"Nervous, Aconyte?" Shade teases. Back to his smart-ass self in record time, but he's got a surprising spring in his step, considering what he's been through.
Silas snorts. "Hardly. I'm just saying, now would be the perfect time for an ambush."
You wouldn't even think they had been all over me less than a week ago, the more salacious part of my mind whispers, but I shut it down immediately. Now's not the time for fantasizing.
"I guess it's a good thing we're the ones doing the ambushing, then," Shade replies gamely. "These fuckers won't know what hit them."
"Keep your guard up," I warn as we turn down the side street, our shadows growing long under the light of the street lamps. "The guy, Caleb, is a siren shifter. That won't be a problem for most of you, but Jennifer is a dragon shifter. Powerful, too, from what I could tell."
"Sounds like fun," Shade mutters as we approach a block of posh apartment buildings at the end of the road. Hunter, Landon, and I come to a stop, craning our necks to stare up at them.
"I can't remember which one it is," I say, feeling my nerves start to go into overdrive. First my powers, and now my memory? Why did I even bother coming here?
"It's that one," says Hunter, nodding to the one on the right. "With the flower boxes outside the window. I remember."
Silas claps him wordlessly on the shoulder as we follow him one by one to the front door. "Allow me," says Landon, muscling to the front of the group, rolling his shoulders, and expelling another stream of soundwaves into the lock. Shade raises his eyebrows at me, but I hold up a hand to signal for him to be patient. A few tense moments later, I hear the sound of the tumblers clicking, followed by the hard chunk of the lock sliding back. Landon gives an exaggerated bow as he tugs the door open, the rest of us following him inside.
It's too early for a doorman to be here, so we march straight to the elevator without any trouble. As the lift slowly begins to rise, the other guys shift around me in a protective formation. "Think I should go last?" I ask doubtfully.
Silas winces. "I'm sorry, Boots, but…"
I hold up a hand to stop him. "It's okay. It's… probably a good idea." As much as I hate to admit it. Still, it's gutting to have gone from one of the most powerful members of our group to a glorified follower seemingly overnight. Once again I reach half-heartedly for my powers, and once again I sense nothing. Oh well. Worth a shot.
"How are we going to do this?" Hunter asks as we step into the hallway. "We don't want to attract attention."
"Something tells me we're going to attract attention either way," I observe. "People don't tend to take well to break-ins, even when they're not shifters."
"Nobody came to investigate last time, when they were attacking us," Landon points out. "Maybe these walls are soundproof."
"Or maybe everyone in this flat is in Hawthorne's pocket," Silas says. "We're going to have to be quick. Hunter, do you remember which unit it was?"
The vampire shifter furrows his brow, looking around for a moment. "This way," he says at last, pointing toward the hall on the left. "It was at the end of the hallway, if I'm not mistaken."
"You'd better not be," Shade snarks.
I allow the others to pass in front of me before addressing the locks on the door. The door looks strong and it’s going to be hard to knock down. "Thoughts?" I ask. "Should Landon do his magical lock picking thing again?"
Silas shakes his head. "Both guns blazing, right?" And before any of us can respond, he's shifted into his dragon form, now large enough to take up much of the hallway. With one lunge of his muscular body, he throws his shoulder into the front door. It buckles on its hinges, and I see a light go on in the main room, but one more slam and it's crashing open, allowing us to pour into the apartment.
Caleb is standing in the kitchen entryway, looking bleary-eyed, but his expression immediately twists the moment he sees us. "Jennifer!" he yells, shifting into a siren instantaneously.
Shade leaps into the air, and when he lands, he's in his wolf form, charging Caleb at top speed. The other siren doesn't even have time to react before Shade’s pinning him to the ground, his teeth ripping into his shoulder. "Don't kill him!" I yell. "We need him alive!"
Shade glances up at me, doubt in his yellow eyes, but that's all the opening Caleb needs. Letting out a terrific siren scream, he pushes the wolf shifter off him and sends him sprawling across the floor. "Jennifer!" he bellows again.
"Honey?" A light goes on in the other room, and then his wife's face appears in the doorway. Her eyes land on me and her face twists into a snarl. "You,” she hisses, and then she too is shifting.
I realise too late that I'm right in the line of fire, but Hunter shoves me out of the way, already in his vampire form, to take the brunt of the fire she breathes in my direction. "Silas—” he says, already flagging.
Silas doesn't need telling twice, and with a roar he charges Jennifer, the two dragons locking together in a close-quarters fight. I'm left to watch helplessly, feeling more useless than I ever have.
Hunter moves to help Silas with Jennifer while Landon and Shade continue their attack on Caleb. The next time the siren produces a soundwave, Landon is ready to meet him, sending an equally powerful blast of force his way to neutralize the energy. With Caleb distracted, Shade has the perfect opportunity to pounce, and this time, he doesn't use his teeth. Instead, he lands on the siren's chest with such force that his head strikes the floor, making him lose consciousness. Almost immediately he shifts back into human form, allowing the others to assist with Jennifer. Between the four of them, they're able to wrestle her to the ground, and a quick command from Landon is enough to make her transform back.
I catch movement out of the corner of my eye and see Caleb struggling to sit up. "Oh no, you don't," I mutter, and sprint over to him without thinking. Dropping onto my hands and knees, I force him back onto the ground. "Just try it," I hiss, my mind already returning to what he tried to do to me the last time I was here. "You're outnumbered."
"What the fuck are you doing here?" he demands, his eyes flashing.
"We'll get to that in a minute," I reply, surprising myself with how collected I sound. "Just know that if you try anything, you're outnumbered."
Caleb steels a glance toward Jennifer, now subdued on the floor with the rest of the guys. He lets out a snarl of frustration, and then relaxes. "Crafty bitch," he pants. "Didn't think you had it in you."
"Nice catch, Boots," Shade says, striding over to me. He puts a foot on Caleb's chest, keeping him pinned to the ground, and stares down at him with a half smile. "Now," he says, still breathing heavily, "are you two going to play nice, or are things going to have to get really messy?"
In the end, things didn't have to get really messy. Whether because we have the upper hand or some other conniving, strategic move, they cooperate, and it's easy enough to wrangle them into the living room and onto the couch. I keep stealing looks at the door, wondering when the cavalry will arrive after having heard the commotion. But it's silent as the grave in the apartment building. Almost uncanny.