“Milord? We are to mount an offensive without confirmation?” The captain of the guards stared at Sir Rodney for a moment. “But, sir, our magick’s not returned as promised yet.”
“Were this not the time for immediate action I would have you court-martialed for questioning my command!”
Sir Rodney’s troops lowered their confused gazes.
“I will not have her left out there stranded! If she sent the signal through her own device, then that is good enough for me!” Sir Rodney held the cell phone out to his men as he walked down his garrison’s line, armed to the teeth. “If I had been outside the fortress walls, I would have received the call meself. She showed me how to hear her voice in the air with it! How to push the button to stop the chime and to let her speak to me clear as a bell. That much I know how to do, but I do not need to hear her voice to know that she needs my sword! Are we not men without our magick? Do we not know how to destroy this foul beast called Vampire?”
A lackluster aye returned to him from his troops.
“Then the way we would for the Lady of the Lake, for Sasha Trudeau we ride!”
Chin-Hwa came out onto the roof with angry flames licking up behind him; Hunter dropped three stories down into the middle of a police investigation, covered in air-elemental scratches. Before anyone could react, the top of the building blew. Guns were drawn; people on the scene shouted and scrambled against the perceived threat as Hunter ran zigzag through the police like an NFL quarterback.
A hot-wired SUV skidded to a sideways stop as police cruisers got thrown into service amid the distinctive pop of gunfire. Hunter jumped into the SUV as it careened off. The sound of helicopter blades beating the air made Chin-Hwa panic and bail off the roof, wolf style. He hit the ground on all fours, looked around for a second to find an opening, and sprinted.
Sirens blared, and Sasha leaned over with Shogun driving. Seung Kwon opened one door; Dak-Ho opened the other. Chin-Hwa came to a skidding halt out of a back alley, pursued by breathless foot-patrol officers.
“Get in!” Sasha shouted.
The car was still moving and Chin-Hwa had to run to catch up to it. A bullet caught Hunter in the upper arm as the vehicle slowed and he yanked Chin-Hwa inside. Both doors slammed shut. Shogun peeled rubber as Hunter held the wound, swerving through traffic, nearly colliding with parked cars and pedestrians.
“Did it get the bone?” Sasha leaned over the seat but everyone ducked down as NOPD shot out the back window.
“Passed through the muscle but hurts like a bitch.” Hunter leaned his head back against the seat, grimacing as the vehicle lurched and pitched.
“If you can hang on till we get somewhere, I can heal it.”
“First we’ve gotta live,” Shogun said, bouncing over a curb and taking a hairpin turn.
“We’ll never outrun the chopper,” Sasha said as Shogun maneuvered into a back street and came barreling out of the other end of it, taking half a storefront with him.
Hunter cried out as Shogun slammed on the brakes hard and bounced over the pavement and a median to head in the opposite direction, causing traffic to screech to a halt in four directions.
“We have to get off the street before we kill somebody. I need a phone-take us inside a building, any building, where there’re no people on the first floor, then everybody scatter.” Sasha turned, repeatedly glancing back at Hunter.
“We’ll be trapped, sitting ducks!” Seung Kwon shouted.
“You trusted me back there at Dugan’s old place just now, right?” she shouted over the seat as the SUV almost rolled over. “Shogun found the symbol in his building, too, right?”
“I trust the lady,” Shogun said, turning hard into a building and taking out the entire front bay of an auto body shop.
Pedestrians scattered, metal slammed against metal, but she and all the others in their vehicle were up and out as airbags burst forward.
Hunter slapped a shotgun out of a foolish owner’s hands. “Where’s the phone? That’s all we came for; insurance should cover the rest.”
“Come out with your hands in the air!”
The unmistakable blare of a police bullhorn made everybody freeze for a moment. Hunter, Shogun, and his men stared at Sasha as she dialed the telephone.
“How’s the arm?” Shogun muttered.
Hunter didn’t immediately answer, just wrapped the bleeding wound with duct tape. “It’ll heal.”
“We have the place surrounded! Let the hostages in the store go!”
“Hey, Sir Rodney?” Sasha said quickly. “How’s your Fae magick working right about now?”
“We’ve gotta go,” Woods said to Fisher. He looked at Doc and then Silver Hawk. “It’s going down. You all have got to cover Bear Shadow, Crow Shadow, and ’Rissa in there. We can’t do anything but provide security out here, if maybe something tries to come out of the shadows on you guys, anyway.” He tossed Doc a nine-millimeter. “Saw that you know how to use one of these.”
“That I do.”
“Good,” Woods said, looking at Bradley. “You take care of our girl.” Woods gave Clarissa a brief hug.
“Armed with iron, rowan, and brick dust, as well as a few little things that are a special blend of my own.”
“Good man.” Woods bumped Bradley’s fist.
“Did she say what she wanted us to bring?” Fisher started hunting through the cache of weapons hidden at Tulane from the last battle.
“Everything and the kitchen sink.”
“They don’t see us?” Shogun whispered, walking past police officers that had their weapons drawn.
“Nope,” Sasha said quietly and quickly, hurrying the group along.
The frightened Fae civilian that was called out of hiding kept his eyes squeezed shut for a second and then dashed ahead of them. “Hurry, hurry, please hurry… We just got our magick back and I’m only here because of Sir Rodney’s insistence. I’m an innocent bystander-we’re not even from New Orleans! This was not how we had intended to spend the day before the ball!”
“Sir, I know you’re upset,” Sasha said calmly, glancing around. “But if we could impose on you for one more favor or two… We need that van over there turned into a military vehicle, if you can… and anything you need to use as material-like wheel lugs-to transform into AK-47s or M-16s, whichever is easiest, and silver shells for them. Maybe you can use the steel tire irons for the on-the-fly alchemy? But we need weapons, a vehicle, and a way out, stat. Appreciate your help.”
Sasha went to the side of the van, marveling at how the police continued to shout through the bullhorn as the SWAT unit arrived. Shogun caught the Elf under his tiny arms before he fainted.
“We’re a peaceful people,” the Elf said, gulping. “Do I have to make guns?”
“I will be your eyes,” Silver Hawk said as he sat across the table from Clarissa, with Doc and Bradley by her side. He looked up at Bear Shadow and Crow Shadow and waited for them to nod.
“I will be your ears,” Clarissa murmured, looking at both men.
“Listen for our voices and only our voices to direct you… or that of the Great Spirit,” Silver Hawk said quietly. “I will call the positive ancestors. I will call the shaman guides. I will ask the Great Spirit for your protection. You must free our people from the shackles of this curse!”
Sir Rodney dropped down from the tree line with a smile as soon as Sasha’s vehicle came into the long drive.
“I knew you wanted us to be here,” he said with a wide smile, vindicated, and glancing at his astonished men.
“Thank you,” Sasha said, jumping down from the armored jeep and coming up to Sir Rodney with a wide smile. “Seems I’ve been saying that to you a lot, lately. Your man in town outfitted us beautifully… but we wouldn’t have gotten out of there if it weren’t for a traditional Fae glamour. Although I think your constituent was so upset that he may need medical attention-that or a good therapist. We stressed the poor man, and we apologize for that.”