Page 22 of The Healer and the Wolf: Part Two

And it was coming straight for me.

There was nowhere to run. A bear shifter behind me, the chaotic and dangerous ballroom to my right, and one of the brothers who had destroyed so many lives front of me.

Well… those weren’t exactly great options, were they?

So, I did the only thing I could do. I braced myself and pulled my shirt up over my mouth, as if that would help.

The smoke hit me with a physical force, pushing me backward so hard that my feet actually skidded along the carpet. I’ve barely been able to draw in a full breath before it did, but I did my best not to breathe now.

But my best could only bemybest, after all, and I was only human. My lungs were already burning when the smoke circled around me like a tornado, completely enveloping me. When it began to pick me up, I knew there was no hope for me.

Under any other circumstances, having magic lift me off the ground would have been fun, but this was most decidedlynotfun.Far sooner than I would have liked to admit, my self-preservation instincts forced me to open my mouth, and I dragged in a deep breath of the smoke. It smelled surprisingly pleasant.

I thought the sedation effects would be pretty instantaneous, that my eyelids would grow heavy, and I would pass out fairly quickly, but I felt as alert as ever. I felt even more alert when the swirling vortex of smoke around me began to haul me toward my enemy.

Wood shattered behind me, and I crashed to the floor. I shook my head and rubbed my eyes clear just in time to see two wolves had burst through the wall, the larger one landing squarely on the floating man’s back, his teeth sinking into the luminescent purple shield that had suddenly appeared around the warlock’s head, and the other going straight for his crotch.

Yeowch.

Between the two of them and the mountain lion shifter who had managed to get up, they overpowered him. One minute, he was screaming curses, his hands glowing with pent-up energy that didn’t know where to go, the next, the purple shield protecting him vanished, allowing the wolf—which I nowrealized was Leo—to snap his jaws closed through the warlock’s skull.

I shuddered. Holy shit, it was bloody. Gory. I’d seen a lot since Leo had entered my life, but nothing could have prepared me for the rush of blood and brain matter that dripped from my lover’s mouth. My stomach lurched, and I turned away in case I really did throw up. That would be embarrassing.

“Ven!”

I turned back toward the gruesome scene to see that Leo was back in his human form. I swallowed hard. He was completely soaked with blood from his chin down to his legs, so seeing him wasn’t as comforting as it would have been.

“What are you doing here? You were supposed to get to safety.”

I grimaced. Not exactly the best timing. It would suck if I diedandgot chewed out by Leo. It was really supposed to be an either-or situation.

“I…” I wasn’t really sure what to say, and it turned out I didn’t need to say anything, because a surge of energy suddenly sliced through the air, knocking us all to our asses.

“But didn’t you just kill the brother?” I asked, more confused than ever. Everything had happened so suddenly, I’d hardly had time to process any of it, but I was pretty sure those were the guy’s brain staining the carpet that probably cost more than I made in a year. If not, then I was doing some serious hallucinating.

“There’s more than one of them here,” Leo hissed, already getting to his feet. “Get out of here! You promised.”

Hmm. I had, hadn’t I?

Maybe Iwasnaturally a coward, because running seemed like a fucking good idea. Before I could so much as turn on my heel, six security guards barreled through the hole in the wall. Some were still in their uniforms while some were shifted,and maybe I was wrong, but it didn’t look like they were all enthralled.

Huh, I guessed everyone had a price. Even shifters.

Leo shifted back into his wolf form so fast that the steam he produced was physically hot. By the time it had evaporated, he’d dealt with two of the security guards, and the wolf with him had another one down.

“Leo!” I cried out. “I know that some have to die, but not all our enemies have a choice. Please, don’t kill them all unless you really have to.”

He didn’t respond—he couldn’t in his wolf form—but I could have sworn he lessened the pressure of his teeth on his opponent’s shoulder. Instead of tearing through the half-shifted man’s muscles, Leo simply shook him a few times until the shifter’s eyes rolled back and he went still

Was it impractical to have asked that in the middle of a battle? Perhaps. But there were slaves amongst the brother’s battle fodder, so if we could afford to be careful, why wouldn’t we? Besides, I was sure Leo would be able to tell when lethal force was necessary and when it wasn’t.

At least, Ihopedso.

But I’d promised him I would trust him, and if there was ever a time to put that trust to the test, we were in it.

A groan sounded from down the hall, and I tore my eyes away from my lover to see theKlandagishifter had lost her animal form and was struggling to her feet. She had an open wound on her side. It was so deep I could see her intestines. If she weren’t a shifter, she’d be dead already. If her enhanced healing was going to save her from what would have killed a human, she needed time, and time wasn’t exactly easy to come by in the middle of the battle.

It looked like I’d have to delay my escape aweebit longer.

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