Page 74 of Missiletoe
“My butt is fine.” I was more concerned with the weird energy I’d just felt. It was familiar. Why was it familiar?
“Yes, it is!” Baz squeaked from underneath Gareth. I couldn’t see him at all and was pretty sure Baz was getting crushed under Gareth’s weight. But unlike Vix, he seemed sturdy enough to take it. “Paris, your ass is so fucking fine. Vix, are you sure you won’t share?”
“I’m positive, assface.” Vix’s voice had gone a little feral with his response, and I gave him a little kiss.
Another swell of uncomfortable energy made me shout, “Incoming!” and Gareth and I pressed our charges into the dirt once again.
“How are you doing that?” Gareth asked, and I shrugged in response.
I focused on my mouse friends and asked if they could tell where the next explosion would be. I got an impression of confusion. They didn’t know, which meant the weird energy wasn’t coming from them.
I cast my mental net further and found the crows. They’d flown away but had resettled down the street to watch the show. One of them was kind enough to inform me that a single person had poured something on six different sections of the house. It accounted for the fire and the three explosions.
That left two more.
“We’ve got two more explosions,” I said. I consulted the crow to see if he could tell me where they’d be, but he could only give me a vague impression of the back of the house.
“Tell everyone to move to the front of the house immediately.”
Gareth didn’t question me and gave the order into a device on his wrist.
I jumped up from the ground and snatched Vix up to bring him with me.
“Just to inform you, getting tossed around like this is really working for me. We should fuck about it later,” Vix said from his position under my arm. I was currently carrying him like a football, but I didn’t have time to reposition him. We were too close to the back of the house for my comfort. Those bombs could be anywhere, including right under us.
To underscore my point, I got another wave of weird energy, and the potted plant behind us went off. I covered Vix the best I could but nearly went down when I took a pottery shard to my thigh. Fortunately, it was only a glancing blow, or it might have sent me to my knees with my precious bundle.
I managed to keep going and made it to the front of the house where Gareth and Baz were arguing.
“You didn’t have to carry me, asshole. I’m faster than you.” Baz was rubbing his arms and glaring at Gareth. I think Gareth had given him the football treatment too but wasn’t as gentle as I had been with Vix.
“Would you have gone with us to the front of the house? Or would you have gone looking for whoever set the fires?”
“...the second one.”
Gareth gave a mirthless laugh and rubbed Baz’s head. “You’ll get your chance when we find out who did this, killer. Just be patient.” The look in Gareth’s eye didn’t make me wonder if whoever blew up his home would last until Baz got to him.
Baz yelped and pulled away. “Don’t mess with the curls, man.”
Gareth ignored him and asked, “Vix, are you still awake?”
“Affirmative,” came a reply from under my arm.
“What’s our status on the defense grid?”
“Give me four more seconds and I’ll have it back online. Damn, Adam did a fucking number on it, didn’t he?” Vix grumbled, and I realized I still had him in a football hold. Somehow, he’d managed to work the entire time I’d been carrying him.
I went to one knee because my leg was starting to ache, and I could feel the blood as it soaked my jeans. Vix didn’t notice when I set him on the ground. He stayed exactly where I placed him and kept typing away on his phone.
There was an electric hum in the air, and the hair on the back of my neck stood on end.
“Got it! The grid is back online. The last bomb should be neutralized now, but we still need to find it and make sure,” Vix reported.
“On it,” Baz said and made to run to the back yard.
Gareth scruffed him by the back of his shirt and said, “Negative.” Then Vale rounded the corner, and he had the large man Vix’s family had brought with them to the shelter last night behind him carrying Apple like a backpack.
Gareth relaxed a micromillimeter.
