Immortal Unchained(107)

"A big damned bird, man," Justin said and then grinned. "Hey, get it? Birdman? Bird, man?"

"Please. Spare us," Lucian said dryly.

"No sense of humor at all," Bricker complained and then glanced to Domitian and grinned. "You should have seen Lucian jump when Thorne came swooping out of the air and perched on the rail of the balcony at the villa like a big damned vulture."

"He is part eagle not vulture," Lucian growled.

"Yeah. Whatever. You should have seen your face, though. That was the first time I've seen you surprised by anything."

"It is the first time I have been surprised in many centuries," Lucian admitted. "Are you saying you were not surprised?"

"Oh yeah, I was surprised all right," Bricker admitted and then glanced to Domitian and told him. "Lucian damned near killed him before we knew he was a friend. Fortunately, Thorne blurted your name and then explained everything. He led us back to the island as soon as we could round everyone up and arm them. About three miles out he made us stop and wait, said he could see hybrids in the air ahead. I thought he was kidding, but Jo pulled out the binoculars and sure enough, there were a couple of them flying around. They were far enough apart Thorne was able to take care of them one at a time. He flew up really high in the sky so he could approach unnoticed," Bricker said, raising a hand upward as far as he could reach. He then brought it swiftly down adding, "And then he swooped down and sucker punched the first one in the back of the head as he flew past." He slammed a fist into his palm with a smack. "The guy was still falling through the air when he swung around and gained height again to go after the next one."

Bricker shook his head. "When he flew out of sight around the island, we didn't know what was happening. Turns out there was one patrol on each side of the island. Ten minutes later he flies back around with a bird hanging from each hand. Literally," he added with a grin. "They were chicks. Both unconscious but alive. Lucian had them locked in the hold of the big boat, and then we picked up the two in the water. One had landed on his wings on his back and was unconscious, but still alive. One landed facedown, though, and drowned before we got to him."

"After locking them in the hold with the other two, we continued forward for another mile, but then Thorne made us stop again, and warned us he could see gilled hybrids in the water about a mile out from the island. Again, I thought he was kidding, but-" He paused to wait as Jo ripped the second bag of blood from Domitian's mouth and replaced it with a third. And then he continued, "Anyway, after some discussion, it was decided Thorne would take Basha up in the air with him. He held her around the waist and flew, and she picked off the gilled hybrids with one of our dart guns. We put them in the hold too, but aren't sure how they'll handle our darts. They're strong enough to knock out rogues, so . . ." He shrugged grimly, not needing to say they might be deadly to the hybrids depending on how strong their constitution was. 

At least they'd tried not to kill them, Domitian thought. Although, if these were the ones that Mrs. Dressler had mentioned were loyal to her husband, he wouldn't feel too bad about their deaths. They'd been complicit in Dressler's activities, some of which had been directed against his own people.

"After that, Lucian sent the other boats to raid and search the house and labs, and we followed Thorne around to the cottage to make sure his mother and Sarita's grandmother were all right."

"Because of me." That comment came from Basha as she entered the room and joined the conversation.

"It was not because of you," Lucian said calmly. "Someone had to check on Domitian and Sarita and we had the blood on our boat. If anyone would have needed it, it would have been them."

"We did not even know they were here," Basha argued shortly. "And what we had on our boat was me." Holding up her hand to silence him when he would have argued, Basha asked pointedly, "When before have you ever delegated the battle to others and taken the safer task, Uncle? Never," she answered herself.

"Basha," Lucian began.

"Uncle," she countered, interrupting him. "You really need to let go of your guilt over what you think of as failing to protect me as a child, and stop trying to protect me from everything now. If you do not, I will suggest to Marcus that we move to Italy full-time to be near his family."

Turning on her heel, Basha left the room then and silence briefly reigned.

"Well," Bricker said brightly, avoiding looking at Lucian who appeared to have turned to stone. "Where was I? Oh yes, we followed Thorne back. Of course, flying, he got here faster and . . . well, you know the rest."