Running with Rogues

CHAPTER 3 - SIEGE

Unconvinced, Nia pulled my head forwards so she could look at the back, which felt sticky and warm. "No, you're concussed. Stay still."

Heal. Heal. Every second felt like a lifetime while you waited for the healing to kick in ... for the pain to turn into itching. Our healing abilities were both a blessing and curse: pain never lasted long, but we were quick to mutilate each other because of it.

"Dammit, Eva," Lily sighed. She touched the tear in her arm and frowned at her bloodied fingertips. It was only an inch wide and not very deep, so I didn't have much sympathy. "What happened to watching our backs?"

I tried to look ashamed of myself, really, but I was having trouble feeling anything except annoyance and the chaffing of my damaged pride. "Yeah, my bad."

"I should've told her to sweep upstairs," Nia cut across. "But we don't have time to point fingers."

"Shit," Devin muttered. He kicked the unconscious man — twice, and not gently. "Shit, guys. There's no way he didn't mind-link someone. What are we going to do?"

"Well, first, we're going to remember how to behave like decent bloody unhuman beings," Nia said, one eyebrow raised. "Step the hell back. Good. You'll carry the woman, and I'll give you a bruise for every one I find on her afterwards."

Her wolf was out, and his wolf was a coward, so he dropped her stare like a hot brick. Before her eyes had even swirled back to hazel, he was squeezing past her to reach the pack woman. The way he eased her onto his shoulder, you'd think she was made of sugar glass.

Nia nodded her approval. "Now run for the border. Lily, go with him. Eva and I are going to stay here and distract the reinforcements. Worst case, we'll leave the woman and try again tomorrow."

Lily scowled. She didn't want to go, I reckoned, but she knew we didn't have time to stand here and argue about it. So she just grabbed her mate by the collar, kissed her hard, and followed Devin out of the house. They couldn't go very fast while he carried one hundred and twenty pounds of dead weight — it would be walking and jogging.

So we had to delay the pursuit by thirty minutes ... somehow.

Nia stared at the place where Lily had been for an undue amount of time. Those two were unusual in that they had been dating before they knew they were mates, and I wasn't sure I had ever seen them argue. They'd been attached at the hip since we'd first found Lily sleeping in a ditch at the age of thirteen. It wasn't like them to separate willingly, even for strategic reasons.

When Nia was done staring, she rolled the unconscious packling over and used her belt to tie his hands behind his back, just in case he decided to wake up. Then she took my belt, too, and used it to lash a handkerchief over the hole in my leg, despite my protests. Afterwards, Nia sat down across from me, our legs tangled in the middle of the corridor.

"You sent Lily away because you want her safe," I said matter-of-factly. "And this ain't the safe place to be, is it?"

Nia snorted without looking at me, a crooked grin stealing across her face. "Do you want safe, Eva? If you do, now's the time to tell me."

"Are you shitting me? Do you reckon I'd have gotten tattooed if I wanted to be safe?"

I had done more than just get the tattoo. I had spent months saving for it, I'd spent two days running to the nearest town, and I'd had some stranger ink New Haven onto my skin half a year before my eighteenth birthday. Half a year before it was allowed. And I'd got caught, inevitably. This stint with Nia was my punishment — two long months away from Rhodri and Liam. So no, I hadn't just gotten the tattoo. I'd wanted it desperately, and I'd suffered for it.