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“What?”
“Pestilents are coming. Go to the armory. Dane is getting weapons ready. I need to find Queenie.”
“She’s in my room,” Lucien replied. He was already jogging around the banister to the other stairs.
That idea stopped Baer cold. “What? She is?”
The black man paused long enough to grin at Baer. “She wanted to nap with me.”
“Freaking whore,” he muttered before shouting at Lucien. “I’m locking her in your room.”
The Fire Weaver was already thundering down the stairs while Baer changed direction to Wiley’s original room. Baer ducked inside long enough to close the door to the game room and the outer door to the bedroom. She still had plenty of area in which to roam but couldn’t get out of that enclosed space. The fluffy white princess was indeed stretched out across Lucien’s bed like she owned it and was simply waiting for him to return to his duty of scratching her chin. Baer couldn’t wait to tell Wiley his cat had found another cuddle buddy for naps.
With the cat secured, Baer headed to the armory, reaching it at the same time as Grey. The Soul Weaver was wearing a pair of frameless glasses Baer had never seen.
“Glasses? Really? On a guy who depends on his eyes to use his powers?” Baer mocked.
Grey snarled and ripped them off his face. “Fuck you. They’re reading glasses to help with eye strain. I’m reading over a contract, and it’s really tiny print.” He set the glasses on a sideboard, away from the chaos so they wouldn’t get broken.
“Wiley?”
“He’s safe, though I know he’s going to be checking all the windows for a view of the action,” Grey murmured.
“Then I guess we need to make sure we keep the action away from the house. I don’t want him hurt.”
“Speaking of,” Clay said as he accepted a loaded shotgun from Dane. “You are getting no closer than the front porch.” The Earth Weaver narrowed his eyes on his mate and Dane glared right back at him as he stepped into Clay’s personal space.
“Clay—”
“The healer doesn’t do us a bit of good if he gets himself hurt. You stay here and be prepared to get Wiley out if things go to total shit. You go straight to the cabin in North Carolina. We’ll follow when we can.”
A chill went through Baer at the mention of the cabin. They’d been talking late one night more than a month ago, well before Lucien even showed up. It was their Armageddon Escape Plan. If things went to hell and the plantation was overrun by the pestilents, they were to scatter, lose any pestilents following, and get to the cabin they’d bought off Dane’s former in-laws.
Baer prayed it would never come to that. He loved living at the plantation. But the current version of the plan meant that he was separated from Wiley. He was going to lose his fucking mind if he didn’t know where Wiley was and if he was safe.
Grabbing the back of Clay’s neck, Dane pulled his lover in for a hard, brutal kiss. “We are not talking about the AEP now. We are defending our home. Now get out of here.”
Baer grabbed a shotgun as well and a handful of shells. He didn’t want to have too much on him if he needed to quickly shift. He followed Clay out the front door and onto the porch. The heavy footsteps of Lucien and Grey sounded a few seconds later.
“What’s the plan, big man?” Lucien asked in a low, deep voice.
“I want you and Grey to hang back a little bit,” Clay directed, giving a nod of his head toward the Soul Weaver on Clay’s left. “I sense the bulk of the pestilents coming toward the front of the house as if they’re planning to march straight down the driveway. There are a few stragglers on the sides, but I’m getting nothing from the direction of the training field. You two will offer a line of defense for the house.”
“And me?” Baer asked.
“You’re with me. I’m assuming this is the witch. Since she’s controlling animals, I thought you’d want to get a good look at her. Maybe you can get a better feel for her powers. Also get a read on whether she’s already called up animals to attack.”
It sounded like a solid plan, at least.
“Let’s get this witch bitch,” Baer said, starting down the stairs.
The shotgun was a comforting weight in Baer’s hands as he walked along the gravel drive beside his friend. Of course, he was pretty sure Clay was scarier than any shotgun. This was the same guy who’d met him in a flea market and shook everyone to the ground in between chucking random shit at the pestilents as they made their escape. This was the guy who took down telephone poles as they ran from pestilents on their boys’ night out. This was the guy who stood in the middle of a field alone, using himself as bait while threatening a horde of pestilents to save Baer.
