Page 22 of Ruthless Fae
I dove aside far too late. As I sailed in the air, I squeezed my eyes shut, bracing for the punch of the bullet, a feeling I’d experienced just the day before and didn’t want to replicate. I waited for the thud of metal to burn through my body.
But it didn’t come.
Instead, a muffled yip sounded as I sensed something large dive in front of me.
Flinging my eyelids open, I spotted the large, brown shape that had appeared between me and the guard.
Vaughn.
He ran, pouncing just before he got to the guard. The surprised man tried to squeeze off another round, but he was too slow. Vaughn’s huge paws planted on either of the guard’s shoulders and took him down. A thump and a crunch were followed by a garbled moan. Then, Vaughn pulled away and circled toward me.
“I’m fine,” I said, waving the wolf off until I noticed blood trailing down his massive shoulder. “You’re shot!”
He’d taken a bullet for me. Of course, he did. My panic blotted out all thought as I started toward him.
The wolf shook his head as if telling me to leave it alone. I stopped. He could heal from a non-magical bullet. Still, all the blood... I bit my lip, having a hard time not rushing to his aid.
“Tally, Vaughn!” Antonio waved at us from the tree line. Beside him stood Vinya and Kiana.
“They’ve got her,” I said, feeling both relief and anxiety about speaking to my aunt for the first time since everything that had transpired. I’d betrayed her. She’d betrayed all of us. There was a lot to deal with.
I didn’t have much time to mull over what I might say because the thundering sound of tires rumbled down the beach. We’d taken out the guards here, half a dozen of them, but the Habermanns had sent reinforcements. Likely more than those we’d scattered around the beach. Lots more.
We had to go. Now.
“Hurry,” Vinya said, making a circling motion with her hands.
With a glance at Vaughn, we both took off in their direction.
As I flew beside the galloping wolf, I kept glancing at the bullet wound. It already looked better. Less blood oozed out, and the hole seemed smaller, but it was little consolation to the fact that Vaughn could have been killed trying to save me. If that bullet had hit his heart…
I stopped myself. We couldn’t spend all our time worried the other might get killed in some fashion. Somehow Charlie and Rowan made their relationship work despite the constant danger. If only I could ask her how they managed it, but she’d gone on an important mission, and I didn’t know when I’d see her again.
Thoughts of our relationship should be the last things on my mind. I pushed them away as we made it to Antonio, Vinya, and Kiana. My mouth went dry as my aunt and I exchanged loaded glances.
“Tallyndra.” She was filthy head to toe, dirtier than one beach run could have provided. I wondered if she’d been jailed or possibly beaten, though I didn’t see any cuts or bruises. However, the Habermanns could do many things that didn’t leave external marks.
“Queen Kiana,” I greeted her without the usual bow, finding it hard to respect her after all she’d done.
She lifted her head high. Always a queen no matter what the circumstances.
“No time for that,” Vinya said. “We need to get to the take-off point now.”
She was right. The vehicles were coming. Plumes of churned-up sand clouded the horizon as the Jeeps tore in our direction. Without another word, we took off through the jungle.
As we went through the trees, I flew slightly above everyone, scanning behind us and ahead. Kiana kept up with the others, loping like a two-legged gazelle, but I could tell it pained her.
Vinya seemed to notice also, either through some witchy senses or good observation powers. The witch dropped back, closer to my aunt, keeping stride with her while saying, “It’s just a little bit further.”
Kiana lifted her horned head high, her long spotted neck growing even longer as she took on the posture of the eternally regal. “I’m perfectly fine. I could go on like this for days.”
Vinya blinked, glancing up at me as if she hoped I could make sense of my aunt, but I had nothing to offer. Kiana and I had never seen eye to eye, even during the best of times and now…
She’d given them her only son.
I shuddered as the image of Sinasre, mangled beyond recognition, flashed before me.
Crashing sounds behind us dragged my attention back to the here and now. The guards had found us. They’d abandoned the Jeeps at the tree line, and they were on our tail.
