My hand hit the switch, and I saw the wolf lunge.
He didn’t lunge for me, though.
He lunged at the man that I’d thought was unconscious.
He obviously wasn’t because he was now on his knees.
He didn’t get far, though, before the wolf, and yes, it sure as fuck was a wolf, hit him like a battering ram.
The man went down onto his back as the wolf went for his neck.
I threw the illusion out, not wanting to lose my witness or the information I could get out of him, and the wolf ceased immediately.
This time I kept the illusion up while I picked up the man, grimacing at the pain in my arm, and tossed him into the laundry basket.
I followed suit with the wolf, laughing when the breath left the man, and walked to the unit in the corner where Brooklyn was still lying.
She wasn’t surprised to see me, though, as her eyes lit on me.
I raised a brow, wondering how she’d been able to slip through my illusion, and promptly found a hundred and thirty-five-pound woman in my arms, knocking me back a step.
“You’re okay,” I said.
“Your arm,” she said worriedly.
I held on to her, even though I knew she wanted to look.
“Let me look,” she ordered.
Perdita, come to the back entrance and get us, I said.
10-10, Captain.
I rolled my eyes.
“Did she just say 10-10?” Brooklyn asked.
I nodded. “She doesn’t understand what that means…she tries, though.”
I gently placed Brooklyn down on her feet, and she winced only slightly.
“Okay?” I asked.
She nodded. “It still hurts. But I think it’s okay.”
I dropped to my knees and inspected her leg, amazed that it didn’t look like a thing had changed.
The bite was no more, and her leg looked completely normal.
“Shit,” I said. “Shit.”
“What?” she asked worriedly, leaning over to look down.
“There’s nothing there. God, I was so worried,” I said, moving back up. “I think Angus was wrong. I think that Perdita’s powers did help you, kind of like why I heal so fast. It just doesn’t work like the healing does because it’s a toxin and not a physical injury. I want to say you’ll be fine.”
She nodded.
“That’s what I’ve come up with as well. I’m lucky.”
I agreed.
She was.
Very much so.
“Let’s go. I have some questions I want to ask the man that took you, and the longer you stay here, the more possibilities we have of getting caught,” I explained.
She nodded in understanding and limped slightly at my side, following me to the laundry basket.
“Do you think that’s hurting him?” she asked, looking down into the basket.
The wolf had a large, clawed foot planted against the man’s face, and deep red marks were starting to form from the rough handling of the man.
“I don’t give a flying fuck if it’s hurting him or not. What I do give a fuck about is him waking up before I’ve gotten him secured; so let’s go,” I said.***Brooklyn
We moved, him with one arm pushing the huge cart, and the other arm wrapped around my waist.
I gave him more of my weight than I ever intended and walked/limped out of the basement.
He pushed into an alley two minutes later, and I gasped when the first thing I saw was a massive dragon snout.
“Shit!” I said, my heart pounding in surprise.
You did well, Perdita said. No freaking out. No crying. No girling out at all.
I laughed and walked forward, gasping when a dragon appeared directly beside Perdita with Blythe and Keifer on his back.
“Jesus,” I said, gasping in a shaky breath. “Can’t y’all warn a sister?”
Keifer blinked.
“What?” he asked.
Blythe snickered and scooted off Declan’s back and walked up to me.
Once she was within reaching distance, she grabbed me up in a strong hug and started to cry into my shirt.
“You’re getting my boobs wet,” I said, patting her back awkwardly.
Keifer and Nikolai snorted, Blythe laughed and hugged me tighter, rubbing her face along my breasts.
That was the thing about a best friend.
They made your other friends and family question your sexuality.
And I could see interest flare in Keifer and Nikolai’s eyes as they took in the scene.
“Uhh,” I said to Blythe. “Could you stop? You’re giving the guys something to think about that they’ll never be getting.”
Blythe snorted and let me go, walking over to Keifer and burying her face between his pecs, doing the same thing she’d just done to me, only less successfully seeing as Keifer had pecs and not breasts.
“I got a man for the guys to question.”
Keifer grunted.
“I’ll bring them home. They’re obviously needed more here than there anyway. Plus, they’ve been bitching to come home since the moment we left,” Keifer grunted.
I vaguely wondered who ‘guys’ were, but decided to question it later when I had a better hold on my ability to keep my eyes open.
I was fading fast now that the adrenaline wasn’t pumping through my bloodstream to keep me awake.