Page 33 of Mated to the Enemy
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Where the fuck is everyone?
The place should have been crawling with soldiers by now. Highly-trained men from House Ursa should have descended upon his position minutes after he’d sent up a cry for help. The guards who patrolled the perimeter had answered his call. He’d heard them. So where the hell were they?
Klaue stalked forward, maintaining distance between himself and the mage and Jessica, but always keeping them in sight. Much of his anger was directed at himself, for so recklessly charging into the bushes after the mage like that. How could he have been so dumb as to let himself be tricked?
What heshouldhave done was to have snatched up Jessica and hightailed it out of there the second the mage disappeared. Instead, his lack of forethought had landed them in a rather terrifying situation. One flick of the mage’s wrist and he would char the head from Jessica’s body.
Probably. There was only one flaw to that plan, and that was the fact that Jessica still lived. The mage hadn’t come here as an assassin, that much was clear. He was here to retrieve her, to take her back somewhere. To House Canis? That seemed the likeliest of paths.
Without backup though, I can’t win this. And he’s tossing around blue energy like it’s common!
That bore thinking about. This mage was packing aseriouspunch. Maybe that was why the guards were delayed. If they’d seen that, they would know this needed someone else. Someone more qualified.
Even Kvoss, the mage-hunting Assassin of High House Ursa, would likely be outclassed by a blue-magic wielding mage. Klaue wasn’t entirely sure on that front, but he had a sneaky suspicion the Magi of the House was going to be needed to stop the man who had Jessica.
Great. Just what I need.
Whatever was going to happen, it needed to happen soon. They were nearing the outer edge of the forest, and it wouldn’t be long now before the gates came into sight. If the mage made it through them with Jessica at his side, he could open a rift and be gone in an instant. The wards stopping him were built into the wall and gate itself. Once the mage was outside them, it didn’t matter how powerful they were, he would be free. Klaue needed to stop him before that happened.
Reluctantly, he shifted back to his human form.
“Stop,” he called.
The mage glanced back at the sound of a voice, but he didn’t stop, or even slow. Instead, he shoved Jessica in the back and urged her to pick up the pace. Klaue bared his teeth silently in anger, but he kept up the pace, shadowing the mage about fifty feet behind him.
“There’s no need to do this. I’m sure we can come to some sort of arrangement that doesn’t involve anyone dying,” he called, spreading his hands wide, pleading. It didn’t feel good to beg, but Klaue was out of options. He had no weapons, no way of stopping the mage, and the backup he’d called for wasn’t materializing.
The mage didn’t even bother to look back this time. He just kept going, his focus on the edge of the forest. Klaue could see it coming now, the trees were thinning, and way ahead in the distance were the gates themselves. It was too close. He needed to do something.
Padding forward, uncomfortably aware that he was looking at entering combat completely naked, Klaue tried to close the distance. The mage wasn’t paying attention to him anymore, so maybe he could get close enough, somehow get himself between Jessica and the energy. Klaue didn’t want to die, but if it ensured his mate lived…
“That’s far enough! Back away!” the mage snapped, yanking Jessica around by the shoulder as he pushed his fist and its blue energy closer to her neck.
Klaue blinked as the azure ball bounced off some sort of wall.
“What?” the mage hissed, looking down. “That’s impossible.” He shoved his fist toward Jessica’s neck again, but an inky purple barrier blocked the path.
Klaue, Jessica and the mage watched as the barrier expanded and intensified, becoming a solid hued violet as it separated the two.
“Go get her,” a voice said from behind Klaue.
He didn’t hesitate. Rushing forward at full speed, he slid to a halt, wincing as the asphalt tore at the soles of his feet. “Time to go!” he yelped, grabbing Jessica and lifting her from the ground as he turned and ran back the way he’d come.
The Magi was fully visible now, standing to the left of where Klaue had been, the spell of invisibility having fallen away.
“Get down!”
Jessica’s voice screamed in his ear and Klaue threw himself to the ground, twisting as he went. He had a split second to see a lance of searing blue magic shoot by overhead before his shoulders and ass hit the asphalt. Klaue yelped in pain as skin was torn raw from his behind.
More magic flowed back and forth, and the two of them bore witness to a full-blown mage fight as the Magi and the unknown user tossed spells and blasts of magic at each other with abandon.
“We need to get out of the way,” he shouted as a sheet of green lightning rolled over them, streaking toward the Magi. “That way!” He pointed toward the cover of trees and bushes, the opposite direction the running magic duel was headed.
Jessica, her face white as a ghost, nodded and began a panicked crawl for what he hoped would be shelter from the ongoing fight. This was well above his paygrade, and not something he should get involved in.
An SUV came roaring up the drive from the house, and the rogue mage casually lifted his right fist. Pillars of red-tinged earth erupted from the ground, flipping the SUV through the air.
