Page 59 of Deadly Alliances

“We have someone on the inside, and when they give us the signal, we’re going to get all of them out,” I continued. “If you want to help, that’s great, but you’re more than welcome to go home. That is, if Hennessey can carry all of you once his wing is healed.”

Sakura immediately shook her head. “I’m not going anywhere.”

“Neither am I,” Hennessey declared.

“Neither am I,” Peters chorused, and I thought it odd that both Hennessey and Sakura rolled their eyes. Strange dynamic in this bunch.

I nodded, then looked to Gibson, and everyone else in our camp did the same.

He grunted. “Fine. It’s not like I’ll get very far without a pair of wings anyway. I’ll stay.”

“Good. But understand this.” I pointed a stern finger at all of them. “I am the commanding officer of this mission. If anyone has a problem with that, you can fuck right off.”

Sakura straightened her posture and gave me a two-finger salute, inspiring the rest of her team to follow suit.

That response was satisfactory enough, so I sat on the log and watched as Janette finished healing Hennessey’s leg.

“Are you in any pain from your wing?” she asked him.

He shook his head. “Not in human form. I only feel it in my dragon form.”

“Okay. I’ll fix up Gibson first, then we’ll shift you and get your wing taken care of.”

He nodded in agreement, but the tightness to his jaw told me he was lying. The pellets he’d been shot with were lead, and even if he didn’t still have any of them embedded in him, the metal would’ve absolutely burned him. When I’d had my wing injured in the past, the pain isolated and intensified in my shoulder in human form. I was sure he was experiencing the same thing.

“Caesar, I found Shea!” Kai called—when did he go back inside?

I bolted off the log and into the tent, dropping to his side in front of the screens. He was pointing at one of them, and some part of me finally relaxed at seeing her in one piece.

“Where is she?” I asked.

“Looks like she’s on the seventh level of tower one,” he replied. “She just came out of that room there.”

I squinted at the other figures walking with her. Hatred flared in my gut at the sight of Hadrian’s smug face, but I shoved it down. I didn’t recognize the blonde woman, but she was carrying…

“Julian!” I gasped.

Kai cocked his head at me. “Where?”

“The guy being carried,” I blurted urgently without tearing myeyes from the screen.

Julian looked terrible. His skin was paler than normal, with a greenish tint to it, his cheeks and eyes sunk in. His body was limp. What had they been doing to him?

It was a small comfort that Shea had found him, that she was with him now, but my abdomen clenched with dread at seeing the two vampires escorting them.

They walked out of the pane, and I didn’t see them in any other feed.

“Can you follow them? I want to see everywhere she goes.” And make sure nothing happened to her.

Chapter 22

Shea

The trek through the many halls and stairwells was excruciating. Every single one of my alarm bells was screaming inside me, urging me to run. But I couldn’t leave Julian. Something terrible was about to happen. My brain insisted on denying the obvious, despicable truth, but my soul knew there was only one reason Hadrian would take Julian anywhere after reversing the daywalking spell.

It’ll be over soon. Just get through it. Don’t feel. Don’t feel!

Why did I agree to this? Why did I think I could do something so brazen? I was foolish and reckless and every bad thing Gram always feared I was.

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