Page 46 of Snag (Conduit #2)

She huffs. “Glasses are a liability in a fight.”

I glance at her, raising a mocking eyebrow. “No one should ever be able to get close enough to you for that to matter, awry.” I hit ‘awry’ hard.

“You don’t know what it’s like to be me,” she says .

Reck gets Presh situated between himself and DeVille, shielding them both as much as possible with his body. Then he herds them back toward his SUV — and all those layers of protection he didn’t want me to fuck with earlier.

So the asshole shifter isn’t without some reasoning skills.

“Last time I rescued Presh,” I say thoughtfully, “I made it all worse.”

“Why tell me?” Bellamy asks, fingers flexing on her sacrificial dagger.

“Just reminding myself.”

She opens her mouth. But the Authority agents not-so-patiently waiting finally deem Reck far enough away — and exposed on all sides — to attack.

The concealment ward melts down into a ring hovering four feet high in a swirling circular flow of essence.

Its circumference is just large enough to surround agents Wilson and Shaw, plus a hulking SUV identical to Reck’s.

Blond hair still smoothed back into a tight bun, skin still sun-kissed, Wilson twirls her wand over her head with a controlled rotation of her wrist. Ruddy-skinned and red-haired, Shaw flashes his beast’s elongated canines, though he maintains his bulky human form.

Both of them still wear their Authority-issued suits.

“Now!” Shaw snarls, his beast too present in his voice. He’s not completely in control.

Her expression carefully blank, unfeeling, Wilson slashes forward with the wand as if cutting through the essence ringing them. The ring splits once, then twice more as she repeats the gesture.

She flicks the wand three times. Three long lashes of power launch forward— one toward Bellamy, one toward me, and a final lash toward the retreating trio .

Shaw instantly lunges forward, racing behind Wilson’s casting as if they’ve practiced this maneuver hundreds of times.

Bellamy spins, spattering me with warm liquid and barely getting a shield up between herself and Wilson’s admittedly impressive casting. Turning a concealment ward into tripled containment wards is seriously masterful wielding. It also takes a lot of power, draining the caster.

The repurposed warding slams into Bellamy’s shield, driving her back against the car.

The second essence rope comes up against me, against everything I am … and simply encircles me, unable to grab hold. I reach for it instinctively. And just as I threatened Bellamy earlier, I grab its tail and whip it back at its caster with a flick of my wrist.

The third strand targets Reck as he shields the kids while they run for the SUV.

DeVille stupidly wrenches away from the older shifter’s loose hold and throws himself in front of Presh.

The essence hits him directly in the chest, throwing him back into Reck and Presh, taking both of them off their feet.

Reck curls around Presh, protecting her from the pavement.

Wilson screams in frustration, presumably at being hit with her own casting.

Shaw, who was running for Reck or maybe Presh, hesitates— just long enough for me to tear free the containment spell still trying to erode the hasty shield Bellamy constructed, then fling it toward the shifter.

Partially dispelled, the repurposed spell is only strong enough to wrap around Shaw’s legs, slowing him down rather than stopping him in his tracks. He face-plants into the pavement .

I throw a look Bellamy’s way, finally taking a moment to wipe the spatter of blood off my face. The warm liquid that hit me a moment ago. “Stop fucking cutting yourself,” I snap.

She blinks for a moment, then snarls back, “I do what I have to.”

Already moving forward to intercept the Authority mage, I simply shake my head at the dire awry. Wilson is pulling power into her wand, readying to channel another strike. And she’s not going to bother with something as gentle as a containment spell this time.

Behind me, Reck is on his feet and crossing toward Shaw as he tears through the last of the containment spell wrapped around his ankles. Shaw’s hands are clawed, face bloodied from his fall but already healing.

Presh is trying to get the spell off DeVille, but he’s thrashing and snarling against its hold so viciously that she can’t get near him.

“In the SUV, Presh!” Reck snaps.

Wilson points her wand at me.

Shaw, having also decided I’m the biggest threat — and he’s not wrong — takes a running leap at me.

An all-encompassing roar rips from DeVille.

He transforms with a crack of bones and a twisting of flesh.

The containment spell attempting to hold him is ripped asunder as the young shifter involuntarily takes the form of his beast. Claws score the pavement.

Ridiculously long fangs — four of them, two upper and two lower — bite at the air as DeVille, as his beast, writhes in utter agony.

Reck pivots back, raising his hand and screaming, “Stop!”

He means it as a caution to Precious, who’s still reaching for DeVille. But essence fueled by his fear, his terror, flares from him. It explodes outward, actually buffeting me.

Everyone just stops. Except for Reck and me.

Shaw, in the middle of his lunge toward me, pauses, balanced on one foot.

Wilson holds, her essence gathered all around the tip of her wand, ready to unleash it toward me.

Bellamy, blood dripping down both forearms now, is in the middle of pushing away from the sedan to seemingly step between me and the mage.

And DeVille is frozen in his beast form, crouched on all fours, neck arched back, massive maw yawning wide in pain. His fur is a lighter gray around his face, chest, and belly, but dark gray, spotted and striped in black, along his massive body.

He’s a fucking smilodon — more commonly known as a prehistoric sabertooth tiger.

His hair color in human form makes much more sense now.

Reck takes a shuddering breath. His disconcerted dark-eyed gaze flicks to me, as if I have any answers for him regarding his own power.

I shrug.

He fucking glowers at me, totally pissy again in an instant.

Precious breaks Reck’s hold first, hands flying to her face as she takes in DeVille.

“Get in!” Reck shouts.

She jerks, then stumbles back toward the SUV.

Energy snaps out from Bellamy toward Wilson.

Dark-tainted essence writhes around the still-frozen mage, collecting along her extended wand.

The wand snaps in her hand, and the spell coiled ready within it implodes— taking Wilson’s hand with it.

Her mouth drops open in a soundless scream as she clutches her severed limb to her chest and drops to her knees.

“Huh …” Bellamy says, tilting her head thoughtfully.

Shaw completes his lunge, landing within reach of me. His hand extends toward my neck, claws primed to rip out my throat.

Rogue agent or not, Shaw killing me clearly wasn’t his original directive. Unfortunately, pushing people past their original intent is a fairly common side effect of me just being me.

Muta strikes first, fangs dripping with venom as he latches onto Shaw’s wrist. The canine shifter screams. The death god twists in midair, flipping off my shoulder to twine around Shaw’s forearm, then biting him again and again.

Shaw stumbles back a few steps.

DeVille— or rather, DeVille’s beast— crashes into Shaw from the side. I catch sight of a stunned Reck over the beast’s massive shoulder. Then DeVille is crushing Shaw’s head in his massive maw, fangs buried deep into his skull.

Muta falls to the pavement, coiling in on himself and hissing pissily. He’s clearly displeased that DeVille has claimed his kill, never mind that it would have taken fifteen minutes before his venom imploded Shaw’s heart.

“That’s going to be hard to heal,” Bellamy mutters. She steps back like she’s uncharacteristically afraid some of Shaw’s blood is going to get on her.

Sabertooth DeVille starts all-out mauling Shaw, who is very clearly dead. Then he’s batting the agent’s limp body from one side to the other, like a cat with a mouse.

Reck, seemingly recovered, strides toward Wilson. “Stop that,” he says to the sabertooth as he passes.

The sabertooth snarls at him pissily, but listens. He abandons Shaw’s bloody body, settling down to lick that blood off his paws. His eyes are a blazing yellow, no hint of DeVille in their depths.

I’m not sure he’s going to fit in the SUV for the drive home.

Still on her knees, Wilson has recovered a shard of her wand and is in the process of using that shard to channel enough essence to cauterize her wrist. She looks up at Reck as he approaches, terror finally breaking through her deadened indifference.

“We were just following orders,” she says pleadingly. “We’ve been tracking Bellamy —”

“Lie,” Reck says.

“It’s the Authority mandate —”

“Lie.”

“Reck —”

“That’s not a name you get to use,” he croons with deadly intent. He crouches, almost lovingly cupping Wilson’s cheek.

“We’re loyal,” she insists. “Loyal to you. And even though she’s awry, we would never have hurt your sister —”

In a blur of motion, Reck snaps Wilson’s neck.

She falls to the ground at his feet.

Presh stifles a scream, drawing the sabertooth’s attention. He rises onto all fours and slowly pads toward his soul-bound mate. Not even a hint of violent intent in the movement.

Reck gazes down at Wilson. “More lies,” he murmurs thoughtfully.

“Well, that’s one way to tender your resignation,” Bellamy says mockingly.

It’s also an effective way to stop me from asking questions and getting any answers from either Authority agent now.

Still crouched, Reck fixes his malevolent gaze on his newly revealed sister. “I still have you to turn in.”

Bellamy slips behind me, laying her athame across the front of my neck. “I don’t think so.”