There may be danger all around them, but Rose felt relieved to be with someone just like her. Deceptively, unnaturally strong and fast. And powerful.
“What is it?” Rose followed Niamh’s gaze.
Two men stood out from the crowd, their legs braced, arms crossed over wide chests, as they blocked the exit the siblings had been hurrying toward.
The hair on her neck rising on end, Rose’s instincts had her whipping her head to the right. A woman and a man were approaching them, determination etched on their faces. There was something about the way they moved that was familiar.
That was a little like … Kiyo.
“Werewolves?”
“Yes. The Garm,” Niamh told her.
But how had they found her? Rose’s immediate thought was of her parents. What if someone had tracked them down?
Shit.
“I told you we shouldn’t have come here for her.” Ronan gripped Niamh’s arms tightly, scowling as he gave her a hard shake. “Look what you’ve done.”
“Hey!” Rose pushed him none-too-gently away from his sister. “Watch it, pal.”
Fear flickered across his face before he cleared it. He looked past Rose to Niamh. “Well, what do we do now you’ve got us into this mess?”
Niamh flinched, guilt clear in her expression. “I’ll distract them while you run. Rose, follow Ronan. I’ll catch up.”
“No way. Why can’t we just travel outside the building?”
“Travel?”
“You know … poof! One minute you’re here, next minute you’re there.”
“You mean teleport?”
Rose made a face. Traveling sounding way less sci-fi. “Yeah, whatever, that.”
“Because Ronan is human and I won’t leave him here.”
Personally, Rose thought he seemed like kind of a turd, but he was the girl’s brother, so she understood. “Then you two run while I distract them.”
“But you don’t know where we’re staying.” Niamh shoved Rose toward Ronan. “Follow him.”
Niamh took off running toward the werewolves approaching on their right.
“What—”
“This way.” Ronan grabbed Rose’s hand and tugged her in the opposite direction to the exit.
Thus began an exercise in running fast but not fast enough to overtake a very human Ronan who was the one who knew where he was going! A quick glance over her shoulder told her the two wolves who’d been guarding the exit were gaining on them.
“Ronan!”
He veered left and Rose followed. Up ahead was a stand that held newspapers and candy. Drawing up her magic, Rose thrust her arm behind her, making the stand fly. It collided with the wolves with such force, it propelled them across the station.
Cries and yells filled the atrium but Rose kept running.
They put distance between them and the wolves, but the tingling down her neck told her they weren’t free yet. Ronan skidded as he changed direction, and Rose could only blindly trust him to lead their escape.
They burst out through an exit door into the gray, rainy November day. Rose glanced over her shoulder to see the werewolves run around the corner, just in time to catch sight of her.
She cursed and sped after Ronan who was tearing across the road toward a taxi stand. The cab driver of the first car in the stand was leaning against the window of the second car, chatting to the driver.
To Rose’s mortification, Ronan threw open the driver’s side door of that first cab and got in.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” she chanted as she pulled open the front passenger door just as the cabbie noticed and yelled in German.
“Powers!” Ronan snapped as she slammed her door shut.
Seeing the cab driver reach for the door handle, Rose locked the car with her magic. “What do you mean?”
The cab driver pounded on the window.
“To start the car!”
Remembering Fionn doing that exact thing back in Slovenia, she placed a palm over the dash and willed the car to start.
The engine growled and Ronan slipped it into gear, skidding across the road just as the werewolves spotted them from their position by the exit. Rose craned her neck to watch as one of them sprung over the hood of a car and ran after them at a speed no human was capable of.
“Ronan!” she yelled, just as the werewolf launched himself into the air, knees tucked to his chest, arms above his head, claws out.
The roof crunched beneath his weight as he landed on the car. Rose yelped.
“Hold on!” Ronan bellowed, swinging the car around a corner, tipping it onto two wheels, causing the werewolf to be thrown from the top. He rolled across the road in a fast tumble, forcing cars to slam and swerve to avoid him.