Page 21

Ruby

I found the strength to run, carefully, with my hand folded around Mateo’s head so he wouldn’t shake. He looked peaceful, happy, and completely unaware of the chaos around him. Sleeping now that he was back with me. The wave of happiness and relief that had filled me when I first picked him up had been replaced by fear. He didn’t know that his daddy was in danger, but I did, and I knew I had to save my mate. Brace had claimed us, both of us, and I was going to hold him to that promise, come hell or high water.

The Asrai clattered down the stairs in front of me, but he wasn’t moving fast enough. I had to be careful — for Mateo’s sake. My hand trembled around my gun as we chased after the sounds of the fighting. The mansion might have been beautiful once, a testament to taste and money, but it was a mess now. Windows broken and furniture shattered. Bodies la y left and right, and smoke was beginning to fill the air. Something was on fire, and if that fire wasn’t stopped soon, it would engulf th e entire building.

We reached a large room then — a ballroom , maybe — though it had far too many couches and pillows scattered throughout. A pedestal sat at the end, with what could only be described as a throne atop it. So this was where Jalima presided over his subjects : a lord in more ways than one. Not just a clever drug smuggler, but a king, at least in his own mind.

There was fighting going on near the dais. I saw Brace’s blue fur immediately and drew in a relieved breath when I realized he was okay. I tried to make sense of what I saw, realized there was a massive snake grappling with a Pretorian. They were rolling along the ground, and those around them were trying to get out of their way or help.

Brace raised his head abruptly, and our eyes met across the large room. Then his gaze lowered, and he saw the baby in my arms. Instantly, something softened in his blue eyes, his relief obvious. He began to shove around people to get to me, but a sudden shout of pain made everyone freeze. There had been grunts, the burn of laserfire, the thuds of fists on flesh, but this scream was visceral.

My mate turned toward the grappling pair, and now I recognized them. Captain Asmoded was at the bottom of the pile, his long body partially coiled around his opponent. The four-armed Pretorian was fighting the squeeze of those coils, his brute strength managing to avert a fatal crushing, for now. But a wound was blooming on his shoulder, blood spurting from the circular hole. Smoke also curled into the air from his flesh; a laser burn , o ne that had not cauterized all the veins : an interrupted shot.

It felt like everyone held their breath for a long second, the entire fight falling silent as all eyes locked onto the scene . And then there was an explosion of activity. The Pretorian male twisted abruptly and slammed a fist into the mercenary captain’s face. Coils instantly slackened, and amid the rush of many bodies — including Brace — leaping for the Pretorian, he leaped away. Another shot blasted through the air from outside, but the four-armed male yanked one of his own men in to the path . Brace would have caught him, I knew he would have . H is hands were outstretched, ready to snatch at a foot before the male could leap through the broken window. I didn’t see the gun in time. It was suddenly right in my mate’s face, a blast going off that would echo in my dreams for eternity.

“No!” I screamed, and my poor baby wailed. I jerked forward, needing to cross that huge room to where Brace was falling to the ground as fast as possible. Everyone was moving so slowly, like I could see everything happening in freeze - frames — snapshots : Brace falling, the Pretorian male tumbling agilely out the window, and his gun coming up for another shot.

The Varakartoom ’s mercenaries and the criminals working for Jalima all clashed with shouts, but nobody was close enough to help my falling mate. Nobody moved toward the slack, unconscious body of the Naga captain , either. “Brace!” I shouted. I hadn’t even registered that th e second shot from the escaping male hadn’t been aimed at Brace. Not until the mercenary who brought me here abruptly threw himself in front of me. He grunted, his body moving back, careening into me.

Then the Pretorian was gone, his escape echoed by the percussion of a high - powered rifle going off again and again. My mercenary escort righted himself with a furious , howling sound. His hand clutched the side of his neck , where a laser burn had drawn a furrow through his flesh. Across the room, the remaining enemies were beginning to surrender.

I brushed past the injured mercenary, grateful for what he’d done . B ut he was upright and standing — Brace was not. My footsteps felt hollow and heavy as I skidded around broken couches and sprays of pillow stuffing amid the last of the fight winding down. When I crashed to my knees at Brace’s side, the Talacan male was already next to him , a high-tec h pressure bandage pressed to the wound over Brace’s chest. Blood had soaked his cobalt fur, but the bandage was doing its job, keeping him from bleeding out. “He’ll be fine,” the Talac said firmly, but his voice came to me as through a fog. “Dravion arrived with the captain . H e’ll take good care of your mate.”

The name Dravion meant very little to me ; it stirred some vague recollection of a medical check - up aboard the mercenary ship, that was it. I hoped he was the doctor. It was not until Brace opened his eyes a crack, those pretty blue orbs shooting my way, that I believed him.