Queen of Death

Chapter 13

Eli freezes the hands of the guards above us, guns and all, then lodges a perfectly aimed bullet at their frozen appendages, shattering them into a million shards. He pops up and out of the drain and embeds another bullet into each of their skulls while I climb out to join him.

We double back the way we came, firing bullets around corners and down halls as we approach our exit. There are more guards surrounding the perimeter when we open the door to the outside and we throw everything we can at them. Ice, fire, bullets, knives, anything to distract or debilitate them from getting to Solana and the others.

When all of the external guards are eliminated or incapacitated we take cover behind the tree line and watch the building for signs of the others. It's not protocol. It's actually the exact opposite of protocol. I've trained them to get in and get out, protect yourself first and if everyone does that then we can trust that we'll all make it back home. Hesitating for even a second could be the difference between coming home and getting killed.

And yet here I am, waiting, hesitating.

Two lifetimes lapse in the span of several minutes as I wait helplessly in the trees until finally I see Solana's black and purple dragon form blasting through a window in the far building. Hunter has shifted too and is running into the trees. Once I see the tips of Tate's and Dean's wings I don't hesitate to grab Eli and teleport us both back home to await my mate and the rest of the pack.

— — —

Solana

I stare at the molten, glowing door like it's some sort of crystal ball that holds all the answers. Molten metal on the door, how much more must I endure?

"Go with him," Tate interrupts my thoughts. "You know you want to."

"I see you've moved on from pushing me away to telling me what I want," I rest against the edge of the console watching him work. "You're cute."

He scowls at me like I've insulted him on a fundamental level. "Cute?" he chews on the word, testing it out like it's an adjective that shouldn't apply to him.

"Cute," I boop his nose for good measure. More like he allows me to boop his nose because he manages to bite my finger as my hand retreats.

"Maybe I wanted you to go with Hunter because I find you extremely –"

"Watch it," I warn him with a raised brow.

"...distracting."

I bark out a laugh, "distracting? How am I distracting? I'm sitting here waiting for you to finish up your nerdy, hacker, whatever," I gesture vaguely at the console he's sitting at.

He unplugs his USB and laptop from the server rack, and slips his stuff back into his bag.

"I can't be the first person who finds you, you know, distracting. Do you mind?" He points at the molten door.

My eyes roll immediately. "You're seriously that lazy? Walk through it!"

"And ruin my new boots?" He sasses me with an impressive amount of sarcasm.

The door melts into a fiery danger puddle on the floor and solidifies into metal once I let up on the heat.

In the hallway I notice that he's still visible to me. "Did you forget how to stealth, or...?"

He smiles a beautiful, toothy smile at me as I slip past him and amble down the hallway.

"You know," he says at normal conversational volume with zero regard for the alarm or the army of guards looking to kill or capture us, "so far you've called me lazy, nerdy, cute, and now you're criticizing how I exit a job."

At the end of the hall three guards come running around the corner, immediately opening fire at us when they notice us — well, really just him since he's not shadowed.

We each throw a lethal dagger into two of the guards. "I'm not criticizing you at all, I was simply asking a question."

Tate distracts the third while I shadow up to him and snap his neck. "Had I known how touchy you were going to be about it —"

"Touchy!" Tate roars with laughter that puts the sound of the alarm to shame. "Please, continue, I'm learning so much about myself," he says with a shit eating grin.

The stairwell door is locked, but Tate kicks it in easily and gestures with exaggerated flair for me to enter, "ladies first."

Attracted to the noise of the door crashing open, guards spill into the stairwell both above and below us. "Such a gentleman!" I coo sarcastically. "Who knew beneath that hard, chiseled exterior lives a romantic at heart."

I blow a dart at the guard rounding the corner while Tate puts a bullet in the face of a guard leaning over the stair railing below us.

I'm almost a full flight above him when I snap my fingers at him to keep up. His eyes darken by a shade and his lip rolls beneath his teeth making goose flesh break out across my skin.

Is he seriously checking my ass out right now?

"Sorry, the view from down here is very distracting." He steps over the guy I poisoned and takes the stairs two at a time to catch up to me.

"Losing focus could get you killed," I say breathlessly now pinned against the wall by Tate's hips. I see the guards approaching from behind him before he does, so I grab the knife he has behind his back and throw it at the front guard.

"Precisely why I told you to go," he stabs a guard in the neck while I put a bullet in his two friends behind him and then blow another dart at the guy at the top of the stairs.

"Because you find me...distracting?" In his eyes I can see the reflection of my flames flare to life in my eyes.

"Yes," he growls, kissing my neck and base of my jaw.

I kick the door at the top of the landing open and we both take cover against the wall on either side of the door, waiting patiently for the hail of bullets that come through to end.

"I knew what you meant," I roll my head to the side to look at him, biting the inside of my cheek to keep from laughing. "It's precisely why I told you that you're cute."

We both shadow this time, which is useless when he swats my ass sending a loud crack echoing through the prison. I subsequently yelp myself out of the shadows and the guards rush to encircle Tate and me.

"Drop your weapons!" One of the guards barks at us from the other end of a rifle pointed at us.

Tate grabs me by the hips, hooking his fingers in my belt loops, and sighs deeply. "You're going to be the death of me, do you know that?"

Then he lifts me up and throws me so that I have just enough space and momentum to open my wings and blast through one of the floor to ceiling windows on the other side of the cells.

Chaos erupts behind me — shouting, gunfire, an explosion. But above all that I hear Tate's wings and someone's paws on the ground. I think I see Fox, Hunter's wolf, cross into the tree line just before I lift into the clouds and aim myself homeward.