Page 58 of Deadly Alliances

Sakura and the other carrier moved forward, but the limping man planted his one good foot, waving his hands over their shoulders. “Where? Look around. We’re sitting ducks out here.”

“If you’d keep your mouth shut and your eyes open, you might find out,” I barked with all the authority of myformerposition.

With a bitter purse of his lips, he helped the other two move him after me, and the burly one followed while muttering under his breath.

My eyes and ears were painfully alert as we approached the hidden place where I thought the camp was. Now that I was outside of it, I truly appreciated how thorough the magic was—I couldn’t see our camp at all. In its place was nothing more than an open clearing. The only reason I found it was by following myfootsteps in the snow to where they abruptly ended.

We passed through the invisible barrier, the warm air caressing my cheeks and the tent atop the dry, snowless ground materializing into view.

“Whoa, what the hell was that?” the limping man gasped, looking all around the protected circle with wide, disbelieving eyes.

“It’s like magic,” Sakura said, her voice softened with awe and reverence.

“Itismagic,” I corrected, willing a gust of air to rise and comb over the tracks we left in the snow.

Kai and Janette poked their heads out of the tent, shocked at the company we now had.

“What’s going on? What is this?” Kai asked, crawling out. “Tekashi?”

“Professor Inari, you’re here, too?” Sakura gushed. “What are you guys doing here?”

“A rescue mission, same as you,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest. “But we’re doing it the right way.”

The four of them all cast their gazes down, and I regretted chiding them. None of this was their fault. They were just following orders.

“Come on, sit down,” I invited, waving them to the center of the circle. “Tell us what happened.”

Sakura and the russet-haired man carried the limper, gently setting him down, which was difficult with his broken shin.

“We attacked the towers with atomizing bombs,” Sakura began. “Our goal was to distract the vampires and kill as many aswe could by exposing them to the sun while Peters here was supposed to infiltrate the fortress and retrieve the siren.”

The man with auburn hair and the rugged jaw raised a hand.

“But the vampires were too quick for us, and far too many,” she went on. “Even with the sun on our side. Gibson got sliced by one of them and barely made it out.”

The burly one grunted, shrugging the shoulder above his wounded side.

“Commander Stern ordered us to retreat, but as Hennessey was flying away carrying both Peters and myself, there was an explosion of pellets that came out of nowhere.”

The image of Tobias that night in the alley flashed into my mind. His body riddled with lead pellets.

“I tried to dodge the blast, but my wing took the brunt of it,” the blond said, wincing as he adjusted his leg. “We came crashing down, and I curled around Tekashi and Peters, but my leg broke in the fall.”

Sakura rubbed his shoulder with a sympathetic pout, and he leaned into her comforting gesture. Then Peters rubbed his other shoulder with more vigor, and Henessey leaned even further toward her, scooting away from Peters despite the strain it put on his broken leg.

“Stern and Dracul went radio silent after that,” Sakura said, her brow creased with worry. “We have no idea what happened to them.”

“I do,” Kai said, raising a hand. “They got captured. They’re in the dungeons.”

“How do you know that?” Gibson asked, and I couldn’t tell if he was trying to be a dick or if he just had resting-dick-face.

Kai tipped his head toward the tent. “I hacked into their surveillance system.”

Sakura’s shoulders sagged. “Oh, no. What are we going to do? We couldn’t go in after them even if we wanted to.” She glanced mournfully at Hennessey’s leg, then over to Gibson. “But we can’t just leave them there.”

I took a deep breath and clapped my hands on my thighs. “What we’re going to do is get you the medical care you need. Janette here is a witch. She can use magic to heal you.”

I gestured to Janette, who still huddled just inside the tent with her head out. She climbed out and offered a friendly smile, coming to kneel in front of Hennessey to tend to his leg.

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