Angel transformed from her squirrel form and appeared behind the chief council member. She yanked Leticia out of her seat and pushed her under the table. “Stay down!” Angel shouted at the Doppler. “These Metamorphs will kill you.”
I was aware of everything, but it all happened so fast it was a blur.
The guard who had thrown the dagger came charging forward, brandishing a sword. The floor rocked as I ordered my earth element to shift through the stone hall floor. A crack in the stone tripped the guard. With another command my air element twisted both the guard and the blade so that the guard landed on his own sword and severed his neck to his spine.
Angel battled three of the five Metamorph imposters. Her side kick sent one sprawling across the room. She grabbed the arm of a female Metamorph and flipped her onto her back. The third, Angel grabbed by the head and snapped his neck.
At the same time I was fighting off the two guards and the other two fake council members who came at me from inside the chamber.
One guard had a gun and I flattened myself to the floor. As he missed me, I rolled toward the other guard, tripped him, and gutted him with Angel’s dagger.
A Metamorph jumped on me but I flipped onto my back, grabbed him by the head, and rammed my knee into his face. He screamed and blood and tears flushed down his face as I broke his nose and his jaw.
The fourth Metamorph had a gun, too, and he and the first guard began shooting at me.
I wrapped myself in a cocoon of my air element and called to fire.
Torch flames from inside the council chambers roared into fiery life. A dragon of fire swooped down and swallowed the guard and the Metamorph, burning them to ash as it carried them down the great hallway.
Another guard came out of nowhere.
Before I had a chance to do anything, a burst of green light came from the Witch. Plant tentacles wrapped themselves around the guard, taking away his ability to move.
A green Witch. I glanced up at her intense face. Witches never killed, but they would fight to protect themselves or others using whatever power they commanded. Hers obviously came from nature.
All thoughts and actions happened within moments.
Seven down. I glanced in Angel’s direction. Her three were down.
That left Smith.
I cut my gaze to the witness stand.
Smith was gone.
Warning chills scrabbled up and down my body.
Too late.
Fiery lead pierced my abdomen and then my thigh before I could react. Blood flowed from the bullet wounds.
Smith had slipped out of the melee and around to my side.
Pain seared me like my fire element had seared the two men.
I gritted my teeth and forward flipped twice toward Smith.
Shock was on Smith’s face as I knocked the gun from his hand, grabbed his head, and slammed my forehead against his.
“Stop. Please.” His begging only made me angrier. “We’ll go away. You’ll never see us again.”
I jerked his head down with my fists full of his hair. I rammed my knee up and into his face just before I snapped his neck.
For a moment, silence filled the chamber and the hall. Dead bodies. Blood everywhere. Cracked floor. Destroyed furniture. Burnt clothes and bones. Stench of charred flesh. Odor of rotting, molding hay.
It was over.
As my eyes met Angel’s, I started to feel dizzy. I looked down and blood was flowing freely from my abdomen.
Two Dryads left their columns and caught me from behind as I slumped.
Then passed out.
CHAPTER 4
“What happened to you?” Olivia eyed me up and down as I pushed open the door to our PI office; the Fae bells jingled as the door slid shut. “Get sucked in through a jet engine this morning?”
“Feel like it.” I’d taken a shower and dressed in fresh clothing, but I did feel like I’d gotten caught in a helicopter’s rotors.
I grinned when I saw Olivia’s T-shirt.
Where are we going and why are we in this handbasket?
The real Olivia.