Chapter 20 - Vanessa #2
But we had hardly even left the abandoned guard area at the front when I saw a staff member sprinting toward us.
Sighing internally, I prepared myself for a fight, but I hoped they would be friend rather than foe.
After all, everyone who wasn’t security had been pretty receptive to me all night.
Granted, none of those people had been sprinting toward me at full speed with a look of determination in their eyes.
To my immense relief, they skidded to a stop a few feet in front of us to catch their breath. I doubted someone who was about to throw down with us would do that.
“You’re the wolf!” she exclaimed once they had caught a bit of their breath.
We both nodded, and a wide grin broke out across her features.
“I don’t know how you’re here, but thank God! Things have really gone to hell. I’ve been wanting to get out of the contract that asshole tricked my family into for ages.” Her bright blue eyes landed on me. “Do I have you to thank for all of this?”
I wasn’t quite sure how much I wanted to reveal about Leo to this stranger. There was always a chance she was tricking me. “I had help.”
“Ah, I suppose that’s the feral wolf out front who’s handing the entire security force their own asses?
” Another nod from me, and the woman’s grin spread from ear to ear.
“I thought as much. Here, let me help with him. I pulled a truck up in case I could find anyone else who needed help splitting. I can lead you to it.”
The prudent thing would have been to remain suspicious and tell her to buzz off, but I wasn’t exactly in a position where I could refuse allies.
Besides, it wasn’t that hard to believe that the insidious warlock had entrapped multiple people.
That was the whole reason why I hadn’t wanted to go in guns blazing in the first place.
It would have been so easy for the young woman in front of me to end up dead when she had done nothing wrong. Allegedly.
Still, I needed the help, so I let her take over with Ricky.
His legs were shaking, and his body was so frail.
Leo had been wounded when I’d met him, but otherwise, he’d been in good health.
That was not the case with Ricky. Poor guy.
Already, I was thinking of different ways to help him get back to normal.
Maybe that was a bit ridiculous, but it helped me deal with the impossible storm of pain I was trying to ignore.
I had expected the sound of battle to have faded, because how many security guards could there be? But it was still going, although there was less gunfire and more hellish noises I couldn’t identify.
I ignored it and focused on getting to the truck. The compost truck I had used earlier was pulled a few yards or so behind the manor. We limped over to it, and once Ricky was safely inside, the stranger tossed me the keys.
“Do you mind driving? I figure I should keep my hands free in case it comes down to a fight.” She grinned, not too differently from Chadwicke, but her teeth were a whole lot pointier, and her eyes had started to tinge yellow.
“No, I don’t mind.”
Still a bit dazed, I got into the truck and put the keys in the ignition. We were so close to leaving, and the reality of everything hit me all at once.
“I can’t leave him,” I said, more to myself than anyone else.
“Huh? Your friend is right here in the back, don’t worry. I’ve got him.”
I shook my head. “No, I can’t leave Leo.”
“Leo? Are you talking about your insane battle tank? He’ll be fine, I promise.”
“There’s no way you could know that.”
I pressed my foot down on the gas, and the truck lurched forward as I drove through a fence and over the garden display that me and several other staff members had spent the past week working on.
It broke my heart a little, but Leo was more important.
I careened around the side of the estate, aiming for the party area.
“Whoa, slow down. Are you crazy? The exit is the other way!”
“We’re not leaving him.”
My arm was throbbing, my entire body hurt, and my adrenaline was through the roof, but somehow my voice remained steady. My entire focus was on making sure Leo was all right.
When I rounded the corner, I expected to see more blood and Leo tearing people limb from limb. That wasn’t what was waiting for me, however. Instead, my best friend and current nightmare was facing off with none other than…
Chadwicke?!
“How is he even alive?” I blurted, slamming on the brakes. Surely I was hallucinating?
“Did you think he was dead?” The strange shifter mused, sounding surprisingly unfazed. “Yeah, he’s one lucky son of a bitch.”
“I saw Leo ripping his throat out! There’s no way he could have survived that!”
“Now, that’s where you’re wrong. Like I said, he’s lucky. It’s his bread and butter.”
“That doesn’t—”
She put her hand on my shoulder. “Luck is literally his magic. He has a pact with some spirit or something who deals with probability and chance. He can manipulate the fabric of reality to skew to impossible odds. And that’s on top of all the other natural stuff most witches can do.”
“Luck isn’t a power.”
“Oh, I assure you, it most certainly is.”
I was gobsmacked. The man I’d very much watched die right in front of me was currently sending Leo flying into a table, the decorations that had been so neatly piled on top of scattering in a thousand different directions.
Ricky leaned forward, one of his slender, dirt-caked hands reaching between the front seats to point at the warlock.
“Him,” he growled, voice barely more than a breath. “Chadwicke.”
That somehow seemed more like a warning than an accusation, and I followed his pointer finger to see what looked like a spell circle beginning to glow beneath Leo as he tried to pick himself up from the splinter remains of the table.
No.
Fucking.
Way.
Something unlocked deep inside me, and I hit the gas again. I reacted without thinking, my body making decisions before my mind could catch up, but I was at peace with it as the truck shot forward.
Chadwicke, bastard that he was, barely had time to look over his shoulder before we collided with him at full force, sending him sailing even farther than he’d managed to fling Leo. Never one to miss an opportunity, the alpha jumped on top of Chadwicke before he could recover and tore into him.
This time there was no chance he was surviving. Not with his guts lying scattered in bits around him, and his heart in Leo’s mouth.
Holy shit.
I had just killed someone.
While I may not have struck the final blow, it wouldn’t have happened without me. In fact, I was downright instrumental to the warlock’s demise. Maybe Leo would have accomplished it on his own, maybe not. Who knew what spell Chadwicke had been summoning?
It was like the entire world had gone quiet. I knew there would be a lot of repercussions for what I had just done, but now wasn’t the time to contemplate that.
I rolled down the window. “Leo, get in the truck!”
With no hands to speak of, and probably not enough time to shift, Leo bounded over the truck and jumped into the back. At least this time he probably wouldn’t be able to smell the compost over all the blood coating him.
Finally, with both Ricky and Leo safe, along with our new ally, I peeled off toward the exit.
One brother down. Four more to go.