Page 12 of Two Thousand Shadows

When he’d formulated this plan to lead Junjie to the child, he’d been only twenty percent positive he’d be able to sneak away from the vampire if he tried to pursue him. That number had dropped to zero the second Junjie had invited Xiang and Kaialong for the ride. Xiang was a daywalker and had no problem chasing him after the sun rose.

And then there was the fucking dragon. Nothing stopped Kai when he wanted something. The only snag he’d run across was dealing with the fae, and the Zhang clan had largely fixed that problem.

Leo knew he’d escaped the house and the woods thanks to Junjie. The vampire had to have told his clan mates not to pursue him, which was totally what he’d wanted.

It didn’t matter that maybe there was a part of him that had secretly hoped Junjie would stop him and force him to return to the Zhang manor with them.

But Junjie had let him go, and Leo had walked away from the kid. There was no returning to the manor grounds, and that sucked.

The bartender ambled over with a receipt and a pen. Leo spared it a glance to make sure the guy wasn’t trying to scam him, added a respectable tip, and scratched out his name. If he left now, maybe he could escape Sage while she waited for her bill.

He was not that lucky.

The door to the tiny hole-in-the-wall bar opened, sending a bright slash of light through the place. All the occupants squinted and cringed from the glare, trying to shrink into the retreating shadows. With the light came a gust of wind that carried the rich scent of flowers and petrichor after a summer storm.

Leo’s heart leaped into his throat, and he whipped around. His brain had expected to find Rei standing in the doorway, sent by Junjie to drag him to the manor so he could answer questions about the kid.

It wasn’t Rei but five other elves he’d never seen before. And judging by the weapons in their hands, they hadn’t stopped by for a drink.

For a heartbeat, the world froze as the occupants eyed the elves standing in the open doorway. Tension thickened in the air until there was no oxygen to suck in at all. The fine hairs on the back of Leo’s neck stood on end and every muscle in his body tightened, preparing to either fight or flee from the building. In an instant, the pleasant haze created by the alcohol evaporated out of his pores, leaving his brain on high alert.

Someone moved, and a wooden chair clattered to the old tile floor. It was like the firing of a starter pistol. The elves hovering in the doorway surged forward with crossbows in hand. Tiny but lethal arrows sliced through the air.

A rumbling growl filled the room like rolling thunder pouring across the sky as a storm crashed into a city. The handful of people who had crowded the small round tables began shifting one after another into large, angry wolves.

“Holy shit!” The bartender dropped behind the bar, and Leo’s heart went out to the human. Leo had been coming to this bar for months now, and he’d had the chance to watch it steadily grow more popular among the shifters as a place where they could get a drink and not have to talk to anyone. After the recent displacement of the local wolf pack, more than a few wolves were simmering balls of anger and frustration.

For now, hiding behind the bar was the bartender’s safest decision.

But the man didn’t stay there. He popped up, holding a shotgun with the butt against his shoulder. The loud chunk of his cocking the weapon did little to capture the attention of the wolves and elves as they fought at the entrance of the bar, but theboomof the first shot did wonders drawing eyes to him.

Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!

Leo was not sticking around to see who’d win this fight. Let the humans, wolves, and elves kill each other.

When he’d first spotted the elves, he’d jumped from his stool and stopped in front of Sage. Without looking, he reached behind him to grab her arm and shove her toward the rear of the bar, hoping to escape the building. Only his hand hit empty air.

His brain locked up as he whirled to find Sage’s stool empty. He’d taken his eyes off the annoying cat for a second. Where the fuck could she have gone?

A low meow reached his ears above the gunshots, wolf growls, and elf grunts, thanks to his enhanced hearing. He twisted farther to find a slender calico with poofy fur standing on the end of the bar, staring at him like he was the idiot for lingering.

Maybe she was right, and he was the idiot.

With a growl, Leo lunged at her while shifting from his human form into his house cat form. Orange and white fur covered his lithe body. Deft cat paws landed on the sticky bar and he ran, not caring if the human saw him change. It was unlikely the bartender was going to come out of this fight alive. Hell, it would be a wonder if any of the wolves escaped with their lives intact.

This wasn’t the first so-called random fae attack of a human business. They were striking at odd times throughout the suburbs of Hartford, going into places where there were handfuls of people and slaughtering them all. Afterward, they’d burn the buildings to the ground. It wasn’t doing a lot to eliminate the humans, but it worked wonders at striking fear in them.

He was a step behind Sage as she leaped from the end of the bar and hit the handle for the rear door with her front paws. The door creaked open, and Leo slammed his larger girth into it, sending the door swinging open and slamming into the wall.

The scent of beer and liquor was even stronger in the storeroom. His nose burned and twitched, but he fought through it as his pupils expanded to soak in what little light permeated the area. He pushed forward on quick, quiet paws, searching for a door that had to lead to an alley or parking lot. There was no way in hell this place had just one door. Bars always had a back entrance for deliveries and provided an area for the employees to smoke on their break.Right?

Except this bar was the diviest of dive bars. The bartender was probably the owner and only employee. He didn’t look like the type to care if he smoked indoors.

Fuck!

Leo darted here and there, bumping into Sage and letting out a low growl when the cat hissed. He might have made a grab for her to help her out of the bar, but that was the end of his helpfulness. She was on her own now if she wanted to get out of there safely.

A hint of fresh air cut through the thick miasma of alcohol. Leo stiffened, tipping his nose up to get a better fix on the direction. The happy, clean smell sharpened, and he shot forward, winding between rotting boxes and awkwardly stacked crates. He didn’t know what was out there, and he didn’t care. The bartender could have doubled as a mortician with stacks of decaying bodies, so long as he had another door.

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