“I think Sandy knows how to change a diaper,” Diego offered.
The boy looked so young and lost, standing stock-still clutching tiny Noah to him. Lily wanted to make everything okay for him, too. And couldn’t. “You know why Gan took Sandy and Ryder first?”
“Because they’re so little. I’m older, so I can wait. It doesn’t seem very fair to Noah, though. He’s the littlest of us.”
“I cheated,” Cynna said, sounding weary. “I sent my baby to safety first.”
Diego frowned but said grudgingly, “I guess my mom would’ve cheated for me, too, if she could have.”
Ah Hai was one of the Kanas in this group. She moved forward, smiling, and touched Diego’s shoulder and told him in Chinese what a fine, brave boy he was.
He looked faintly alarmed.
“Ah Hai is really nice,” Lily told him. “She—”
“They’ve decided,” Alice said suddenly.
Lily tipped her head back to stare up at the three circling figures above them.
Tú’àn called down to the Fists. “Your Zhuren now agree. Two squads of Fists will go with all speed and return with the spears. The rest of you are to capture or kill the old woman. Capture is better. Go!”
Quiet time was over. “All of you Kanas, keep this spot clear so Gan can cross back,” she ordered, and started toward Grandmother at a run.
So did a bunch of the Fists. The rest sprinted away to get the damn spears—those huge iron spears she’d seen before. Spears that took two men to carry. The weapons they’d brought out when a wild dragon buzzed the city.
The Kanas who’d stayed near the tower had moved at some point. They now stood in front of Grandmother, shielding her with their bodies.
The ground moved. Another gentle quake, but it lasted longer.
Lily took up position in front of the Kanas—in front of Grandmother—and prepared to kill people. But could she kill ten men before they reached her?
No.
“Get back!” Grandmother ordered. “Do not stand so close to me!”
Lily steadied her weapon and shot a man. Out of the corner of her eye she glimpsed Rule running toward her—no, toward the Fists. And Toby ran beside him.
Lily got off two quick shots. Hit with one, missed with the other. Rule took down one man too swiftly for Lily to say what exactly what he’d done, except that it involved screaming and blood. Toby lunged for another man—
And the earth rolled like the ocean beneath her feet.
Lily didn’t fall. The stance she’d been trained to take kept her knees flexed, and she rode the suddenly liquid earth as it bucked beneath her. Screams—behind her, all around her, and the sound of rock scraping. Falling. Most of the Fists fell, and someone behind her did, too, knocking into her and accomplishing what the quake hadn’t. She fell as well.
So did the ward.
She felt it, a blast of power that stung every exposed inch of skin as she rolled, and she pushed to one knee and looked all around.
People were sprawled all over. The tower was missing its red-Frisbee cap. The tower itself seemed whole, but it listed slightly to one side. Someone called out to move, get away from the tower; someone on the tower’s other side said something about getting the blood stopped. Lily couldn’t see who was bleeding. At the base of the tower, Grandmother lay flat on the ground with one of the Kanas—a young man—sprawled half on top of her. She’d been knocked out of her position, the center spot she had to hold in order to hold the ward.
The young man moved, pushing himself off her. Grandmother didn’t.
“I’ll get her!” came a shout from above. “You two get him!”
Lily rose to both knees and pointed her weapon up. The spawn swooping down at them was an easy target, his white robe seeming almost to gather what light remained against the dusk of the sky, but he moved fast. Too fast. She fired. She fired over and over. But either she missed with every shot or the spawn could bounce bullets off his chest like Superman. He swept down to within about ten feet and Grandmother’s limp body started to rise.
Two wolves leaped at him. However good his bullet repellent might be, he couldn’t bounce wolves off his chest.
Toby’s jaws locked on his ankle. Rule hit him higher—probably aiming for the throat, but the spawn got his arm up in time. Rule’s jaws closed on that arm. For a split second they seemed to hang there, but pain or the shock of the assault must have distracted the spawn, or maybe the addition of Rule’s and Toby’s weight was too much for his TK to support. They fell.
The wolves lost their grips on their prey when they hit the ground a scant six feet from Lily. Rule recovered immediately, leaping atop the downed spawn while Toby was still trying to scramble to his feet. Rule lunged for the spawn’s throat—and stiffened, his back arcing unnaturally, a high-pitched whine rising from his throat as he collapsed, stiff and still, on his side. The spawn rose up on one elbow, pointing at Rule, and she saw which one it was—Shēngwù, the master of body magic. Shēngwù, who’d just practiced his art on Rule.
Lily wasn’t really aware of crossing the small space between them. Dimly she noticed her knees hitting the dirt beside Shēngwù, who twisted to point that finger at her. Magic swept over her, a prickling on her face, as she jammed the muzzle of her Glock against the beautiful Shēngwù’s skull and squeezed the trigger, wondering if the bullet would bounce back into the barrel and her Glock would explode in her hand.
The gun bucked. Blood and brains and bits of bone flew every-damn-where.
“Bounce that,” Lily snarled at the dead man and scrambled over his body to reach Rule, who wasn’t moving—wasn’t fucking breathing, she discovered as she ran her hands over him, bent, and pressed her ear to his chest, but she found no heartbeat. But he wasn’t dead, couldn’t be dead, because the mate bond wasn’t broken, and she brought both fists down together on his chest, hoping to surprise his heart into a restart.
And the other wolf, the one who didn’t know he was Toby, growled low in his throat at her, teeth bared, head down. He stood on only three legs, but he stood close. Much too close.
Rule’s chest heaved suddenly. He made a hacking sound like a cat with a furball and sucked air in audibly.
“Lily!” Cynna called. “Get back! Back away. Toby’s defending his Rho.”
Lily didn’t answer. Didn’t move. She was pretty sure that movement would send Toby springing at her.
Rule shoved to his feet. His sides heaved as if the movement had been a great effort, but he stood, placing his body between Lily and his son, baring his teeth at Toby—who stopped growling and ducked his head, not in the about-to-spring way, but in submission. He looked confused. Rule looked like he was about to fall over.
A man screamed.