Page 63 of The Incubus and the Bodyguard

The sorcerer’s eyes widened when she kept advancing.

“Yeah, that won’t work on me,” Delphine said coldly.

She ripped her night-vision goggles from her face and crossed the circle of candles in three long strides. Manuel backpedaled, his limp pronounced as he tried to escape.

Delphine’s fist caught him in the jaw. The sorcerer grunted and collapsed to the floor.

She snatched the pouch from his belt and emptied it.

Fury brought a burn of bile to her throat when two crude cloth dolls fell into her palm, one human-shaped, the other a tiger. She clenched her jaw at the sight of the blood marks staining them and the hair poking through the material.

Something jumped on Delphine’s leg and attempted to bite her.

Teeth cracked as the liquid armor suit blocked the attempt. Manuel’s familiar revealed its presence, the weasel’s eyes full of fear and rage.

Delphine grabbed it and stuffed it inside the pouch.

“I’ve got the dolls,” she said tersely into her comm.

Static crackled in response.

She frowned and tried again. “Vlad? Cortes?!”

White noise filled her earpiece.

The sounds of fighting had grown closer. Delphine slipped her goggles back on and zeroed in on the heat signatures in the warehouse.

They were concentrated in the east block, where Isaacs should be, and in the center of the building.

Tension knotted her shoulders. She needed to get the dolls to Vlad.

A groan made her turn. Manuel was pushing himself to his knees, blood trickling from his split lip.

“You have no idea what you’re dealing with!” he spat.

“Actually, I do.” Delphine took a zip-tie from her utility belt, secured the sorcerer’s hands behind his back, and gagged him before hauling him to his feet. “Let’s go find your nephew.”

She’d just stepped out of the storage room with Manuel when a distant detonation shook the building. Her pulse spiked.

Vlad!

CHAPTERTWENTY-TWO

Vlad swooped beneath a knife,slammed his shoulder into his attacker’s chest, and sent the man flying into a wall. He raised his gun and shot him point-blank in the chest. The man slumped to the ground.

Sweat stung his eyes as he and theBlack Devilsfought their way through the warehouse, his muscles burning from exertion and his breaths coming hard and fast. Tarang was a white blur beside him, the tiger’s fangs and claws finding flesh and bone as he took down anyone who stood in their path.

It felt wrong fighting without their powers. Even through their muted bond, Vlad could tell Tarang was experiencing the same frustrating feeling.

It was like trying to breathe with only one lung.

Gunfire erupted up ahead. Vlad dove behind a stack of crates with his men. Tarang darted inside the gap between two containers.

Vlad cursed as bullets pinged off metal and concrete around them.

One caught aBlack Devilsguard in the flank. The man grunted as the shot crumpled and slid to the ground. Even though the nanorobot vests protected their vital organs, they did not completely shield them from the impact of any bullets they took.

Vlad signaled to his men. They shifted position around the crates and returned fire, forcing the figures shooting at them to take cover. It was all the time Tarang needed to leap from the boxes he’d silently scaled.

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