21. The Rescue

21

THE RESCUE

"Wren?" Fang's voice broke him out of his thoughts. When Wren looked up, he found Fang frowning at him. "What's wrong?"

"Something happened to Pinks," Wren blurted. "Isn't he supposed to be at the safehouse?"

"He's not there?"

When Fang seemed even more confused, Wren thrust his phone over. Fang scanned the chat, his forehead furrowing deeper as he read.

"Valor," he said, glancing at his office wall. It took Wren a moment to remember that Valor was also a wolf shifter, and that he and Fang could hear each other perfectly fine. "Pinks ran into trouble. We don't know his location." After a pause, "No, this is on Wren's chat, not the shared one. Pinks encountered a statue that came alive, a minute ago. We're waiting for him to respond."

To Wren, Fang said, "Valor's contacting our friends. We're tracking down his phone."

Wren's stomach squeezed. "How long is that going to take?"

"Just a few—" Fang looked sharply at the wall. "His GPS isn't on?"

"How?" Wren blurted. They were supposed to keep the GPS on no matter what. It wasn't like Pinks had turned it off on purpose; he'd been just as surprised by the statue.

"Damn it," Fang muttered. "Tracking him down with the cell towers is going to take longer. We don't know if he'll have changed locations by then."

"I might be able to track him," Wren said.

"You can?"

Wren nodded firmly. "I've done it before. I tracked Joey all the way to Cartfalls. So with Pinks... I just need something of his. I think I have it with me."

When he looked up, he realized that Fang's gaze had gone all intense and possessive. Wren flushed and hurried to his diaper bag, retrieving the paper crane Pinks had given him shortly after he'd arrived in Cartfalls.

"It didn't belong to him for long, so it's not going to work as well, but it's all I have at the moment."

"He doesn't have many possessions, does he?" Fang frowned. "I remember him arriving with just his baby, and the clothes off his back."

"Yeah." Wren winced, glancing at Steffie. "If both of us are going, are we bringing Steffie along?"

She smiled and kicked her legs, giggling. All Wren felt was worry.

Fang frowned again. "I don't want to leave her here. Or at home. It might be safer if we bring her along." He glanced at the wall again. "Valor and Samsen will back us up. Telos and Ace are already on the way."

"Okay." Wren still didn't feel confident, but the promise of having help eased his roiling stomach.

He bundled Steffie into her spelled backpack, then followed Fang to his car. The moment everyone was buckled in, Wren set the origami crane on the flat of his palm, drawing the runes for his tracking spell over it.

Tracking spells were tricky. You had to focus on a positive thought about the person you were looking for. Also, the more magic you had, the easier the search would be. Neither of which Wren had a lot of.

His memories of Pinks were hardly anything—Pinks showing up all ragged in Griff and Quinlan's car, clutching a baby like he'd run ten miles without any rest. Pinks had calmed down somewhat at Blade's mansion, handing out paper cranes to Wren and his friends after he'd had a shower and food.

Wren wanted good things to happen to that man. He wished for it earnestly.

His magic swirled above the paper crane, before shooting forward in a glowing golden arrow.

"One o'clock," Wren said, pointing.

Fang's grin was all sharp teeth. "You track better than me, Birdie."

Wren frowned. "It's different. You don't need to use someone's stuff to anchor the spell, or have good thoughts about them."

"But I do need them to stay out of moving vehicles, or I'll lose their scent." Fang began driving. A car followed them out of the Center's parking lot—Valor and Samsen.

Wren's magical compass did not make things easier on them. Twice, they made turns onto dead-end streets, and sometimes, Fang had to overshoot and make U-turns just to keep going in the right direction.

They were going fast on one of the emptier roads heading out of town, when Steffie began babbling in the backseat.

"We're here, sweetheart. You don't have to worry," Wren said.

Except a small, round, orange feather floated down between Wren and Fang, like it had just been shed from the roof of the car.

They both stared at it, Fang's gaze snapping back onto the road.

"What's that?" Fang asked slowly.

"Looks like one of Steffie's down feathers," Wren replied. Over his shoulder, he saw that Steffie was still fully zipped into her spelled backpack, and no part of her was visible.

He reached out to pick up the feather—

"Wa ma ma," said Steffie's voice, except it came from the feather instead of the backseat.

Fang sucked in a slow breath.

"Did I... hear that right?" Wren blurted. "Steffie, are you okay back there?"

Wren had a brief second to consider that Steffie had just sent them some kind of phoenix text message.

The next moment, something huge darted out of the forest onto the road.

There wasn't enough time for the car to stop. Fang swore and swerved, but the creature was still right in front of them, black and mountain-like and so massive that it blocked off more than both lanes of the road.

Wren panicked. He wanted to write a rune to slow them down. He needed a barrier spell, but they were going too fast. There was no time.

The car was going to crash. They were going to crumple against the creature's gleaming, scaly body and—

Wren threw out his arms in a desperate bid to push away the horror that awaited them.

Whether he wanted to shove the beast away, or slow the car down, he did not know. But the next moment, something rushed through him and shot out of his palms.

It swept the beast off its feet and down the road, sending it skidding as it dug its claws into the asphalt.

Wren could only stare as his seatbelt locked and held him down, their car coming to a stop mere feet away from the creature.

What just happened?

Fang threw the car into reverse; they shot backward. "Fuck. I'd take the car offroad, but it'll move faster than we can drive around it."

"I can write a spell to freeze it in place," Wren said shakily, already raising his hand to scribble the runes.

The creature shook itself off, turning to face them. It had a face like a turtle's, a lion's mane, and a chunky, armored body with sharp plates along its spine like a stegosaurus.

It looked as though it wanted to trample them. Except it turned, suddenly, at the same time Fang did.

Men swarmed out of the forest, several with guns pointed at the creature. The creature backed away from them and snarled, its entire body trembling.

"This isn't our fight," Fang muttered. "But—"

Wren understood. "What if they hurt you?"

"Write me a protection spell." Fang's eyebrows drew together. "Can you? And for Valor too?"

A protection spell, especially to face down twenty men, was going to take a lot out of Wren. But they didn't have much other choice if they wanted to help the creature in front of them, and fast.

"Okay." Wren was already scribbling the runes. Fang threw open the door on the driver's side, ripping off his shoes and pants.

"Birdie." Fang's tone was urgent. "Write a spell for you. Now."

The next moment, he'd shifted into a majestic grey wolf, shirt and socks ripping. Fang sprinted around the car and headed for the men.

Wren shoved a ton of his magic into the spell, sending it in Fang's direction. The spell hit the wolf and scattered into a shimmer around his body; Wren's worry eased somewhat.

He turned his focus to the next spell—a dome shape for their car, written on the dashboard. This was more for Steffie than himself; she needed so much protection, too.

By the time Wren pushed his magic into the runes, his hands were already trembling. He held his breath and waited until the barrier closed around them with a high-pitched vibration, like the tinkling of metal on glass.

"Valor next," he said to himself. He felt shaky all over. He didn't know where the earlier surge of magic had come from, but there was no time to wonder about it.

Wren pushed what was left of his magic into a protection spell for Valor—a black wolf sprinting across the grass to back Fang up—just in time.

The men turned their guns on Fang and Valor.

Even though Wren knew his spell would hold, his stomach plummeted anyway. He held his breath and trembled as the bullets bounced off the wolves—only to remember that Valor's car was behind theirs, and Samsen was—

Samsen was right outside Fang's car, with two babies in his arms.

Wren flailed. "Samsen!"

"Take them. I'll go help." Samsen was glancing worriedly at the massive creature, who had stopped to watch the wolves fight. Then it looked at Wren's car, and Wren's insides clenched.

Samsen could enter the protection dome because he didn't mean Wren any harm. But Wren wasn't about to test his barrier against a creature that huge.

He took Samsen's babies hurriedly, pulling the driver's door shut. "Be careful."

Samsen nodded tightly. He turned into mist the next second, and Wren carefully tucked a baby into each backseat footwell. It wasn't the best solution. But he couldn't risk them falling off the seats, and he needed his arms free to write spells. Spells that—

He snapped his attention back to the fight. Men were aiming their guns at Fang and Valor, shooting mercilessly at them. But the bullets glanced off their bodies; the wolves mowed down the men and tore out their throats, keeping their backs to each other. Samsen appeared on the fringes of the fight, pulling down one man at a time to drain his blood.

But more men emerged from the forest.

These weren't regular humans; a weather witch called up a storm above them, lightning crackling ominously in the dark clouds. Other men stepped out, their entire bodies made of fire.

This time, they didn't only target the massive creature. The men looked at Fang's SUV, like they were here for both Steffie and the beast.

Had the men been following Fang and Wren all this time?

Dread surged through Wren. When he'd written the protection spells, he'd made them basic, simple, because he had no time. But those spells only guarded against physical attacks, not attacks made by supernatural beings.

Magical attacks needed a whole other set of protection runes, because there was so much more to guard against.

Protection that Fang didn't have. Wren felt sick.