Page 62 of The Shade of Things
“Team up. Those with weapons protect those without. Eli, you cover Teresa and Daw.” I gestured what I meant in case Daw hadn’t understood, but she nodded. As for our Vancouver player, Teresa wasn’t leaving Eli’s side. She’d been bonded to him since he treated her wounds. Fair enough, he was her only nonmagic rescuer. Still, Emmett and I had been through the exact same situations as Eli to get to her and it stung. “Okeyo, you’ve got Mateo and Felix.” I motioned for the three men to move together. “Laurent, cover Isla and make some noise.”
Laurent shoved his pack at me. “Going to shift.” He got in the elevator and closed the doors.
“Shift?” Felix looked around for clarification.
“He’s a werewolf,” Teresa said. “He’s going to do the wolf thing now.”
“Oh,” the German said faintly. “Right. The wolf thing.”
Rahm’s eyes narrowed, but when he caught me looking, he guilelessly exhaled a stream of smoke. “I’m good on my own.”
“Sure thing.” I’d be keeping tabs on him. “Emmett, you’re with me.”
The elevator opened on a massive white wolf.
Felix and Rahm took steps back, and Teresa tensed. Okeyo’s mouth narrowed into a thin line, and his hand curled casually into his belt loops, his firearm within easy reach.
As much as I wanted to scold them for distrusting an ally, a man who was simply here to help them escape this hell world, I also understood. They’d been chased by people who’d looked just like Laurent, too-intelligent animals with a relentless drive for prey.
We’d have to take it slow.
That being said, herding them into a small elevator with Laurent wasn’t exactly easy.
The ride to the parking garage was silent, aside from Emmett’s occasional grumbles that he had to carry Laurent’s stuff and he wasn’t the wolf’s mom.
We’d descended to the second floor when once again the female game voice piped up. “Attention intruders. You shall not survive the Human Race,” she said pleasantly. Wow. Great coverage. She came through loud and clear no matter where in the game we were. My cell provider could learn a few things from her, though her message lost her points. “Neither will anyone assisting you.”
The players turned almost as one to look at us, but before I could find out if we were all still on the same side, the elevator door opened.
The parking garage was dark.
Rahm jerked his chin up. “The lights were knocked out.”
On the upside, enough moonlight streamed through the huge hole in the wall so we could see, though there were a lot of shadows. I liked shadows, but not in a hidden space when they couldn’t transport me to the KH and all they were good for was hiding monsters.
Case in point, the horde of vamps and shifters streaming through the ripped-off gate and howling for blood.
But hey, I didn’t have a lot of time to dwell on it, because that’s when I was stabbed in the back.
