A flash of silver blade.
The wolf heaved backward, then collapsed, two matching hilts protruding from his chest. Ezra extracted himself from beneath the dying shifter, breathing hard.
I rushed to his side as he wrenched his blades free. “Are you okay?”
He nodded. “You?”
“Fine.” I scanned him for injuries, then located my paintball pistol and Queen of Spades card in the grass. “Three shots wasn’t enough.”
“Not on this one,” he agreed grimly. “Let’s keep moving.”
He strode toward the house. Following, I ejected the near-empty clip from my pistol and loaded the next one. My Queen of Spades was back in its pouch, but the brass knuckles stayed on my hand. They could be useful even when the spell was recharging.
We slipped around the back and paused. Light from the house’s two rear windows illuminated the treed backyard, and faint clattering came from inside. This was the right place.
“Over there,” Ezra whispered, pointing not at the house, but at a toolshed nestled among spruce trees at the far end of the lawn. We sprinted for the cover of the foliage. He hesitated in front of the shed, then pulled on the handle. The door swung open, revealing a huge steel cage with bars as thick as my wrist.
“Sin!” I gasped.
She lay on the shiny metal floor, her teal hair splayed around her pale face, and didn’t stir at my call. I rushed to the bars and rattled the door. It was bolted shut with a heavy-duty lock.
“Shit. Can you break that?”
Ezra took his pole-arm in both hands and smashed the end into the lock with an ear-splitting clang. Three more times he rammed it, but the lock didn’t even bend.
Lowering his weapon, he shook his head. “We need the key.”
“What ya wanna bet Brian has it?” I growled.
I hated leaving Sin behind, but until we could get the cage open, we had no choice. We exited the shed, raced across the lawn to the house, and positioned ourselves on either side of the back door.
“I can sense him moving around,” Ezra murmured. “He’s to the left, about fifteen feet away.”
I lifted my pistol. “I can hit him.”
Ezra nodded and turned the door handle. It rotated easily, unlocked. “I’ll be right behind you. Be careful.”
“I’ve got this.”
He pushed on the door and it swung silently open. Paintball gun held in both hands, I stepped inside.
Whatever this room had been before, it was now an alchemy lab. A long counter ran along one side, and shelving units occupied the other end, sticking out in the room instead of flush with the wall. A table in the middle, its surface permanently etched with circles, was laden with glass vessels, bottles, and bins of ingredients.
Everything was a mess. Bottles had been knocked over, papers scattered across the floor, ingredients spilled on the counter. Urgent rustles and clatters came from between two freestanding shelves, and on the floor was an open duffle bag filled with alchemy paraphernalia. Either Brian knew he’d been found out or he wasn’t taking his chances. He was running for it.
The shelves blocked my view of him—and prevented me from getting a clear shot. I tiptoed into the room and Ezra followed a few steps behind.
A quiet, angry mutter, then a hand appeared, throwing a grimoire into the duffle bag. Six feet away now. Half crouching, I crept two more steps, then leaped forward, swinging my gun into the gap between shelves.
Orange mist burst through the air.
I reeled back, gun wavering as I squinted through the haze. A scent filled my nose—sweet with a hint of almond.
“Drop your gun, Tori.”
I opened my hand. The pistol tumbled away from my fingers and hit the floor with a clang.
Wait, what? Why the hell had I done that?
Panic shot through me, but before I could stoop to grab my gun again, Brian stepped out of the colored fog, a weird-looking rifle in his hand, the butt against his shoulder and the long barrel pointed at my chest.
“Don’t move,” Brian warned sharply. “Either of you.”
Three steps away, Ezra held his position. The mist dispersed, the sweet, nutty scent fading—but the damage was done. I’d dropped my gun at his command and now I was unarmed.
Brian’s right eye twitched nervously, his blond hair tangled and his white dress shirt stained. “Don’t make me shoot. My shifter serum won’t do nice things to a human body.”
Ah, his rifle looked funny because it was a dart gun. Somehow, I wasn’t all that comforted by the knowledge that I might die from a lethal injection rather than a lethal bullet.
Brian adjusted his aim, pointing the barrel at my throat. Twitchy fear radiated off him, and that made him dangerous. A scared man was unpredictable.
“What’s your plan, exactly?” I asked in a conversational tone, ignoring my building panic. “Shoot me? Ezra will snap your neck by the time you pull the trigger, so … maybe not a great plan.”
Brian stepped out from between the shelves, keeping his gun on me. As he sidled around the table, putting it between him and Ezra, the aeromage inched closer again, now almost directly behind me.
A low snarl rumbled into the room. A hulking gray wolf prowled through the open door, its milky eyes fixed on me. Two more wolves crowded into the threshold behind the first, their teeth bared and drool dripping from their fangs.
Well, that answered my question about Brian’s plan.
My heart raced, speeding faster and faster as though it could outrun this nightmare. Ezra and I, cornered in a room, with three super-werewolves and a psycho alchemist. Not good.
“My friends are very loyal,” Brian said, tense but triumphant. “And on the full moon, they’re all but invincible.”
Yeah, I’d noticed that.
The alchemist’s gaze snapped from me to Ezra and back. “I’ll never get to show Compton what I’ve achieved, but I’ve already surpassed his greatest accomplishments. I’ve created a transmutation that can transcend the flesh and alter a spirit.”
“Congratulations,” I muttered, my mind spinning through my options. Except I had no options.
Brian’s chest rose as he took a deep breath and held it. His expression hardened. Muscles tensed. Pupils dilated. Physiological warnings, Kai and Aaron had taught me. The subtle signs of an enemy about to strike.
I knew what was coming, but I was too slow to react.
Brian pulled the trigger—and Ezra’s arms snapped around me, one across my throat and the other my chest, shielding my most vulnerable spots. We pitched toward the floor and slammed hard on our sides.
I lurched out of his arms, my panicked gaze sweeping across him, terrified of what I’d see.
The dart full of serum, its fuzzy yellow top like a beacon, stuck out of Ezra’s forearm—the one he’d used to shield my neck. He plucked the metal syringe out, but the damage was done.
The serum was in his bloodstream.
Chapter Twenty-Three
I lunged away from Ezra, my hand outstretched. Hitting the floor in an awkward dive, I seized the cold metal grip of my gun and swung it toward Brian.
The gray wolf landed above me, a paw planted on either side of my head and its teeth snapping in my face. I froze, the barrel pressed to the wolf’s chest—but one shot wouldn’t take it down, and that was all I could manage before it ripped out my throat.