Squinting at the ones around the fire, I identified the asshole I was here for and clenched my jaw. He was a disgusting person, and I was glad we were going to get him off the streets.
After doing another count, I sat back and held up ten fingers. Basil nodded in agreement, so he must’ve gotten the same count. Before I could blink, a veil of black magic rushed out of him and surrounded us, and Basil said, “This shield will block us from sight and no one outside can hear us.”
Well, that sure as hell came in handy, didn’t it? “Okay, same plan as before?”
“You able to tell which one is the perp?”
I nodded. “He’s around the fire, second from the left.”
“Yep, that’s the one I thought as well. I can hook this shield up to you so you can make your way around to the left side without being detected. If you give me a second, I’ll hook it to a stick that you can break when you’re ready to drop the shield and attack.”
“You can do that?”
Basil lifted a shoulder and said, “It isn’t a common skill, even among witches, but yeah, I can. My brother Del is a genius with creating and manipulating things, so Jorah, Thayer, and I have been working with him to develop some new skills. Since he’s been coming to Faela with us for the past few years, he’s been helping Nik and Talon with our training. He’s a fucking badass.”
A smile quirked up on my lips. He sounded so proud of him. “Is he your younger brother?”
“Yeah, why?”
My smile went up a notch. “You sound proud of him.”
“I am.”
The fact that he wasn’t even embarrassed by it made me melt a little. And thank fuckin’ god, he didn’t hear that thought or realize what he was doin’ to me because that was embarrassing as shit. He’d never let me live it down.
However, he did give me a strange look and stop what he was doing to ask, “You okay?”
“Yeah, I’m good.”
He didn’t believe me, but he let it go and finished muttering a spell in a language I didn’t understand. His shadow magic swirled around inside the shield so this black mist was floating around us and making the grass under my feet shift. The shield itself sorta shimmered for a second before goin’ back to that semi-transparent sheen, and Basil said, “It’s ready.” He handed me a stick that looked like any other stick, but when I touched it, even through my gloves, I sensed the magic it held. “All you have to do is break that when you’re ready. I’d rather you just keep the damn shield on the whole time, but you won’t be able to get a hold of the orc if you do that, so…” He trailed off with a shrug.
“I’ll be fine. You need to be careful, too.”
“I will.”
With a nod, I stood and turned away, then thought better of it and bent back down to kiss his lips. “Wait two minutes for me to get into position. Stay safe.”
He grinned. “You too, dimples.”
I groaned at the name before standing and walking away. His shield allowed him to slip through, but he was still squatting behind the bush so I wasn’t worried about him bein’ discovered before I was ready.
I quickly moved into position, and had to admit that having some shadow witch magic over me was really fuckin’ beneficial. Maybe I’d have to ask him to tag along more often.
Before I could truly think that through, a huge bolt of lightning struck across the sky right overhead. It was easy to forget how damn powerful Basil was, especially when he turned to putty under my touch so easily.
Shaking those thoughts away and concentrating on the here and now, I watched as Basil stepped out from behind some bushes with magic, wind, rain, and lightning swirling all around him. If I didn’t know him, I’d likely be terrified. I could feel his immense power from here, and… I could admit that seein’ him like that was sexy as hell. Holy. Shit.
His hair was swirling around with the storm brewing around him, his dark eyes were flashing with lightning, and with his arms out, I had a great view of that sexy lithe body. Now all I needed was for him to turn around so I could get a look at his ass.
An orc let out a battle cry, bringing my attention back to the campsite, and I took a breath while deciding whether to wait a few seconds or not. Since there were so many orcs around me, I decided to wait and see if Bas was able to push my target toward me or not. With the power display, I was pretty sure he hadn’t been blowin’ smoke up my ass.
The orcs all charged as one, and panic filled my chest. Maybe having only Bas here with me against this many opponents wasn’t a great idea. What if he got hurt? Dammit, I should’ve thought this through better. Fuckin’ fuck!
Right before the orcs reached my viramore, a huge lightning bolt struck the ground directly in front of him, and the orcs pulled up short so they didn’t get fried.
My mouth hung open as a huge storm opened up around Basil, so he was the only thing not gettin’ wet from rain. He began making shadows fly around the orcs to confuse them while lightning struck the ground all around them. He was clearly tryin’ not to hurt the other orcs since they were innocent. From the grin on his face, not to mention the giddiness I felt in my chest, I was sure he was having a good ol’ time playin’ with his magic.
The magical energy I could feel in the very air around me, even all the way back here, was unbelievable and made goosebumps pop up on my skin. He truly was a powerful witch. I knew that, I’d seen his magic plenty of times, but somehow this time was different. Maybe because I knew what he was to me, maybe because I could feel him in my chest now, or maybe because I was allowing myself to ogle him.
Taking a deep breath, I stopped staring and concentrated on finding my target while readying my crossbow. Unfortunately, the orc I needed was up with all the others, tryin’ to find a way to get to Basil.
As soon as I had that thought, a huge gust of wind swept over the entire area, and the perp flew backward right to me. A glance at Basil showed that he was grinning wildly again. Crazy bastard.
Shaking my head, I broke the stick, and the shield dropped. Since I had my crossbow ready, I let an arrow loose. It hit its target, and the orc swiveled around with a loud roar. As he charged me, I stood my ground, knowing the tranq would take effect any second now. And thank fuckin’ god it did. He dropped about five feet away, and I breathed a sigh of relief as I began securing his hands and feet.
A glance around told me Bas was still busy distracting the others, and I frowned, wonderin’ what the hell to do with this huge orc. He was even bigger than I thought, and I didn’t think I’d be able to drag him anywhere without killing my back first.
“You all good?”
I had my crossbow pointed straight at Basil’s chest before I registered it was him that had spoken.
He pushed the crossbow to the side with a raised eyebrow. “Nice reaction time, dimples.”
“You should know better than to sneak up on a hunter like that.”
He grinned. “You wouldn’t have shot me.”
“You’re lucky I didn’t.” I hooked my crossbow onto my back and stared at the orc. “Where are the others?”
“I put up a shield so they can’t get to us. It’s not going to stay up very long since I’m not actively controlling it, but it should be enough to get him out. Plus…” He muttered in another language and some of his shadow magic swirled around us and the orc at my feet, then settled into a dome shape over us. “There, now we’re covered.”