Page 65 of Elven Prince

Maxwell straightened, hauling the tote with him, and turned around to head out the destroyed front door. “Move out.”

“Hey, hey!” The gnome waddled after him before he seemed to remember Rebecca was still there. So he stopped to attempt reasoning with her instead,. “That’s private property. He can’t do that!”

“He just did,” she replied flatly. “And hereallywasn’t joking about carrying you out to our vehicle if he has to. I’d start walking if I were you.”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake…”

“You’ll be safe with us at Headquarters until we better understand the danger and can confirm its over,” she added. “Think of it as taking asylum, if you want.”

Bruce scoffed and shot her a scathing glare. “Insaneasylum, you mean.”

“Whatever helps you get through the worst of it.” Rebecca gestured toward the front porch and the team’s vehicle waiting at the curb now.

The gnome gaped at her a moment longer, then tugged on the bottom hem of his t-shirt and stomped past her out the door with a muttered, “Fuck my life. I’ll never do business again after this…”

Rebecca finally let herself roll her eyes now that that gnome’s back was turned. Then she left the bungalow after him, scanning the dark street and the few neighboring houses, the closest of which were almost at the end of the block.

Nothing stirred in the darkness. The lights in all the other houses had shut off for the night and remained off, which felt like a miracle after the intensity of the firefight just inside Bruce’s front door. But at least nothing else disturbed her and her team before they got everyone into the vehicle and on their way back to Shade Headquarters.

Though they were finally back on the road again, no one’s mood had improved.

Tig sat in the back, vigilantly watching over Lerrick for signs of either improvement or worsening condition, and said nothing.

Wedged into the vehicle’s only other seat in the rear, Bruce didn’t hold his silence for very long. For the majority of the drive, he mumbled angrily to himself about task forces of unseen magicals who had no damn clue what they were doing.

“I don’t know why I’m eveninvolvedin any of this. I justmakethe augmented technology. I can’t actuallyuseit against enemies. Not like I’ve ever had any enemies to use it against in the first place…”

When they pulled into that compound’s parking garage, Zida was already down there waiting for them with an enchanted stretcher floating beside her in a halo of glimmering yellow light.

Rebecca and the rest of her team helped get Lerrick onto the stretcher and officially under their healer’s experienced care. Then the storage tote of Bruce’s things came out of the trunk to be hefted into Rick’s arms.

Bruce begrudgingly peeled himself off the vehicle’s rear seat to scowl at everything around him, like he had every right to disapprove after the Shade team had saved his life tonight.

Rebecca got ahold of Whit to have him deliver a message to the rest of the task force.

“If anyone’s still out in the field, tell them to get back here now. Whatever clues they can possibly find that might help us move forward, great. Bring those too. But be careful. Everyone stays quiet and off the grid.”

“Understood.” The warlock nodded, his concerned frown darkening. “I’m on it, boss. And if anyone asks for more details, what do I tell them?”

“Tell them I think we’ve just gotten ourselves into a bit of a bind, and I want everyone to be on the same page before we start making moves to get ourselves out of it. That’s as good of an explanation as it gets right now.”

Whit hurried off to make the necessary calls and get the message out to every team still out there.

In the aftermath of the bustling response to her team’s return, Rebecca gave herself a moment longer in the garage to take a breath and still her racing thoughts.

She had a feeling there wouldn’t be a whole lot of spare time to do so after this.

It hadn’t registered that Maxwell had remained in the garage with her until the tingling flare of energy between them shifted and intensified. Then he was at her side, watching the last operatives who’d come to help disappear in the stairwell up to the ground floor.

“Wewillget to the bottom of this,” he grumbled beside her.

“If there evenisa bottom. All those civilians, Hannigan. Just for doing business with us and nothing else.”

“You can’t carry that around with you.” The gentleness in the shifter’s voice was almost enough to break the last of her composure wide open.

“IfIdon’t carry it, who will?”

“It wasn’t your fault,” he replied plainly. “We had no idea what was happening. No one could have known. Even you.”

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