Paige’s mouth had a cruel curve to it. “Which will make them double the fun to kill.”
Jared smiled. “There’s always a bright side.” He teleported us to Sam and the two squads, who were all taking cover behind trees that approximately ten feet away from The Order.
It was an impressive wall of defence; their arsenal of bullets, grenades, fire balls, and flaming arrows did its job well. I frowned at Sam. “You’re not fighting.”
Her scowl cut to me, her mercury irises glowing as she grumbled, “I have to take a break while my system recharges.”
“She used up most of her energy on maintaining the shield and then attacking the dragons,” said Jared, a supportive hand on her back.
Max turned to me. “We’ve attacked that force-field in every way we can think of. Nothing is getting through that fucker, and nothing is taking it down.”
“I can get through it,” I said, my voice so carefully controlled that I doubted anyone would sense the turmoil racking my entire system. “I’ll use my shield to protect me while I make a run for it.”
Max’s brows lifted. “That could work. They won’t be expecting someone to charge their way. It will take them off-guard.”
Sam spoke. “You would have to lower your shield to get inside, Butch. The force-field would repel it.”
I nodded. “I’ll slam it back up once I’m through. I can do this, Coach. I’m damn fast. By the time they see me coming, I’ll already be inside.”
Paige put her hand on my arm, her eyes swirling with a soul-eating anxiety I could relate to. “Take me with you. You can extend your shield around both of us; you do it for David all the time.”
“You’re not as fast as me, Paige, and we both know it.” It was an insensitive comment but it was true. “I need to move quickly, I can’t afford to go slower just so someone else can keep up.”
“He’s right,” sighed Max, which made Paige snarl at him.
“I’ll tell Damien to distract those bastards,” said Jared. I guessed he’d telepathically order Damien to run at them in his astral form, since it was a technique we had used before. “When I say go, run.”
“Make sure you bring Imani back safe, you get me?” Paige fairly growled.
Jared turned to me. “All right, go!”
Pulling my shield around me, I bolted at vampire momentum out of the trees and toward the wall of vampires. As I came up against the buzz of energy that had to be the force-field, I dropped my shield, ran straight through it, and instantly slammed it back up to knock down the vampire in front of me.
In a millisecond my brain absorbed the situation; Marco and Lazarus facing one another, vampires gathered either side of them…and Imani in mid-air, falling into a portal.
Fuck.
Heart in my throat, I lowered my shield, reached out, grabbed her wrist, and yanked her to safety before slamming my shield back up to protect us both. Taking her inside me with every one of my senses, I shoved back the fear that had come close to choking me. The sour taste of it still sat on my tongue.
“Don’t shoot!” Lazarus yelled at his vampires, but his eyes were locked on me as I held Imani close, keeping my back to the portal. Everyone had frozen in place, most likely shocked by my sudden arrival.
Almost everyone. Marco threw me a glare over his shoulder. “Where the fuck have you been? Didn’t I tell you to keep her safe?”
Yeah, and I didn’t fucking like that he’d been the one to rush to her rescue. Or that he seemed to think we were some kind of team. But my anger wasn’t focused on him right then. Keeping my arm tight around Imani, her back pressed against my front, I glowered at Lazarus. “It was you. You did this to Imani, and you caused this war tonight.” Caused the pain and the deaths. “You’re Beau Irons.”
Lazarus sniffed and flicked his hand, dismissive. “You cannot understand our cause, so I will not bother explaining it to you.”
“I understand that you betrayed Imani and used her as a lab rat,” I spat. “I understand that she didn’t do a single thing to deserve any of what you’ve done. And I understand that I won’t be happy until you’re a pile of ashes at my feet.”
“A pile of ashes?” echoed Imani, a bloodthirsty smile in her voice. “That sounds awesome.” It did.
“Take her through the portal!” Marco told me.
I blinked. “Are you fucking insane?”
“It will take you both to The Hollow. Get her away from here.”
Call me strange, but I wasn’t going to trust a word that asshole said.
“No, Imani, you must come with us,” said Lazarus. “You hold all the answers.”
“He thinks I’m half-human and he can use my blood to create a cure,” she explained to me. “In other words, he’s warped.”
I whispered into her ear, “Who created the force-field?”
“Lazarus,” she quietly replied.
“We need it down, baby.”
“I know, but my gift has been overused tonight.”