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“Oh…” Aislin faltered, clearly scrambling to understand what I’d just said. “How would they know that? Are they serious? They’re coming right now?”
“I don’t know, Ais. But I don’t think I’m willing to take the chance and let Gavin and the others sit there oblivious,” I said, rushing past her and back downstairs. Again, my packmates watched me, but they could sense my unease. They must have smelled it in my scent, the bitter uncertainty that rose with my panic. I grabbed my phone again, once more dialing Gavin. “I just received an anonymous tip. Dalesbloom and the Inkscales are intending to attack you at the hotel.”
“Wait, what?” Gavin stammered.
“I couldn’t recognize who it was, but they warned me that they were going to attack right now. Gavin, you need to move everyone out of there. Close the hotel if you have to. Innocent humans could be caught in the middle of it.”
“Fuck. Okay. What do we do?” He asked himself, rather than me, since I had no idea how to react to this either. “Can we get help? The Mythguard or someone?”
“Aislin and I will be over there right away. I’ll inform Sebastian.”
“Okay. Meet us at the Mundy house, I guess.”
“Why there?”
“It’s the only place I can think of that David might not know where it is.”
“Understood. We’ll be there in fifteen minutes.”
By the time I hung up, I realized I hadn’t spoken anything of Kiara, but now there was no time. I could tell them when we got there. Everybody had overheard the conversation and fear crested among my packmates once more. “Grandbay will need as much help as they can get,” I told them. “Anyone who is willing to fight, please join us. If not, then please stay here and guard the house.”
To my surprise, five more packmates rose up to join us. I called Sebastian and told him what was happening, and he swore under his breath before promising to send along some of the Mythguard—the assassins who were initially slated to snipe David. Then I gathered those rallying with me and we rushed out of the house.
The best thing I could hope for was that this was a false alarm. But if it wasn’t, I was ready to defend Grandbay with my life, and I was ready to confront David face-to-face.
Maybe somebody would die tonight after all.
Chapter 25: Aislin
“W
e’ll drive past the hotel first,” Everett said. “Just to make sure the pack evacuated.”
None of us had much to defend ourselves with other than our beast forms. To my surprise, Everett withdrew from his office two handguns that he kept in case of emergency. He gave one to me and kept one for himself, both of us donning holsters attached to our belts.
We piled into two vehicles and went straight to Grandbay. Those few minutes it took to cross through Eastpeak, unnervingly silent and still, felt like an eternity before we ventured into the wooded roads crossing between the towns, then reached the edge of my hometown. The waning moon sat high between thin cotton clouds in the midnight sky, stars twinkling in quiet ignorance of the turmoil unfolding below. At first, moonlight bathing the residential blocks and storefronts leading downtown made everything look unaffected, as though nothing was happening at all—but when Everett’s Lexus paused at a stop sign, the hollow pop of gunshots drove chills through all of us. We exchanged looks and Everett pushed on, failing to brake again until we’d arrived at the Grandbay Hotel.
A small crowd gathered on the street, rife with the sounds of distress. We pulled over and I stepped outside, my heart lurching at the smell of gunfire and blood. People stood around a couple of bodies on the sidewalk in front of the hotel, but even before seeing them I recognized who one of them was: Albin, the hotel owner. Everett and I pushed through until we reached his side, where people were trying to help Albin and a couple of humans who appeared to have been shot. Somebody was applying pressure to a wound in Albin’s stomach. He was still alive, but on his back and breathing roughly. His eyelids fluttered as he looked up at us. “Aislin,” rasped Albin.
I knelt beside him, panic making my voice bubble. “What happened?”
Albin lowered his voice for me. “A few minutes after Everett’s call, Dalesbloom showed up. We were still evacuating the hotel. Your mother got Muriel into a car, David and some of the dragons followed them. Gavin stayed behind to help get people to safety. They had guns… Everyone took off just before you got here.”
My breath snagged in my lungs. I searched the sidewalk, but if Gavin had been fatally wounded, he would still be here. “Did they still try to go to my parents’ place?”
“As far as I know,” said Albin.
Everett’s hand went to my shoulder. “We have to hurry.”
“Yeah.” I stood up.
“An ambulance is on the way,” Albin said to me from the ground. “Don’t worry about us here.”
With a nod, Everett and I returned to the car. If we’d been just a couple minutes faster, we might have stumbled right into the fight. I felt terrible leaving Albin behind, but I had to hope that the first responders would get him through this.
Turning off the main street in Grandbay, evidence of the fight was strewn all the way to my parents’ house. Black tire marks were scrawled across the pavement, bullet holes in the sides of buildings marking where David’s men had fired on my packmates. The night suddenly lit up in a lick of orange flame as we approached a car that had crashed into a streetlight. A body was slumped forward in the driver’s seat, glass embedded in his face—it was one of the dragons. Dead. He was the only person in the vehicle, which meant whoever was with him had gotten out to continue the pursuit. I couldn’t imagine what the police would make of the scene once they arrived.
A mile further, two more cars blocked the road. One of them I recognized as Gavin’s. My heart pounded in my ears as we pulled off to the side, and I scanned the darkness for more bodies but didn’t find them on the ground. Instead, three people emerged from the vehicles, moonlight glinting off their handguns. “That’s Everett March,” one of them exclaimed. “Kill him!”
The smell clinging to them, that of burning oil and pungent smoke, identified them as dragons.
Everett and I ducked, retreating behind our car. “Find another way around!” Everett shouted to his packmates from the other vehicle. Bullets crashed overhead and hit the second car as his packmates retreated, pulling away and leaving Everett, me, and two of his packmates to hide from the gunfire.
“We need to get rid of these guys,” I said.
“How good of a shot are you?” asked Everett.
“I’ve never fired a gun before,” I confessed. “But I’ll try.”
Everett clutched my arm. “Don’t expose too much of yourself. Fire once, then duck.”
“Got it.”
We both emerged from behind the car, me peeking out from behind a front tire and Everett over the trunk. I lined up my shot and fired, and to my dismay, the bullet sparked against the hubcap of the dragons’ car without hitting anyone. Everett’s shot hit one of the dragons in the shoulder. They shouted and dove out of the way, not expecting us to be armed.
After hiding again, I glanced at Everett. He didn’t even spare a glance my way, and instead was crouched in position, listening. Then he emerged, and I followed his cue.
Gunfire poured toward us. I yelped and recoiled in fear—getting shot at wasn’t something I was used to—but Everett held fast, ducking and then poking out to fire again. This time, I heard the anguished grunt of a dragon as he shot the man in the chest. “One down,” said Everett. A bead of sweat trickled down his temple.
On the next attempt, I fired and saw the gun fly out of my target’s hand. “Fuck!” the man shouted. Powerful excitement welled up in my stomach like a balloon ready to burst. I’d hit him! Then another bullet whizzed past my ear, leaving my head ringing as I ducked down. Footsteps hit the pavement. The two remaining men took their chances and rushed toward us, and Everett shot one of them in the ankle, sending him crashing down. “Let’s go,” he said, holstering his gun.
I’d never expected Everett to be such a good marksman. Or to be such a badass in the midst of combat. I scrambled to keep my head on straight while he fearlessly plunged into battle, greeting the man I’d shot in the hand with a closed fist. Everett’s packmates and I followed shortly after. I stood over the man bleeding from his ankle, and thinking of nothing else but wrath for the monsters who attacked my pack, I kicked him hard in the ribs. The dragon scowled and rolled onto his hands and knees, but Everett’s packmate booted him from the other side. I knelt on his back and wrenched his hands behind him, and my companion yanked the man’s shirt up and pulled it down his arms, tying it tight around his wrists. We left him on his stomach. I stood up just in time to see Everett come out of the struggle with his opponent, his hands on the man’s ears, sharply cranking his head to the side. The man crumbled lifelessly.