King Hall (45 page)
Dashing to the desk, I opened the drawer where I had stashed my gifted gun. After grabbing it with only a slightly shaking hand, I positioned myself on the floor in front of Vivian and Mrs. Jonas where they still hid under the desk.
Straightaway, Mrs. Jonas blathered, “He didn’t tell me what to do. I’m getting the hell out of here.”
“Stay down,” I ordered, gun aimed at the window, where I could see Mys and Com attacking each other, their battle coming closer. “You go out there and you’re dead.” It was pure pandemonium. Like a stampede, but with weapons.
“I’m not going to stay in here and be a sitting duck,” she hissed, and pushed out from under her hiding spot, standing. “I’m going.”
“Mrs. Jonas, don’t be stupid. Get under the damn desk,” I pressed, eyes never wavering from my duty.
“Like I’m going to listen to you,” she snarled. A hail of bullets from a machine gun fired from somewhere outside, rocking her body, her blood flying out behind her. Making not a sound, she was dead before she hit the floor.
“Mrs. Zeller,” I hissed, trying hard not to gag, or gawk, at Mrs. Jonas’s corpse, “don’t you fucking move. You stay right under that desk. If you don’t, I’ll hog tie you down.”
I saw the book that shimmered golden out of the corner of my eye as she held it out, waggling it once. “He gave me a task. And I’m going to do it. Safe does not mean running into bullets or bombs.” She said it so reasonably, too. Logical, scary teacher.
“Good,” I whispered, seeing a Com man race by the window too close. He came back, like I had figured he would. As soon as I saw his head, and gun, peek inside, I pulled the trigger, dropping him, then I stated, “Because I like safe, too. And Ezra would be mighty pissed if I let you die. Safe does not mean you piss off Ezra.”
“I think we both understand what safe is.” She leaned, pointing. “Incoming.”
“She’s, like, thirteen.” I watched in shock as a Com teenager headed toward us.
“She will kill us just the same,” Vivian stated, voice hard.
“I don’t want…” I trailed off, watching the Com girl lift her gun and take aim on an elderly Elemental. “Oh, Jesus.” I altered my aim to her, but before I could fire, she did. As the Elemental fell dead, I pulled the trigger. My heart twisted for all of a beat at ending such a young life, before sanity returned when I saw another elderly Elemental scream and drop on top the dead Elemental. She was holding her chest, and crying out in pain as she passed out.
Her mate.
Taken.
Murdered at the hands of supposed innocence.
My heart hardened in that very instant, rock solid…
cold
.
“Another one.” Vivian pointed. “Com male to the right.”
I watched as he came straight for the window. He didn’t see me as he walked. He didn’t see me as he started to lift himself inside the room. Nor did he see me as I shot him dead.
Four Coms came directly after, doubtlessly from seeing the Com male drop. They all went down. There were the beginnings of a decent body pile outside the window. I worried it would attract more.
It did.
The Coms were like freaking gnats. One right after another came to the window, trying to enter. They came to their death. Shape. Size. Race. Age. Sex. None of that mattered. Every single one of them fell by my hand.
“Perhaps I could grab one of those bodies and have a snack,” Vivian murmured.
“We already had this conversation,” I grumbled, firing off another shot. Direct hit. I really loved this gun. “You aren’t moving a muscle.”
“I was kidding. Safe. I like safe, and you’re an excellent shot, so you’re safe,” she muttered. A pause. “How long has Ezra been gone now?”
A quick glance at the clock, which was miraculously still attached to the wall. “Thirteen minutes, give or take a few.” It had only been fifteen since the first explosion had gone off. “I’m sure he’s fine.” He had better be, or I was going to kill Antonio. “And you know your mate’s fine.” She was still coherent.
Firing, I shot a Com man, who looked like he was near a hundred, as he struggled to move through the dead bodies, his destination the window.
How the hell had he survived these last fifteen minutes?
It was crazy.
She snorted. “Cahal doesn’t die. He may get hurt, but that man just keeps on ticking.” She sounded proud. It was so odd having this conversation right now. Especially when the woman had barely talked to me so far today. I was beginning to think she was really terrified, and conversing sanely was how she dealt with a life-or-death situation. “You think this room’s spelled? It stayed intact when the rest of the ceilings around us went down.”
I do believe I was right. “Who knows?”
Who cares?
Anyone else would have just been grateful it was still intact, but she was making herself think things through rationally to keep her mind off the situation.
“What do you suppose is in this book?” she asked.
“No clue, but unless you want to die-by-spell, I would suggest—”
“Safe, remember?” she interrupted. “I was just wondering if you’d ever seen it before, since he raised you.”
“Never saw it before today,” I muttered, but a second later I wondered at the truth of my statement. Antonio had always had tons of books. He liked to read a lot, but kept them under lock-and-spell, never letting me even hold one.
“How long’s it been now?” she asked.
“Two minutes since the last—” I stopped cold when Antonio and Ezra reappeared in the same spot they had left. Gasping, I crawled quickly — staying low — over to Ezra. I screamed at Antonio, “
You let him get hurt!
”
Ezra was panting and bending over with his hands on his knees…
covered
in blood.
I had no clue where his injuries were, but they had to be extensive. Rising on my knees and cupping his bloody cheeks, I scanned his wide eyes. He looked like he was in shock. My grip tightened on his face as rage and fear warred inside me. Trembling furiously, my brutally glowing gaze swung to Antonio, who was fucking spotless, and I shouted feverishly, “You aren’t taking him anywhere else. Never-fucking-again!”
Gasping, breathless, Ezra huffed, “Sweetheart…” Bloody hands lifted off his knees, and he cupped my own cheeks, bringing my face back to his. “I’m not hurt. I’m okay.”
My eyes darted over his body, since I couldn’t move my head inside his hold, before gazing back into his eyes, and with an emotional, shaking voice, I explained softly, “Ezra, you’re in shock. Sit down. I can’t tell where you’re bleeding from. I need to look you over.” My eyes were tearing up, and I blinked hard, determined to stay strong. If he was shot with silver in too many places, or even in just the right place…
“I’m not hurt,” he whispered, still trying to catch his breath, bringing his bloody face closer. “The blood’s not mine. It’s from those
things
I killed.” He peered up at Antonio, who was standing there calmly, aiming my gun, which I must have dropped at some point, at the window. “What were they?”
“Things?” I blubbered, blinking rapidly. “Are you sure you’re okay?” I sniffled. Pathetic, really, but he looked so awful. “You could be shot and you don’t know it.” Definitely, too awful to be unharmed. “I think you should sit down.”
Ezra chuckled softly, staring into my eyes. “I wasn’t shot.” My lips started quivering, and his eyes dipped to my mouth, then back to my gaze. “Don’t do that. You know I suck when you start crying.” His fingers tightened on my cheeks, and he shook my head a little, which — oddly — did stop my tears. “I’m fine. I promise.”
My eyes darted over him again. “You sure?” That didn’t smell like his blood.
“I’m sure,” he crooned gently, leaning forward and kissing my forehead. “I don’t go down that easily. Have more faith.”
Believing him, the tension-filled breath that rushed out of me was enormous.
“Now that she’s done freaking out,” Antonio’s tone was factual as he glanced at the clock as Ezra pulled his lips back from my forehead, “it’s time for your next job.”
My wolf growled, my eyes still glowing. “He’s done enough.” Whatever it had been. He had enough blood on him that it should damn well be enough.
Antonio raised his eyebrows before returning his gaze to the window. “I was talking about the four of you.”
Ezra glanced to Pearl and Jack, both still unconscious. “They aren’t going anywhere.”
Vivian cleared her throat from under the desk across the room. Ezra and I blinked, both of us having forgotten she was here, and instantly dropped our hands from each other’s faces as she began speaking, her tone clipped. “I can probably carry one of them.”
“Your job’s the book,” Antonio specified. “Although, you will be going with the four of them.” He shot a Com man trying to get into the office. “And the others.”
As I stayed in a crouch next to Ezra in his blood-soaked black robe, my eyes were on Antonio, and I asked, “What job? What do you want us to do?”
After glancing at the clock again, his eyes found mine for a heartbeat before returning to his post. “What I’ve always trained you to do, Lil.” He paused to shoot another Com. “It’s time to run.”
“Run?” I asked sluggishly. Yes, I knew how to do that and what it took to do it successfully, but that didn’t seem advisable in the current situation.
He nodded. Another glance at the clock. “That was only the first round, with two more to go, and they’ve already got the place surrounded. If you want to save yourself, and your friends, it’s time to run. I taught you when. I taught you how. You know the odds. Think, Lil.”
First round. Two more to go. Already surrounded.
Slowly, I blinked. “Okay.” I nodded as I straightened, understanding. “We run.”
Night Talk
by Maxine Sullivan
From
USA Today
bestselling author Maxine Sullivan comes a fast-talking, no-holds-barred battle of the sexes…played out live on air!
When Zac Ryan is roped into replacing an absent guest on a Chicago radio talk show, he decides to have some fun. After all, he’s Australian, on vacation, and fellow host Cassie is something else. So when their chemistry burns up the airwaves, it’s a no-brainer to come back for a few more shows.
But the difference between Cassie’s sexy on-air personality and her prickly, professional off-air self makes Zac wonder which side of her is real — and whether he’s the man to find out.
Hindsight
by Sarah Belle
Humour, wit, and just a touch of humility: the swinging 60s as you’ve never seen them before.
The universe has sent Juliette a sign. She wishes it had been an email instead…
Juliette’s career is on fire, her marriage and family are in melt-down, and a red-hot goddess wants her husband. But those are the least of her worries when she wakes up on her lounge room floor in the year 1961.
Without any of her modern conveniences — nanny, housekeeper, surgically attached mobile phone, designer wardrobe, and intravenous lattes — Juliette is just over fifty years out of her comfort zone. But as she takes on the role of a 1961 housewife, with gritted liberated teeth, she discovers an unexpected truth: slower doesn’t mean boring, at home doesn’t mean dull, and priorities don’t mean sacrifices.
As she finds unexpected friendships, a resuscitated love life, tragedy and triumph, Juliette begins to wonder if she really wants to return home after all.
The Secret Diary of Lady Catherine Bexley
by Viveka Portman
In the vein of Portia Da Costa and Charlotte Featherstone, Regency England gets just a bit raunchy in this novella about a gently-raised lady who wants to feel like a woman…
“I have never seen fit in my life to divulge my secrets in a diary, yet now, after today’s proceedings, I do…”
Lady Catherine Bexley is new to marriage and the marriage bed, but surely there must be more to it than this? Her husband is proper and perfunctory — treating her with careful respect but leaving her aching for more.
When she witnesses a gentleman disciplining a maid at a house party, the ache explodes into ravenous desire. She finds herself no longer willing to wait for her husband’s stiff and passionless attentions — and soon develops a naughty plan to finally get what she wants.
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