In Too Deep (31 page)

Brody cried out
. “Fallon.” But the fire didn’t seem to touch her. He sure as hell felt the heat, and Slater, who was closer winced as he tried to move away. She was fine, not even sweating with a blazing vampire on top of her.

Dacia appeared before him and threw the vampire across the room, throwing up her own shield.
To keep him back?
He hoped the shield held worked because it felt weak compared to Fallon’s.

Fallon just laid there, stunned, as she stared up at Brody with wide terrified eyes.
“Oh Brody, I….” She scrambled to her feet, covered in blood, and looked over the chains. “I could have roasted you alive. I didn’t think… I—”

“
Shh, sugar, don’t. You’re okay, we’re okay,” he promised, and he meant every word.

Her eyes quickly moved around the room. She winced, and he looked too. She hadn’t burned any of them. Malachi li
e on the other side of the room and wasn’t moving. Isaac was still out cold.

Dacia hesitantly reached out to touch Fallon’s shoulder.
“Are you okay?”

Fallon turned toward the other woman, and nodded. She was trembling though, and there were shadows in her eyes. Christ, she wasn’t okay. But after all of that, who the hell would be?

“Where did you come from?” Fallon asked.

Dacia dropped her eyes to the ground.
“I was hiding, waiting for a chance to get you all out of here.”

Fallon took another look at the vampire, and whispered a word. Both blades disappeared in a flash of light. She turned back to Brody, tears in her eyes.
“Let’s figure out how to get them out of the chains.”

Dacia held up her hand and whispered something in a language he’d never heard before. Malachi disappeared and a black orb the size of a golf ball formed in her hand.

Fallon turned to Dacia with fury blazing in her eyes. “What the fuck are you doing?”

She took a step back and held up the sphere.
“I put him in a soul prison. He can’t get out. He’s old. The fire may or may not have killed him. I’ll give Malachi to the Council once we free everyone.”

“
You should have just killed him,” Brody snarled.

She nodded
. “Yeah, but I’m not as good as Fallon. I’d rather imprison him, than let him kill me when I get too close.”

“
Good point.” Fallon took a shaky breath and turned back to Brody. “Let’s figure out the chains.” She brushed her fingertips over his raw skin. “I’ll get you out of these, baby.” She searched the binds with her eyes and hands. “Robert, is there a lock I’m not seeing?”

“
No, they’re fae enchanted,” the mage answered. “I don’t have a clue.”

Dacia stepped closer to Slater and held up her dagger
. “I think this might work. Do you trust me?”

Slater snorted
. “Just be careful.”

She nodded, and started to cut through a chain. When she burned through a link, she turned to Fallon.
“I think your blades should work. The magic on yours are a hell of a lot stronger than this.”

“
Hold still, Brody,” she told him, and pulled out one of her blades. She quickly sliced through each one. As soon as his arms were free, he pulled her into his embrace. He didn’t know what to say, he was just glad she was all right.

She stepped back and avoided his eyes as she went back to work on the chains.

When he looked over, he found Slater halfway free, sagging against the wall, dragging in ragged breaths. Dacia made quick work of the chains but Fallon finished with Brody’s first and moved to Robert.

Brody leaned heavily against the wall. The cuts from the chains only burned worse as his adrenaline faded.

“You okay, Fallon?” Robert asked her softly.

She just nodded, not looking at him either. Brody wanted to help her but knew he couldn’t use her blades. Dacia had finished with Slater who slumped to the floor, and moved on to Preston.

“How bad are you hurt?” Brody asked Slater.

“
Just scratched up,” he muttered, but Brody could see his scratches healing now that he was free. There were red welts from where the chains had touched his skin, but that was the worst of the alpha’s damage.

Brody ran a hand over his chest and felt the where his skin was torn and raw. He hurt everywhere, but not as much as his heart ached for Fallon.

He heard Fallon sniffle. When he looked up he saw her run the back of her hand over her face. “Sorry,” she muttered and went back to work on the last of Robert’s chains. Once the mage was free, Brody pulled her close.

“
Hey, look at me, Fallon.” Brody said, and she did, but her eyes were wet and her lips trembled. He smiled back at her. “Baby, you fought, you won. Are you okay? Are you hurt?” She shook her head and he cradled her against his chest where she melted into him.

“
I suppose I owe you an apology,” Preston muttered. When he looked up he realized the mage was talking to Dacia as she cut the last chain free.

“
For what?” she asked snidely.

“
Assuming you ditched us.”

“
I probably deserved worse. It couldn’t have looked good.”

Fallon shook her head but didn’t move away from Brody’s embrace.
“Slater, do you have any idea where the others are?”

“
Not far.”

Dacia answered,
“They aren’t. Just down the hall. When I was sure we couldn’t beat them, I took to the wind to find another way. Tomahawk is in bad shape, but everyone else is probably pretty close to okay by now. I did what I could for them.”

“
Then we should get going,” Slater said.

Dacia turned to
the trunk and pulled Fallon’s leathers out. “You might want these.” She tossed them and a towel to Fallon. “Your cat is recovering from the jolt you gave him.”

Gritting her teeth, she wiped off the blood and shot Isaac a deadly look.
“He’s not my fucking cat.” She pulled her leathers on.

Brody was surprised to see Dacia retrieve
a canvas bag from the same trunk in the corner. “Here. I think I gathered all the wolves clothes. You’ve all been out for hours.” She tossed the bag to Slater. “I wanted to intervene sooner, but I had to wait for an opening that wouldn’t make the situation worse.”

Brody and Slater dressed quickly.

Dacia turned to Fallon. “You really aren’t burned?”

“
No, I was shielding myself from the fire, but I don’t think I could have shielded them.” She shifted her gaze to Brody. “I’m still groggy. I don’t know how I managed any of that.”

Brody smiled a little.
“You woke up, and then fought when I told you to. You saved my ass again.”

* * * *

Fallon did as he asked. Hell, she could heal silver damage on him. A smile curved her lips. They were meant to be together. She slid her hands under his shirt, over the raw bloody welts where he fought against the silver chains, and sang softly.

“
Don’t.” He covered her hands, his lids dropping low. “Save your strength. I’ll be fine.” She jerked her hands free and fixed him with a glare before continuing on. The welts faded, and she felt most of the tension leave his muscles.

Winding his arms around her, he growled into her hair,
“Stubborn woman.”

She felt a thousand times better in his embrace
.

“
Don’t try to argue with her. You could have given yourself silver poisoning with the way you tore yourself up.” Slater muttered.

Preston snorted
. “Brody’s right though, Fallon. You need to conserve some energy because we aren’t done yet.”

“
I know.” She stepped away from her man, crossing her arms over her chest, but her hands were still trembling. “We need us all operational and I still have the drug in my system.” She looked up at Brody. Goddess, if he hadn’t been able to wake her?

Isaac came to with a vengeance.
“You fucking bastard,” he screamed and slammed right into Dacia’s shield. A pulse of energy knocked him back. “She’s mine.”

“
No.” Fallon spun around, the air around her charging. She could hear the crackle of electricity dancing at her fingertips. “I was never yours.”

She touched the shield and it fell like a shattered sheet of glittering glass. Isaac leapt up, and barreled toward her. He grabbed her arms, but Fallon placed both hands on his chest and pushed her power into him. He stumbled back, convulsing as he fell. She landed on his chest, never stopping the flow of energy.

“How dare you claim to love me after what you tried to do. You’re a fucking piece of shit,” she snarled.

“
You. Are. My. Mate. Mine!” Isaac managed to throw his arms up, shoving her arms away and breaking her spell. He rolled her over, and her head slammed into the ground as he covered her with his body. She felt his beast rise as he started the change.

Before she could get her bearings, Isaac was thrown from her and she watched as Brody leapt past her. She rolled to her side at the sound of Brody’s howl and Isaac’s answering roar.

Brody sat on Isaac’s chest, beating the shit out of him. Blood flew, bones crunched, until Isaac went limp. Brody ripped Isaac’s throat out with a growl and threw his trachea across the room.

“
Here.” Dacia threw her dagger and Brody caught it hilt first. He decapitated the weretiger before stumbling back.

Fallon sat up slowly, holding her pounding head.
“Thank you,” she whispered to Brody and hoped he understood she meant for everything.

Brody picked her up, and gently set her on her feet. He gently touched the back of her head and she jerked away from the sting.
“You’ve got a knot.

She nodded and saw tracers, but ignored the pain. They didn’t have time to worry about her head.
“We need to get the others. I can sense Shadowstalkers and a shitload of Others, all different kinds.”

Robert nodded.
“We need to get you guys out of here before calling the Council to clean up.”

Dacia hurried out, and everyone followed her into the stone corridor.

Fallon could feel the shadows coming. “Duck,” she whispered. They did, and she took a deep breath to pull in the dark energy. Nausea rolled through her, but she flung her arms out and channeled the magic into a wave directed at the vampires.

Three Shadowstalkers materialized, their shadows fading as they stumbled back.

Robert and Preston took over. They stood and threw their hands up, and fire streamed from their palms. All three vampires disintegrated into ash before they could get back to their feet.

“
This way.” Dacia said. She led them down the hall and opened a door into a corridor that seemed to go on forever.

There were cells lining the walls for as far as Fallon could see. The first one had shiny silver bars and the wolves were huddled in the middle of the cell, still naked. The one across from them held Hayden and Tomahawk, and the bars were dull but she could feel the pulse of wards. Tomahawk was in bad shape, his skin was ashen, and his bloodied shirt was wrapped around his shoulder
in strips. Hayden sat on a cot, his wrists shackled in front of him, and he looked pissed.

“
Thank God you’re here,” one of the wolves said.

“
We’ll get you out, just be quiet,” Slater whispered.

“
I can close Tom’s wounds.” Fallon leaned against the wall, she was close to exhaustion. “But it won’t be pretty.”

Dacia gave her wide eyes.
“After what you did for Brody, you can’t fix Tom all the way?”

She shrugged.
“I don’t know why I can heal Brody like that. Ask Rob, I suck at healing.”

Robert chuckled.
“Because you’re mated to him. You can fix damn near anything for him.”

“
Right,” Dacia said. “Well I can heal Tom well enough to get him out of here without wiping myself out.” She easily picked the lock. Preston used a spell to open the other door. “Tom?” Dacia moved to his side.

“
Thought you bailed on us.” He groaned.

“
I’m here aren’t I?” She peeled the impromptu bandage out of the way and placed her hands on him. In matter of seconds she closed the hole in his shoulder.

Tom’s eyes rolled into his head as he sighed in relief.
“That feels about a million times better. But when the hell did you start healing?”

Dacia sighed.
“Most fae can do some form of healing. I’m sure Hayden would have been able to do the same if he weren’t shackled with enchantments.”

Slater tossed the canvas bag at the wolves.
“Dacia brought your clothes. Get dressed so we can get out of here.” The wolves did, but Fallon turned her attention to the Sheriff who looked awfully ticked.