Page 30 of Through the Veil (Endangered Fae #2)
“Leave that to us, sir. We’ll get everyone out, don’t worry.” The man spoke to him, but his head swiveled this way and that as he checked to one side of the house and the other, glanced toward the garage and the roof.
Something was terribly wrong here. These might be legitimate government agents or they might not, but the evasiveness was a bad sign.
Sionnach flattened himself against the wall inside the front door, out of sight. “Who are they, Diego? Are these enemies? They smell sharp and dangerous.”
Diego leaned inside where the man couldn’t see him. “I’m not sure, but I need you and Angus to grab Nathair and run. Get through the doorway where you’ll be safe.”
Angus let out an offended snort and came to stand by Diego in the doorway. “We shall not run like hunted mice when you are in danger. If there’s to be a fight, we’ll stand by you.”
“I don’t want there to be a fight,” Diego whispered desperately. “I don’t know what they want, and I don’t want you involved. Go!”
“Diego! ” Nathair’s panicked cry came from the side of the house, followed by anguished screams.
“Fuck.” Diego didn’t hesitate. He leaped down the front steps and tore around the house, while clipboard man shouted at him to stop.
Two of the anonymous figures in hazmat suits held a wildly struggling Nathair between them, his hands cuffed behind his back, agony contorting his handsome features. Steel cuffs, damn it.
“Get those cuffs off him!” Diego bellowed. “I don’t know who you people think you are, but I want you the fuck off my property, now!”
“Positive ID, I repeat, positive ID,” came a voice from one of the hazmat helmets.
“Sedate and go to full restraints,” clipboard man called out.
“ Carajo ! Hold on one damn minute, you bastards!” Diego dove for Nathair, not certain what he intended, only to find himself hauled up short when two men, each the size of a Grizzly, seized his arms.
Diego fought and kicked, certain his struggles were futile but too furious to stop. Nathair had passed out from the iron-induced pain so the sedative they injected seemed overkill.
Events spiraled out of control at a whirlwind pace.
Sionnach, his glamour abandoned, leaped for one of the men.
He sank his teeth into the man’s arm and scrabbled at his abdomen with his sharp back claws.
A sharp pop went off on Diego’s left and Sionnach went limp with a dart in the back of his neck.
Angus shifted to eagle and dove at the man with the clipboard, talons aimed at his eyes. Curses and shouts went up as rifles aimed his way. Several darts missed him as he wheeled and dodged.
“Angus, go! Get away! Get help!” Diego shouted.
Too late, Angus tumbled to the ground with a dart lodged under his right wing, golden pinions trapped awkwardly under him as he fell.
The men gathered up the limp bundle of feathers, calm as could be, as if people shifted into screaming golden eagles and half-foxes every day.
Why the hell don’t they even look surprised?
“Diego? What’s happened?” Finn’s thoughts reached Diego, full of anxiety and rising anger.
“ Dios , no…” Diego whispered and closed his eyes to try to speak rationally, mind to mind.
Difficult since he was being shoved face first to the ground, his arms dragged behind his back, and handcuffs fastened tight around his wrists.
“Mi vida , don’t come to the house. There are men here who want to catch you, like an animal. ”
“They have you? Diego! No! Not again! I won’t let this happen again!”
“It’s not like that time!” Diego sent the frantic thought, knowing Finn’s memory had fastened on the Inquisition and the witch burnings. “ Finn, no! We need help!”
Again, his plea came too late. In a thunder of hooves, Finn burst from the trees, the black pooka horse exuding menace with his flame-red eyes and wind-whipped mane. Worse yet, he wasn’t alone. Faolchú roared out of the woods on his heels, blood on his chest and muzzle from his recent kill.
They bore down on the men, bowling them over, tossing them aside as if they were no more than sofa cushions. Faolchú took a dart to the shoulder and fought on, slowing, staggering, but too stubborn to go down. Another dart hit Finn’s right foreleg. He reared, screaming, and shifted to dragon.
“Holy hells!” one of the men bellowed. “What the fuck is that ?”
They scattered and took cover, finally registering the shock they should have from the beginning.
To Diego’s horror, some of the men threw down their tranquilizer rifles and pulled out handguns.
He kicked out, taking the one in front of him out at the knees, but it wasn’t enough.
Another one behind the lead van took aim.
The shot popped and Faolchú staggered back, clutching his chest. Another shot spun him to the left, blood spraying from his shoulder as he went down.
“Stop it! Stop! You don’t know what you’re doing!” Diego screamed. “Finn, don’t! God, no! They’ll—”
Several sharp cracks sounded in quick succession. Finn’s graceful dragon form twisted in the air, then plummeted to the earth with an ear-splitting shriek, a rivulet of blood trickling from the corner of his jaw.
“Finn? Finn!” Pain threatened to crush Diego’s chest. He had done this, had brought them here and killed them all. “ Dios ayudame … Finn!” The carrion stench filled his nostrils. Nausea rose up his throat. He was going to seize. Damn it not now, not now .
Someone flipped him on his back, spoke to him, asked him about medical conditions, but he could no longer respond. Two soft lights danced above the porch roof, one blue and one green. With his last conscious thought, he stretched out in desperation. “ Lugh! Help me…”
He had no way of knowing whether Lugh had heard from the other side of the Veil as the world exploded into a million falling slivers of glass.