33. Thirty-three

thirty-three

I was hyperventilating. I knew it, Zeus knew it, the other ‘fangs knew it. Cavi was desperately trying to get me to slow my breathing. Quin hovered behind him, his normally lackadaisical demeanor gone.

"Cavi, do something."

"What do you think I'm doing, Quin?"

"He's going to kill us."

Quin moved behind me and I felt a whisper as his hands came up.

"What are you doing?"

"Getting ready to catch her if she passes out. The least we can do is make sure she doesn't get a traumatic brain injury."

I wanted to laugh at that, but I couldn't get enough oxygen. My lungs were the size of marbles, and not the big ones either.

My vision was going black at the edges. At least Quin would keep me from hitting my head. I didn't want Drym to experience me getting a concussion.

Big, dark eyes appeared in my narrow field of vision. Why was Bacon in my apartment? Her icy hands framed my cheeks and sucked more of my precious little breath away. Her skin was like ice.

Her hands moved down the sides of my neck, coming to rest over my collarbones. A pulse of energy crackled down my spine and suddenly I could breathe again. My vision cleared and my lungs expanded.

I closed my eyes and just breathed until I assured myself my body was once again under my control.

"Thank you." I managed to croak at the smaller woman.

She waved her hands through the air. She tried to smile, but couldn't quite pull it off. She blew on her fingertips, singed red and angry looking. "Don't mention it."

"What happened?"

Quin handed me a bottle of water. "Panic attack."

"Not with me." I rolled my eyes. "I know I was having a panic attack. I meant to Bacon."

"Oh, well." She winced as Cavi spread cream on her hands. "I'm an energy witch, so I just gave your body a bit of a reset button."

"Did you burn your hands?"

She snorted. "Yeah, well, that's the thing. I can't use my abilities without getting shocked. The more I want to regulate the energy flowing out of me, the more damage is done."

I must have looked horrified because she immediately started trying to reassure me.

"It's okay, really! I don't use my abilities often and all things considered, electrical burns heal pretty fast."

Quin leaned his head down to her level, folding himself almost in half. "I don't think that's helping."

"Nope." I popped the P. "Making me feel worse, actually."

Zeus came through my front door, his hair sticking up in all directions. He nodded at Bacon and then speared his fingers along his scalp, revealing how his normal hairstyle got so mussed. "What do we know?"

"I need a bigger house."

Everyone's eyes swung to me and I shrugged. My brain wasn't quite up to firing on all cylinders, preferring to keep to safer subjects than the vision of Drym, completely limp as four men in all black tactical gear stuffed him into the back of a van.

Worrying about how if just two wyrfangs crowded my small apartment, it'd never be able to hold all six, was much better territory.

Cavi gave a more appropriate answer after they stared at me for longer than was comfortable.

"They used a drone. Sedative darts followed by nets subdued him."

His eyes flicked to me.

"He surrendered without a fight. We learned long ago to save our strength for the opening they will eventually give him."

I was shaking my head. "No, we aren't waiting. We're going after him." I flopped onto the couch and started pulling my boots on.

"We planned for this outcome, Kendal."

Zeus was using his ‘calm down little lady' voice and I was having none of it.

"You planned for them knowing about the meeting? No. You didn't. The fae was just supposed to see him. This was an ambush! How did they know to set it up? How were they ready with a god damn drone?"

Everyone's eyes swung from me to Zeus.

"Aymar knew about them, and that they'd escaped. When I contacted him, he guessed I was going to tell him about them, so he told his superiors about the meet." He shook his head. "Since the wyrfangs' existence was kept secret, the only way I could have known about them was if I'd seen one or been told about them. They sent the team, in the hopes I'd lead them to you. I should have known better, but it doesn't matter now. What's done is done."

"We're going in and getting him."

His heavy hand fell on my shoulder and I shrugged it off, not wanting anyone to touch me.

"Yes, we are. But not tonight. He needs time to gather information we need."

I crossed my arms over my chest. "How much time?"

Zeus looked at Cavi, who looked at Quin, who rolled his eyes. "He asked for a week."

"A week?"

Even Bacon winced at my screech.

"Fuck no. I'm not going to sit around for a week while he's in some hell site of a lab being tortured."

"They won't torture him." Everyone looked at Cavi. "They'll want to capture us all before we're punished." His voice dropped. "They'll want us to see each other in pain. To drive home the hopelessness of another escape attempt."

"Well that's not fucking happening! It's bad enough they got Drym. They aren't getting the rest of you." I jumped up and stomped across my living room and back, every other step a heavy clomp since I'd only managed to get one boot on.

I poked my index finger into the hard muscle of Zeus's chest. "And how did this happen, anyway? I thought your contact was supposed to come alone."

He rubbed at his abused pec. "He did. They followed him. He was just as shocked as we were. Probably because he fears repercussions. The fae won't take kindly to him sharing secrets outside class."

"Well, at least we know a fae is definitely in cahoots with BioSynth." I sat back down, sinking into the well-worn back of my hand-me-down couch. "What do we do now?"

"You're going to hate it."

I cut my eyes at Cavi. "I already do."

"We wait." Zeus held up a hand before I could protest. "And we prepare. I need to bring in a couple of specialized team members to confer with Kragen and the rest of the wyrfangs.

"In the interim, I think I can solve at least one problem."

"Oh, which one is that?" I side-eyed the werewolf.

"The one regarding your apartment being too small. Bull found what looks to be a perfect property. We just need your and the brothers' approval before we sign the contract."

"Finally, some good news." I perked up and shoved on my other boot. I was at the door before I noticed they weren't following me. "What are we waiting for?" I snapped my fingers. "Real estate waits for no man. Or woman. Or wyrfang."