Page 91 of Witches Be Damned

“I want in too,” I growled.

“Me three.” Talon clapped our backs and moved back to deal with extracting the rest of the captives to shuttle them back to the Academy. “Gable, remove your spell to facilitate transport of the prisoners to lock-up.”

The warlock retrieved his stick and unwound the ribbons in a slow, seductive fashion move. “With pleasure, Stoney.”

Talon’s radio crackled with an update. “Darnax, we’ve detected a portal in the tunnels.” The Tollen provided the coordinates. “Ten very large bodies are headed your way.”

I moved back to the tunnel and lifted my nose. Multiple scents hit me at once, and my nervous system went into high alert. Dirt, piss, blood, and fur.

I growled my warning to my leader, “Lycans are here.”

It seemed like we weren’t the only ones launching surprises.

CHAPTER 29 - TOR

We heard the blasts before we saw them. A fight going down within the tunnels. Either the fugitives all turned on each other, or they knew we were coming. Personally, I hoped it was the first. Fewer prisoners to round up. Though the nagging feeling in my gut argued otherwise.

“We better hurry,” Knoxe warned, picking up his pace. “The fugitives might have been given the heads up that we’re on our way and on their way destroying evidence and hightailing it.”

“This smells like a trap.” I voiced my concerns of us marching into an uncertain future.

“What other choice do we have?” Lightning twisted on Knoxe’s fingers.

“Let’s find out.” Supergal charged forward with a single-minded determination. Freedom. Whether it came from achieving our objective or death was yet to be determined.

Mads, please look after my family if I die.I sent up the prayer. What the hell, right?

Knoxe broke the no-light rule and activated the lamp on his chest, illuminating our path, preventing us from treading anywhere we might trip. Following his lead, Supergal and I kicked up into a jog.

“Six hundred feet and counting,” he warned, voice low.

An inhuman roar thundered through the tunnel. Something slammed into a wall, and dirt crumbled from the ceiling. More lights blinked in the distance. The snarls and snaps said a life and death battle waged deeper in the dark.

“Two hundred feet,” Knoxe announced as we converged on the source of the chaos exploding with magick and animalistic war cries.

“That sounds like gantii,” I hiss-whispered.

My unsteady leg muscles weren’t used to this exercise after taking over a month off and protested at the faster pace and uneven terrain.

“Not vampires.” Pale orange exploded over Supergal’s palms. Strange chemical elements, numbers, and letters floated away from her hands.

“Is that Pascal’s green magick?” Knoxe squinted in the narrow beam of his light trained ahead.

“And Loco’s bright orange. Serena’s buttercup yellow.” Fuck. Our team was under attack.

“Oh, shit. They’re Lycans. Dad! Pascal!” Supergal tried to bust past us and save the day, and I’d never been prouder to call this brave heroine mine.

Knoxe overtook her, assuming lead position, protecting her. “How do you know?” Ask questions and act later wasn’t his style, but everyone was extra cautious of traps with the added danger looming.

“I’d recognize those chemical elements anywhere.” Supergal flicked away glowing symbols.

What in Hell were the Lycans doing down here? Did they also team up with the traitors?

“Weapons ready!” Knoxe jumped into a sprint, gun trained on the battle too far away to get an accurate aim to nail the enemy battling our team.

We got within firing range, and he released the first laser bullets, catching one beast in the back. It howled, hitting its head on the ceiling and snapped around in our direction, charging at us in a crouched hunch. He picked it off with another round that hit it between the eyes, and it went down.

Loco grunted and went down.

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