood lightly and don’t disturb the trees too much. The rest tramp through and rub against trunks. All are on two feet, and none seem like shifters or gargoyles.Heris positive.”
“Mercenaries and mages,” Sebastian said, jogging over. “They’ll be looking to acquire Tilda, but they won’t want to expend the effort and danger in looking. They’ll grab shifters to question and kill the rest.”
“Questionmeans torture the information out of,” I told Drex. “How many will they grab?” I asked Sebastian.
“Doesn’t matter,” Austin replied. “They won’t get that chance.” He yanked off his sweats. “This is known protocol when mages attack. We can handle it. Sebastian, what do you surmise will be the power scale of this crew?”
“This is textbook Guild protocol when confronted with a dangerous force,” he said.
“When confronted with shifters in general,” Broken Sue growled, stripping.
“Exactly,” Sebastian said. “It’s a blunt approach and I’d bet solely the Guild. Not Momar.”
“No,” Niamh said from not far off, her eyes distant. “It’s the timing that’s Momar. And managing to hide fifty people from the basajaunak until the actual attack.”
A chill ran through me, and Sebastian’s face lost its color. Niamh had surmised the same thing I had.
“Nothing for it,” she said. “Proceed as normal. We don’t have time for anything else.”
“Proceeding as normal,” Sebastian said, re-taking control, “the numbers in the attack are for the shifters because Tilda doesn’t pose any real threat magically. Ordinarily in this situation, they’d have mediocre mages. They won’t use higher powered mages in case something goes wrong. Jessie and I can distract them easily, take out a bunch, and the shifters can handle the rest. Mercenaries will be similar to what we’ve dealt with in the past: magical guns, organization, unused to shifter power, and certainly not used to fliers. In anormalsituation, we’d be able to handle this.”
Niamh nodded. “Momar wouldn’t send in anything better. He’d know we’d kill them. He’s lost too much power to us already. He’s looking for something else here. Some other information crucial to his plans and he’s sacrificing Guild personnel to do it. Nothing new there. We’ll have to figure out what he’s after later.” She swore under her breath. “This lad is starting to get on my nerves. He’s dancing around in the shadows, watching us fumble. That needs to end, like.”
We needed time to devote to unraveling the spider’s web, as Fred liked to think of him.
“A problem for another day,” I said, power thrumming. “We need to take care of this now.”
Sebastian handed his jacket to Tristan and continued to undress.
“Then what are we waiting for?” Drex asked, ripping off his muumuu.
“Kill as many mercenaries as you need to.” Nessa stripped down to her underwear. She must’ve brought a change of clothes. “Do notkill them all. Wound them, leave them, and let them limp back to where they came from. They need to see the carnage and tell their friends. We need mercenaries to stop taking jobs against shifters.”
“Yeah, agree.” Sebastian pushed down his pants. They’d both brought a change of clothes.
“As far as the mages?—“
“Capture them all.” Niamh finally headed our way. “Don’t kill any of them, mercenaries included, if ye can help it. Some of them need to fill us in on Tilda. They’ll talk easier than she will. The rest…” A crease formed between her brows. “I’ll figure out when I have a moment to think.”
“Okay, we know what we’re doing.” I grabbed the back of Austin’s neck and yanked him down for a kiss. “Be safe. I’ll be right above you.”
“Likewise. Guard my heart.”
I smiled, knowing his heart was me.
“Tristan.” I pulled off my muumuu and tossed it to the ground as Sebastian grabbed his stuff from Tristan and ran for the vehicle he’d come in wearing only boxers. Nessa had already headed that way. “We get to officially see if my training has taken root, huh? Let’s hope I learned something.”
“Yeah,” he said, standing ready. “Don’t screw up.”
I laughed, the thrill of battle beating through me. Time to earn my keep.
“Leave your people here,” Austin told Drex. “We’ve got this. They’d just get in the way and possibly get killed. If you want to come along to see how we handle mages and to see what mages can do, you’ll need to follow orders from me and my beta.”
“Understood,” Drex said.
“Keep those mages in that house,” I told Drex. “Do not let them out. If they run, it might be into the hands of the enemy. Right now, they have a fighting chance of explaining their situation. If the Guild gets them, they’ll have no hope of salvation.”
