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“So trade yourself,” Vincent postured. “I’ll let him go if you come with us.”
“Not a chance, and not a chance you’re going anywhere either.” He lifted the throwing star and twirled it between his fingers. Icarus counted at least three bone-cracking shifts and as many guns cocking behind him, all aimed at Adam. But Adam only had eyes for him. “Hey, baby, someone’s waiting for your SOS.” He flicked his gaze to the ground a half second before the throwing star came hurtling the direction of Icarus’s captor. In that same half second, Icarus blinked off his senses and prepared for the splatter of blood that coated the side of his face, avoiding the instinctive distraction so that as soon as the shifter’s arms fell away, Icarus could drop to a knee, flatten his palm on the ground, and ask his sister for help.
She delivered, shaking the ground so hard the rest of the bridge behind Vincent’s caravan collapsed into the Bay, the thunderous booms of cement and metal crashing into the water echoing through the tunnel and driving the waves over the remaining half of the bridge higher. The span behind Adam stretching to YB swayed in an unsteady, disquieting fashion. They didn’t have long to end this. Icarus spun, claws and fangs out, and hissed in Vincent’s direction. “Fuck being your bait.”
Vincent raised one pistol, but before he could pull the trigger, a bullet zipped past his nose. Following the path of his shot, Adam and the pack charged. With no way out, Vincent’s soldiers did the same, the two groups colliding just inside the tunnel opening. Icarus rolled and came up slashing beside Adam, engaged in hand-to-hand combat with the other vampire from Vincent’s crew. Growls and snarls bounced off the cement walls, joined by grunts and shouts as soldiers fought in human form, and the occasional sizzle and pop of magic as Brock hurled orbs of magic from beside Vincent.
Icarus landed a roundhouse that caught the other vampire by surprise. She fell to her knees, and a ready Abigail swung her sword, slicing the vampire’s head off, while Cormac shoved a stake into her chest for good measure. The explosion of dust settled just as Robin and Adam neutralized the horse shifter. With Adam in arm’s reach, Icarus blinked his senses back on and grabbed him by the coat collar, dragging him in for a quick, hard kiss, the hit of fire and whiskey intoxicating. “How mad at me are you?”
Adam smirked. “It wasn’t your worst plan ever.”
Robin butted his head between them, and Icarus could have sworn the massive coyote rolled his eyes. He jutted his muzzle Vincent and Brock’s direction. Message received. “How do you want to do this?” Icarus asked as Cormac joined their group.
“You two”—Adam gestured at him and Cormac—“distract the wizard long enough for us to get to Vincent.”
“Vincent’s thrall over them is broken,” Icarus said. “Atlas stole the power source on scene. The warlock with Vincent wants to leave. I don’t think it’ll be hard to separate them.”
“You don’t know what else Vincent may have over him,” Cormac said.
“I doubt it’s Armageddon.”
And fuck if the coyote didn’t grin. So did Adam as he dragged Icarus in for another too brief, drugging kiss. “Go be a fucking hero.”
Using the van as a shield, Icarus and Cormac crept behind it while Adam and Robin charged back into the melee, making steady progress toward Vincent and Brock.
“I can blind him,” Cormac said. “But with the wind whipping through here the way it is, it’ll only be for a couple seconds.”
Icarus nodded. “That’s all I need.”
They waited for Adam and Robin to be in striking distance before rounding the back of the car, putting them a few feet from Brock and Vincent while still covered on two sides. Icarus protected Cormac’s other two while the raven closed his violet eyes and lifted his arms, murmuring in a mishmash of what sounded to Icarus like Gaelic and Wappo, words he didn’t understand but that had their intended effect.
A powerful gust of wind howled down the tunnel and on its heels a chorus ofCAWs andKRAAs. A wave of black undulated through the tunnel and spread like a blanket, unfurling more as the birds neared the intended targets. Focused on taking shots at Adam and Robin, Vincent and Brock were too late in noticing the attack at their back. The corvids swooped in between them and around Brock, disorienting the warlock and giving Icarus time to spring through the narrow opening they’d left him.
He wrapped his arms around the warlock and dragged him away from Vincent. “I will give you one chance to run.”
The warlock trembled. “He’ll come after me. After my family.”
Icarus should have known. Blackmail, thy name is Vincent Cirillo. But those days would be over soon. “He won’t live past tonight. Go!”
One snap—small yet sharp in the booming chaos—and all that was left in Icarus’s arms was blue mist.
Followed by two gunshots—louder and more deafening than any other noise—and all that was left of Icarus’s future crumpled to the ground.
FORTY
Moving at full speed,Icarus reached Adam before his head hit the ground, cradling the precious weight in his hands. He sank behind him and gathered the rest of Adam’s torso into his arms. “No, no, no, no, no,” he chanted as his hands moved on autopilot, pushing layers of clothes out of the way, searching and finding the gunshot wound to Adam’s chest.
Blood and heat flowed through his fingers. Out of Adam. Too much. Too fast. No sign of healing.
Fuck!
He began snatching back the layers of fabric he’d pushed away, pressing them to the wound. He tore off his shirt sleeves and added those to the compress too, plus all the pressure he could exert without breaking Adam’s ribs. “Come on, baby. Stay with me.”
A dog whined, and Icarus jerked up his gaze, instinctively hissing, warning back any threats. Robin wasn’t one, despite his appearance, his fur matted and muzzle bloodied from ripping out Vincent’s throat. Deferring, he lowered to his belly at Adam’s feet and stared at Icarus with pleading golden eyes.
“Come,” Icarus ordered as gently as the panic coursing through him allowed. “Help keep him stable.”
Robin carefully stretched alongside Adam’s body, gentle but snug. Jennifer mirrored his position on Adam’s other side, bumpering him in blond fur. In his pack. “What do you need me to do?” Abigail asked as she crouched beside Icarus.
