Chapter 22 #2
“I didn’t ask, just in case the answer was yes.” Nessa laughed again. “That’s what he gets for cowardice. He needs to get over his fear of the basajaunak.”
“Watching that battle wasn’t a good way to go about it.
” Drex finished his drink. “He’s better off getting dragged around by dolls.
” He took the glass by the base and swung it down, getting out the drops.
“Well. I’m off. Alpha Barazza—Kingsley—asked to have a meeting. ” He cleared his throat. “As equals.”
Nessa could see the elation and pride Drex tried to hide. He was meeting his hero, and he’d elevated himself to be on the same level. It was commendable.
Austin looked over again. “Because you are equals. He asked for a meeting to discuss bridging the gap between generational and original alphas, wondering if I’d make an introduction. That’s the first time he heard about how he helped you. You did this all on your own.”
It sounded like this wasn’t the first time Austin had told Drex this. It also looked like Drex was having a hard time believing it. He inclined his head, fought a little grin, and headed toward the house.
Later that night, Nessa wandered through the outskirts of downtown wearing black and carrying her knives.
She watched the energy drift and sway, the currents fairly peaceful and not in any hurry.
That usually meant nothing was going on.
Her knowledge was still mostly instinct.
Now that the conclave was starting to settle down, and things had become more about business than organizing the power and chaos, she’d get back to those advanced books she’d found in Ivy House.
She’d also talk to Niamh about the best way to beg the Elder to tell her what was up with all that natural energy turned into power. Nessa hadn’t learned anything from helping the Elder heal.
With everything quiet, she took an alley and wound toward downtown, staying to the shadows. If a mage was sneaking around, she didn’t want to be seen.
A thread of energy flowed a little harder to her right, and she followed. The current intensified and another joined it. Someone was up to mischief—probably. Or maybe it was just strong emotions? She’d soon find out.
She turned a corner, careful to stay silent. An animal shape loomed up ahead, slinking through the darkness. A panther.
She paused. That wasn’t one of Austin’s—he only had three panthers, and they had a different patrol route. What was an enforcer doing sneaking around?
She opened her cross-body bag and grabbed a vial of invisibility potion. It would disguise scent and sound as well. It wasn’t strong enough for Momar’s new stuff, but it was plenty strong enough for a shifter.
After giving it a moment to kick in, she jogged to catch up.
The panther slipped around a dumpster and then ran across the street to another alleyway.
She followed, jogging faster, keeping to the wall.
Halfway down, the panther met up with two wolves.
Together they continued on, reaching the corner and then pausing.
She couldn’t tell if they were communicating with their body language, but in a moment, the panther slunk around the corner.
A moment later, one wolf bolted across the street. The other wolf stayed where he was.
They were near one of the main streets—the one that Jessie always took to get from Ivy House to the bar.
Nessa checked her watch. It was plain, nothing more than a way to tell time. Nine o’clock, about when Jessie had planned to meet Austin and Aljoe and the others at the bar. She’d let them go ahead to talk business with a few shifters that had been on the fence before starting out herself.
She glanced at the sky, looking for gargoyles, then toward the woods, hoping to spot a basajaun. Usually, Jessie didn’t go places on her own, but many of the enforcers had cleared out, and everyone else was afraid of her.
Movement caught her eye.
She glanced over and saw two more shifters jog down the street toward the others.
Her heart stopped. She recognized Armendale’s guy from the challenges the other day. With him was a huge leopard with unmistakable swagger, even in animal form. Armendale himself. Were they headed to intercept Jessie? Surely they couldn’t be that stupid.
Adrenaline quickened her heart rate. No, not stupid…desperate. They’d taken a stand against Austin, and they’d lost. They’d talked crap about Jessie, tried to set up mages, and eaten their words. Now they wanted to get even, and they thought they could do it in numbers.
With shaking hands, she reached into her cross-body bag to grab out her phone. She pulled up the phone log and—
A big arm wrapped around her middle and yanked her deeper into the alleyway. She reached for her knives and her magic, pausing as energy vibrated along her back. The massive gargoyle swung her up into his arms.
“Wait, Tristan, those guys—”
“Shh,” he said before turning sideways, bending, and shooting into the sky with one crack of his wings.
The animals slinking into the shadows at the end of the street barely looked around.
“No, but Tristan—”
“We know,” he said through fangs.
He climbed high, dark body against the night sky before soaring in the shifters’ direction. She reached into her cross-body to grab a vial of invisibility potion. She held it up so that he could see, and he opened his mouth. She poured it in.
The potion wouldn’t stop the air movement from his beating wings from being noticeable, but the shifters in question weren’t used to invisibility or gargoyles.
They didn’t notice Tristan settling onto the rooftop at the corner.
Below them, Jessie ambled down the walk, head bent, looking at her phone.
Every once in a while, she glanced over at the dark trees lining the other side of the street.
Not seeing anything, she looked back at her phone.
Tristan crouched without shifting. His hand splayed across Nessa’s stomach, holding her in close to his massive body as they waited on the rooftop.
She leaned against him and closed her eyes, feeling that hum between them.
Feeling his heat and the strength and power of the gargoyle at her back.
Emotion overwhelmed her. Their closeness, even with him in his gargoyle form, comforted her.
Wasn’t it time she stopped running?
“Tristan, I—”
The group of shifters burst out from around the corner, three of them, headed right for Jessie. What must’ve been Armendale followed right behind. He would let his people take the brunt of her defense or die trying. Then he’d complete the attack. Coward.
She startled. Instead of dropping her phone and blasting them with a spell, like any normal person afraid for their life, she tucked it away really quickly. Then she hit the three shifters with a spell, all at the same time.
They yowled and bayed in pain, tumbling to the ground at her feet. The leopard launched forward, probably seeing victory.
What an absolute idiot.
She didn’t shoot him with a spell. She threw up a wall. He slammed into it and fell to the ground. No buzzing or sparks or anything went off. She wasn’t trying to hurt him.
“What’s going on?” Nessa asked, leaning forward to see better.
Tristan pointed toward the bar.
A great polar bear was running down the street at full speed, nearly to his mate. The leopard got up and shook himself off, his entire focus on Jessie. He stared at her through the wall and hunched, clearly thinking he could scratch through that wall like Aljoe clawed through one of her spells.
Before he jumped, though, he noticed the impending doom.
The leopard turned toward the danger, and for a moment, it seemed he would hold his ground.
Austin barreled toward him, not slowing down, full of rage and aggression.
One thing you did not do, under any circumstances, was mess with that alpha’s mate.
It seemed Jessie was giving Austin a pass to handle it.
Armendale’s withers started to shake. He bowed a little, seeing that beast running at him.
But he was an alpha of a prominent pack, and his underlings were shakily trying to get to their feet.
He couldn’t back down. To save face—to uphold the lie he’d spun regarding his greatness—he had to engage.
There was no other way. Not after he’d attacked Jessie.
Armendale straightened, bared his teeth, and lurched forward.
Austin still didn’t slow. Didn’t show fear.
Didn’t even stutter a step. He slammed into Armendale like a feral beast. The polar bear rolled the smaller cat over and over, biting and ripping at him the whole time, but seemingly doing very little damage.
Austin allowed the leopard to get up and get his bearings before he launched at the other man again.
This time the bites and scrapes were more severe.
Now it was very clear even to Nessa that Austin was toying with the other alpha, something that became even more apparent when he surrendered to his beast. The change in vibe was unmistakable. The beast gave no quarter. It gave no sympathy and zero mercy.
Austin laid into Armendale with a ferocity that had Nessa leaning back harder into Tristan.
Austin tore into Armendale. He was obviously the superior fighter, but with a ruthlessness that rivaled even the Elder’s.
He was all over the leopard, beating him down into the pavement and then sinking his teeth around Armendale’s jugular.
“No!” Jessie threw her arms forward.
Austin yanked his great head. Armendale jerked on the pavement, but his throat didn’t rip apart. Austin tried to find purchase, but Jessie had him blocked with a spell.
“You will not kill him!” Jessie shot spells at the big polar bear and walked into the fray. “We think he’s the worst, fine, but his people depend on him, Austin. There is no one ready to take his place. You need to let him live.”
Austin tried to rip the leopard’s throat open again.