Battle Bond: An Urban Fantasy Dragon Series (Death Before Dragons #2) - Lindsay Buroker Page 0,23
side. I snatched a few cartridges from the box on the sofa and jammed them in my pocket, then faced him as he looked at me. I took a step, tempted to finish him off while he was still dazed, so he couldn’t hurt or threaten Nin again, but two of the incoming shifters had already reached the lawn. One sprang toward the window of our room even as the front door slammed open, another charging inside.
I raced into the hallway and jumped over Sindari and Kurt, the massive felines clawing and thrashing on the floor, their blood spattering the rug. Sindari had the advantage with his powerful fangs embedded in Kurt’s thickly muscled neck. It wasn’t smart, but I paused long enough to jab Chopper down into Kurt’s haunch. Or at least, that was my intent. He twisted as he tried to tear away from Sindari, and all I got was the tail. My blade sliced through it at the halfway point.
“You won’t be using that for your perverted sex shit again,” I growled, then ran into a bedroom facing the back yard as another massive cat, a female jaguar this time, rounded the corner and entered the hallway. She sprang through the doorway after me.
By then, I had Fezzik out, and I fired at her. Bullets tore into her chest, and she jerked back out into the hallway and out of sight.
Don’t linger, Sindari ordered as I rushed through the bedroom and slashed all the glass out of the window with four precise strikes from Chopper. It clinked outward, and I leaped after it, landing in mud and weeds outside.
My senses told me more shifters were pouring into the front of the house. I hated to leave without any real answers, but there was no choice. I ran parallel to the river, leaped a hedge, and rushed through yards and common areas as I ran back toward the trail.
Sindari? I glanced back. You’re getting out of there, right?
He could dismiss himself from this world any time, but he was doing his best to buy me time. As much as I appreciated that, I didn’t want him to get himself killed fighting ten powerful cat shifters at once. It was possible for him to die if he took too much damage before he traveled the magical pathway back to his own world.
Sindari?
Have you made it back to your vehicle yet? he asked.
Yes, I lied.
Running through muddy yards and leaping fences and hedges wasn’t the fastest way to travel. But the bridge and the busy trail were in sight up ahead. I doubted the shifters would chase me through such a public area during the day.
I ran across the wide lawn of an apartment building, ducks quacking and paddling away from the bank as my passage disturbed them. The quacks grew uproarious, and several ducks took flight. That was when I realized that it was more than me bothering them.
A bloody silver tiger was running after me. Fortunately, nothing was running after him.
You have not made it back to your vehicle, Sindari told me sternly.
Before I could reply, an unfamiliar voice spoke into my mind. Help me.
The brothers’ house was no longer in sight, but I was positive the telepathic words came from that direction. Had it been one of the brothers? I couldn’t imagine them asking me for something. More likely, it was a trap designed to lure me back.
“Did you hear that?” I asked.
Sindari had caught up with me and ran by my side. No, what?
A telepathic voice spoke to me. It came from back there.
There was another magical being—not a shifter—under the house.
I know. Do you think that’s who’s reaching out to me? I had the telepathic abilities of a rock, but I tried to open my mind and project back toward the house. Who are you? What kind of help do you need?
A brown panther and a lion leaped over hedges and into the yard of the apartment complex as we ran out onto a street on the other side.
Flee, Ruin Bringer, one of them taunted me. It was not the same voice that had asked for help. Flee with your pussycat.
Yes, a female voice purred into my mind. Run away from the power of the Northern Pride. Let it be known that the supposed Scourge of the Magical wets herself at the first sign of real might.
There’s only two following us, right? I asked Sindari.