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“What—” Gio started.
“Pestilents,” Lucien cut him off, clearly catching the smell of them in the air.
Gio’s eyes jumped from Lucien to Calder to Baer, as if waiting for one of them to tell him it was just a joke. “Here? Now?”
“Yes. We need to get all of your family in the house with the doors and windows locked and barricaded,” Lucien instructed.
“But what about you? I want to help,” Gio said.
Calder reached out and grabbed Gio’s arm. “You need to keep your family safe. Make sure no one leaves the house. We don’t know if John is here. He might try to take over their minds. You have to keep your family away from the pestilents. We’ll protect you. I promise.”
“But—”
Lucien leaned forward and brushed a quick kiss across Gio’s lips. “Please, baby. We need to know you’re safe while we head into this fight.”
It was a dirty trick, but it worked. Gio nodded once and kissed Calder, stealing his breath away, before he ran to where his family was still chatting around the fire. Calder didn’t catch what he was saying, but there was a lot of frantic waving of his arms like he was trying to herd geese toward a pen. The family members argued but still moved in the correct direction.
All except for Wiley, who was running their way.
“Pestilents,” Baer said, cutting his mate off. “We don’t know how many.”
“Can you set a protection spell on the house to keep Gio’s family safe?”
“Now?” Wiley squawked. “I-I don’t have any supplies on me, and really don’t have any spells memorized. Though I do have several digitized now, and I should be able to access those files from my phone.”
Baer was already grabbing his mate by the shoulders and turning him toward the house. “Get in the house with Gio and his family. See if there are any supplies in there you can use for a spell.”
“What about you?” Wiley demanded, trying to drag his feet in the grass but Baer wasn’t allowing it to slow him. The man looked like he was fully prepared to toss his mate over his shoulder if he had to.
“Calder, Lucien, and I will get rid of them, but you need to protect Gio’s family.”
Wiley threw him a dirty glance over his shoulder, making it clear that he wasn’t fooled in the least. His mate was trying to get him out of the path of danger as best as he could.
With Wiley moving in the right direction at last, Baer turned toward them, his face a mask of anger in the firelight. “I’m going to work the perimeter, see who I can take out quickly and quietly. Lucien, take the front. Calder, take the back. No one gets in the house.”
The Animal Weaver had barely finished speaking when he shifted into a sleek and deadly panther. His thick fur was midnight black, and Calder lost sight of him the moment he leaped forward into the thicker shadows.
Trees and bushes surrounded the property, offering excellent hiding places for both the pestilents and Baer’s panther.
Calder turned to Lucien to find the Fire Weaver staring at him with a look of intense worry. He shook his head and stepped closer. “I’ll be fine. Gio will be fine. Go kick some ass.”
Lucien leaned down and snagged a hard, brutal kiss that left Calder tightly gripping Lucien’s shirt. “Watch your back.”
“Don’t set anything on fire you’re not supposed to,” Calder teased, reluctantly releasing him. He would have preferred to watch Lucien and keep him safe, but there weren’t enough of them to guard the house. They couldn’t let anything happen to Gio and his family.
Lucien ran off toward the front of the house, his fingers already flickering with orange and yellow flames. Oh, his lover was more than ready to destroy some pestilents for ruining their perfect evening.
Calder jogged to stand in front of the patio that led to the rear door, trying to ignore the faces of Gio’s family currently pressed to the windows. There would be no hiding their powers from a house full of people. They needed them to defeat the pestilents. After everyone was safe, they’d deal with the fallout of revealing their secret.
Except there was a problem. A very big problem.
Gio’s parents didn’t have an inground pool like there was at the Weavers home. There wasn’t a handy pond or nearby creek.
Taking a deep breath, he tapped his powers and reached out to all the water in the immediate area, which turned out to be the drinks people had left behind in the yard. Barely enough water to fill a birdbath, and definitely not enough to be considered a useful weapon.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
Calder turned toward the patio, searching for a bucket of water he might have missed or even a garden hose attached to the house. The sliding glass door opened, and Marcello stuck his head out.
