Page 70 of Rebel Fae
“Who’s Neil?” I said, shielding Arryn as a horrible volley of gunshots made her trembling worse.
“One of the werewolf guards. I thought he was dead. If we could get into wolf form, we could communicate.”
But Neil was far away. Communication of any kind was impossible.
A large hairy creature darted across the road beyond the dome’s opened door. Another werewolf.
Vaughn’s body stiffened as he saw it, too. He whirled, pushing Courtney toward me. “Watch out for her. Stay low. I’ll come back for you.”
“Vaughn, wait—”
But he was already shifting, his body enlarging, his clothes ripping, the gun he’d stolenthumpingto the floor, tangling in his clothes. Legs folded into haunches and feet became paws. The change was enough to draw the attention of the dome guards who’d missed our presence before. Now, they looked up at Vaughn, aiming.
“Watch out!” I called.
His green eyes caught sight of the gunman just as the first shot rang out.
The bullet punched into one of his back haunches, blood spraying as Vaughn let out a yip. Then, as if realizing that he could no longer hide, he tore forward and into the fray.
Oh, no. Vaughn!
He ran at the dome guards, taking little care for himself as they shot at him. Bullet after bullet buried itself into his thick hide. Every hit felt like a shot to my heart. Yes, he could heal, but he wasn’t immortal. They would shoot him through, and he would bleed out. Or one of those bullets would find his heart. Someone had to do something.
And that someone was me.
“Stay here,” I said, detaching the girls from my body. “Stay low. I’ll be back.”
“Tally,” Arryn whined, but I didn’t have time to soothe her.
I turned on my glamour power, watching my arms and legs disappear. Then I ran into the fight.
The battle was raging. Vaughn had given the rebels enough distraction to allow more of them to advance inside. More werewolves and vamps raced across the garage, ducking behind car husks as they readied an attack, but none of that would help Vaughn. He was in the center of a ring of five dome guards, snarling and snapping, clamping his jaws around arms and legs and hurling his opponents away, but he was bleeding badly. His blood painted the floor red wherever he went. If he didn’t stop and let his body heal, he’d bleed to death in minutes if not sooner.
I ran toward the group of guards, dodging bullets from the other side as I went. I felt one zing past my head as I skittered around a smoking tire. Another shot exploded the drywall a few feet away as I made it to Vaughn’s attackers. Three had pinned him and were holding him down while a fourth advanced and cocked his gun, aiming at Vaughn’s skull.
Sprinting forward, I yanked the man’s shoulders back just as the gun went off.
The explosion was loud. The bullet flew up toward the ceiling. The guard fell back. The others, who held Vaughn down, stared as if confused.
I didn’t give them time to puzzle it out. Letting the guard go, I grabbed for the gun, pulling it easily out of his grip. I aimed low and pulled the trigger.
The bullet smashed into his leg and blood sprayed into the air. He crumpled sideways, howling like mad as he reached for his wound. The other guards’ eyes rounded as if they’d seen a ghost.
“Who’s next?” I shouted, holding the gun in the air. I squeezed the trigger and sent a shot into the air.
That was enough to send those three running.
I dropped to my knees beside Vaughn. “Hey, are you okay? Answer me. Wake up.”
Shaking his large wolf head gently, I counted bullet wounds in his hide. One. Two. Three. At least four on this side. No telling how many were on the other. Oh, gods. He would die. He would bleed out.
I held his giant head up as his breathing slowed. “Vaughn, please. Stay with me.”
He whimpered, his breath pulsing from his nostrils. One large green eye rolled toward me and stayed fixed there.
“Please don’t go,” I whispered, holding him. “Please.”
Yet, I felt his heart slowing. The thud happened less and less. I put my hand on his chest, willing it to continue beating even though there was nothing I could do to stop what I knew was coming.
