“Who are they? Have they made any demands?”

Sophie shook her head. “They haven’t. They just rolled up to the gates and opened fire.”

Helena made a call and ordered her people to run the plates. Faine took film of the situation and emailed it to the Gennessee office.

“I’m going to shift. Cover me.” Sophie got her clothes off and in a blink she was a large, honey-colored wolf.

“Go left, along the wall. I’m going to take out this nearest truck.” Helena drew more power. “They just tossed the dead guy off and there’s another one now. The ones near the gates will be bleeding out the ass for a while, if they’re still alive. But we need to deal with those mounted guns.”

She turned to the others. “You, if you get in that tree over there, you can use magick to short out their engines. I’m going to try something with the guns. I need a distraction because I need to be closer. I’d prefer not to take a bullet the size of a small dog if I can help it.”

“No jokes,” Faine growled at her. “I’ll shift. I can jump the fence easily.”

“No. What I want to do . . . well, everyone needs to be behind me. Cover me. You’re handy with a weapon.”

And then she took off her shoes and began to pull magick, spooling it up at a rate he figured was pretty alarming given the way the nearby witches gaped at her.

“Go on!” He waved at them. “Get in place or this is for nothing.” Once they’d all run off he got in Helena’s face. “I know you’re going to do something scary. And I’m not happy. I get it, I know why. But you’d better not end up dead, Helena. I mean it.”

Her eyes were otherworldly now. The power arcing off her skin. The hair on his arms stood straight up.

“I got this. And stay behind me.”

“Give me a forty-five-second lead. I need to lay down some fire and the rest just got into position.”

She nodded and he had no choice but to put her immediate safety from his mind.

Helena’s heart raced and her mind reeled. She’d never brought so much power into herself, not even when she stopped that bomb. But something about her link to Faine had grounded her. She felt the power rushing through her, knew it could burn her out and leave her brain-dead. But she held the reins.

She gave him his forty-five seconds and gunfire began to fill the air. She blocked it all out except to be sure to stay out of the line of their fire. Her focus was on the two remaining trucks and the deafening percussion of the chunk, chunk, chunk of the bullets hitting the pavement and the walls of nearby buildings.

They saw her coming and she let it go. Let them see her full of magick. Let herself be the monster they were frightened enough of that they’d attack a neighborhood filled with innocents.

They’d tried education. They’d tried diplomacy. They’d even fought back and used threats. But PURITY and their buddies kept coming. They would keep coming until all the Others were dead because that’s the only thing PURITY wanted.

So she’d be sure they understood if they wanted that, it would be their bodies at the morgue.

She raised her hands and drew more power. The city had its own sort of energy and she pulled it from the people, from the buildings and cars, from the stored energy in the roads and sidewalks. She drew from the Font as well.

And then she spoke, and turned it on them. Focused on those guns. Made it hot. Made it so hot she knew the metal was softening. She heard a scream. Heard yells to get back. But they shot at her. Before she could shift and shield herself, three bullets tore through her thigh. Her hip was shattered with a fourth.

But she kept standing. Kept sending power at them until the screams stopped. Until the bullets stopped. Until she couldn’t stand anymore and her legs buckled.

The ringing in her ears lasted a while. Faine picked her up, holding her against his body. His heart beat so fast she worried. She knew he was yelling her name, but she couldn’t hear. She just put her finger on his lips and shook her head.

She said, “I’m going to live.”

He frowned and she knew he growled but she couldn’t hear it. Couldn’t hear the sirens. Then the police came with the FBI and they tried to arrest everyone, including the people inside the enclave.

She could sort of hear at that point as one of the enclave medics packed the wounds on her leg.

“No.” She shouted this from where she lay in a pool of her own blood. “If you come in here with weapons drawn, we will defend ourselves.”

“Like you did with these humans?” The cop waved at the molten metal and the mass of bodies.

“Yes. We did nothing wrong. They came here, they attacked. They shot us, they tried to harm children. We told you what would happen. And you kept it up. You kept on and on until we had no other choice. You brought this on yourself. We will not let you harm our young. We will not. So you need to figure out who the enemy is here and act accordingly.”

Her lips tingled.

Gil Anderson shoved his way to the front. “Christ, Helena. Why is it that every time I see you, you’re covered in blood? Stand down. Let the ambulances in. This is a crime scene, let’s get on it.”

“She needs a hospital.” Faine wouldn’t let go of her.

“Yeah, I think I do.” It was harder and harder to talk.

A paramedic approached. “We’re going to get you loaded up and to the hospital, ma’am.” He smiled. “I’m a witch too. I promise to take good care of you. Your, um, guy can ride along.”

“You should stay here and manage the scene. Let the clan know what’s happening.”

The heat of morphine traveled up her arm and through her body. “Oh, that’s nice.”

Faine frowned. “I’m not leaving you. Sophie can handle this from here. I’ll make calls on the way.”

They loaded her into the ambulance and she was only going to let her eyes close once, but it was very hard to get them back open.

So she gave Faine orders with her eyes closed. But it seemed like once she closed her eyes it was really a lot harder to talk.

He bent down and kissed lips that were far too pale. If he didn’t have the link with her and her life force hadn’t been so strong, he’d have been far more panicked than he was.

And it was already pretty bad. The smell of her blood and pain drove his beast so close to the surface he’d had to struggle harder than he had in centuries to keep it back.

He called Gennessee and told David what was going on. David assured him they’d handle everything and to just focus on Helena. He said Rain would meet them at the hospital.

He called Lark.

“Lark, it’s Faine. Helena . . .”

His voice must have betrayed him worse than he’d thought because she gasped. “What? Oh my goddess, what?”

“She’s been shot. Four times. She’s lost a great deal of blood. Your mother will meet us at the hospital in case she needs a transfusion. There’s more. The enclave was stormed. She used her magick. I’m frankly not even sure what she did, but none of them will be a threat ever again. I need to go, we’re arriving at the hospital now. Your dad has more details.”

“I’m coming down. Take care of her.” Lark hung up and he turned back to his female, covered in blood and drugged to the gills.

Chapter 27

SHE came to several hours later.

Faine rested, his head on her bed. Her hospital bed. She remembered then what had happened.

He looked up, a weary smile on his face. “You’re awake.”

“I am. I guess I’m alive huh?

“You’re forbidden to joke about such things.”

“Is everyone all right? At the enclave?”

“One of the guards got out of surgery about twenty minutes ago. They’re saying he’s got a good chance of survival. Other guards surround this room and this wing of the hospital. You were shot four times. Your hip is shattered so they’re going to have to replace it. You lost a great deal of blood. Your mother gave you a lot of hers.”