Deathtrap (Crossbreed #3)(30)

I, on the other hand, wasn’t healing as quickly.

Christian’s fangs were out, and he balled up his hands into fists. “I had the bastard. Had him right in my hands!”

Wyatt jogged up, wheezing and out of breath. “Son of a ghost. That was the craziest thing I’ve ever seen!”

I glanced back. Shepherd ambled toward us like the walking dead, and he looked green.

Christian ripped the license plate off the vehicle and flung it at Wyatt. “Look that up in your database. See if the shitebag is registered.”

Snowflakes eddied around us from the changing wind direction, and a few caught in Christian’s dark hair and beard. He turned away to retrieve my dagger.

“Are you okay?” Wyatt asked, his eyes scanning my body in disbelief. “For a minute there, I thought you were going to be my new haunt.”

Still in shock and denial that I might have internal bleeding, I summoned a smile. “Just a scratch.”

What I couldn’t figure out was why the Mage hadn’t tried to kill us. If he was hiding something, wouldn’t he have taken the opportunity to do us in? That was what I would have done in his shoes.

Wyatt twirled the license plate and pointed it at me. “Stay here, Evel Knievel, while I get the car.”

He spun on his heel and hurried toward Shepherd.

Christian swaggered up, my dagger in hand.

“Why didn’t you kill him?” I asked.

“On what grounds? Assholery? If that’s the case, then more men must die.” Christian handed me my dagger and touched my cheek. “Jaysus. You’re like ice.” He shucked off his coat and then stripped off his sweater, putting it over my head.

I tried to lift my right arm, but pain shot down every nerve ending. His body heat was still in the threads, and I sighed a little when he put his coat around my shoulders. I knew he was right about killing the guy. Viktor had hired me for my instincts and bravery, but part of the deal meant controlling my impulse to kill. It was like teaching a hunter how to capture and release.

Christian held my gaze for a moment and tapped my chin. “You’ll live.”

“I can’t feel my face.”

He suddenly snapped his gaze up at the overpass. Before I could utter a word, Christian hauled me off the ground with one arm and spun around. The world moved in slow motion as a thunderclap of metal and concrete drew my eyes skyward. My jaw slackened when a large truck plummeted off the overpass above us.

With me in one arm, Christian bolted toward the wall and dove to the ground. The truck crashed on top of the car, smashing it to pieces just feet away from us. The back end broke apart, releasing an explosion of small boxes. They hit the road, some cascading over the ledge. Individual packages had burst free, showering the pavement with plastic-wrapped chocolate.

Wyatt jogged onto the scene and fell to his knees, a mountain of MoonPies surrounding him. “Jackpot!”

Christian pushed away from me and stood up.

I stared at the open driver’s side door and empty cab. “That bastard came all the way back to kill us with sugar.”

A tire rolled off the truck and zipped past Shepherd. He stopped short and surveyed the carnage. Wyatt had jammed a MoonPie into his mouth while stacking the undamaged boxes.

Christian offered me his hand and helped me up. We stood amid twisted metal, chocolate, and an open gas line spilling fuel onto the road.

Shepherd kicked one of the packages with the tip of his boot and stuffed his hands into his pockets. “This looks like something we’ll have to deny later.”



I stared bleary-eyed across the room, keeping my focus on Blue to distract myself from the pain. She was sitting at Wyatt’s desk, focusing her attention on dual monitors. I’d been lying on the sofa for a half hour in the exact same position.

“Where’s Shepherd?” Blue asked, expanding a window on one of the monitors.

Wyatt hauled another MoonPie box into the room and shoved it under his desk. “Probably hugging the toilet and regretting his life choices. Boy, you really missed out. You should have seen Raven riding on the roof of that car. It was out of sight.”

“Is that so?” she said flatly.

Wyatt bounced on his heels while admiring the smaller snack cartons on the floor. “I’m too wired to sleep. After I run a check on these plates, I’ll take over and relieve you of your duties.”

“That’s a sugar high you’re feeling,” she pointed out. “Don’t count on it lasting all night. I’ve got this until Christian takes over. How many of those things did you eat?”

Wyatt put his hands on his hips. “I don’t think I like your judgmental tone.”

“File a complaint.”

Since we didn’t have any bodies to clean up at the accident scene on the highway, we’d skipped out. Christian said our Mage must have had second thoughts about issuing us a warning, so he hijacked a truck and ran it off the road to drive his point home.

The only thing that drove home were all those MoonPies.

Wyatt had stuffed as many as he could cram into his tiny trunk and the floorboards, and we each had cartons on our laps. Shepherd balked about it, but since Wyatt was the one driving and offered to leave any complainers behind, we quit arguing and got the hell out of there before someone called the state troopers.

Niko entered the room, Christian following close behind. He stopped for a moment and appeared to be looking around.