Page 79 of Moody as a Minotaur

“Good. That means the others don’t know we’ve grabbed these two,” Nelson said. “And with any luck, they won’t know that everyone escaped together.”

While we were talking, Levi had shifted back to his human form and was approaching the group of students. They thanked him for getting them out of the room. Levi shrugged it off, saying he couldn’t have done it without everyone’s help.

Gord was pulling on his girlfriend’s arm again. “Let’s go. We need to get out of here.”

“Do you have some place safe to stay? Somewhere the hunters don’t know about?” Levi asked.

“Gord, hold on.” Christa swiped tears from her face with a shaky hand. “No. They know where we both live. Do… Do you think they’ll come after us?”

“They’re hunters,” Levi said. “It’s what they do.”

“H… Hunters?” The woman paled. “But… But…”

“You aren’t safe here. Not until they’re dealt with. But if their organization has records on you, you might not be safe even then.”

Gord balled his hands into fists. “I won’t let them get her.”

“They’re seasoned fighters,” Levi said. He glanced toward the tunnel we’d just been in, as if expecting more people to burst out with guns blazing any second now. The security guards who’d come with Nelson were already hauling Kyle and the professor away. “Listen, we don’t have time to waste. But you know as well as I do, they will be coming for you. If you want to be safe, come with us. We have a place where you’ll be protected until we understand more about what we’re up against. From there, you can decide what you want to do. Or, if you want to get back to your families or packs, we can arrange safe passage.”

I stared at Levi. He was never assertive, never commanding. So, to see him like this was… Well, it was sexy, to be honest.

The young supes spoke quietly amongst themselves. A moment later, one of the women stepped forward and said, “We’re coming with you.”

Levi nodded sharply. “Let’s go.”

Fin reached into his pocket. He pulled out a set ofkeys and held them out to me. “You won’t be able to get everyone in your car. Take my van too.”

I frowned at him. “What do you mean? You’re coming with us.”

Fin pursed his lips and shook his head. “They don’t know about me.”

“What about you?” I asked. I had my suspicions, but I still wasn’t clear about what’d happened back in that room.

“I’m a water mage,” Fin whispered. “I joined the group because I thought it’d be a good way to find other people like me.”

“But… But…” I had a bazillion questions. The one that came out was, “How did you fool them?”

“You wear a talisman, don’t you?” Levi asked.

Fin nodded and tugged the necklace he’d worn almost his whole life out from under his shirt. The metal medallion had a series of lines crisscrossing it at strange angles. It didn’t look like anything meaningful to me, but apparently, I was wrong. “It hides my magic. Nana got it for me when my magical abilities kicked in.”

Levi nodded and tapped his chest. “I have a similar rune tattooed here. Yours seems to block all trace of your magic, though. Even from other supes.”

“Jesus,” I muttered. I almost wiped my hand down my face until I remembered the blood. Then I stared at my cousin. “You have magic? How on earth do you have magic?”

“We need to go,” Levi said. “Can we talk about this later?”

Fin opened his mouth to protest some more. Igrabbed his hand. Screw it. I didn’t care if I was getting Kyle’s blood on him too. I would drag my cousin out of here if I had to. “Come on. Don’t make this difficult.”

“They don’t know I have magic,” Fin said. “I’m safe. I can learn more about what’s going on.”

“No way,” I bit out.

“I’m an adult, Pow Cow,” Fin said. “And I went to training with the Nana-nator the same as you.”

“And I said no fucking way.”

Levi eyed us both. “I agree with Parker. It’s too dangerous. They’re going to be pissed, and a pissed-off hunter is unpredictable.”