“I’ll just be backup,” Ottis said under his breath.
“Nothing that’ll endanger you,” Doc breathed. He waited until Ottis nodded. Then he scrambled up the side of the hedge, sticking his head over it. Doc roared.
Ottis’ instincts shivered at the sound. Maybe it was meant to chase away their enemies, but all Ottis wanted was to obey that voice. Doc’s roar soundedgood.
A gunshot cracked through the air, shooting ice down Ottis’ veins.
Doc had dropped back down. He was—He was fine, striding toward the iron gates with no hitch in his movements. The shot had missed him.
Ottis barely had time to breathe a sigh of relief. Doc pulled out an iron poker from under the hedge, opened the gate, and slipped out of it.
“Who sent you?” Doc growled.
Guns clicked. Ottis panicked. Doc only had aniron pokerand he was facing downguns.
Ottis wanted to distract the bad guys to give Doc an advantage, but he didn’t want to end up distracting Doc too.What should I do?
He hurried to the gate and peeked out of the gap Doc had left in it. More lurkers had shown up, five of them. Just that no one sent this many people tolurk.They were here to mount an attack.
Doc had to know that. And yet he dodged between the enemies, narrowly avoiding being shot as he swung the poker down whip-fast and cracked a few wrists. He was moving faster than Ottis expected, for how huge he was.
The men shouted. Gunshots popped. Doc twisted out of the way before someone could shoot him, picking up a fallen gun.
Then he was firing, dropping the men one by one.
Ottis saw the moment Doc ran out of time.
Doc was aiming for the two men left standing in front of him. Except one of the fallen men was moving sluggishly, reaching for a gun.
Ottis leaped through the gate and flung himself forward, his bad leg twinging as he forced it into motion.
“Ottis!” Doc hissed.
A shot went off. Ottis kept moving, twitching when he smelled iron in the air. Blood.
Had Doc been shot?
He sank his teeth into the fallen, sneaky man, ripping his flesh apart so the gun fell from his hands. At least the man couldn’t shoot Doc anymore.
Then another shot went off.
This time, fire burned across Ottis’ shoulder. He yelped and scrambled back to the gate.
The fighting continued behind him. When Ottis reached safety and turned around, he was almost afraid to look.
Doc stood alone in the middle of the street, bodies scattered around him.
Ottis breathed a sigh of relief. Doc was fine.
“Are you hurt?” Doc rumbled, striding over. “I heard you yelp.”
“I...” Ottis twisted around, trying to see. His shoulder twinged. “Maybe.”
Doc’s voice dropped to a growl. “Sweetheart. I told you to stay safe.”
Crap, was he angry? Ottis gulped. “I’ll, uh, I’ll wait in the mansion,” he said after giving Doc a quick once-over. Doc smelled a little like blood, but there was too much blood around to tell if any of it was coming from Doc.
“Go,” Doc growled.
