Page 9

Chapter 9

Party Crashers

Xavier

I launched myself off the couch, simultaneously making a solid wall of sand appear in front of Blake.

“Get behind me!”

The tiger’s claws broke through the sand. Blake stepped aside and began to shift. The wall crumbled and dropped the tiger at my feet. I launched a kick into the tiger’s unsuspecting jaw. The massive head lurched sideways but didn’t appear to do much damage. Those saucer-wide green eyes locked on me. The shifter completely ignored the growling Blake and swiped at me with those saber-like claws.

“Get back!” I shouted at Blake, who was trying to enter the fray by biting at the tiger’s tail.

He’s trying to distract him.

Blake listened to me this time. He stopped his attack, keeping in his wolf form and baring his teeth, his entire body poised to leap into action. The tiger was razor-focused on me as he prowled toward me, those shoulder blades rising and falling with every slow step. He didn’t seem to care about Blake.

I pulled at the energy inside me and formed a dagger made of sand, the blade sharp as diamond. An arrow between the eyes would have been easier, but I had to make do.

My legs hit the vice president’s desk. More shouts rang from the hallway, piercing, howling shouts for help. This had to end.

I took the offensive, rushing forward before the tiger shifter could gain another advantage. I tossed a cloud of sand from my free hand. The tiger cried out as the sand blasted its face. It gave me an opening.

I slashed out with my blade. The tiger let loose a blood-chilling roar, a streak of blood cutting across its orange-and-black face. Fury fueled it as the shifter ran at me. It lunged, but I was ready for it. I rolled back over the desk and ducked. The tiger flew through the air and slammed into the wall beside me, its chest wide open to a strike.

I gripped the hilt tight and took the hit. The sand dagger found its mark, cutting straight into its heart just as a searing pain shot through my arm. The tiger shifter went limp. Its claws retracted from my arm, blood immediately seeping through my torn shirt.

More shouting. More people needing help.

I got up from the floor. Blake shifted back into human form and rushed to my side. “Fuck, you’re hurt. Here.” Without wasting a beat, Blake snatched off his tie and began to wrap it around the deep puncture wounds.

“It’s fine. I’m fine. We need to get you out of here. ”

“You need to stop bleeding is what needs to happen. Why didn’t you rewind time just now?”

“I can’t do it in frequent succession”—I winced as Blake wrapped the tie around me—“and I don’t want to risk needing it. I can handle a little pain.”

Blake looked down at the dead tiger shifter, blood pooling on the dark evergreen carpet. “Do you think it’s the same people from Joshua Tree?”

“Possible,” I said, reaching for his wrist but grabbing his hand instead. “Let’s go.”

I led him out of the office, where Verona lay dead on the floor. Blake sucked in a pained breath. Loud crashes and small explosions sounded from the direction of the gala.

I tugged Blake in the opposite direction. My main priority was getting him somewhere safe. Then I could circle back and help fight off whatever attack was happening.

Blake resisted. “Wait,” he said. “My mom and Cassius were in the gala. And Warrick. We need to make sure they’re okay.”

Warrick didn’t worry me; I knew he could handle himself. I wasn’t sure about his friend and mother, though. The determination in his eyes told me all I needed to know. We ran in the direction of the screams. There were bodies in the hall. Some were shifters, other humans. Five Secret Service agents ran toward us. Between them was Joshua. He appeared scared but unharmed. It struck me as odd that the secretary of transportation needed a bigger entourage than the vice president’s son.

“What’s happening?” I asked one of the agents.

“The gala was attacked,” she shouted over her shoulder as they all bolted past, red mana swirling around their arms.

“Where’s Cass?” Blake called out .

No answer. Did he already know his son was safe?

“That was helpful,” Blake said sarcastically. It got a dry chuckle out of me. We continued to hurry down the hall, the cries getting louder.

It didn’t matter in that moment. We entered the gala space and were greeted with a battlefield. Vibrant red mana flew through the air, shifters—a mix of wolves and predatory cats—dodging and ducking and leaping over tables, clawing at people’s faces and biting at their limbs. A vampire zoomed past me, grabbing a wolf shifter by the nape and tossing it across the room like it was made of paper. A sleek black panther snuck up behind her and took a nasty bite out of her thigh. Warrick sparred with a shifter that wielded a curved ivory scythe, cutting through the vines Warr sent whipping toward him from nearby potted plants,

“I don’t see my mom. They must have taken her to safety.”

“Good, let’s go.”

“Wait… Cass!”

Blake took off running. His friend was circled by two shifters, both of them in their human forms with their hands ending in sharp wolf claws. One of them had bloodred eyes that flickered over to me. He pinned his wolf ears back. His face was also more canine than human. His grin turned wicked as he effortlessly dodged a whip of red mana from behind him. Without turning, he flicked out a hand and sent a silver dagger flying through the air, impaling the Marvel’s throat and dropping him dead.

On his jacket was a cracked hourglass with the sand slipping out and forming an infinity symbol underneath it. The same emblem we found on the shifters that went after Blake .

Cassius fell to his knees, eyes shut in fear. Blake slammed into one of the shifters with his shoulder and dropped them both to the floor. I moved to join them, but the red-eyed shifter ignored Blake and Cassius and came running at me. He sent three daggers flying toward my chest. I broke all three of their momentums with quick balls of sand, solid as concrete. The daggers clattered to the floor.

I swung at him, a sand dagger forming in my fist. He laughed and blocked it with a forearm with the sleeve of his reinforced jacket. Another glinting blade appeared in his hand, and he moved to stab me. The pain from the tiger bite burned like wildfire, but I pushed past it, dodging the swing and retaliating with one of my own.

Fuck this .

I dropped the dagger and produced a sword in the same hand. Larger and more complicated items took me more energy to produce, so it wasn’t ideal in the midst of a full-out brawl, but I had to risk getting winded.

The red-eyed man chuckled, kicking aside a broken chair. “You’re full of tricks, aren’t you?”

“What group are you part of?”

Someone feet away gave a death cry. My heart hammered, my lungs burning as if I’d run a mile. It melded with the pain that continued to throb through my arm.

“A group that doesn’t need to answer to you.”

He raised his hand. The daggers were gone. Instead, he held a tiny black pouch. Dragonsbane.

Before I could think to react, a vine came whipping through the air and snatched the pouch out of his hand. The red-eyed shifter looked like he was set to explode with anger, his gaze jerking to my little brother. He blew the guy a kiss before he tossed the Dragonsbane.

A yelp yanked my attention. It had come from Blake. He had shifted, his timber wolf form shielding Cassius as the other wolf rushed toward him. I saw it all happen in slow motion. It was like before. I had to turn back time. Had to intervene.

And then Blake surprised me. He’d been feigning his apprehension. With the wolf in the air, Blake crouched on his haunches and propelled upward. He clamped his jaws around the other shifter’s throat and dropped them both to the ground.

His attacker was dead. Good.

Now, I could focus on mine.

The red-eyed man produced two more daggers in each of his hands. “Just surrender. Make it easier for everyone.”

“What do you mean surrender? What are you after?”

He narrowed his gaze. There was a scar that ran down his top lip. His buzz cut showed more scars around his ears and scalp.

Loud pops started to sound through the room. White-robed Enforcers entered the room through the surrounding doors, wielding staffs that channeled their mana into deadly precision. They launched missiles of mana through the air. The red-eyed shifter, for once in this fight, looked scared.

He didn’t answer my question. He shifted into a massive tawny-red wolf and ran like a bulldozer toward the window to our left.

Oh no, motherfucker.

I forced myself through the increasing exhaustion and channeled the flow of time. I shifted it, creating a dam by sticking my hand into the invisible river of stardust and sand. The wolf moved backward, as did everyone else in the room, landing him back in his spot before he shifted. Time slowed for a brief moment.

But I couldn’t hold it. I couldn’t swing my sword fast enough.

Time found its rhythm again. The man shifted into his wolf form and leapt through the air, crashing through a window and escaping. A resonating howl echoed behind him. Many of the shifters listened to his call, following in his escape. They abandoned their fights and ran, some being caught but many escaping.

I nearly stumbled to my knees but managed to keep my footing. Blake stood over Cassius, helping him up. The Enforcers made quick work of the stragglers that didn’t flee with the red-eyed wolf. The ones that didn’t resist were being held on their knees with their hands tied behind their backs, velvet red mana cutting into their wrists. The ones who did try to attack were dead on the floor, mana wounds riddling their bodies.

Blake took one look at them and shuddered. His skin went a pallid pale, except around his mouth, which was covered in blood. I went over to him, my steps steady but my vision blurred, the oxygen in my lungs working on overtime.

“Are you guys okay?”

Blake nodded. He kept his eyes pinned on me. I knew he must not want to see the multiple holes that the mana projectiles made in their targets.

“Come,” I said, pulling him against me. We were bloodied and bruised and breathless .

Most important of all, we were safe. “The Enforcers can handle it from here. Let’s clean up.”

“Okay,” Blake said, voice shaken. He looked up at me like a blood-covered ghost. Something in his shaken golden gaze made me want to protect him well past my contract’s end date. As I took stock of the death and destruction that surrounded us, all of it seeming to insistently be following Blake, I wondered if we’d even make it to that point in one piece.