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We rushed inside the second floor, Markus in the lead. I removed the shield in the stairs, afraid of hurting our team in close quarters, but let the fire remain in my hands. Several halls branched off to each side and down the middle, littered with closed doors along its walls. Markus began dividing the group for each hallway when the elevator doors opened about twenty feet to our right, and all hell broke loose.
Men rushed out of the elevator, catching us by surprise. Bullets and spells ricocheted through the hallway. Doors opened to see what the problem was, and shrieks rose through the air when they saw the fighting and dodged projectiles. I caught a bullet in the shoulder, but it wasn’t silver, so I continued fighting through the sting. I threw a fireball and hit the man rushing up behind Markus in the face, making my mate turn and fight the others creeping up behind him.
“Open the rooms. Find the children!” I yelled out to everyone.
‘I’m fine. Find our pups,’ I mind-linked privately to my mate when I saw him struggling to fight his way to me. A few of our team branched off from the group, and I grabbed a couple more by the scruff.
“Find my children. I got this,” I ordered in a low growl. When I heard them running behind me, I let the fire build. It was just a few witches and Helios’ traitorous warriors left now. The humans with guns were already dispatched.
“Don’t let them leave, Markus,” I growled at him from the other end. The three witches were huddled together under some shield, while Tezcatlipoca’s men were slumped on the sides, holding several wounded places on their bodies. They were tougher to kill than the human garbage with guns, but by their clothing, we had caught them unprepared for a fight.
Fire enveloped me, and they began to understand what would happen to them because one started fighting to get past Markus while the others pressed the elevator button fervently. I released the first stream of fire, catching the man fighting Markus on the shoulder as my fire connected with my mate. The fire danced happily around his skin and enveloped him slowly like a lover’s caress.
With a kick, Markus sent the man on fire flying, and smiled at me as he stood there, absorbing the fire I was sending. He’d confessed long ago that receiving my fire lit his soul up. It made him feel loved and privileged to be allowed to wield it when others would burn if they came near it.
The fire came from within me, and he said it carried the whispers of my love for him. A love that burned a lot hotter than the fire it created. A sudden spell flew at him, and I almost screamed. Except nothing happened. The spell hit his chest and disappeared. Instead, a bright circle lit up on his chest from beneath his shirt, and he withdrew an amulet Helios had created long ago. The amulet had chosen Markus as its next owner when we’d discovered it within the items my parents had left me.
I smiled with relief, but it slipped off when I saw the woman who tried to harm my mate and the father of my pups shrinking back when she realized her powers did nothing.
I lifted my hands, the fire flared and rushed toward both parties huddled on either side of the fire flowing between Markus and me. The witches under the shield faired a little worse than the ones that instantly caught fire. Yes, they lived longer than the others but suffered the most. The shield protected them from the direct fire but not from the heat. They slowly cooked to death until the shield cracked under the pressure of my heat, making them cry out and burn.
“Luna! Over here!” One of my warriors yelled, and my fire instantly tamped down. Markus and I ran towards the door where Zack was motioning. I didn’t like the look on his face, and my heart sank when I heard Violet sobbing from within. I stepped through the door and one of my worst fears as a mother played out before me.
I saw the man slumped against the wall first, a gun in his hand, his throat ripped out and his pants half undone. Then I saw my little girl. My sweet Violet was huddled on a corner of the room, curled into Christopher’s lap as he whispered something to my sobbing pup. I couldn’t hear anything over the rush of blood screaming through my ears, my eyes frozen on the blood between her legs.
Markus pushed past me when Christopher stood and tried to take her from Christopher, but the moment my daughter was touched, she clutched Christopher with everything she was worth and screamed, bringing a groan of pain from Christopher as her hands turned into claws and she dug them deeper into his shoulder and back, forcing my mate to step away from his little girl, breaking his heart in two.
I stepped closer, noticing the burns on her wrists and legs and the broken silver manacles on the floor. Markus grabbed me before I could touch her, and I choked out a sob of rage.
“We’ll get you home, baby,” I whispered to my daughter. My eyes connected with Christopher’s, and he nodded at my silent request. He walked past me and waited for his godfather, Zack, to give the go-ahead before heading towards the stairs.
“Go with her, Markus. You and Christopher make sure she’s out of this building and ready to leave for home. I’m going to find my son and his mate,” I ordered, a fog of rage beginning to take over my mind at levels I’d never felt before in my life. Before he could object, Markus, Zack and I hunched over and covered our ears in an attempt to protect us from the scream that pushed through the mind-link. One that talked within its roar of grief, pain and death.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Cory
“Cory, please wake up.” Evie’s desperate voice cut through the darkness and burning. With an abundance of effort, I opened my eyes. The light in the room was blinding, and I had to close them against the pain, but forced them open again when I heard Evie sob. “Thank the Goddess, I was so scared.”
“Ev—” I had to clear my throat; it was so dry. I swallowed to coat it and tried again. “Evie? Are you okay?” My eyes took a few moments to adjust to the pain and light, and I was finally able to look around. I found Evie sitting on a bed, a heavy chain wrapped a few times around her waist. She was crying and had a giant knot on her temple, but otherwise looked fine.
I tried to move toward her, only then realizing that my hands felt like fire and were holding my weight. I stood clumsily, groaning with some modicum of relief. I was chained against the wall, or I guess hanging, while unconscious. The chains weren’t silver, thankfully, because I wasn’t sure how much of that I could take. I could still feel remnants of the wolfsbane coursing through my body.
I felt like I hadn’t slept in years and my body had gone through the most intense beating of its life. My blood was still boiling beneath the skin, and Tenoch’s unconscious body was still curled up in the back of my head.
“Goddess, your eyes,” Evie gasped.
“What’s wrong with them?” I asked. They burned like a motherfucker, and they still felt a little blurry, but I could see.
“They’re all bloody.” I looked around for a reflecting surface and found none, but Evie looked so upset, and I couldn’t handle that. I crossed my eyes, trying to catch a glimpse of the other, but of course, all I could see was my nose. It made her giggle a little though, so it was worth making an ass out of myself.
“They feel fine. It’s probably just from the wolfsbane.” I shrugged. It was a partial lie; my entire body still felt like it was on fire, but at least it was dulled now.
“Oh, Cory, I’m so sorry. You weren’t supposed to follow me,” Evie cried again.
“I will always follow you, Evie. I will always protect you.”
“Paolo wasn’t going to hurt me, Cory,” she said, and I couldn’t stop the growl that left my chest. How could she still defend him?
