Danny threw his hands out and a yellow dome erected over us, shielding us from the magical harm of the room’s occupants. The fight on the stage broke up when the wolf shifter ran off, taking the other exit out into the club. The pit-bull, a light chocolate color, had collapsed onto the floor, panting, dripping blood. The other sorcerers were so preoccupied with us that they didn’t notice Dominic locked in a battle to the death with the canary-yellow douchebag. It looked like the man was electrocuting Dominic with magic, but the lion never relented, tearing into the sorcerer’s neck, mauling him with the anger and ferocity of someone who’d been abused for too long by his hand.
Keegan slipped out of our bubble, crawled along the ground, and popped up at Dominic’s side to help finish Canary off. I thought we were good, that we were actually going to pull this off, until a red ball hurled from the back of the room and shattered our magical bubble.
Druid.
For a moment I expected Steven or Ardan. As if they would magically show up wherever I was and wreak havoc on my life. But it was some unknown female—black hair shaved at the sides, tattoos climbing up her neck. I realized then that it wasn’t all males; she was the one female permitted to attend, and for some reason that terrified me. How powerful must this woman be to be allowed entrance into this all-male exclusive party?
“Isaac…” She breathed his name as if it were a sin.
“You’re pretty popular with the bad guys,” Danny stated. He tried to resurrect our protective dome but failed.
“What’s wrong?” I asked him. The woman and two of her cronies were walking our way; the others seemed to have noticed Danny was having trouble as well. They abandoned their hiding spots, some going to help the canary-yellow man, who was now most definitely dead, but most were gunning it for us.
“Someone’s blocking me!” Danny growled, sweat beading his brow.
Great. Just freaking great. My dragon was smashing against my body, trying to rip free, but I pushed her down. This would be the worst possible place to out myself as a skyborn.
A shot rang out and I noticed it was Logan, next to me. He’d shot a sorcerer who was trying to hurl magic at Dom and Keegan. Dominic was a bloody mess, limping and half dead-looking but … alive.
“We need an exit plan,” Danny said.
My eyes kept falling on the poor destitute dog, lying there on his side, panting helplessly, as if he’d given up on trying to survive.
“I’m not leaving without the dog,” I stated firmly.
The second those words left my lips, the female druid hurled another red ball of magic. I didn’t even see her conjure it. It was just there, catapulting through the air faster than anything I’d ever seen—headed straight for Isaac.
His name barely tore from my lips when the red ball smashed into him. He’d been looking at the dog, same as me. He barely had time to pull up his staff, trying to position it to take the brunt of the hit, but a good majority smashed into him, throwing him backward into the wall, unconscious.
Shit.
Dom and Keegan were suddenly back at our side as more gunfire sounded. Logan was shooting any sorcerer trying to conjure. We’d backed up slowly since we’d entered the room, but now the staircase exit was being blocked by the druid.
Double shit.
This time I did see the woman preparing her magic. It was barely there, a flicker of red, and I was squeezing the trigger on my gun.
A bullet sank into the meat of her thigh and the red magic fizzled out as she brought her hand down to staunch it.
“Nice!” Logan said.
“I was aiming for her chest,” I confessed.
The woman looked up at me, hatred in her red glowing eyes. “You bitch!” She lunged, throwing red magic that I dodged; it crashed into the wall behind me.
Just beyond her, yellow magic flew from some dickhead, hitting Danny square in the stomach beside me. It was a warzone. My dragon pushed at my skin; she was seconds from coming to the surface. If I couldn’t protect myself, she would.
We were screwed. So screwed.
‘I could shift,’ Logan offered.
‘No!’ That would out him, and most likely get him killed faster. This shaved-head woman looked like she already wanted to drink Logan’s magic with a straw.
Logan had emptied his guns, out of bullets; my eyes kept darting to the dying pit-bull. One glance behind me showed Isaac was waking up, but was nowhere near useful.
Keegan was ripping his shirt into strips, tying tourniquets off to save Dom who looked barely alive.
Behind me, Danny was mumbling something on the floor.
“Purl,” Danny rasped.
I popped off another shot at the advancing druid, panic starting to consume me. Keegan, and even bloody, injured Dom, were growling and snarling at the advancing line of men. Even in their human forms their animal sounds tore from their throats.
“Purple,” Danny groaned at last, and his meaning slammed into me.
I looked down to see him covering his balls and I smiled.
Purple. Yes. This room was full of men and they were about to be brought to their knees.
“Sloane … no,” Logan growled as I handed him my gun and he emptied the cartridge, bullets bouncing off the shields the sorcerers had erected.
I felt for the crackle of power that lay just under the surface of my skin. It rolled up my arms like water, flowing and without hindrance. When I felt it reach my palms, I pushed. A blanket of purple magic shot out from my palms so fast I was thrust backward a few feet. Something deep inside of me fissured—I couldn’t explain it, but it was like my soul had been ripped in half—everything ached. My vision blurred, but I could see enough to see the entire room was on the ground, grabbing their junk and moaning. Even the female druid looked incapacitated.
My head was pounding; my knee joints ached. What the hell had I done?
“Let’s go!” Logan grunted, and I realized he was holding a barely-conscious Isaac.
I shook my head and my vision cleared a bit, my dragon healing kicking in, I hoped. Without thinking, I stumbled forward, past the moaning bodies, and knelt before the pit-bull. When my hand reached out to pick him up, he growled.
“Shhh. I’m not going to hurt you,” I told him, taking off my shirt so that I was in my bra and jeans, and wrapping it around him to staunch his wounds. His growl turned into a whimper and my throat tightened with emotion.
The man in the canary suit was dead, his clothing now a rich red. I hoped this meant there would never again be another fighting operation like this one, but I knew people like Canary existed everywhere. All I could do was my one small part.
“SLOANE!” Logan growled from the doorway and I lifted the dog quickly, trusting he was too injured to attack me. A low growl rumbled in his throat but died out quickly, his head lying limp against my arm. I gingerly took steps around the bodies that were now gaining strength, trying to ignore the pain in my knees, my blurry vision, and what it all might mean.
My muscles protested as I walked up the stairs and into the hall, where I saw that the guard had been removed and the door was wide open, Gear standing in front of it with Keegan’s shotgun in his hands.
“Hurry!” Gear shouted, and took a look over his shoulder.