GraceinMoonlight (8 page)

Nic ran for the window, his front paws making no sound as he
looked out. When he turned back to Duke, he motioned with his head for Duke to
come closer.

Kaisie joined them and again had to make a conscious effort
not to swear.

Two men stood below, not directly but close enough to fuck
with their escape.

Shit.

Duke caught his eye then deliberately looked at Nic. Two
guards. Two
lucani
. Didn’t seem quite fair to the guards, but Kaisie
would have no remorse over killing two
Mal
. He could smell the evil on
them.

Kaisie nodded, making the motion for silence. Duke nodded
but rolled his eyes. Yeah, Kaisie didn’t know how quiet they were going to be.
The window didn’t open. It was set into the wall and they were going to have to
break it to get out.

He looked around for something to break the window with,
settled for the stool in the corner.

But as he picked it up and moved back to the window, Amy
grabbed his arm. She opened her mouth to speak then closed it tight and held up
both hands, fingers spread.

Then she turned to the window, raised her hands with her
palms facing the glass. She turned to the pregnant girl for several seconds, as
if seeking reassurance. Her arms tight around Alex, the other girl nodded,
though fear showed plainly on her face.

Noise in the stairwell from the third floor. Kaisie whipped
his head around as he caught the sound of running feet.

With his hand, he motioned for Amy to do whatever she was
planning. They’d run out of time.

With a short nod, her mouth firmed and her eyes closed.

Then she drew so much power, Kaisie felt his wolf rise with
an almost manic rush.

Before he had time to worry about whether he was going to
shift, Amy sent all that power outward.

And blew out the wall.

* * * * *

“Now that you’re here, you’re going to want to see your
children, aren’t you? I’m sure you’ll agree they’re healthy. Our son may be
somewhat happy to see you but I don’t think our daughter will share his
enthusiasm. After all, you did abandon her.”

She knew better than to respond to his taunts, even though
fury burned in her gut.

The bastard yanked her hair again, hard and she caught
John’s expression out of the corner of her eye. He was beyond angry and well
into pissed but he was holding it together. Plotting to get her away from
Ettore.

She caught John’s eyes and shook her head, just once. The
tight hold Ettore had on her hair made it painful, but she had to get John to
stay away. This might be the only way she could see her children. If Kaisie and
the rest of the
lucani
had failed…

“Yes, tell the
eteri
not to be stupid.” Ettore
dragged her closer to the door he’d entered through.

If he got her through that door, there was no way she’d be
leaving this building. At least not alive.

And dead would be preferable to what he would do to her. She
couldn’t live like she had when she’d been with him.

But John wasn’t going to let her go without a fight. He
leaped off the floor and flew at them.

Grace felt the knife cut into her neck, the pain instant and
sharp.

Blessed Goddess, he really was going to kill her.

She had a moment of sheer terror that turned into an icy
numbness.

And then the house rocked beneath Grace’s feet.

The floor shook, throwing Ettore one way and Grace the
other. The blade caught her arm as they both fell, slashing so deep, it nicked
the bone. The pain blazed through her like acid, but she bit back a scream as
she pushed herself as far away from Ettore as she could manage.

It wasn’t far enough.

His features twisted in a snarl, he came after her. “You
bitch. What did you do?”

She hadn’t done anything. But she believed she knew who had.
That explosion could only mean the
lucani
had to blast their way out.

Ettore reached for her but he never got to her. John tackled
him.

“Get Kaine and get out!” John yelled just before he hauled
back and hit Ettore with a fist to the side of his head.

Yes. Kaine. Get Kaisie’s daughter out.

She ran for the wolf, finally coming out of unconsciousness.
Kaine shook her head, huffing as she tried to stand. But she gave up with a yip
as her left paw folded under her.

Grace gritted her teeth against the pain shooting through
her arm and wrapped both of her arms around Kaine. The wolf weighed at least a
hundred pounds and her arm screamed bloody murder but she carried the wolf
toward the door.

Behind her, she heard the sound of flesh on flesh. John may
be
eteri
but he was a trained soldier. Ettore usually surrounded himself
with bodyguards who took care of any physical threats. He could throw a few
punches but he’d never been a fighter.

She hoped John beat the shit out of him.

Through her labored breathing, she heard shouting but she
had no idea what they were saying. The sounds were muted, distorted. She ran
for the door they’d entered through and stopped to look out. She reached for
the doorknob and nearly screamed as Kaine’s weight shifted against her injured
arm.

But she couldn’t make a sound. Two men ran by the door. Not
part of her little party. Must be Ettore’s men on their way to wherever the
explosion had been.

Okay, that had to mean she’d be able to get Kaine to the
rendezvous point and make it back to get her children out.

She looked out the window. Seeing no one, she opened the
door with her good hand and bit back a groan. The wound at her neck no longer
bled or stung, but damn, her arm hurt. And the blood flow from that wound
hadn’t slowed. She should be worried about that but there was no time for it.

Instead, she ran as fast as she could for the screen of
trees across a half acre of open grass.

* * * * *

Out of the corner of his eye, Kaisie caught sight of a flash
of color and movement on the ground to his left.

Alex dangled from his hands out of the hole Amy had blown in
the wall. Duke stood on the rubble below, reaching for Alex. The girls had
already been lowered and stood against the wall, arms around each other,
clinging.

The pregnant one was crying. Though obviously younger, Amy
hadn’t cracked yet, her expression determined as she stared up at him. Tough
girl. And a powerful one.

She willed him to move faster with those dark eyes so like
her mother’s.

As he dropped Alex into Duke’s waiting hands, he turned to
look for that flash of movement.

His heart nearly stopped when he realized it was Grace,
running from the house with a wolf in her arms.

Kaine. Had to be Kaine. Nic’s wolf stood below with Duke and
Seth’s wolf guarded his back in the bedroom.

Vaffanculo
, they were perfect targets. The guards…
Where the hell—

There. Two guards rounded the corner of the building
farthest from Kaine and Grace but nearer to them.

The men had guns but the
stregone
Kaine had asked to
accompany them lifted his hand toward them, drawing power to him in a rush that
brushed against Kaisie’s
arus
, his magic, like velvet on bark.

Neither gun went off but Kaisie didn’t have time to wonder
what the
stregone
had done.

“Drop him. Now.”

The urgency in Duke’s voice registered and Kaisie let go of
the boy.

Duke caught Alex and practically tossed him at the
stregone
.

“Get them out of here. Seth, Race!” he called to the men in
the room behind him. “Let’s go.”

The pull of power was so strong this time, Kaisie actually
shivered as the
stregone
transported the girls and Alex back to the den
in Pennsylvania. He’d never get used to seeing people disappear right in front
of his eyes but he didn’t have time to dwell on it now.

Marrucini’s men had reached them. And they were pissed.

And well trained.

Fists and legs flew, wolves’ jaws snapped and growls split
the air.

Kaisie got clocked in the head with a lucky swing from one
of the two men trying to take him down.

Guess he should be honored he rated two men. Everyone else
was paired off with one.

The fight devolved into a brawl worthy of a Saturday night
at a biker bar, except those guys didn’t usually fight with their teeth.

The
lucani
had the advantage but they weren’t putting
Marrucini’s men down fast enough to be able to get away.

One of the guards fell to the ground, knocked out by Duke,
who moved over to help Kaisie with his two.

“We need to get out of here now.” Duke’s quiet voice carried
over the noise of the fight.

“I know.” Kaisie dodged a fist aimed at his gut and landed
his own on his opponent’s jaw. “We could shift and run for it but John can’t
keep up.”

“Then we need to give him a head start.”

Kaisie nodded, throwing another punch. “Do it.”

Duke let himself take a punch to the kidney then stumbled
backward. Right into John, who’d burst out of the doorway from the kitchen
seconds ago and landed straight in the fight.

Kaisie dodged another punch that came much too close to
landing because his attention was fractured.

They had to get out of here…

John broke off from the group and started to run like hell
for the trees Grace had disappeared into.

When he was almost there, Kaisie gave the order that he
hoped would get them all the hell out of here.

“
Commuto.
”

Chapter Four

“Kaine! Shit. Grace, get in the goddamn van. We’re out as
soon as they get here.”

“She’s gonna bleed out. That cut’s too deep.”

Grace heard John swear and forced herself to open her eyes.
But even that much motion made her arm throb in agony, even as the rest of her
felt curiously numb.

She bit back a groan and tried to speak. Had to know. “The
children. Did the—”

She cried out as John did something that made her arm feel
as if it was on fire.

She must have passed out because when she came to, she knew
there were more people moving around her.

“Shit, this is— Kaisie, she’s coming around. Keep her
still.”

She sensed motion, even through the fiery ache that used to
be her arm. Panic boiled in her lungs, making them constrict until she could
barely breathe.

“Grace. Stop struggling. You’re hurting yourself.” The
blatant command in Kaisie’s voice pissed her off enough that the panic receded
the slightest bit and she could think a little more clearly.

“The children—” She hissed as the van hit a pothole and her
arm shifted. When had they started to drive? She fought against the oblivion at
the edges of her consciousness. “Kaisie, did you get them?”

“Yeah, we got them.”

She forced her eyes open because there was something in
Kaisie’s voice she didn’t like.

His face hovered above hers, looking as if he’d gotten hit
with a two-by-four to his face.

“Alex? You got Alex? And my—”

He laid two fingers on her lips. “We got them both. Now shut
up and save your strength.”

She fought against the lethargy that threatened to take her
under again. “How bad’s my arm?”

His mouth tightened and his eyes flashed away for a several
seconds before returning to hers. “Just stay still.”

That bad. She must have lost a lot of blood. “You’re not
lying about the children, are you?”

His eyes narrowed down to slits of bright green. “You’re
starting to piss me off, lady. I’m not lying. Just don’t fucking move.”

“Tell them I love them.”

Kaisie leaned even closer, until she could barely focus on
him. “You can tell them yourself when we get home.”

Home. She liked the sound of that. Even though she knew that
home was only temporary. That even though the
lucani
king had sent his
men after her children, it didn’t mean he’d let them stay forever.

Not her, a former
Mal
pawn, or her daughter, a
full-blooded
Mal
. They’d have to run. Find somewhere to hide. Find…

She let her eyes close then, too tired to keep them open any
longer.

* * * * *

“The bleeding’s stopped but I don’t know if it’ll be enough
until we get home,” John said. “She lost a lot of blood.”

The pilot had gotten them into the air the second Duke had
shut the hatch and locked it. They hadn’t lost anyone but Kaine had a broken
front leg that would need to be set before she could shift. Seth had a few
broken ribs and Race’s face looked as if he’d taken a running leap into a stone
wall.

Nothing life-threatening. Except for Grace.

“She’s gonna need a transfusion when we get back,” John
continued. “I already contacted Dane and he’s calling Nica as well. But… It
might be too late, Kaisie. She lost a lot of fucking blood.”

He understood what John was saying. He just refused to
believe she was going to die.

He looked at Kyle, sitting on the other side of the aisle.
“How long until we land?”

Kyle shook his head. “Another ninety minutes. At least.”

She wouldn’t make it that long.

Tinia’s teat. What the fuck should he do?

Helplessness wasn’t a state he typically found himself in.
The last time he felt it was more than twenty-five years ago when Tekeias,
Kaine’s mother, had shoved their baby into his arms and told him she couldn’t
stay. He’d never seen her again. She’d been killed by the
Mal
shortly
after that.

Kaisie had panicked. He hadn’t had a fucking clue what to do
with a baby. And the
lucani
had been in the middle of a war back then. A
secret battle against a group of
eteri
fanatics who called themselves
Zuhno, an old Romany word that meant pure.