Sucker Punch (First Fangs Club #3) - Kristen Painter Page 0,53
their focus.” She looked at LV. “Time to unleash the wolves of war.”
LV stared daggers at Ishalan. “You bring my grandson back, or the wolves of war will pick this place down to the bones.” Then she turned, and she and Toni shifted back to their wolf forms and ran out.
Cammie braced her sword on her shoulder and shot a look at Temo. “What do you say?”
Temo grinned. “One distraction, coming up.” He clapped Kace on the shoulder as he glanced at Will. “Let’s go, boys.”
They all hustled out.
Donna kept her grip on Ishalan, doing her best not to look at the bodies they’d left behind. “How long before the guards file out?”
“When the alarm goes up? A minute. Maybe less. Dredward might keep a pair of guards, his personal ones, but that will be it.”
“He’ll be alone?”
“No. His paramour will be with him.”
Donna struggled not to roll her eyes. “Remember how I just asked if you had any other important info to share and you said no?”
He frowned. “The paramour is unimportant. She might be Dredward’s companion, but her loyalty is to herself first. She’ll cower at the first sign of trouble.”
A rumble outside shook the fortress. A chorus of howling followed, accompanied by a high-pitched sound like a siren going off.
“You have a banshee too? That’s quite a distraction,” Ishalan said. “Now wait…”
The thunderous beat of footsteps and shouts to rally rang out. The soldiers were leaving the stronghold.
Ishalan held up one long finger. Finally, the exodus seemed to be over, but the noise outside swelled. Fighting had begun. “Now.”
He led Donna back up the steps, then straight through the grand hall to another set of stairs.
Her earpiece crackled. “Boss, it’s going off out here. We’re holding our own, but don’t take too long.”
“Copy.” She poked Ishalan in the shoulder. “Faster.”
He sped up. She kept his pace without a problem, and after what seemed liked a thousand steps, they arrived at a set of ornate wooden doors. No guards stood outside. Donna took that as a good sign.
Ishalan glanced at her, brows raised in question.
If he was asking her if she was ready, she was. She nodded, hand on her sword.
He held up three fingers, then two, then one. Shoulder lowered, he launched himself through the doors, breaking them apart in a shower of wooden splinters and copper fittings.
The fae Donna assumed to be Dredward stood at a window on the opposite side of the enormous space. He whipped around as they came barreling in, his gaze ricocheting from Donna to Ishalan. “You,” he snarled.
“That’s right, dear brother.” Ishalan smiled. “I’ve come home.”
A weak voice came from the right. “Donna?”
She glanced over and found Rico shackled in bands of silver inside a cage no larger than a dog kennel. “Rico.”
Anger drove her. She grabbed the cage’s door and ripped it off its hinges.
From the bed, a female voice shrieked. “Guards, guards.”
Donna ignored her to get Rico out of the cage. He was dirty and smelled like they’d done nothing for him in the way of personal comforts. “I’m sorry it took so long.”
He just stared up at her without much response, his lids drooping. Had he been drugged? Or was the silver in his restraints making him sick? Didn’t matter. They’d figure it out. She grabbed him under the arms and got him out as best she could while bent over and trying not to hurt him further.
A blade whistled past her head and sank into the wood paneling behind the cage. She yanked Rico the rest of the way free and drew her sword.
Ishalan and Dredward were locked in hand-to-hand, so that wasn’t where the blade had come from. She looked toward the bed.
A barely dressed fae woman with a handful of little knives stood on the bed. She threw another one as Donna was assessing the scene.
She dodged, Matrix-style, as the blade came soaring past her left side. As she twisted away, she came all the way around and used the momentum to charge forward, taking the woman down.
The fae screamed and kicked and snapped her teeth at Donna.
So much for cowering in fear.
Donna pressed her bracelet to the woman’s throat just like she’d done with Ishalan. It had the same sizzling effect, but the woman kept bucking like a rodeo horse.
There wasn’t much else she could do, so Donna clocked her across the jaw and knocked her out. Behind her, Ishalan and Dredward were wrestling on the floor, cursing each other and snarling like wild