She bit down on her lip to keep from crying out. She couldn't allow Tristan to be touched again.
"I have no choice but to bring down one of the boys," Lorwerth said. "They won't last as long as Tristan, but that's the great thing about twins."
There was no way she'd let them hurt those boys, Kit, Adrianna, Isak or keep on hurting Tristan.
If she couldn't open the damn tomb, it was time to fight.
She tried bluffing first. "I'm having a hard time, but I know the person who can absolutely open this tomb."
Lorwerth lifted his eyebrows at that, unimpressed. "Quinn, right?"
"Yes. I'll take you to him, but only if the rest of them go free."
He laughed. "You think I'd do that? Besides, as long as I have you, he'll come to me. I have an hour to open that tomb. That means Tristan and your friends have an hour to live. If Quinn doesn't show up and I don't get the tomb open, it's still of value to me, just not as much. By that point, all of your friends will look worse than your Alterant here."
Tristan had been kneeling on the ground. He lifted a head and looked at Evalle. They had no telepathy, but his eyes echoed her thoughts.
They would die no matter what, so they would fight.
She gave a tiny nod the others would take to mean she was just lowering her chin to see him.
Clapping his hands once, Lorwerth said, "Okay, who will be next?"
Evalle said, "Me."
"What? You're the one who's going to open it."
"I tried. I can't. If you'll let me use telepathy, I can find the person who can. If not, I'm next."
Tristan growled, "No."
She ignored him.
Evalle walked over to where they'd stretched Tristan between the trees and lifted her arms.
Tristan gritted his teeth. "Evalle, don't."
"You can't go again."
"It's my duty."
Daegan had really gotten through to Tristan, but she wasn't standing by while they turned him into charred hamburger. A change in the buzzing sound pulled her gaze up.
Lorwerth chuckled, a sleazy sound. "I'll grant your wish, Evalle, if for no other reason than to entertain us while we wait. Based on the intel I've been given, Quinn and your Belador friends will come for you. If they don't arrive in time, then I'll keep Tristan and trade you with the tomb to Queen Maeve. Either way, I get what I want."
The energy field began undulating.
Lorwerth hadn't noticed yet, and said to Tristan, "Oh well. Looks like you get a chance to open the tomb, Alterant."
Two of his men walked over and each took an arm from Tristan. As Tristan got to his feet, he pushed out of their hands and turned to Evalle.
She looked at him and looked up.
His gaze followed hers.
Lorwerth must have noticed their silent exchange. He tipped his head back. "What the fuck?"
A crackling sound preceded rips tearing through the energy field, running in all directions like a cracked window. Water poured in streams from the thunderstorm raging outside the buzzing canopy.
Evalle felt a tiny hum of energy spike in her body. She called telepathically to Tristan. Do you feel it?
Tristan jerked his attention to her. Yes. I don't think I'm strong enough to teleport.
She warned, I don't know what powers we have, but...
He finished her sentence, We have the power of surprise if we do it now. Then he turned and whipped a kinetic strike at the two closest soldiers. Their heads snapped to the side, but that hadn't been enough kinetic power to take this group down.
Evalle tried to link with him. Nothing happened.
She dashed over next to Tristan as Lorwerth realized he was losing control of his little party. He had only six men in the camp and the rest spread around the perimeter outside.
He snarled, "Everyone in here now!"
If only that power grid waving wildly above them would just explode.
Evalle zapped kinetic hits, popping Lorwerth's men all around their faces. Tristan shouted, "Lower." He was hitting them in the groin. She changed her hits.
Lorwerth's men yanked their hands down and turned away, trying to protect their family jewels.
She told Tristan telepathically, Lorwerth's back is exposed.
Let's get him, Tristan agreed.
They rushed around behind Lorwerth, but he yanked one of his men in front of him at the last second, then turned and backed away.
Evalle and Tristan ran up against the first kinetic field, hitting it with what power they had, but another had joined the first to shield Lorwerth. Now they had two men with linked powers to face. Evalle and Tristan deflected the return hits, slapping as hard as possible, but they were being knocked back.
More men were pouring into the camp.
To lose now would be death. There were no more second chances.
Evalle had a quarter of her energy level and Tristan was still injured. Any minute now, Lorwerth would regain control and the fallout would be hideous.
A roar of fury cut through the noise.
Few things can reach deep inside someone to unlock a primal fear in even the strongest. That ferocious sound came from one of the most dangerous supernatural predators she knew of and he was running top speed toward the camp.
Mouths dropped open and eyes turned toward the black jaguar bigger than any found in a jungle. This one would annihilate everything between him and his mate.
"Storm!" Evalle cried out with joy.
The jaguar snarled a roar in answer that shook the ground. He bared fangs the length of her finger. His next roar warned that blood would spill.
The Laochra Fola that had been racing toward the camp now rushed out and formed a shoulder-to-shoulder shield.
Another roar boomed. Any person with a lick of sense would know to protect their throats, but it would do them no good.
Storm hit a wall of kinetics and got tossed back fifty feet.
Tristan said, "Shit. For once, I was glad to see him."
Evalle thought about warning him to keep his distance from Storm until she could calm down her mate. She'd have her hands full as it was, keeping Storm from going after Tristan, because Storm would blame this mess on him.
She wouldn't let him, since she'd partnered with Tristan of her own free will.
But that argument wouldn't happen if they didn't get out of here.
She and Tristan used a kinetic barrier against the hits from the four men guarding Lorwerth. That worked only because they were distracted by the greater threat on four legs trying to get through the shield Lorwerth's army had formed by linking their powers.
Evalle snapped her fingers. "Those Laochra Fola are linked."
"That means they're even stronger than us," Tristan said in grim acceptance.
"It also should mean that if we can kill one, they all die. The entire line would fall."
"How are we going to do that when the four protecting Lorwerth won't let us get past them?"
"I didn't say I had all the answers," she griped at him. "I'm just pointing out a weakness if we can find a way to exploit it."
Storm leaped at the kinetic force field again and again.
Lorwerth told his men, "Stand strong. The demons will take care of him."
With no kinetic power, Evalle couldn't get to Storm and he couldn't get past a forty-man wall of powerful kinetics holding him off.
Maybe she and Tristan could create a diversion that would allow them to reach just one of the linked soldiers. They could...
Demons raced in from the woods and Storm spun to face them. Alone.
Her heart sank. She'd seen Storm fight off dozens of demons, but he'd been a full demon himself at the time and she'd almost lost him.
She couldn't watch him give up the humanity he'd battled for and won.
They were all going to die.
Chapter 35
Quinn had never faced worse odds.
Uprooted trees were now connected like a pile of scattered logs propp
ed up against one another. Demons, new arrivals, were climbing toward them from all directions, foaming at the mouth to reach the prize--Reese.
Her weight shifted behind him where she still hugged his body. He felt her stretch to look past him.
She said, "You need to help me move in front. I have what they want. There's no point in both of us dying when they'll ignore you as long as the energy inside me is ... available."
Translation: Until they drained her and left an empty shell.
That made him so angry he couldn't come up with a civil reply. "What the fuck, Reese? Do you really think I'm going to step aside and let them turn you into a demon buffet?"
She sniffled and his heart twisted at the sound.
She was afraid and offering herself as a sacrifice.
No, no, and hell fucking no.
Gripping his sides tighter, she said, "Why can't you be logical about this?"
"That's not the issue here." He kept his eyes on the demons, who thankfully were fighting among themselves below, but that wouldn't last long. If Quinn was going to die here, he wanted to know something. "What man treated you so badly that you think all of us are self-serving jerks who would allow a woman to die just so we can survive?"
The fight slowed below. Bad news.
Two demons leaped over the tangle of bodies to start climbing quickly up nearby trees.
Reese's breath started coming in fast gasps. "I don't think we have time for me to answer your question. Just move, dammit, and let me do one good thing with my life before I die."
"No. Keep your ass back there and out of my way. If we get out of this, you and I are going to have a talk."
She dropped her head to his back again. "Yeah, that's never going to happen."
Quinn had no desire to give up his life now and he sure as hell didn't want anything to happen to her, but if this was it for both of them they wouldn't die alone.
He sent out another telepathic shout for help. Trey, this is Quinn. We've created a rip in the energy field, but we're pinned down near the west end of the mining ravine by more demons than we can--
Fire burst through a break in the canopy, spewing fury in a seventy-foot stream and torching demons all over the ground. They turned into fireballs, then clouds of gray dust that puffed out of existence.
A red dragon thirty-five feet long from head to tail burst through the hole above and incinerated everything in its path. He blew trees out of the way and arched up, breaking the energy field apart even more.
Reese screeched. "What the hell is that?"
Quinn smiled. "My boss."
"He's a dragon? They don't exist."
"Some people would think the same about us. He's two thousand years old and I'm damned glad to see him."
In less than a minute, Daegan had swooped in and out, killing enough demons that Quinn could feel himself powering up as the energy field weakened and sputtered.
Bodies of half-dead demons flopped around below, but they were no longer a force.
Daegan's voice boomed in Quinn's head. Can you get down from that tree?
Absolutely.
Good. Let's go get our people.
We're up against an army of those warriors with Belador-like powers, which is probably why Evalle and Tristan haven't made it out.
Yeah, well, the enemy doesn't have a dragon. Let's go.
Quinn rolled his eyes at the arrogant shifter, but the saying went that it wasn't bragging if you could back it up. He hoped like hell Daegan's power was half as strong as his ego.
Patting Reese's hand, he said, "Jump on my back and hold on."
"What are you going to do?"
"It'll be easier to show you."
Chapter 36
Evalle couldn't stand there and watch Storm face a swarm of attacking demons by himself.
She took a step and Tristan grabbed her. "You can't get to him."
"Let go so I can help my mate or I will hurt you."
"Ah, shit. Let's go." He released her.
There was no time for convincing him not to join her, so they raced forward, slapping kinetic hits at Lorwerth's few men in the camp, but Evalle's strikes were falling as short as Tristan's.
Lorwerth shouted at his four guards, "Give me an alley!"
Evalle swiveled her head at the same moment Tristan looked at the threat.
Lorwerth sent a ball of flame at them.
Tristan slapped at it with his kinetics and Evalle stepped in front of him to take the hit. Tristan couldn't stand much more at this point. She shoved her hands in front of her and fire raced over the wimpy kinetic field she put up. The flash of heat seared her arms and burned half her shirt away.
Thankfully, it only singed her bra.
Evalle, I'm close.
She searched all around. Quinn? Is that you?
Yes. Where are you? Quinn shouted in her mind.
In the middle of the camp. Do you see it?
Yes. You and Tristan find somewhere out of the way.
Why?
An explosion of noise hit her at the same moment that Quinn said, We've got air support.
She grabbed her head to cover her ears. Tristan did the same. It was as if the sound barrier had been broken.
Fire rained down on the demons, yet managed to miss Storm, who was taking on three.
Evalle had her first taste of hope at the sight of a giant red dragon dive-bombing the camp. She called out telepathically, Good to see you, Daegan.
You as well, Evalle. Have you got your powers back?
She murmured, "My powers are getting stronger, Tristan. What about yours?"
Tristan nodded and answered Daegan. Yes. We could help if we have permission to shift.
Granted. Get your asses up here.
Tristan turned to her. "You first. I'll cover you."
Rather than argue that they were breaking a VIPER rule, Evalle backed up and forced the shift into her gryphon form as fast as she could. It hurt like hell, but the quicker she did this, the sooner Tristan could shift and give his healing a huge boost.
She stretched and stood as the wings took shape, towering over those puny Laochra Fola who didn't look so tough now. She stretched her wings, showing off her aqua feathers. She raised her golden head and screeched out a war cry.
When Lorwerth and his personal guards turned to her, the shock riding their faces made her day.
When Lorwerth saw Tristan shifting, he shouted at his men to kill Tristan.
Evalle swatted the four guards with one kinetic hit of her lion-shaped paws and they went flying thirty feet, landing next to the line of soldiers still holding a wall between her and Storm.
With her, Tristan and Daegan on the same telepathic channel, Evalle said, Daegan, that line of men blocking Storm are linked. Take out one and they all fall.
The dragon had just made a fiery pass over the open area and flapped faster, rushing out then banking hard to come back in. He burned a wide path through the middle of everything, but every other guard in the line quickly lifted his field of energy like a shield to protect their heads.
Tristan finished fully shifting. He told Evalle and Daegan, Fire isn't making a dent. Too many of them linked.
Isak stepped out of the woods at the top of a hill with his blaster in hand. He advanced toward Storm, plowing through the demons that were still rushing in.
Storm had killed ten, but he was bleeding all over.
Evalle had an idea and decided that dragon could multi-task the best right now. She told Daegan, We'll handle this side. Adrianna has to be somewhere behind the human with the blaster. Don't kill him. That's Isak. Have Quinn find her and see if she can get under that wall of kinetics.
I'm going now.
Daegan scorched the ground, turning demon after demon to gray dust so quickly it sizzled before the rain washed it away.
Isak worked his way toward Storm, who ripped the head off of a demon, but three more took its place.
You got this, Tristan? Evalle asked.
br /> Oh, yes, this bunch and Lorwerth are mine. Go get your tomcat.
Evalle took to the air as Tristan turned to Lorwerth, who was getting up off the ground.
Tristan used his kinetics to lift a steel rod that had been left heating in the fire. He sent it flying like a spear that hit Lorwerth, lifting him off the ground and staking him to a tree. He screamed.
Way to go, Tristan.
Evalle flapped her wings, gaining air. Isak had never seen any of them fly, but she hoped he'd seen her and Tristan shifting into gryphons just now. Surely by now, Isak had guessed that the red dragon providing air support was the man she'd told Isak had spent thousands of years cursed as a dragon throne.
She circled once and swept down, knocking demons every which way with her kinetics. With no immediate demons to fight, her jaguar turned right and left, looking for a target.
Then he lifted his head.
She'd never get over the awe and pride in Storm's jaguar gaze. She'd seen the firelight glimmer across Tristan's blue skin and translucent scales. Her own golden head and aqua feathers with blue skin would be just as spectacular. A glow of pleasure filled her.
Storm was finally seeing her gryphon form. He roared a sound of possession. She was his and he was hers.
The minute she shifted back to human, he would be furious at her for being in danger. She'd suffer his irritation as long as they both lived.
Adrianna ran out of the woods and stopped with her palm open. Witchlock power spun into a sphere the size of a basketball.
Wow. That was larger than anything Evalle had witnessed to date. Adrianna had said she was still learning to control the power. Evalle hoped she knew enough to not turn them all into dust.
The Sterling witch sent a comet-shaped blast of energy airborne. It flew high above, so high it crossed over the top of the trees around the camp. Using the same hand that wielded Witchlock, Adrianna directed the flight path of the fiery comet.
It landed behind the guards.
When the energy struck the ground, the earth opened and swallowed it.
Heads turned from the linked line.
Evalle held her breath.
Tristan murmured telepathically, Come on, witch.
In the next second, a sizzle of power shot up at the guard in the middle of the pack. He screamed and jumped around, then arched his back. His body shook viciously as if he were being electrocuted.
The entire line of men started screaming in pain, then the first one went limp and fell, his back hitting the ground.
Quinn came racing in behind Adrianna with Reese at his side.