"There"s some kind of obstruction," Nikolas shouted back. "I"m going to have to climb up to clear it."
As they watched, he reached up to grab hold of something high inside, and he levered himself up until he had completely disappeared.
"Go on inside now," Gawain told Sophie as he took the handles of the wheelbarrow. "No need for you to get any wetter."
She had to raise her voice to make herself heard over the rain. "What are you doing?"
"Gathering as much wood as I can," he replied. "I found a couple of deadfall trees earlier in the north copse. They"re already down. They just need to be harvested."
"Are you crazy?" she said as lightning flashed overhead. "This is turning into a serious storm."
"It"s not my first storm, la.s.s," he said, giving her a wink. "Nor will it be my last. We need as much fuel as we can get. Wood will dry out, and so will I."
"Well, when you put it like that." She stepped back out into the deluge. "Let"s go."
Within moments they were soaked to the skin. It had been another long day, and it wasn"t long before exhaustion set it, narrowing her thinking down to the immediate.
Put one foot in front of the other. Stack the wood Gawain chopped. Push the wheelbarrow another yard. Strain built up in her back, shoulder, and arm muscles, and soon the sites of the old gunshot wounds radiated a hot fire. Consumed by misery, she gritted her teeth, ducked her head, and endured it.
Gawain soon stopped trying to chop the wood into neat logs. Instead, he hacked at the deadfall just enough to break it into transportable pieces.
While they worked, lights appeared, shining through the woods. Breathing hard, she paused to stare, and Gawain did too. It was a large vehicle, traveling down the road that led to the front gates.
"Is that good news or bad news?" Her voice had gone hoa.r.s.e.
He dug in his pocket to check the screen of his phone. "The men met up in Telford and got their hands on a lorry. They"re here." In the faint light of the cell phone screen, he looked at her sharply. "We"ll need everybody to get the truck unloaded, but your trick with the colloidal silver won"t work in this downpour."
"No," she said, swiping at the water running off her nose. "But my trick with the nail polish will."
It would also use up the last of her supply. She had enough silver to make more shavings, but she would need more bottles of nail polish, d.a.m.n it. She had never imagined she would use the bottle up so fast, and she hated to let go of it.
Put one step in front of the other. Fix one problem at a time.
Gawain said, "They took a risk, banding together. We"re even more traceable in a group. They never would have done it if they hadn"t been on the move."
As the lorry turned onto the drive and pa.s.sed between the gateposts, Gawain ran toward it while she raced back to the manor house. Dashing inside, she paused to look at the piles of furniture and supplies they had stacked everywhere. The small fire Nikolas had started was a pitiful light source, and it was hard to make things out in the semidarkness.
"Nik, they"re here!" she called out. "Where"s my stuff?"
At first she thought he didn"t hear her, but then in a shower of debris and soot, he landed light as a cat in the huge hearth and scrubbed his face with the bottom of his shirt. "I don"t know. Where did you last set it?"
"I thought I put it over here. We need the nail polish if we"re going to use the null spell in this storm." She jumped onto the settee and rummaged blindly in the shadows behind it. Her questing fingers brushed a hard, pebbled surface she recognized as her suitcase. "Got it!"
While Nikolas stacked more logs on his small test fire, she hauled the suitcase over the back of the settee and wheeled it over to the hearth, where she knelt to open it to rummage through her things. A chill had set in the house with the storm, and fine tremors ran through her muscles. Soon her teeth were chattering. Her body was a ma.s.s of aches and pains.
Then Nikolas walked up. He squatted to wrap a blanket around her. For a moment his arms remained around her torso, then they loosened. "You look like a drowned cat," he said, his eyes both shadowed and lit by the nearby flames. "Stay by the fire and warm up. Gawain and I can spell the men."
She felt spent, and she wasn"t going to argue with him. She located the bottle of nail polish and gave him a pointed look. "Have either you or Gawain ever used nail polish before?"
His eyes narrowed. "I think it"s safe for me to speak for him when I say no."
Giving him an exhausted grin, she slapped the bottle in his hand. "Don"t apply it to wet skin. It takes a few minutes to dry, then you"re good to go. n.o.body should go back out in the rain until their rune is dry to the touch. Gawain and I think the land magic is going to mask the group"s presence when you"re all in the house. I couldn"t sense you in here."
"We"ll double-check when we"re all together, but that"s good to know." He started to rise.
"Nik." She took hold of his wrist, and he paused. Her smile died. "Don"t waste what"s in that bottle. That"s all I"ve got."
He frowned. "Understood."
Lightning flashed overhead, showing through the thick, archaic gla.s.s in the windows and briefly lighting the interior. Nikolas strode across the hall and disappeared outside. Left to herself, she pulled the blanket more tightly around herself and dragged one of the sitting room chairs over as close as she could to the growing fire. From that vantage point, she curled in a ball and watched as several men converged on the doorstep.
Between the distance and the deep shadows, she couldn"t make out many details of the newcomers. They conversed quickly in the area just inside the doors, then one ran outside again. She heard a distant shout, "Can"t sense a thing. We"re good!"
Several of the men looked her way curiously. She could identify Nikolas easily enough. His tall form and catlike grace were indisputable, as he moved through the men, bending over their hands. She knew what he was doing-he was casting the null spell-and she hoped she would have a little of the nail polish left when he was finished.
It was a good thing the land magic didn"t block magic as well as technology. Shifting to get more comfortable, she felt the Glock dig into the small of her back, but she didn"t move to set it aside.
Even though the gun was useless in the house, she wasn"t convinced that she was inside for the night. She was worried about Robin. He was expending so much energy on the storm, and even now, they had to be hunting for him.
After a lull of five to ten minutes, the men exploded into furious activity. They backed the lorry up to the house as close as they could without the engine cutting out. Then while it sat idling, they raced to unload the contents from the back, carrying heavy armloads of supplies into the front hall at a dead run.
Indirect light from the lorry"s headlights lent a sharp, slanting illumination to the scene, bleaching everything into black and white. Out the front double doors, she could see the outlines of the men"s figures working furiously in the driving rain. A couple of them gave her a nod in greeting as they came close, but n.o.body paused to talk. Talking could happen later.
She watched as stacks of supplies grew around her, everything from camping supplies to cases of bottled water, cans of food, boxes of pantry items, and stacks of weaponry. They even brought more fuel-cords of firewood, what looked like bottles of propane, and other things she couldn"t identify from where she sat. As large as the great hall was, it was beginning to resemble an overcrowded warehouse, especially with the Mini and Gawain"s Harley tucked against one wall.
When these men prepared for the possibility of a siege, they weren"t fooling around. She didn"t know if she was comforted by that or disturbed. The reality of their choices was beginning to hit home.
More quickly than she would have thought possible, they finished unloading the lorry. All told, she guessed it had taken them about forty minutes. The men converged again on the doorstep for a quick consult.
"I"ll get rid of the lorry," Nikolas said. "Give me the keys. You all stay here and get dry."
"No need, man," one of the men said, holding up the keys to jingle them. "I got it."
Nikolas turned to him. "Gawain, why don"t you take the bike and go with Ashe? You"ll both get back here faster that way."
"You bet," Gawain said.
Ashe strode outside, and Gawain ran his Harley out the front door. A few moments later, the lorry"s engine revved as it pulled away.
As she watched the exchange, her worry for Robin had grown. Where had the puck gone? How was he creating the storm, and why hadn"t he shown up by now? Pushing out of the armchair, she approached the group of men still standing on the doorstep just as one of them lit an oil lantern and held it high. As one, they turned to look at her.
Nikolas stepped to her side. "Gawain and Ashe are getting rid of the lorry on the other side of town. It shouldn"t take them more than an hour. We should be able to bar the doors well before midnight."
She nodded as she studied the five tall strangers who were studying her with the same amount of curiosity. Like her, they were all soaked to the skin. There was a high probability that one of them would try to kill her.
Nikolas introduced them quickly, and one by one, they stepped forward to shake her hand. She received an impression of each one along with a flurry of names. Braden, Cael, Gareth, Rhys, Thorne, and Rowan.
All of them were taller than she was. Since their Power was muted with the null spell, she couldn"t get a sense of them magically, at least not yet, but every single one moved with the easy, predatory athleticism of an experienced warrior.
The last one, Rowan, was s.e.x personified. His long dark hair fell in a wet tangle around a cynical, handsome face. He had a runner"s build, a sensual mouth, intelligent, brooding eyes, and a rock star"s innate charisma that she felt even through her exhaustion and the damp discomfort of her clothes.
His expression heated with interest as he lingered over shaking her hand.
"Thank you," he said. "Seriously, for everything."
"You"re welcome," she told him. Color her crazy, and she could end up being wrong, but somehow she just knew this scamp wasn"t going to put his hands around her throat and try to choke her to death.
With a neat, decisive move, Nikolas cut between them. He slapped Rowan"s shoulder with a flattened hand, knocking the other man back a step. His hard voice carrying a warning, Nikolas said, "No."
One corner of Rowan"s s.e.xy mouth lifted in a grin as he looked at her around Nikolas. I could make you feel so d.a.m.n good, his bedroom eyes said, while aloud, he drawled, "What do you mean, no? All I was doing was thanking her."
This time using both hands, Nikolas knocked him back another step. "I said no."
"All right, all right!" Laughing, Rowan held up his hands.
Was this merely discipline, or was Nikolas... actually jealous? Sophie couldn"t tell. All she knew was that she felt like smiling for the first time in hours. h.e.l.l, it felt like it had been days. She grinned at Rowan, who gave her a wink as Nikolas turned away from him.
When Nikolas glared at her, she tried to wipe the grin off her face, but she wasn"t fast enough.
What the righteous f.u.c.k, Sophie-no! he snapped telepathically. He looked genuinely infuriated as he growled aloud, "I"m putting my old-timey foot down."
"Old-timey foot...?" one of the other men said blankly. Sophie hadn"t gotten all the names and faces sorted out, but she thought it might be Braden.
It really, truly could be jealousy. She probably shouldn"t feel so delighted since first of all that was insane. She and Rowan had barely exchanged five words together. And secondly, it was insulting.
What did Nikolas think, that she was going to instantly leap at one of his men for s.e.x without even talking first, when they had just made love-had s.e.x-themselves twice in the last twenty-four hours?
Rolling her eyes, she muttered under her breath at him, "You"re crazy," and punctuated it with an emphatic nod.
For a moment Nikolas himself looked like he might be the one to choke her. Half amused, half angry, and totally exasperated, she stepped into his personal s.p.a.ce and stood toe-to-toe with him, daring him silently with her eyebrows up to make good on the fierce warning stamped on his taut features. What are you going to do, Nik? Just, what?
Much to her shock, he snaked an arm around her, blanket and all, which trapped her hands and arms against his chest. Angling his head, he gave her a short, fierce, scorching-hot kiss that flatlined her thinking and wiped away both the anger and the amus.e.m.e.nt.
When he lifted his head again, his eyes were glittering. What a load of primitive c.r.a.p. He had not just staked a claim on her, had he?
By G.o.d, he had.
She ogled Nikolas before she remembered to shut her mouth with a snap. A quick, sneaky glance around told her what she already knew-the other men were staring at them with varying degrees of surprise.
Rowan looked decidedly disappointed. She shrugged. Ah well, if the other man had persisted, she would have just had to turn him down anyway.
He shook his head at her. I would have made it so good for you, the sultry look in his eyes said.
I know, she blinked at him in resigned reply. It is all so very sad.
One of the other men-she thought it was Cael-had turned away from the exchange to look out into the night. "We might have gotten rid of the lorry, but the lawn is so soaked it still left some pretty definitive tracks."
They all gathered at the door to look. Nikolas hadn"t removed his hold on Sophie. Instead, he just shifted his arm to circle her shoulders. While she wasn"t sure what his actions implied other than he was behaving like a dog with a bone, she wasn"t annoyed enough to shrug him away.
The weight of the lorry had torn through the turf, and it had left deep tracks with high ridges. "How much of a problem is that?" she asked. "All that the tracks reveal is that a truck has been here tonight. No one will be able to say why, only that some kind of activity took place here while the ground was wet."
While her tired mind tried to tease out if there were any further potential problems, Nikolas"s arm dropped from her shoulders. He said, "It creates a question and leaves it unanswered, which points to more reason to scrutinize you. We want them to leave you alone if we can possibly manage it. Everyone else has a null spell painted on their hand, so I"ll take care of it."
He strode out into the storm, a lean, pantherish, imperious man who carried as much Power as the lightning. Something about seeing him out in the elements brought a lump to her throat.
When he reached roughly the middle of the lawn, he went down on one knee by the tracks, placed his hands on the ground, and bowed his head. Something she didn"t know how to define rippled out from him. The tracks melted back into place, and the torn turf knitted back together. By the time he stood, the sodden lawn looked unscarred again.
Sophie bent her head, hiding her mouth in a fistful of blanket as she watched. He could literally reshape the earth. This time she didn"t even bother to run around in her own head to stamp out all the sneaky bits of awe.
As Nikolas turned back to the house, a creature appeared behind him, emerging out from under the nearby tree line, and raced toward him. It was a huge, werewolf-y looking monster, and it was followed by several more.
Many more.
Dread sucker punched her in the stomach as they kept pouring out of the woods.
The Hounds had arrived.
The men shouted a warning at Nikolas and lunged for weapons. Nikolas spun, saw the danger hurtling toward him, and sprinted toward the house.
He was fast, but the Hounds were too, lethally so. Other than his own inherent Power, Nikolas didn"t carry a weapon. Along with the others, he had set his sword harness aside to work on moving furniture and supplies.
Sophie was still wearing all her weapons, both the magical ones painted on her arms and the Glock, which gave her precious seconds on the other men. Dropping the blanket, she lunged into a sprint, pulling the Glock out from the waistband of her jeans. How far away would she have to get before the gun worked?
She reached ten yards, eleven, twelve. Nikolas was roaring at her in fury, but she couldn"t make out his words. That was okay; she probably didn"t want to hear them anyway.
Watching the Hounds bounding forward while she raced toward Nikolas was one of the most terrifying things she had ever seen. Every moment stretched into an intolerable infinity. As she ran, she aimed at the nearest lycanthrope at the head of the pack, and she started pulling the trigger.
Click. Click. Click.
Not yet. Not yet. Not yet.
Chapter Seventeen.
When Sophie sprinted toward Nikolas and the Hounds, he couldn"t believe it. It was every bit as insanely courageous as when she had run into the pub, and by G.o.ds, when he got his hands on her, he was going to f.u.c.king murder her for it.
"Go back!" he roared. "Go back, you crazy G.o.dd.a.m.n woman!"
But she didn"t stop. Behind her, the other men exploded out of the double doors with weapons, and they raced toward him too. They would overtake Sophie within seconds, but Nikolas didn"t know how close the Hounds were behind him, and in this instance, fractions of seconds mattered.
He spun to face the threat racing up to him. Just then, Sophie"s Glock fired, and the lead Hound, the one closest to Nikolas, dropped like a stone.