“Lead on. I’ve got your back.”
She grabbed him, kissing him hard. “If you get hurt, even one little scratch, I’m going to rip some people apart. Got me? And I’ll make you use my mother’s green soap. So keep your head down.”
“I think I can manage that, boss.”
She harrumphed and he followed her.
One of the trucks with the mounted gun had several people in the guard shack pinned down. He knew she was drawing magick as they moved, felt it build in the air all around them. Their link shimmered and heated as she charged herself. But even then he was not ready for the moment she stepped out, shot the guy at the gun in the head with one hand and blew back the others standing near the gates, trying to pry them open, with a heated blast of power.
She spoke instead of yelling, but her voice was modulated to be heard by those in the shack.
“Get out of there and behind some cover. Weapons hot. Shifters, you’re free to take either form. Witches, don’t waste whatever shot you get with anything but lethal force.”
“We’ve got two down,” one of the guards shouted.
“Leave them in the shack.” It was fortified, Faine knew. “We’ve got backup on the way, but let’s see about clearing out this riffraff before one of these nearby houses gets hit.”
“We got them evacuated first thing. Only one house was occupied. A lot of people had already left for work.” One of the guards, a shifter named . . . Sophie, that’s right, spoke to Helena.
She’d been training this group so they followed her orders perfectly and fanned out, narrowly avoiding getting shot. The problem was that one of the trucks sat at an angle behind the wall so it was hard to get a shot at it, but they had a higher vantage point and kept them pinned down.
“Who are they? Have they made any demands?”
Sophie shook her head. “They haven’t. They just rolled up to the gates and opened fire.”
Helena made a call and ordered her people to run the plates. Faine took film of the situation and emailed it to the Gennessee office.
“I’m going to shift. Cover me.” Sophie got her clothes off and in a blink she was a large, honey-colored wolf.
“Go left, along the wall. I’m going to take out this nearest truck.” Helena drew more power. “They just tossed the dead guy off and there’s another one now. The ones near the gates will be bleeding out the ass for a while, if they’re still alive. But we need to deal with those mounted guns.”
She turned to the others. “You, if you get in that tree over there, you can use magick to short out their engines. I’m going to try something with the guns. I need a distraction because I need to be closer. I’d prefer not to take a bullet the size of a small dog if I can help it.”
“No jokes,” Faine growled at her. “I’ll shift. I can jump the fence easily.”
“No. What I want to do . . . well, everyone needs to be behind me. Cover me. You’re handy with a weapon.”
And then she took off her shoes and began to pull magick, spooling it up at a rate he figured was pretty alarming given the way the nearby witches gaped at her.
“Go on!” He waved at them. “Get in place or this is for nothing.” Once they’d all run off he got in Helena’s face. “I know you’re going to do something scary. And I’m not happy. I get it, I know why. But you’d better not end up dead, Helena. I mean it.”
Her eyes were otherworldly now. The power arcing off her skin. The hair on his arms stood straight up.
“I got this. And stay behind me.”
“Give me a forty-five-second lead. I need to lay down some fire and the rest just got into position.”
She nodded and he had no choice but to put her immediate safety from his mind.
Helena’s heart raced and her mind reeled. She’d never brought so much power into herself, not even when she stopped that bomb. But something about her link to Faine had grounded her. She felt the power rushing through her, knew it could burn her out and leave her brain-dead. But she held the reins.
She gave him his forty-five seconds and gunfire began to fill the air. She blocked it all out except to be sure to stay out of the line of their fire. Her focus was on the two remaining trucks and the deafening percussion of the chunk, chunk, chunk of the bullets hitting the pavement and the walls of nearby buildings.
They saw her coming and she let it go. Let them see her full of magick. Let herself be the monster they were frightened enough of that they’d attack a neighborhood filled with innocents.
They’d tried education. They’d tried diplomacy. They’d even fought back and used threats. But PURITY and their buddies kept coming. They would keep coming until all the Others were dead because that’s the only thing PURITY wanted.
So she’d be sure they understood if they wanted that, it would be their bodies at the morgue.
She raised her hands and drew more power. The city had its own sort of energy and she pulled it from the people, from the buildings and cars, from the stored energy in the roads and sidewalks. She drew from the Font as well.
And then she spoke, and turned it on them. Focused on those guns. Made it hot. Made it so hot she knew the metal was softening. She heard a scream. Heard yells to get back. But they shot at her. Before she could shift and shield herself, three bullets tore through her thigh. Her hip was shattered with a fourth.
But she kept standing. Kept sending power at them until the screams stopped. Until the bullets stopped. Until she couldn’t stand anymore and her legs buckled.
The ringing in her ears lasted a while. Faine picked her up, holding her against his body. His heart beat so fast she worried. She knew he was yelling her name, but she couldn’t hear. She just put her finger on his lips and shook her head.
She said, “I’m going to live.”
He frowned and she knew he growled but she couldn’t hear it. Couldn’t hear the sirens. Then the police came with the FBI and they tried to arrest everyone, including the people inside the enclave.
She could sort of hear at that point as one of the enclave medics packed the wounds on her leg.
“No.” She shouted this from where she lay in a pool of her own blood. “If you come in here with weapons drawn, we will defend ourselves.”
“Like you did with these humans?” The cop waved at the molten metal and the mass of bodies.
“Yes. We did nothing wrong. They came here, they attacked. They shot us, they tried to harm children. We told you what would happen. And you kept it up. You kept on and on until we had no other choice. You brought this on yourself. We will not let you harm our young. We will not. So you need to figure out who the enemy is here and act accordingly.”
Her lips tingled.
Gil Anderson shoved his way to the front. “Christ, Helena. Why is it that every time I see you, you’re covered in blood? Stand down. Let the ambulances in. This is a crime scene, let’s get on it.”
“She needs a hospital.” Faine wouldn’t let go of her.
“Yeah, I think I do.” It was harder and harder to talk.
A paramedic approached. “We’re going to get you loaded up and to the hospital, ma’am.” He smiled. “I’m a witch too. I promise to take good care of you. Your, um, guy can ride along.”
“You should stay here and manage the scene. Let the clan know what’s happening.”
The heat of morphine traveled up her arm and through her body. “Oh, that’s nice.”
Faine frowned. “I’m not leaving you. Sophie can handle this from here. I’ll make calls on the way.”
They loaded her into the ambulance and she was only going to let her eyes close once, but it was very hard to get them back open.
So she gave Faine orders with her eyes closed. But it seemed like once she closed her eyes it was really a lot harder to talk.