Page 182 of Elven Shadow

Shit, if it swept across this side of the yard and found her now, it would ruin all chances of escape.

She dove to the side to avoid the sweeping path of the light, waited for it to pass back in the other direction, then sprang to her feet and booked it around the side of the building toward the hole she’d sliced through the barbed-wire fence.

No one could see her here tonight, or Harkennr would know she’d been behind this scattered failure of an attempted attack from the start.

If that happened, he would come for her with a lot more than the two dozen soldiers set upon her in the last few minutes.

Rebecca ran as fast as her legs would carry her along the southern wall of the old prison, the cries of so many tortured magicals still ringing in her ears.

Then she reached the fence, where the small hole she’d cut for herself glinted as the chain links and barbed wire still wobbled from someone else passing through it seconds before.

There was no sign of Maxwell.

Once Rebecca reached the hole and slipped through to hurry across the surrounding darkness, all she could think of now was how fervently she hoped Maxwell hadn’t been closely following her all night.

That he hadn’t seen her use her Bloodshadow spear on the fence or her two victims inside the base’s perimeter, not to mention her rushed bit of self-healing to get that damn handprint off her wrist.

If hehadseen her, though, even just a glimpse of what she could do, that meant everything was about to change.

It meant the shifter was out there right now, literally walking around with her life in his hands.

And without a doubt, Rebecca would rather die than let someone have that kind of control over her again.

45

As she tracked Maxwell’s wolf across the outskirts of Chicago, Rebecca was so furious, she was sure she’d kill him for what he’d done.

Assuming she caught up with him before he made it back to headquarters.

Would she have gone easy on him if he’d stuck around after crashing her solo investigation of Harkennr’s operations base? Probably not. But forcing her to track him in his wolf form for the last half hour obliterated any chance he might have had to escape the worst of her wrath.

Now she wanted to hurt something. Badly. Preferably Maxwell Hannigan.

She almost had him before his tracks deviated from the straight route back to headquarters and veered across a trailer park instead.

Just as Rebecca passed the first mobile home in her way, separated from its neighbors by a surprisingly large lot, she caught the end of an enormous paw and a thick gray tail disappearing into a blackberry bramble.

Did he seriously think he could avoid any and all consequences for what he’d done tonight? That he could just disappear from sight, and she’d forget all about it?

Her pulse pounded, the blood rushed in her ears, and her entire body blazed with the fire of her growing anger at the shifter who’d ruined her night. Not to mention her chances of discovering who they were really up againstbeforeshe officially accepted Harkennr’s invitation.

If she ever did after this.

The bushes rustled as Rebecca stormed toward them, and she launched a crackling sphere of crimson battle magic at the source of the movement.

Stripped leaves erupted in the air with a shower of blazing red sparks and smoking brambles. A muffled crack, sizzling hiss, and a brilliant flash of silver light from within the bushes followed almost immediately.

“Oh fuck…” The whisper of a few other unintelligible words followed Maxwell’s exclamation, then the rest of the bushes rustled wildly before a low growl burst from with the tangled branches.

“Iknowyou saw me,” Maxwell snarled from his hiding place. “What are youdoing?”

“Guessing,” Rebecca snapped and summoned another crimson orb to let it fill the night with a warning glow and crackle in her palm. “But if you grew a spine and quit hiding in the bushes, I wouldn’t have to. I’m a perfect shot when I cansee…”

“Grew aspine?” he grumbled. “If I hadn’t shown up when I did—”

“My night would’ve goneexactlythe way it was supposed to. But no. You justhadto get involved.”

Another growl emerged from the rustling bushes. “Youleft without me.”

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