Skyborn(35)

"Umm, Eva!" Danny yelled, his voice jumping up two octaves, and Eva spun  with her hands out, throwing yellow magic like crazy, trying to repair  the wall.

"Get us a way out of here!" she roared behind us.

Logan reached out and took my hand. "Does your purple magic still work?"

I thought of how I had blasted the druid into the wall and nodded. "I just can't shift."

Logan cursed. "Which makes it easier for the druids to catch you.  Alright, let's get out of here and we will figure this out. Don't  worry."

‘Don't worry? If I die, you die!' I screamed into his head.

His eyes went green. "No one is dying. Let's get the hell out of here."

We scanned the alley and our eyes fell on a door at the far wall  opposite the club. The door said "Bakery" in a pastel blue cursive font.  Logan took two steps towards it and shot the lock out, kicking the door  open. Eva had thrown some kind of smoke spell, making it impossible for  the bad guys to see what we were doing. Sophie was right behind us, gun  raised.

Logan went first into the dark room, before declaring, "All clear." I  followed, with Sophie behind me. We were in a bakery; the whole front  wall was glass, and I could see one of the druids standing there  outside, not looking in the shop, but it was too close for comfort.

"Get down," Logan hissed, and Sophie and I dropped to the ground and  went left, away from the druid and towards the display cases. My stomach  growled as the smell of sugary icing hit my nose. Would it be bad karma  to steal a donut? I thought to myself.

‘Yes,' Logan replied.

My eyes widened. This was not going to work. I couldn't live with  someone inside of my every thought. And what the hell, I wasn't getting  any thoughts from him!

‘Eva can fix it. I'm linked to the pack, so I'm used to this,' was all he told me.

He was? Since when? It hit me then how little we knew about each other.

‘That is something we can remedy with time,' he said and I groaned. We  army-crawled our way to the back and through the kitchen. When we  realized we were out of sight, and no one was in the bakery late at  night working, we popped up. There was a huge tray of creamy, frosted,  ice-pink cupcakes sitting on the table, and Sophie's eyes met mine and  we both smiled. She totally wanted one too. Hah!                       
       
           



       

Logan called us to the back, and upon further inspection we found a back  door that led to another alley, this one deserted and leading to the  open street, where we could escape.

"Sophie, get the pack. Have Eva do a blinding spell so they can't see  you guys coming through the door. Sloane and I will bring the car  around."

She nodded and re-holstered her weapon. "You got it."

Logan took my hand in his, then we started running out the back, where I  assumed Logan had a car waiting. As we reached the end of the alley, I  saw some cars parked on the street, but didn't recognize any of the  pack's. I was shocked when Logan pulled out keys and beeped them,  lighting up a large stretch limousine. "What the...?" I stood there  dumbfounded as Logan waved away my expression. "Don't ask. We put Danny  in charge of getting a car big enough for all of us."

I grinned, forgetting for a moment the horrible situation we were in. He  popped open my side of the door and I got in, shotgun. The second I  closed my door, Logan put the car in drive and careened the huge vehicle  down the alley, nearly scraping the sides at the tight turn. The limo  was newer, with black leather and a divider glass window. As Logan drove  us up the alley, I could see most of the pack outside of the back  bakery door, and was flooded with relief. I thought back to Steven and  something that had been bothering me, something I wanted to ask Logan.

"Logan, that druid. He was inside, and I barred the door with the  dumpster, and then he was right behind me. Then when you and Keegan had  him up against the wall  …  he just disappeared."

Please let him have had a twin brother waiting in the alley or something explainable.

Logan nodded. "Ardan has the power to teleport. They're wind druids.  Steven must be his new right-hand man. Ardan's power trickles down the  druid line and gets more diluted as it goes. The second I saw him vanish  like that, I knew we were dealing with a powerful one."

He lost me at teleport. He'd freaking just said "teleport." I didn't  know what was crazier, the fact that teleportation was real, or the  sight of half a dozen naked shifters in the alley covering their junk  with their hands. Logan pulled the limo up to the side door and everyone  but Sophie was either fully or partially naked, save for Eva and Danny,  who didn't have the ability to shift. Which was funny considering  Sophie was probably the only person who liked to be naked. Instead of  watching the alley for threats, she was checking out Ruben's impressive  glutes.

"Get in!" Logan whisper screamed.

Everyone piled in the back and the car sank down a few inches with the  weight. I was assuming there were clothes in the back; otherwise this  was going to be a long and uncomfortable drive. The privacy panel had  been pulled up so that Logan and I couldn't see or hear anything from  the back.

Mentally, I had calculated everyone, and finally figured out who was  missing. "Wait! Gear," I shouted, as Logan began driving the limo off  down the alley and back onto the main street.

Logan pointed up to the sky. "He's been looking out and reporting if anyone was coming near the back alley."

"Reporting how?" I took a side glance at him.

Logan tapped his head. "I have a mental link to the pack. They can all  talk into each others' minds, but only when in animal form, and I can  talk into their minds in my human form since shifting isn't a great idea  for me. Eva did it with magic," he explained.

Wow. This whole time they had  …  what had they said about me that I didn't know about?

Oh. Another thought struck me then. "My car!"

Logan sighed. "Gear will have to get it later and drive behind us."

I scrambled to get my keys out of my clutch, but Logan laughed. "Gear doesn't need that."

Oh. Right.

With nothing left to say, I gave Logan a long look, staring at the  strong features of his face. Mate. What a weird and freaky word, and yet   …  so right. From the moment I met him there had been this magnetic  attraction that I kept trying to blame on the heat or every other thing  but …

A thought struck me then. "Logan? Did you know that we were mates? I  mean, before tonight?" The way he'd almost kissed me in my room that day   …  some of the things he'd said …

Logan gave me a sultry side glance, eyes half lidded. "From day one.  Although I was in denial for a little bit. Might have been because you  punched me in the face and nearly broke my ribs." He winked, and then  let his eyes shift back to the road. Oops. I didn't even remember doing  that.

Well, vaguely.

"You caged me," I growled in defense.                       
       
           



       

His hand slipped into mine and a contented sigh escaped me. The  adrenaline high of being on the run had worn me down and sleep was  dragging at the corners of my mind. A soft sliding noise behind me  forced my eyes to snap open, and a hand suddenly plopped a feisty mewing  Mittens on my lap.

"She's attacking Sophie," Eva's voice called out softly from behind me.

I rubbed Mittens between the ears. "Good girl."

"I heard that," Sophie growled, but I could hear her smile. We had  reached some kind of bitchy mutual friendship that I was okay with.  Besides, she had Ruben to obsess over now, so Logan was mine.

It was silent but I knew Eva was still looking at me. I could see her  from my peripherals. The window was still down. I could barely look her  in the eye. I felt too awful for betraying her and going to Jeanine.

"Sloane," she said finally, "if I would have known you were going to run   …  that you would take the news that badly, I never would have told  you." I could hear guilt in her voice.

I turned to face her, tears welling in my eyes. "I know. I'm sorry. I  just couldn't handle it. I couldn't handle knowing I was half monster.  That I was living in a house full of people who hated what I was." The  car went eerily silent then and I was surprised at who chose to reply.

"You're nothing like them," Dom's deep voice echoed throughout the car.

"Here, here!" Danny called out, and I heard the clinking of glasses.

I turned fully around, eyes wide, to see there was a disco light on in  the limo and it was spinning, causing lights to dance across the faces  of my clearly intoxicated friends. Each one had a shot glass in hand.  "Are you guys getting drunk?" I asked, mystified.