Steal the Night (Thieves #5)(157)

“Is that a good thing?” I asked, following Marcus closely.

“We weren’t going out that way, Zoey.” Marcus raised his voice so I could hear him over the sounds of metal against metal and the reports of gunfire. Those sounds I could handle. It was the wet sounds that were making me sick. A body makes some horrible sounds when it’s torn apart or someone shoves a claw through the soft portions of it. The groans and moans of pain and death made me wish I could be anywhere but here. “Zoey, get your head down.”

I ducked as something, a knife, I think, flew past my head. “Which way are we going?”

Marcus seemed slightly annoyed with my questions, or maybe it was the arrow that almost took his patrician nose off. “Damn Fae. Why can’t they join the modern age?” He pointed to a small door on the other side of the arena. “It leads to a series of tunnels. We can get back into the residential section from there.”

“Is that where Neil is?”

“Yes, cara,” Marcus replied, picking up the pace. “He’s waiting for you. I found him surprisingly willing to stay out of the fight.”

Marcus maneuvered me to the side of the arena. We clung to the walls, and suddenly he pushed me down into a crouch. I shrank against the cold stone as Marcus took a couple of shots at a vampire coming our way. I looked out over Marcus’s broad shoulders and saw that it was David. He was bigger than Marcus and a warrior to boot. Marcus shot him four times and the big vamp just kept coming. His fangs were huge and his claws out. There was blood pouring from his burly chest, but that wouldn’t matter if he managed to get his hands on me. My blood would heal him quite nicely, and I could see by the look in his eyes that he had certainly thought of that.

Marcus cursed and pushed me back, covering my body with his. He tossed the gun aside and pulled a silver knife. He would try to impale the vampire on it but I didn’t think it was such a great idea to let that vampire get close. One small piece of silver seemed like very little defense against the super-strong warrior.

Just as David’s claws came forward, there was a long howl and David’s big body was knocked aside as a huge gray wolf leapt on him. His teeth were embedded in the vampire’s neck before David had a chance to react. Blood coated the wolf’s fur as Trent refused to give up his hold. He was savage and he used his sharp teeth to work on the vampire’s flesh. David struggled but he’d lost a lot of blood to Marcus’s bullets and his limbs moved limply as Trent applied all the pressure of his strong jaws to his prey. There was a loud crack as Trent finally broke the vampire’s neck and proceeded to chew his way through to the other side. I’d never seen a wolf behead a vampire using only his teeth, but Trent seemed to think of it as old hat. I wondered what kind of training sessions John McKenzie conducted.

David turned to ash in front of me. All that was left was his bloody clothes, a wicked-looking semiautomatic pistol, and a silver dagger with the hilt wrapped in leather so he could hold it. I wondered why he hadn’t used the weapons, but then I had seen the blood lust in his eyes. Sometimes when the blood was thick in the air, vampires went a little crazy. David’s only thought had been to get to me. It gave me the chills. Trent used his nose to shove the weapons toward us. Marcus leaned down to pick up the pistol but Trent growled a warning.

“I think he wants me armed,” I said to Marcus and I picked up the gun. I flicked the safety off and palmed the knife, too.

Trent growled at Marcus again and then gave me the same treatment.

“I know, I know,” I said. “We’ll stay out of trouble.” He gave me another light growl and then a bark. I used my pointy finger on him because we needed to settle who was boss here and now. “Don’t you use that tone with me. I speak wolf. We’ll be fine. Go. Kill something else.”

Trent barked and it sounded like he was amused. Then he was off, his gray coat lost in the fray. Marcus slipped his hand into mine and started walking, clinging to the sidelines. I let my eyes roam as my feet followed Marcus. I tried to see where Daniel and Dev fought. I caught the briefest glimpse of Devinshea. He was plowing through a group of shifters with his P90. I watched as his brother covered him and he pulled a grenade out of the pockets on his flak jacket. He dislodged the pin and lobbed it deep into enemy territory. There was an enormous explosion and my faery prince looked thrilled with the destruction.

Daniel was in the thick of everything. I could barely see him for the throng of people fighting around him. I saw Excalibur moving, but Daniel was a bit of a blur. I noted that the sand around him was already soaked in blood. Daniel would be wading through it soon.

I felt a little sick at the death all around me. Everywhere I looked a fresh horror was being played out. War, no matter the righteousness of it, was simply a terrible thing to be caught in. I averted my eyes from a group of Unseelie goblins who were pulling apart a vampire. I thought it might be Niles. As much as I had hated that Brit, I wouldn’t have wished quite so awful a fate on him.

“Are you all right?” Marcus asked.

I was pretty sure I’d gone pale at the thought of the people I loved being in that mess of chaos and death. My hand went to my stomach. I really didn’t want my babies stuck out here. I suddenly thought of something I hadn’t before.

“They can all see me, can’t they?” I asked as we crouched down to avoid another volley of gunfire. Marcus covered my head with his torso.