He was tall, very tall. I was guessing he had to be six foot six. He gave me a high vantage point.
Since I couldn’t speak, there was no way to tell him what I had planned.
Get moving, you damn whatever—you—are. We need to fight and get the hell out of here.
He didn’t move, looking at me with wide eyes as if he was still trying to comprehend it was me. I moved to duck my head into the back of his shirt, hoping in the darkness, I would be hidden for as long as I needed to be.
“There you are!” someone said. I heard the footsteps of someone approaching. “Come quietly. Kaliya can’t protect you, and she obviously isn’t going to try. She’s probably snaked off somewhere into a dark hole and won’t come out until we’re gone. She’s notoriously scared of witches.”
True and not true. This motherfucker knows way too much about me. Sinclair must have made sure they knew who they were dealing with because I’ve never seen them before.
“I’m not going anywhere. Mygi can’t have me back.”
“Mygi owns you,” the witch sneered.
Bad choice of words, stupid.
Beneath me, Raphael’s body heated up, and it felt comforting. I wanted to curl around him like a damn rock like Naksha did all the time.
“No one owns me,” he snarled.
Ah yeah, dumbass pissed him off. Good.
“You’re a piece of property with no more worth than any other human. They just made you a little special, but it doesn’t change what you are. They made you, they own you. Like any other animal in a lab.”
Raphael’s snarl made me shake. I felt him move, and there was a lot of banging. I moved around him as he connected with the witch. Gunshots caught my attention. They must have caught Raphael’s because he jumped back. Before he could get too far away from my target, I struck, coming out from his sleeve and nailing the witch on the arm.
“FUCK!” the man screamed, trying to bat me away as I pushed every bit of venom I had. Just enough to kill one man. It was all I needed.
He whacked me on the head, and I released, knowing my duty was done. Before the fae could retaliate, I shifted back into my human form and reached for his weapon. He and I glared at each other as he pulled the trigger, firing shots past my ribs. One grazed, and I hissed in pain and annoyance. Fighting dirty, I sent my right knee up and got him in the sweet spot. His grip loosened, but something knocked into me before I could pull the weapon away. Looking over my shoulder, I saw the witch stumbling around, his eyes wide as they started to bleed from their tear ducts.
“Yeah, it sucks, doesn’t it?” I hissed softly. I yanked the assault rifle hard from the fae, not caring to see what kind it was. It didn’t honestly matter. When I pulled the trigger, though, I cursed as I realized it was empty.
The fae recovered and jumped into action, tackling me to the ground. Something began to glow, and I felt what should have been a rope grab one of my ankles and yank it to the ground.
Shit, light binding. Of course. I don’t have any fucking iron on me.
“Sinclair! She got Jeremy!”
“Damn it!”
Sinclair sounded much closer than I expected.
“Raphael! The plan!” I roared, trying to hold off the fae from hitting me in the face. He got a binding on one of my wrists, and it was pulled away, but my free hand managed to work at keeping his blows from hitting me.
I didn’t know where the idiot had gone.
“Don’t worry about Raphael,” Sinclair said. I paused for just a moment too long, and the fae was able to land a solid hit to the left side of my jaw. He pulled back, wrapped a hand around my neck, and twisted my face to see something. Bindings grabbed my other wrist and ankle, yanking all my limbs down to the floor. Sinclair held a gun to the back of Raphael’s head. “While you were having fun, I just followed him. It wasn’t hard. Seriously, Kaliya. You know I like to take the most direct route to what I want.”
I did. The broken fucking window that Raphael had used would have been easy for Sinclair to get in. Why hadn’t I thought of it?
Raphael’s eyes were blood red, and the black on his face was spreading, growing past what