Dusk Avenger (Flirting with Monsters #3) - Eva Chase Page 0,39
and the dragon let out a sort of bugling noise from under the table, and I could laugh at that.
Omen stalked into the room in the midst of the mirth and surveyed us with his mouth flat. His aura of power and authority filled every space he entered. I quieted out of respect. I hadn’t determined yet what sort of a shifter he was, although I could tell he was one—it felt rude to outright ask—but whatever it was, there was clearly a reason the others looked to him as the leader.
And he had wanted me to join this team of his. I couldn’t say how I’d be of much use, but I hoped I’d figure that out. It must have been an honor to be chosen by a being so formidable.
“The sun’s rising,” he barked. “Let’s get a move on. You’ve lounged about long enough.”
“I don’t imagine Austin is going anywhere while we eat breakfast,” Ruse replied in a teasing tone, but I noticed he got up quickly all the same.
Sorsha sighed and grabbed her purse. She knelt down by the table, clucking her tongue to coax Pickle into it. Not wanting any of the precious refreshments to go to waste, I snatched up the bowl of fruit salad and tipped its contents into my mouth.
I was just gulping down the last of that riot of flavor when the door crashed open with an explosive bang.
A horde of figures in shiny helmets and vests charged into the room, tools glittering in their hands. The metals sent a wash of vibrations through the air that dug through my skin down to my bones. Pain prickled through the sensation.
I sprang to my feet with a jerk, some instinct in me rearing its head with a vicious shudder—and another impulse yanked me backward. A chill gripped me even more potent than the poisonous energies of those metals.
I flung myself into the nearest shadows and away—away from the clang and crackle of the battle, away from the beings who’d acted like my friends, away… Because deep down in some cold, dark place in the center of me lay the certainty that my presence would only mean a far greater pain for those around me.
They all were safer with me off in the distant darkness than they were if I stayed among them.
12
Sorsha
The second the Company mercenaries burst into the hotel room, my fighting instincts took over. Heart thudding, I snatched up two of the brass platters our breakfast had been delivered on, briefly lamented the waste of delicious food, and slammed them into the faces of the men who’d lunged my way.
Metal clanged and eggs squelched. An invisible force I assumed was Antic followed my example and started hurling more dishes off the table at our attackers. Delicate china cups smashed left and right. Tea and butter splattered the ornate rug.
Well, what do you expect when you open up a penthouse to a bunch of monsters?
An instant later, the tea and butter was joined by a gush of blood. Thorn gouged one crystalline fist through one soldier’s neck and bashed the other into a second man’s face. Omen tore through the room in a maelstrom of hellhound brutality, raking his claws across thighs and calves, sinking his jaws into one woman’s belly. The magma-like streaks that seared through his dark gray fur blazed with fury.
Our efforts might not be enough, though. As I ducked down and knocked the feet out from a gunman with a sweep of my leg, the sight of more figures charging through the doorway made my gut lurch. One of them was already hefting a silver-and-iron net to toss over the fighting shadowkind.
A crackle of fire rushed through me in response. I hadn’t meant to risk burning the place—and all the other, perfectly innocent guests—down, but flames spurted across the guy’s shirt before I had any chance to rein them in. His colleagues shoved him to the floor to drop and roll, one snatching the net from him as they did.
Shit. If I let out more than that, a lot more than just the Company assholes might end up incinerated on this fine morning.
As I swung the brass plates again, willing down the vicious heat inside as well as I could, my gaze darted across the room. At the other end, the gauzy curtains drifted in the cool breeze where we’d left the balcony door ajar. Inspiration shot through me like a bolt of lightning.