Outlaw (Wolves of Royal Paynes #4) - Kiki Burrelli Page 0,33

didn't blame him, I couldn't hold back my instinct that demanded that I give chase. This was the second time my mate was running from me.

But the other nephilim, likely sensing his distress, were there to greet him at the foot of the stairs. They enveloped him in their arms, turning to glare at me in unison as my boots pounded down the hallway behind him.

"Diesel, a minute?" Knox peeled his body away from the shadows, appearing by my side like one of Sitka's ghosts.

The nephilim scurried Quinlan out the front door while Knox headed for the stairs, making it clear with the angle of his body that I was to follow.

I didn't always do what Knox said, and this felt like one of those moments.

"Come to the operations room. I want to show you something."

I looked back out of instinct, in the direction I last saw Quinlan travel.

"He's still Quin, Diesel. Scared and confused, but still Quin. He'll come around. You just have to be patient."

"I. Am. Patient." My teeth should've crumbled out of my mouth for how hard I clenched them.

Knox snorted. "I can see that."

Knox turned, taking the first step up when the hotel walls echoed with the sound of the alarm blaring, followed immediately by screaming that filled the staircase, coming from outside. I wrenched the door open, taking a single bounding step to get there, as Knox shifted and darted out. Footsteps pounded loudly from the second floor, but I didn't wait to see who it was coming.

I found Quinlan cowered behind the Hummer with the other nephilim. Jazz clung to Angus and Onyx as Sitka covered as much of them as he could with his body. Quinlan covered the rest.

Towering over fifty feet high in the middle of the yard on the other side of the vehicle stood a wall of water, shaped roughly like a man, save for two large horns that sprouted from its head like trees with no branches. Featureless, the demon constantly churned, looking like an ocean storm come to life—a type of monster sailors used to whisper about when the stars were out. It swung a massive, liquid fist toward the Hummer, sending it rolling down the drive and into the crumbling fountain, leaving the nephilim unprotected.

The wraiths stretched, spreading like a hanging sheet that billowed inward as the water beast sent a ball of seawater that would've drowned them all in seconds. There was too much water for the wraiths to keep back, though, and they snapped apart, rattling loudly as both wraiths swelled in defense. But while the wraiths were lightning-fast shapeshifters, the water creature beat them when it came to raw power.

They were able to hold on long enough for me and Knox to bound forward. He hoisted Jazz and the children toward the hotel entrance—and I assumed the panic room in the basement—while I hauled Sitka under one arm and Quin under the other.

The twins, Doc, and Faust appeared in the door for a fraction of a second before another water bomb soared over our heads and blasted through the hotel entrance. Their bodies disappeared, swept back by the flash flood. A second water bomb hit the ground behind us, rushing forward in a wave that knocked me off my feet. Before I could establish which way was up, another wave ripped the air from my lungs, flinging my limbs around like a rag doll. Sitka and Quinlan slid from under my arms. My fingers grasped at nothing but water until I fell abruptly against the sodden lawn on my hands and knees. I scrambled to my feet, coughing up enough seawater to fill the fountain—if it wasn't currently cracked beyond repair.

I ran forward, knowing already that I wouldn't get to my mate in time. He lay sprawled out on the lawn more than twenty feet away. The water giant loomed overhead. I couldn't see Sitka and assumed he'd poofed away.

The water demon opened his hand, palm down, sending a solid stream of ocean over Quinlan's head.

The air leeched from my lungs, leaving me as breathless as Quinlan.

When I reached the endless spout, no more than two seconds later, I leaped forward—and bounced right back. It felt like my body hit a cement wall, and I would've been forced several feet away if I hadn't shifted and dug my claws into the dirt.

I hadn't been pushed away, but I still couldn't break through the rush of water, and it had been far too long since