Chapter Thirty-Nine #3
He sent me a mock glare, and I shrugged, trying to look innocent.
Tan tapped my shoulder, silently asking me to let him pass, so I pressed against the wall—so, so, so gross—and he shot me a small smile before doing the same to Rome, making him move over.
Dad stood beside me, watching his viramore intently, and I shoulder-bumped him so he knew I was here if he needed me. Everyone was understandably tense, but I wanted to help ease that in any way I could. Dad sent me a small grin before we both watched my stepfather work.
Tan—no, Daddo—pulled on his silvery magic, and I watched him slowly wrap a shield around the disk. His shield sank into the ground, cutting out a perfect half-dome of dirt and encasing the disk entirely without moving it or touching it.
With a snap of his fingers, a puff of air inside his shield smacked the disk, setting off its spell.
The disk exploded in an impressive blast of red, filling the shield with what looked like gallons of blood.
My nose wrinkled, and I could only shake my head.
If someone had set that off, they would’ve lost a few limbs, if not worse, and everyone in a twenty-foot radius would’ve been soaked with blood. That was… horrifying.
Thank goodness Tan was able to take care of it because we didn’t know who would be coming up behind us, if anyone, and I certainly didn’t want someone on our side to suffer.
Hopefully, there weren’t more of those things in the space ahead. We really needed to catch up to Brinik.
My hopes were dashed twenty feet later when Roman found another one, and Tan had to take care of it.
We went another fifty feet before Roman stopped us again. I expected him to point to the ground, but he held a finger up to his ear, telling us to listen.
Everyone did immediately, and I strained my ears, trying to hear whatever had caught his attention.
There was a grunting noise before some grinding, and I had no doubt Brinik had reached the end of the tunnel and was opening the door.
Voices floated through the air to us, but they were too far away to understand their words. He must’ve had some of his followers with him.
The voices grew farther away, and we started walking again.
The tunnel turned to the right, and I had a feeling we were far enough under the next building that we were now headed toward their huge parking lot.
Which meant we needed to hurry the hell up.
There was a good chance Brinik had a car waiting for him there.
Come on, we need to get him. We can’t let him get away.
As if reading my mind—which maybe he had—Roman sped up.
We quickly made it to the door, which had—lucky for us—been left open. Roman popped his head around it, and I didn’t shout at him only because he still had a personal shield over his body.
And he kinda didn’t give me enough time to say anything, which was probably why he did it the second we reached the door. He knew I’d stop him if given the chance.
No one shot anything at him, thank the Mother of Scales, and I didn’t hear any shouting, so they must not have noticed him.
Rome ducked back inside and quickly said to us, “I see Brinik. He’s with fourteen other people, mostly blood witches, although I smell two dragons amongst the group.
They must’ve been waiting for him in the tunnel.
They’re headed for a set of vans on the other side of the parking lot, so we need to hurry. ”
Basil said, “I’ll take out the vans to keep them from escaping. You guys go after Brinik and his guards.”
“Good,” Rome said. “There’s a set of parked cars off to the right, so head over there for additional cover while Bas takes out the vans. We’ll see how these assholes respond and go from there. Whatever we do, we can’t let Brinik escape. We can’t let any of them escape.”
There was no point in more planning since we couldn’t see exactly where everyone was standing from here, and they were far too close to escaping for my liking.
So we all nodded, and Roman said, “On my count.” He held up three fingers, dropped one, then another, then the last one, and we were off.
The second I cleared the door, I took in the scene.
Brinik and his guards were nearly to the vans, but they were the only people out there, so at least we didn’t have to worry about bystanders.
The second Bas came out of the door, he sent three blasts to the three vans on the other side of the parking lot. He was quick and efficient, and the vans exploded in a fiery blast, one after another. Everyone ducked automatically.
Holy crap on a cracker. I wouldn’t be surprised if the entire city heard that.
“Overkill much?” Hiro said as he and Bas ran behind the cars near me.
Bas just shrugged, then yelled, “Incoming!”
Brinik had turned around, looking more pissed off than I’d ever seen him, and he threw another immobile spell right at me, even though I hadn’t even done anything to him yet.
But that was about to change.
Inside, I’d been too far away to do anything since I couldn’t throw magic around the way witches could, and he’d been too far away for my sword.
But out here… out here, I had plenty of room.
The spell hit the car I was using as a shield, and I knew exactly what to do.
With a huge grin on my face, I grabbed Roman’s collar with one hand, yanked his surprised face down to mine, and pressed a quick kiss to his lips. “I love you, Roman. Follow my lead.”
Then I leaped, sliding along the hood of the car, and rushed away from him and toward the evil bastard that’d tortured me as a kid. I didn’t give Rome a chance to respond, but I knew without a shadow of a doubt that he had my back.
Calling on my dragon was freeing, and I let out a mighty roar as I charged right for Brinik.
He screamed and threw a shield up, and I slammed right into it, knocking him backward several steps. And then I raised a claw and sliced right through the damn thing.
Being a dragon was the best, and maybe this asshole could’ve taken me when I was a kid, but not now. Not anymore. Never, ever again.
Roman roared behind me, but I wasn’t worried at all about him. He could handle himself against these terrible, little, vile men.
I hesitated for only a moment, wondering if I should try to apprehend Brinik instead, but I dismissed the thought quickly. This needed to be done so we could go back inside and help everyone else.
Help all those victims, all of Brinik’s victims.
This man, this horrible, cruel, disgusting blood witch was responsible for so much pain and suffering.
He needed to be done.
He needed to be gone.
And I could make that happen.
I opened my jaws and bit down.