Repairer of the Breach (Stones of Fire Book 4) by Sarah Ashwood (reading eggs books .TXT) 📗

took point, leaning her weight into the silvery bar, pushing the door open. The Talos braced in case an alarm should go off, but there was no keypad on the wall next to the door, so hopefully any alarm systems were meant to keep people—shifters—from coming in, not going out.

He couldn’t believe their luck as she ushered them outside into the cool night without incident. The cop must have been thinking the same thing as she maneuvered the thigh high slit in her now not-so-pristine evening gown and slid her weapon back into its holster.

“Shee, we got lucky there,” she whistled.

She spoke too soon.

The Talos heard the displacing of air, the flap of powerful wings, the sound of a descent. He craned his neck to glance back over his shoulder in time to see the winged shifter descending in some type of bird form with a lizard’s head and body, looking almost like one of those flying dinosaurs in the dinosaur park movies.

“Look out,” the cop exclaimed, but there wasn’t time to look out. Ellie was on the shoulder closest to the enemy. There was only time to raise his forearm and brace himself for impact.

He got his arm up in the nick of time, grunting as the flying shifter struck. His bronze arm absorbed most of the impact, but his attacker’s weight scooted him back several paces. Even as the shifter struck, he flung out the same hand, reaching for its neck. It screeched as his bronze fingers closed around its slender throat. In one motion he caught the thing and threw his arm and body weight in an arc, flinging it off him and away from Ellie. The shifter flapped its wings as it hurtled through the air, screeching, managing to regain equilibrium and escape colliding with the pavement. It was quick, Carter would give it that. In an instant, it was back in the air, squawking, either in anger or trying to warn other guards. But only for an instant. The next thing he knew a shot rang out, and the shifter dropped like a sack of potatoes, dead on the damp pavement, a bullet through its lizard head.

He didn’t have time to observe the transformation from shifter to human in an effort to ascertain if it was somebody he knew, because another shot rang out and a second flying shifter fell from the sky.

“Behind you!” shouted the cop. The Talos heard the terror in her voice. He spun to look in the direction she’d indicated. His heart sank to his guts.

Chapter Eleven

His initial thought was of the scene in the old classic film, the Wizard of Oz, when the Wicked Witch let loose the flying monkeys. That was how bad it looked; how big the swarm of flying shifters was. Inwardly, the Talos swore. He should have known. On some level, he likely had known. He’d simply been so focused on getting Ellie out that he’d more or less hoped Nosizwe wouldn’t have gone the extra mile, taken the additional precautions. Of course she would have. She hadn’t gotten where she was by being an idiot, either in her human entertainer’s career or her upward ascent as leader of a shapeshifter gang.

Security inside the warehouse may have been a bit lax, seeing as how there was one human cop, disarmed, handcuffed to a post. Had he and Ellie not returned to the same spot the Stones were, it was doubtful Detective Ewing would have been capable of freeing herself, given the circumstances. Security outside the building, however…that was quite another thing. Nobody was getting in or out of that place. Unfortunately, many, if not all, of Nosizwe’s followers would have recognized the Talos on sight, since there were no other shifters like him. He was Carter Ballis. He was the Talos. He was a major threat. And he wasn’t passing unchallenged.

Two of the winged shifters had already been dropped by the detective, with dead eye shots through the head. His human side admired her accuracy, as well as her presence of mind under pressure. She’d be a solid addition to his own security team if he could get her to break ranks and join it.

Somehow, he doubted that would happen.

Anyway, no time for such reckonings. There was only time to act, and Carter did, rolling his shoulder to drop Ellie to the pavement. She might wind up with a bump to the head or a couple of bruises, but that was a far cry better than winding up ripped apart by fangs and talons. Mentally, he calculated even as he moved. The cop had spent two shots. She had thirteen left. He had his SIG, still fully loaded. It was too bad Ellie was passed out, since she could handle a weapon. He could have used her, could have given her his gun and let the women shoot while he took on their attackers physically. Unfortunately, he didn’t have her. Instead, he had to protect her.

He stepped over his wife’s inert form as he drew his gun from its holster, raised it, and fired. Behind him, he felt the cop move into position, also straddling Ellie, her back to his. Together, they formed a shield of defense over the unconscious woman, while also guarding each other’s backs. Echoes of their shots bounced off the warehouse walls and reverberated through the back alley. The flashes of gunfire lit up the gloomy lanes between buildings like lightning bugs in a twilight field.

Each shot had to count, and it did. In rapid succession, a half-dozen more flying shifters dropped to the ground, but there were still too many. He heard Detective’s Ewing’s groan.

“We’re going to use up our ammo and they’ll still be coming,” she said.

One shifter got under the line of fire, dropping close enough to rake its talons across his shoulder. The Talos ducked. The shifter raised, but so did he. It was fast enough to wound him, but not fast enough to avoid the hand