“What did the working do?” I asked, realizing I could hear again. Skinwalker morphology and supernatural healing.Go me.
“Killed. It was Latin, I think.Inimicusmight have been enemy.Moritur, might have been mortal or kill. Just guessing. Does she study Latin?”
“No.”
“So she made up and used an untested working,” he said.
“All by herself. She could have killed herself,” I said, checking my weapon.
“Or us. Dangerous little brat.” A moment later he said, “The limo is barreling down the hill to HQ. None of our people are down. Ten to one, the shot was aimed at you and only missed because he dipped you.” Eli gave me a handful of rounds. I began reloading my magazine by feel in the dark. “And I have a feeling the shooter is now dead at Angie’s hands. That’s going to be a hard thing for her parents to deal with.”
A problem for tomorrow. A big problem, but later. “There have to be more. Why aren’t they shooting?” I asked.
He knew I meant more shooters on the roof. “Good question. First guess is they weren’t expecting so many guests, since you weren’t either.” His teeth flashed in the dark. It wasn’ta grin. The sense leaking over to me was fury, rage, all things hot and deadly. “We should assume they have backup on the way or waiting for the exodus.”
“Crap.”
“We have bikes scouting the roads just in case they planned with backup,” Eli said.
“Okay. How did the shooter get on the roof?”
Eli shook his head, his frustration wide open, a flood that swirled through me. “I had drones in the air all day. And once thehedgewas in place, there was no way for anyone to get to the roof.”
“Attic space we don’t know about? Secret passages built into the place?” I asked.
“Former owner was eccentric,” Eli said, checking more of his weapons. He held up a finger, listening to comms. “Copy that.” To me, he continued, “Liked castles and stone buildings. Spared no expense. New owner may not know. Or could have been coerced.”
I snapped the magazine back into position and dropped the rest of the rounds into my cleavage.Not a bad pocket.“Or she may be part of this.”
“Koun says Leo’s in the limo with Bruiser,” he said. “They’re heading toward safety. Both Limos have protection details.”
I blew out a breath of release. My shoulders dropped and I rolled them to discharge the tension. Wind caught my dress skirt and blew what was left around me. I cut the last part of the skirt free at about knee level. I was cold, but at least I wouldn’t trip on the remains of the dress. “What are we waiting for?” I asked as I worked. I was going to find and kill the rest of the people responsible for Bruiser nearly dying in my arms.
“Intel. And for our people to get into position. Our shooters are repositioned to provide cover fire,” Eli said. “Mi-Sook is armored. Coming as backup.”
The name was familiar as one of our new vampire security types. “You trust him?”
“Her. Yes. She’s good.”
A form popped into place, my ears healed enough that I heard her arrival. The woman was fully vamped out, her eyes like black holes in her pale Asian face. “Grizz spotted a human form in the woods about fifty feet that way,” she pointed, “along with at least three Mithrans.” She gestured into the woods, her accent somewhere in the west, like Montana. “There seems to be a physical altercation.”
Eli switched channels. “Grizz. Hostage?” he asked on comms. A moment later he said to me, “Could be one of ours fighting to free the human. Or a disagreement among our enemies.”
“Or bait,” Grizz said, her voice tinny over Eli’s ear wire.
Bait. Someone who knew me too well, wanting us to race in there like idiots. Which would be stupid, and which we were going to do anyway, in case one of our people was in the woods in the hands of the enemy.
“Human in the woods is down,” Grizz said. “Visible on low light. Seems to be alone.”
I rolled my shoulders again, my bloody-dried skin pulling at my silk gown. I lifted the hacked off hem of my bloody wedding gown and tucked it into the smoother’s leg holes. I looked stupid. They’d see the white-ish in the dark. They’d smell me coming, Bruiser’s blood was still somewhat fresh. My blasted dress markedmeas bait.Yeah. I said that as I slid out of my shoes and tore off the socks, curled my toes against the ground—cold, winter-stiff earth.
“Don’t get killed,” Eli murmured.
From the roof of the chapel came the sound of swords clashing. Koun and Linc and whoever was hiding there, more of the people who had shot Bruiser. “Go.” I darted into the blackness of the forest.
Skinwalkers were way faster than humans, and I was likely faster than most skinwalkers, thanks to all the times I’d died and all the vamp blood I’d been forced to drink to heal, but Mi-Sook passed me after two steps and raced ahead at my left, into the trees. I missed having Koun to my right. Eli faded into the night, silent behind me. I let myself make all the noise I wanted. Might as well begoodbait.
Mi-Sook whispered what had to be an expletive.
