Two soldiers darted forward and picked Juliet up off the concrete. Blood flowed from her ears and eyes, and she kept screaming a high-pitched wail of raw pain. What had Sam done to her? They carried her away from the melee and around the trailer. An engine ignited, and then they were gone.
The air shimmered. The earth stilled. Many yards away, Bear shifted from human to grizzly. A blast of power flew toward them, and Honor instinctively ducked. It still slammed into her, sending her senses reeling.
He lifted to his full height, his neck still injured, roaring with a raw fury that sent spikes of terror through Honor. She sidestepped closer to Nessa, carefully firing at the enemy while avoiding Sam and Garrett, who fought wildly with movements too fast to track. It seemed everyone had guns but were choosing knives. She apparently couldn’t kill with the gun, but she could maim.
Nessa nailed one soldier full on in the face with a spiked plasma ball, and he flew into the trailer, dropping unconscious. A soldier next to him ran forward and tackled her into the wall.
Bear went berserk. He lowered his head and charged, wrapping his powerful jaw around the soldier’s neck and snapping his head right off. Growling, huffing, Bear threw the head toward the fighting soldiers.
Honor’s legs went weak.
The animal turned into the fray, slashing with sharp claws and cutting with deadly teeth.
Sam flipped a soldier over his shoulder and followed him to the ground, stabbing a sharp blade into his neck. Another soldier rushed him.
Honor dropped into a shooting stance and fired, slowing the guy down.
Sam turned and stared at him. The black-haired guy stopped, and his eyes widened. He clapped both bony hands to his ears and screeched. Sam turned his attention to the next Kurjan, slashing with his knife. He was so fast and so deadly, she barely recognized him.
Two more heads rolled away. Then two more. Soon it was one on one, and Bear was heaving over by the trailer, blood still flowing wildly from his wound.
One of the enemy soldiers retrieved a gun from his pants and turned, firing wildly at Nessa.
“No!” Honor yelled, jumping in front of the pregnant witch. The laser pierced her leg, and pain exploded through her. She cried out, falling hard, blood gushing from her.
The soldier fired again, hitting Nessa several times.
Honor tried to crawl toward her.
Time stopped. Sam turned, looked at her, and then inhaled. He flipped the knife around in his hand, twisted, and stabbed the general in the eye, neck, and groin in a methodical strike that was as cold as ice. He hit the other eye and shoved down, pinning the enemy to the ground. In battle, he was unbeatable. Fierce and cold. Then he ran to her, his eyes wild.
Another two heads rolled.
Garrett followed him, the enemy put down for now. “How bad?”
Sam pressed his hands against her thigh, and she gasped, pain filling her. “Bad. Artery.” He studied Nessa. “You?”
Blood flowed from Nessa’s wounds, and the witch looked like she was in shock.
Garrett moved for Nessa, easing her back against the brick. “Close your eyes and concentrate on healing.” Blood trickled from his jaw, but he ignored it.
Sam unbuckled his belt and wound it around Honor’s leg. “This is gonna hurt, sweetheart.”
Honor whimpered and instinctively tried to move away, but Sam held her in place. “Nessa? Can you make fire?”
“Yes,” the witch ground out, pain wafting from her. Fire traveled down her arms to her hands.
“Only if it doesn’t hurt you,” Sam whispered, blood flowing from wounds on his face and neck.
Nessa moved forward, her eyes wide, her neck bruised, her eyes dazed. “I’m sorry.” Then she pressed the fire to Honor’s flesh, cauterizing the wound. For one beat, there was only smoke. And then pain.
Agony ripped through Honor’s body, and she stiffened and screamed. Then she passed out.
Cold.
Chapter Eighteen
On the way back home to Grizzly Club territory, Sam’s shoulders relaxed slightly as the rest of the Grizzly riders roared up behind him on their bikes. It had taken them an hour to catch up after tearing down the camp, and now he had backup. Okay. He drove the truck that held Garrett and Nessa in the backseat, while Honor lay on the front with her head in his lap. He’d taken off her jeans and boots, covering her with a blanket. She’d been out cold the entire time.
Nessa was stark white and had closed her eyes, going deep to heal herself. It was odd that the witch was having trouble, but maybe she’d taken more bullets than Sam had thought. Garrett watched her carefully while also scanning for enemies outside the window. He visibly relaxed when the motorcycles caught up.
Tingles popped through the cab as they all tried to heal their wounds.
Sam turned his head to see Bear in animal form, winding his way through the trees to one side of the road. He had to stay out of sight and only emerged once in a while. His neck looked raw, and he looked furious, but he couldn’t heal himself in human form.
Honor shifted next to him and then awoke with a shocked whimper.
Sam’s gut clenched. “Don’t move.”
Ignoring his order, she turned her head and then gingerly rolled onto her back, pain cascading from her. Heated, sharp, jagged waves of pain.
“As soon as we can, I’ll stop and find you a painkiller,” he promised.
She looked up at him, her hair spread over his lap and thighs. “Ouch.”
He tried to grin for her but failed. Along with anger, pride filtered through him. “You’re good in action, sweetheart. Where did you learn to shoot like that?” Man, she’d been impressive.
“With the agency,” she murmured. “Even though I was just a consultant, I took any training they offered. Those laser guns?”
“The bullets turn to metal upon impact,” he confirmed.
She shivered. Probably from shock.
He turned up the heater.
Garrett leaned forward and looked over the seat at her. “You doing okay?”
“Yeah,” she said softly, her voice sounding pained. “Is everyone else all right?”
“Think so,” Garrett said.
Honor stiffened. “Nessa? Is she okay? Where is she?”
“Right here,” Nessa said wearily, finally opening her eyes. Pain filled them.
Sam stiffened. “Ness? What’s going on? Why aren’t you healed?”
Honor pushed herself up and wavered on the seat. “The babies?”
A tear slid down Nessa’s face. “I don’t know. I can’t tell.”