Page 84 of Tempting the Tiger
“So our personal shields don’t work against it,” Jet says, his expression grim. “It makes sense; prison wards are designed to strip away anything earth-based and supernatural.”
“Which includes vampire abilities,” Cal says with a downward twitch of his eyebrows.
And I assume it wouldn’t be a pain-free experience for him either.Fuck.
Ayo glares at the doorway like it personally insulted him. “Bryn and I worked hard to create an effective personal shield. I’m not going to let one measly ward negate the protection it should give all of you.”
I turn towards the doorway again, bracing myself. “It doesn’t matter. We don’t have time to waste.”
My tiger agrees, desperate to find our mate. Because that’s who Bryn is, regardless of fate or anything else. My mate, my dragon, the man I love. I don’t need time, and I certainly don’t need his dragon magic to tell us if we’re fated. I just need him. Forever.
Ethan stops me with a tight grip on my shoulder. “Not so fast. How do you propose to fight while debilitated like that?”
I square up to my alpha. “I have the training to do so, and you know it.”
“I also know that five minutes now could be the difference between winning and losing down there. You know as well as I do that having the law on our side doesn’t automatically mean our enemy will respect that.”
I really don’t want to listen, but Ethan has never steered us wrong. I take a deep breath then exhale slowly, trying to calm my racing pulse and not vibrate out of my skin.
Cal moves closer and puts his hand on my other shoulder. “We’ll save them.”
Jet gets a dangerous look in his eyes. “And we’ll make these bastards wish they’d never stepped foot in our city.”
I manage a tight nod. There’s nothing like having my pack beside me to make me feel like I can handle anything.
“Can you take down the ward?” Ethan asks Ayo.
Ayo shrugs. “Of course. If I had Bryn to guide me, I could seamlessly pick it apart like I did with the protections around Lance’s office. Without him, the only real option is to blast it apart withraw power.”
We all wince. The last time Ayo did that, he destroyed half a building.
“We can’t risk it,” I say immediately.
Ethan gives a sharp nod. “Agreed. There’s too much chance anyone down there could be killed.”
“Can you adjust the shield charm to block the effects of the ward?” I ask Ayo.
He moves position to stare directly at my pendant. “Let’s find out.”
Before he can do much more than blink, the door at the bottom of the staircase bursts open and four unglamoured fae I’ve never seen before fly through, immediately firing spells at us. Slightly more worryingly, they’re also carrying the most vicious looking blades I’ve ever seen. They’re some sort of grotesque double-ended swords, with one side that’s made of narrow, twisting metal with a hook as well as teal dragontooth-esque protrusions, and the other side which has a double curved blade with teal tips.
Ethan swears as he and I grab Ayo and swiftly move him with us to one side of the doorway while Cal and Jet take the other side, using the walls as cover. We all lower our tactical goggles from our helmets to cover our eyes in case anything gets through the shield spells.
“BSG Task Force! Stand down!” Ethan’s words make no difference, not that I expected them to. We must have tripped some sort of silent alarm.
We edge into the doorway to open fire, with me crouched beneath Ethan as Jet crouches beneath Cal. The fae counter with a mix of sand and water spells, which don’t get through our shields but are effective at getting in the way of our tranq bullets. A sandy sludge pools on the tiled floor as the fae try to move closer to attack us with their swords, but the confined stairwell works to our advantage.
“Non-lethal force only!” Ethan says when Jet’s hand darts towards the iron dagger on his belt.
Ayo darts out to fire four concussion balls at the fae, but they vanish the moment they cross the ward. “Shit.”
Ethan growls as he pulls Ayo back behind us, then activates his comms. “Romeo two-five, Romeo one-eight, we’re under attack. Stay alert, over.”
“Romeo one-eight, do you need assistance, over?” Skye asks over the comms.
“Negative. Maintain position for now, over,” Ethan says.
“Roger that, over and out.”
