We formed a circle around Emme and Liam as the scent of vampire saturated the open area. Dozens more leapt down from the support beams, hissing. My head jerked around. Where were all these vampires coming from? But there was no time to question, only to act.
Shayna lifted a discarded shovel in her hands. As she twirled she transformed the scoop into a deadly blade and sliced off the head of the closest vampire. Liam howled, his pain resonating through his fury. I roared and attacked—his injuries were severe. We needed to get him to safety to give Emme and his wolf time to heal him.
I leapt onto two vampires, my urgency to help Liam making me exceptionally vicious. My back paws held one while my fangs severed through the other’s neck. His blood and remains mixed to form a nasty paste, temporarily blinding me and giving another vampire time to jump onto my back. My body was stronger and tougher than an average tiger’s, but it didn’t make me invulnerable. The vampire hacked into my hide while another carved into my chest.
I surrendered to my tigress and set free the beast that didn’t recognize remorse—only survival. She clawed and chewed, ripping several vampires completely in half. The legs of one kicked sporadically in the air until I dug out the heart of the body it belonged to.
Two other vampires surrounded Shayna. Both attacked at once. She stabbed one through the heart at the same time she flung a spike into the eye of the other. We fought hard, but there were too many vampires and not enough of us. I knew this. And thankfully, so did Taran.
Blue and white flames encased Taran as her magic built into a small inferno. Her irises went white as she fell into a deep trance. I roared to get the others’ attention. This time it was Emme’s turn to shield Liam. She clasped her hand over his eyes and curved her body against his.
The explosion of light was more nuclear bomb than flash of lightning. Spots danced before me when my lids finally blinked open. Only clumps of ash remained. Taran’s magic-born sunlight obliterated the vampires, but it cost her. She collapsed to her knees, all magicked out. Gem’s two halves rejoined as they raced to her. The moment he reached her, Gem changed back and lifted her sagging body in his arms. “Don’t worry. Nothing will hurt you,” he promised her softly.
Taran’s lids fluttered. She was safe. Liam conversely looked like hell. Chunks of shredded muscle exposed the bones of his back. It would take his wolf several hours to heal him. That is, if he didn’t have Emme. My youngest sister’s pale yellow light surrounded Liam, healing and knitting his ravaged flesh closed until only shiny, new skin remained. He stumbled to his knees and yanked her to him. “I love you, too, angel,” he stammered hoarsely.
Flashing lights alerted us to the arrival of South Tahoe’s finest. A crowd had gathered where the restaurant opened to the street. I couldn’t blame them, really. Shattered bricks from the building, piles of ash, broken boards and bolt fixtures strewn the concrete floor. And let’s not forget the six people covered in blood, three who were naked, and—oh yeah, the three-hundred-and seventy-pound tigress.
We all tensed except for Taran. She moaned a little as a wisp of blue and white smoke trailed from her core toward the now screaming crowd of onlookers. The mist expanded, permeating through the crowd just as the police drew their weapons.
“There’s nothing to see, there’s nothing to see,” Taran mumbled. “Go about your business, there’s nothing to see.”
The clicks from safeties releasing and the barrels aimed at me had me backing into the wall. Taran turned up what little energy she had and mixed it with a whole lot of royal pissed-offness. She tipped her head in Gem’s arms, clenching her pearly whites. “There’s nothing to see. There’s nothing to see. For shit’s sake, go about your business, there’s nothing to see!”
Slowly, the crowd dispersed. A police officer radioed to report a false alarm. We were in the clear, yet Taran’s cover did nothing to squelch the scent of anger and fear rising in the wolves. Koda took Shayna’s hand as he hurried to Gemini. “Do you feel anything?” he asked him.
Gemini’s grave face hardened. “Nothing.”
Shayna’s head whipped back and forth between them. “What’s wrong?”
Koda sighed, his deep brown eyes darkening. “Something’s happened to Aric.”
CHAPTER 12
I changed behind a stack of cinder blocks, quickly yanking on the long cardigan Shayna tossed me. “How do you know? Is he hurt? Is he—”
My words caught in my throat and squeezed. Koda placed his hand on my arm, but I jerked back, feeling the confines of the demolished room closing in around me. Koda scented my alarm and spoke quickly. “Liam called for Aric in his howl. He told him we were under attack—and that you were with us. There’s no way he wouldn’t have come knowing you were in danger.” He closed his eyes and shook his head, his long black hair swaying against the length of his broad back. “Even now I don’t sense him anywhere near us.”