22. The Rescue （Part 2）

22

THE RESCUE (PART 2)

Wren needed to add to the spells, but Fang and Valor were deep in the fight now. He couldn't send out more spells—what if he blessed the wrong person? He clenched his fists and started on a spell anyway, his heart pounding as the supernatural men approached, swarming Fang and Valor as the last of the regular humans went down.

Wren tore his eyes away from the fight. His fingers shook as he drew the runes. Was Fang doing okay? Had anyone injured him?

From the corner of his eye, he saw a grey shape fly across the grass.

Fang's back slammed against a tree, and Wren's heart clenched.

Fang dropped to his paws and shook out the impact. But he was separated from Valor now, with only himself to fend off the enemies.

Instead of fighting, Fang looked straight past his attackers to meet Wren's eyes, jerking his chin. Was he telling Wren to run? To reinforce the barrier?

It made sense. Wren's biggest job was to protect the babies. But it hurt him to rework the spell for the car; it hurt him to leave his alpha unprotected.

The next thing he knew, something snarled in pain.

Wren threw the spell into place and felt it mesh with the existing dome, only for his heart to lodge in his throat as the flaming men converged on Fang.

Valor snarled and leaped at the men, narrowly missing a lightning strike.

Where were their friends? Gods, Ace and Telos weren't even coming; they were on their way to help Pinks. Was there time to send a message?

Wren despaired. He couldn't tear his eyes away from the scene, knowing his reserves were almost too depleted to help.

Fang's fur caught on fire, suddenly. He snarled and twisted, rolling on the grass—but it didn't put out the flames.

Wren's nails bit into his palms; he barely noticed as they drew blood. He needed to put out that fire immediately. But how was he going to send Fang a spell through this many people?

Would there be anything left of Fang by the time Wren reached him?

Suddenly, all Wren could think about was Fang dying. The flames eating through his fur into his flesh, taking the light out of his eyes. Fang howling in pain from being burned alive.

Wren shook so hard, he didn't realize his vision had gone blurry.

The thought of losing Fang—it hit him a lot harder than he thought it would. Not having Fang's smiles to look forward to, not having his sincere encouragement. Not having Fang's hugs and kisses, not seeing his delight when he scooped Steffie into his arms.

All at once, it didn't matter that Wren wasn't enough for his alpha. It didn't matter that Wren was poor, or inexperienced, or always anxious. All he wanted was for Fang to be alive, for Fang to be happy.

With everything he had left inside him, Wren wished fervently, desperately, for strength.

Something in his body responded, somewhere in his lungs. It cracked open and poured out, a cleansing sort of rage that went all the way to his fingers and toes.

Wren opened the car door and stepped out, energy crackling at his fingertips. "Stop," he growled, his voice turning unearthly.

He held out his hands on instinct. Power flooded out of him, surging through all the people in a blast of white light.

When the light faded, he found several bodies on the ground.

No one moved. Wren panicked.

"Fang?" he yelped, his throat closing. Oh gods, oh gods, I killed him. "Fang!"

The massive creature from earlier lumbered up to him. In a flash, a large grey wolf threw himself between Wren and the creature, his hackles raised, his ears flattened.

Fang.

Relief surged through Wren like a tsunami, buckling his knees.

"Fang." Wren landed in a heap, reaching out with shaky hands. Fang's fur was scorched in places. In other places, there was no fur, only bare, blistered skin. It hurt Wren to look at him; he scribbled a rune for cold into his palm, and carefully pressed it around the worst of Fang's injuries to give him some relief.

Fang rumbled, but he didn't once take his eyes off the approaching creature.

"Thank you," the creature said in a gravelly voice that sounded like rocks grinding against each other. "I'm sorry that you're injured because of me."

Fang relaxed slightly. Ever so carefully, Wren shuffled closer to Fang, pressing his cool hand gently to another of Fang's wounds.

"Why were they after you?" Wren blurted.

"They wanted to capture me for their own gains." The creature wore a look of utter contempt. "To strip me of my scales."

When Wren looked closely, he saw several large, gleaming scales on the creature's body, ink-black and shiny like obsidian. "Did they... want to use your scales?"

The creature growled. "Possibly. They provide good protection. Amongst other things."

Its scales were good luck charms, Wren remembered abruptly, sometimes used in potion-making. The creature was a forest Naira, and Wren had thought it only existed in fairy tales. To think the kidnappers wanted to de-scale it... Wren cringed. "I'm sorry."

The Naira tossed its head. "You defeated them. It was a wondrous thing. Thank you again."

With a silver shimmer, Fang shifted into a man, naked and bleeding from his wounds. Wren stopped breathing. "You're hurt—"

"I'm fine," Fang grumbled, even though he winced. To the creature, he said, "Best keep an eye out for more of those guys. They're everywhere these days. They've got plans we don't agree with."

The Naira studied them both. "I may stay a while."

Fang nodded. "I have a home on the east side of town, next to the forest. So does Valor." He nodded at Valor, who was now human-shaped and approaching them with Samsen. "If you need shelter for any reason, you are welcome to my land."

"Mine as well," Valor added. "We have a number of friends in this city who will be more than happy to help."

"I have encountered a dragon in the forest," the Naira said with a tilt of its head. "Terrible singing."

Wren pressed a hand to his mouth and tried not to laugh.

Fang smiled. "He's one of our friends."

"I thought he might be." The Naira nodded at Fang. "May I help?"

Fang seemed confused, but nodded. "If you'd like."

The next thing they knew, the creature was pulling its head back, spitting a huge glob of thick, colorless fluid onto Fang's torso. It dripped slowly down his skin, looking like something from a science fiction movie.

Fang froze. But he took a slow breath and began rubbing the spit all over his body. Surprise darted through his face. "That... actually helps. Thanks."

He was speaking the truth. His angry red skin faded into pink, and the blisters receded. Broken skin healed up, much faster than Wren expected, so it didn't look quite so painful anymore.

"Thank you," Wren said gratefully.

The creature inclined its head. "An apology for your injuries." Then it turned and wedged its beak under a scale, yanking it out. Wren gasped, more so when the creature padded forward, laying the scale at their feet.

"B-but that's..."

"I wish for you to have it."

Fang was the first to bow; Wren copied him, still completely stunned.

The creature lowered its own head. Then it lumbered off into the forest on the other side of the road, disappearing into the trees.

"Wow," Wren said dazedly.

Fang turned to him and grasped his shoulders gently, concern stark in his eyes. "How are you, Birdie? What was that back there?"

"What do you m—Oh. The light. I... I don't know. It just felt like power. A lot of it."

He turned his focus inward, to where he usually found his magic.

Instead of an aching emptiness, he found something warm and golden. More energy. Even though he'd just flattened an entire field of people.

Wren blinked in surprise, calling the magic into his hands. "I... I found it," he said, choking up. "Mom always said I had more power, so much of it, but I could never reach it."

Fang cradled Wren's jaw with his still-slippery hands. "How did you manage it?"

"I... I wanted to help you." Wren flushed hot. "You're important. And it somehow just... made that space open up."

A slow, happy smile lit up Fang's face. He leaned in and kissed Wren on the lips, just a light touch, but no less meaningful. "You're important to me, too," Fang whispered.

Wren dared to kiss him, his heart swelling when Fang growled and accepted his touch.

Something shrieked high above. When Wren jerked back and looked up, he found a large shape descending on them—something with pointed wings, smaller than a dragon.

Valor groaned and facepalmed. "Bad timing, Telos."

"Booyah!" The pterodactyl swooped to land in front of them, snapping its beak. "Is that what the kids say these days?"

Fang sighed. "That's not what they say. Especially not when interrupting a good moment."

Telos smirked—as much as a pterodactyl could, anyway. "Someone had to remind you that you're swapping spit next to a whole field of dead bodies."

Wren jolted, trying to wrap his mind around what he'd just done. He couldn't find it in himself to feel guilty. The men had hurt Fang really badly, and they would've killed him if they'd gotten the chance.

He carefully picked the obsidian scale off the ground, turning it around in his hands. "You just missed seeing a real-life stegosaurus."

Telos froze. "A—a real life dinosaur? And you didn't make it wait so I could say hi?!"

Fang, Wren, Valor and Samsen looked at each other.

"No," Fang said slowly. "We had a bit of a situation here. You know, a multiple dead bodies situation. We're still in too much shock to consider introductions. We didn't think you'd show up here."

"It was a Naira," Wren said. "So not exactly a dinosaur?"

"But it's close enough," Telos wailed, covering his face with his leathery wings. "How could you? I thought we were friends!"

"I'll let you touch its scale," Fang offered.

Telos scowled and gave Fang his finger, but it wasn't very intimidating, considering his fingers were tiny and attached to his wings. "Whatever. Let's get on with Part Two of the rescue mission."

"I'll call Blade and wait here with Samsen to handle this," Valor said. "Go on ahead."

Once Wren had returned Valor and Samsen's babies, and the locator spell was running again, Telos turned back into a man and rode with Fang and Wren in the car.

"Aww, you're a cute one," Telos cooed, tickling Steffie's chin. He made his eyes go unnaturally large, and made faces at her.

Steffie shrieked and reached for him, the biggest smile on her face.

"You'll scare her," Fang said dryly.

"She's giggling," Telos said. "At least she knows how to appreciate my humor, unlike—What's that awful, self-important jerk doing here?"

Wren looked up to see Mav already in the driveway of Pinks' safehouse. Mav was a lot like Telos, actually, all muscly and much taller than average, except he narrowed his eyes when he realized Telos was with them.

"How did a statue get here?" Fang asked. "What's the threat level?"

"Seems to be a low threat, if at all. Ace and Raptor are in the back with them," Mav said. "We decided to start at the safehouse and work our way out from here, only to find Pinks and the intruder in the backyard."

"Yeah, go ahead and take all the credit while I check on these guys," Telos muttered. "And I even missed out on meeting a dinosaur! This is a totally crap day."

"If you weren't flying as a dinosaur, you'd have gotten there faster," Mav said.

"Fuck you, and fuck your great big yapping maw," Telos hissed.

"Running out of insults? You're starting to get repetitive," Mav retorted. "Guess you only have cave drawings to remember things with."

Telos snarled and leaped at him.

Wren ducked away and zipped Steffie into her backpack, before following Fang to the backyard.

There, they found three men Wren had never met before, and Pinks.

It was jarring to see Pinks with them. Unlike their tall, muscular figures, Pinks was small and thin, his hair bright pink—different from the blond hair he'd had when Wren first met him. Wren hurried to his side. "Where's your baby?"

"In the house, safe." Pinks glanced at the window indignantly. "I wasn't going to investigate and risk her at the same time."

"You shouldn't have left the house at all," one of the men said. He stood shoulder-to-shoulder with a man who looked almost identical to him, both of their eyes red, smoke curling from their nostrils. Both were dragon shifters.

Come to think of it, they looked really similar to Griff and Blade. So they were probably Ace and Raptor.

Pinks glanced at the intruder—tall and broad-shouldered, with biceps that stretched his sleeves. "Well, forgive me if I thought statues couldn't come alive. I was already out of the house when he moved."

"You went to check out a statue that wasn't in your backyard the day before? That is full of horror movie vibes," Ace-or-Raptor said dryly. "What did you think was going to happen?"

"I promise I'm not a serial killer," the stranger said, fixing his intense stare on Pinks. "But I am under a curse. I turn into a statue at inopportune times."

Raptor-or-Ace elbowed his brother, his eyebrows waggling. "Gives a whole new meaning to ‘rock-hard'."

His brother replied, "I don't suppose the cure is magical sex."

The stranger shrugged, glancing at all of them before staring at Pinks again. "It hasn't occurred to me to try."

Pinks flushed to match his hair. Since they were the only adults around who were small and vulnerable, Wren dragged Pinks into the safehouse to give themselves the illusion of privacy—even though the wolves, dragons, and shapeshifters out there could hear them anyway.

"Did he hurt you?" Wren asked.

Pinks shook his head. "He was very nice about everything."

"But your phone's GPS died!"

At that, Pinks flushed. "I, uh. I threw my phone at him. It broke."

Wren groaned. But he studied Pinks carefully, relieved to find no signs of injury. "What's going to happen to that guy?"

Pinks shrugged. He looked shifty, though, glancing out the door contemplatively. "He wants to stick around."

Wren didn't think that was a good idea. "What if you don't know how to lift the curse?"

"Can you lift it?"

Wren bit his lip. "I can try."

"No time like the present, I guess."