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The doors to the suite slammed open and my guards started running in.
"Get down," I shouted. "Someone shot through the window. Inform Sisko and Tashi and have them find whoever did it."
"Sir—"
"Now!"
"Yes, sir."
"Can you crawl to the hallway?" I asked Armando. "We need to get out of this room. We're too exposed in here."
I had no doubt whatsoever that someone had taken a shot at us. I didn't want to take another chance that someone would shoot through a different window.
Armando nodded and then nudged Antoinette and Pierre. "Start crawling toward the hallway, but stay close to the floor."
"But..." Pierre started.
"I'll be right behind you, love," Armando said.
Once they started moving, I turned back to René. "Go on,gattino, start for the hallway."
I needed him out of the line of fire.
I waited until René had started for the door before scooting over and pressing my back against the wall next to the shattered window. I very carefully peered around the edge of the broken frame, trying to spot anyone or anything out of place.
"Alessandro," René whispered harshly from the doorway. "What are you doing?"
I waved a hand at him as I scanned the outside of my villa. It took me a moment to spot anything, but once I did, my anger grew into a blazing inferno.
On a hill directly across from the villa, there was a glint of something shiny. I used my gryphon eyesight to peer closer and saw a man lying on his stomach, the rifle in his hands aimed right at my window.
I slid my cell phone out of my house and dialed Tashi. "I see someone on the hill behind the house."
"Headed there now, sir."
"I want whoever it is on their knees in front of me in ten minutes."
"Understood, sir," Tashi said before hanging up.
I searched the hillside one more time before glancing toward the doorway. I wasn't sure Tashi would get to whoever was shooting at us before they got away.
"René, I'm going after this guy,"I said silently so no one else would hear me."Get your parents downstairs to my study. There's a safe room behind the bookshelf. The button to open it is under the right-hand side of my desk. It's the safest room in the villa."
I could see the reluctance in René's eyes.He didn't want to leave me, but I needed him safe. I was also giving him the responsibility of getting his parents and Pierre to safety.
"You'll be careful?"he asked.
"I promise, gattino."
I waited until René disappeared into the hallway and the doors closed before shifting into my gryphon form and shooting out of the window. I was lucky that it was dark enough to hide my half eagle, half lion form.
I landed on the hilltop several feet from the prone figure on the ground. He must have heard me because he turned and gaped at me before swinging the rifle in his hands around to point it at me.
I laughed harshly when he pulled the trigger and the bullet bounced off my stone chest. "I'm a gryphon prince, you idiot. Bullets can't hurt me."
At least not in this form. Human form was totally different, but I was strengthened by my gryphon form to my very core right now.
I saw the flash of gold in the man's eyes and knew I was dealing with another gryphon. That just enraged me more. Didn't he know who I was? Or had that been the whole point?
