Page 45 of Against the Veil (Endangered Fae #3)

Zack kissed his forehead. “Forgot already how mad I am at you? Don’t be so damn stubborn.”

Lugh managed a disturbingly weak squeeze of his arm before he nodded and heaved a shuddering sigh. Slowly, as if he were an afterimage disappearing from an old television, he faded from sight.

“Oh, my God.” Jasper’s stricken whisper cut through the silence. “Were we too late?”

“No, kiddo.” Zack wiped impatiently at his eyes and tried not to think about how achingly empty his arms felt. “He’s gone into the Dreaming to heal. He’s safe now.” Thank God… Oh, thank God, he’s safe.

At least now he might be able to concentrate on what had to be done. He rolled his shoulders as he got back to his feet. “Will, you all right? Everyone set?”

“I’m fine, Sergeant. Should Nate get the door?”

“Nah. I got it. Don’t think we need to be subtle.

” If Diego hadn’t felt the magic door opening, he was either asleep or seriously distracted.

Somehow, Zack found it hard to believe that they were unexpected, anyway.

He gripped the knob in his right hand and one of the metal bars on the little viewing window in his left and heaved.

The door squealed and the lock gave up the fight with a sad clunk.

Super-werewolf strength was great up to a point, but time and neglect had made forcing the door easy.

“Faolchú, bud, you’re on point. Let’s get up those damn stairs as fast as we can. Nathair, now would be the time for a little stealth shielding.”

If there had been any other way up, he would have split his battle group into squads immediately.

But it was the single set of stairs or an old elevator shaft and he didn’t trust anyone’s lives to that in a crumbling building.

Nathair’s soft, green magic surrounded them as they moved forward.

The individuals nearest Zack—Jasper, Kevin, Will—all looked normal, but anyone further up or back in the column became fuzzy around the edges, hard to pick out, their footsteps muffled.

He hoped the effect was even more profound outside Nathair’s shielding.

They headed left and down the dark hallway.

Only a single, low-wattage bulb shone at the turn by the stairs, forcing the normal-sighted humans in their group to hold on to a magically afflicted human or non-human.

Kevin kept his hand on Zack’s shoulder. Farther back in the column, Marcus had Finn’s sleeve.

Not surprisingly, Jasper took Nate’s hand.

Zack wondered, for the forty-seventh time since they’d rescued the little vamp, if he should be discouraging their little liaison.

For such a huge fae, Faolchú moved with incredible grace, placing his padded feet so his claws didn’t click on the concrete floor.

When he reached the foot of the stairs, he went ahead of Nathair a few paces and tipped his head sideways, lupine ears swiveling.

After moment, he waved them on, every member of their party endeavoring to be as silent as possible. Will seemed to be holding his breath.

Halfway down the column as they snaked up the stairs from the basement level, Zack motioned his team back when the vanguard came to a sudden halt. He lifted his head, instinctively testing the air.

“Someone’s up there,” he whispered in Kevin’s ear. “See if you can’t get up front for a clear shot.”

Kevin nodded, easing his tranq pistol from its holster. He turned to squeeze past, placing his feet carefully on the stair treads.

“Who’s down there?” a girl called out, presumably from the top of the stairs, her voice tremulous and angry. “Damn it, Theo! I’m not in the mood for ambush training. You’re gonna be sorry if it’s you.”

Kevin ducked, swearing softly as a chair smashed into the wall where his head had been. He leaped up the next flight of stairs as Zack motioned everyone down. Just in time, since an old wooden desk flew by overhead half a second later.

“Shit! Who the hell are you?”

A sharp pop followed the girl’s cry of dismay, then a thud.

Zack leaped over those still ducked down in front of him, tamping down hard on the growl gathering in his chest. When he reached the top of the stairs, Kevin was down on one knee, securing the girl’s wrists behind her with one of the plastic zip ties they all carried.

“That’s one, Sarge,” he whispered with a wry grin as he reached into his pack for one of the lead-lined aprons they’d bought from a dental supply company for this raid. Not much interfered with human magic, but lead sure as hell did.

“She okay?” At Kevin’s nod, Zack waved everyone else up the stairs. “Jasper, which one is this?”

“That’s Em.” Jasper chewed on his bottom lip. “Emily.”

All right. Good. Girl who throws empanada carts is out of commission.

“Stay sharp. Still ten left,” Zack whispered.

He pointed Faolchú toward the west wing where Jasper said the kids had set up their sleeping quarters and Angus toward the east, where Theo and Lila’s private rooms would be.

Bright afternoon sun still streamed through the quarter-sphere of the huge atrium dome in the lobby, so there was a chance that Theo might be sleeping.

Zack had chosen the most dangerous path for himself, up the grand staircase to the third floor to go after Diego.

Finn, Marcus, the coven and Jasper went with him, all representing strengths of different sorts, with their ultimate goal to get Brandon where he needed to be to reverse his original spell.

Silence accompanied their soft, hurried footsteps up the stairs, the eerie calm broken only by the intermittent clicks and creaks of an old building complaining that its bones hurt.

When they reached the second-floor landing, a whispering rustle pulled Zack’s gaze up, just in time to spot the figure in black at the top of the stairs. Theo .

Both hands on the railing, Theo vaulted the banister, his black duster billowing behind him like the wings of a fallen angel. He landed in an effortless crouch on the landing, blocking their way up.

“You’ve come for him,” he said, his melodic voice so soft and reasonable he could have been offering greetings or condolences. “I won’t let you hurt him.”

“We don’t want to hurt him,” Zack countered, hands held wide.

“So you come in force. Armed.” Theo nodded at Jasper. “With turncoats.”

Jasper stepped forward, though Nate tried to hold him back. “It’s not like that, Theo. Y’all abandoned me.”

Faced away from the atrium, Theo’s face remained shadowed, his intentions hidden. “I came back for you. You were gone.”

Zack tried to signal with a look for Jasper to stay back. “Theo, you know who we are. His husband, his friends. He’s not well. Please, let—”

A snarling human missile slammed into his side. Hurled to the floor, winded, Zack fought desperately to keep snapping teeth from his throat. Déjà vu all over again…

The werewolf girl, Lila, had him pinned at an awkward angle, half on his side with his left arm trapped.

His ribs hurt like hell where he’d connected with the floor, but he twisted hard to flip onto his back.

She hurled punches at his head, though he blocked most of her wild blows with his forearm.

The eyes…her eyes were the worst, yellow and half-mad, as if she were already sinking into the first stages of her change, though the moon wouldn’t be full for over a week.

The hairs on the back of his neck prickled.

Rumbling growls he couldn’t control vibrated in his chest. With a roar, he surged up and seized her wrists, flipping them both to trap her underneath.

She still struggled, snarling and bucking, and he had the terrible urge to sink his teeth into her throat.

My pack… his blood sang, you won’t hurt my pack…

Dear, God, what the hell is wrong with me?

Sudden movement tugged at the corner of his vision.

Something wriggled at the bend in the hall where the main corridor met the west wing.

The mass of something appeared to hesitate, then surged forward in a rush of green, resolving into curling vines reaching for him with strange, alien intent.

Conservatory…that’s where Jasper said the conservatory was.

Shit. Auden and his damn plant whispering.

A bright blur streaked between him and the oncoming vegetative assault as Jasper hurled himself at the vines.

“Damn it, Auden! Knock it off!” he shouted, presumably at Auden, out of sight around the corner. The vines curled around his ankles, yanking Jasper off his feet and pulling him down the hall.

A distant part of Zack’s brain realized he had completely lost control of the situation. Minky was no longer visible—no shock there—but Brandon was missing as well. Just as that realization hit, Finn shifted into a bear and charged the vampire vigilante on the stairs.

“Finn! No!” Zack bellowed in a voice too rough and guttural to be his own.

While the pooka was fast and dodged the first counterstrike, Theo moved at the speed of thought. Rather than retreat, he ghosted in under Finn’s upraised paw and grabbed him by the throat, holding him off and squeezing the pooka-bear’s windpipe.

Finn scrabbled at the arms holding him and wheezed out, “Oh, you really, really don’t want to do this.”

“I won’t hurt you,” Theo said calmly. “Just pass out for me, please, and I’ll take you to him. He misses you.”

Finn snuffled, his nose crinkling. “No, young sir, you misunderstand…” He pulled in a stuttering breath. “You really…don’t…want to…stand there…”

Uh-oh.