Page 14 of Elven Shadow

“Watch your—oof!” Diego jerked forward, launched off his feet by the yards of blood tendrils extended from both hands when Aldous threw them and the enemy across the lot.

Purple light strobed around him a second before Nyx winked into existence in his path, caught him in her arms by grabbing him around the middle, and disappeared again.

Several yards farther back in the parking lot and much closer to their getaway van, they both reappeared before Nyx set the Cruorcian down for a less deadly crash-landing that sent them both staggering forward.

One Shade member saved, but now no one was close enough or could move quickly enough for Titus.

Still fighting furiously with the griybreki clawing at his face and head for a better grip, the big guy staggered backward toward the growing field of neon-yellow magic.

Rebecca took off at a dead run toward him before he lit himself up like a New Year’s Eve party on their enemy’s surprisingly powerful security wards.

But then a blur of streaking gray hurtled into her from the side, catching Rebecca just above her hip and sending both her and the wolf careening across the asphalt in the opposite direction.

Just as Titus barked out a rumbling laugh and tossed the offending griybreki off his face, the horrifying crack and ensuing sizzle and sparking hiss of him staggering backward into the neon-yellow wards momentarily brought the entire fray to a standstill.

Titus tried to cry out, but the force of so much energy pulsing through his body made it impossible. His every muscle clenched and convulsed as lines of crackling yellow surged across his skin, piercing through flesh and bone and everything else.

Nyx hadalmostbeen fast enough. She popped into existence right in front of Titus a second before the big guy stopped bucking under all the energetic force pumping through him.

When it was finally over, Titus stood there for a moment, staring blankly ahead as thin streams of bitter, acrid smoke rose from every inch of his body. Then his eyes rolled back in his head, and he toppled forward to hit the asphalt like a felled tree.

Then Nyx spun around in time to see Aldous’s hulking form crashing toward her and Titus lying on his face and the strobing dome of words still growing away from the perimeter of the apartment building. She squeaked again and disappeared.

Roaring mindlessly, Aldous swiped at nothing but air where she’d just been before a volley of three griybreki all wearing matching bomber jackets in a grossly clashing mashup of black leather and neon stripes raced through the open doors.

“Great, now we’re really fucked!” Lennard shouted as he blasted the closest enemy away from him with a wall of blistering golden light. “Maybe time for that retreatnow?”

Diego leapt out of the way as the frogmen triplets were knocked away with a sweeping blow of Aldous’s arm in his direction. The Cruorcian ducked their flailing limbs, grabbed one of them with his tendrils of blood magic, and hurled it back at the building’s entrance with a snarl. “Youwanna be the one who explains to Aldous when he comes back that Titus got himself fried and we justlefthim here?”

The griybreki he’d hurled through the front doors sailed into the building with a terrified squeal that ended abruptly as he crashed into the far wall of the lobby and thumped down to the floor.

The sight of those wardsnotattacking an incoming projectile shooting back through those doors sparked something in the back of Rebecca’s mind. It was almost impossible to put her finger on what that was within all the chaos.

Then, throwing more blasts of fiery red bursts at any and all griybreki in her path, she turned her attention to the building’s open doors and realized what had to be done.

Under different circumstances, she might have suggested their next move to Maxwell so he could give the order. But the shifter was nowhere to be seen, as either a wolf or a man, and someone had to dosomething.

“Nyx, get Titus out of here!” she shouted instead.

“What are you, nuts?” Diego snarled from across the parking lot.

Rebecca ignored him. “Diego, clear a path to the van!”

He scowled at her while his words betrayed the expression. “Yeah, might be time for a fucking retreat.”

Leonard gaped at him in disbelief.

“Leonard!” Rebecca shouted, instantly stealing his attention. “How much cover fire can you bring down at once?”

“A lot!” the mage hollered once he flung another slobbering, gargling griybreki away from him. Then he tossed a free hand toward the front of the building and Aldous still barreling toward it. “But not enough with him likethat!”

“Well cover us anyway!” she hollered. “Everybody else, get back to the van!”

Nyx had already done exactly that with an unconscious Titus in tow. The Volkswagen bus rocked violently beneath the big guy’s weight suddenly appearing in one of the back seats when the katari deposited him there.

Rebecca looked diligently around for any sign of Maxwell having shown his face again to keep up the fight. Still nothing.

Before she could ask anyone else where their shifter Head of Security had disappeared to, a howling wail rose from the inside of the apartment building. The entire swollen perimeter of crackling neon-yellow wards stretched away from the building by a good six feet.

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