And we were trying to save my dog. But he was Bear’s dog, and I just couldn’t let him die without trying to fight for him.
Abe sucked in a breath and groaned, his tail thumped once and I couldn’t help the rush of air that escaped me. “Don’t do that, Abe!”
His tail thumped again and he tried to lift his head.
Killian looked at me. “Lass, you be okay?”
I nodded and the pains in my body finally made themselves known, from the bruises on my back to the sharper pains in my ribs where Tommy had fallen against me. “Alive.”
At least we were on the ground and not still in the air. That was something. “Abe, stay.” I rubbed a hand over his face and he closed his eyes, not fighting me on my command.
I pushed to my knees and looked around us as my hands went to Dinah and Eleanor. “Ladies?”
“Here,” Dinah said softly. “Are you okay?”
“Bruises only,” I said, and already those bruises were healing. Points for learning about being an abnormal and tapping into the power. Go me.
“Eleanor?” I reached and touched my other gun. She didn’t answer. I looked down to see the butt of a gun sticking out. But I didn’t even need to pull it to know it was not Eleanor. I yanked out the look-alike Berretta.
“Eleanor?” I spun on my knees, searching the area. The scene hit me hard—Tommy had fallen into me, jamming both guns against my ribs . . . “Tommy, you piece of shit!” I shot to my feet, shaking.
“What happened?” Dinah asked, panic in her voice. “Where is Eleanor?”
“Tommy snatched her when I pushed him from the helicopter.” I growled the words, anger and fear making my movements hard and fast despite the fading bruises.
Killian stood beside me. “Why would he take Eleanor?”
I closed my eyes, thinking about the possible reasons. Tommy had been working with Noah, who’d been working with Justin. Tommy had to know what would kill Romano, and maybe part of that was Eleanor. “Because he believes she can kill Romano. Fucking moron.” Some of my anger leached away. Tommy wasn’t trying to hurt me. He was trying to kill Romano. And that could be forgiven. Maybe. As long as I got her back.
I had no time to guess at how right or wrong I might be because the helicopter jerked around us. I lifted Abe and moved to one side, keeping my feet on the ground. The helicopter lifted into the sky once more. As it went, the helicopter righted itself, chunks of grass and dirt falling through the air. We scrambled to keep out of the way from the shifting metal frame.
Fuck, I did not need to crash-land again.
Killian dropped a hand on my shoulder and tugged me close. “Listen to me. My family are not only capable of lightning, though that is the power held by the strongest of us. They are weather controllers—all of them.”
Of course they were. That explained the way the helicopter had fallen in such an orderly measure even after the blades had stopped moving. I felt around inside me, looking for the pool of lightning that I suspected would be there. My lower back rumbled with it, ready to use. “Dinah, you ready?”
“I wish Eleanor were here, but I’ll do all the killing you need,” she growled.
I adjusted Abe in my arms so I could pull Dinah from her holster and switch her to my left hand. “Sorry, but I need you here.”
She shivered. “I understand.”
I was faster with my left, and my right hand was a good place for another kind of weapon. One that was just a simple gun.
The helicopter jerked suddenly as if it would come crashing down on us and we both stumbled to the side. A move to literally put us off balance, clever, but also a serious dick move considering this was Killian’s family.
“Going to take more than that to make me like them,” I said.
“Let me try and talk them down.” Killian tightened his hand on me. “If it goes sideways, you’ll know.”
I snorted. “Sure thing.” I laid Abe at my feet.
Through the dust stood a semi-circle of seven people that ranged in age and size, from a tiny woman who could be no more than five feet at best, to a man well over seven feet with flaming red hair and beard.
But it was the woman in the middle who was our problem, and I knew it the second my eyes locked with hers. She had enough of Killian in her facial features that I was betting she was his mother, or maybe older sister. Hard to say with the agelessness of her face. Her eyes were wide, and though I couldn’t see the color, I guessed green like Killian’s. Those eyes narrowed when I didn’t blink or look away.
Score one for me, I’d already pissed her off.
Killian stepped out in front first, from the shadow of the helicopter. I followed him, staying behind and to his left.
“Mam, what be going on? That is no way to welcome the son home who is your bread and butter.” Killian spread his arms out, showing he had no weapons, his Irish accent thicker than I’d ever heard it. I, on the other hand, brought Dinah up and held her with both hands, sighting down his mom in the middle of the group of seven.
Her long blond hair flying around her face, her feet lifted off the ground as she floated toward us. Impressive, I suppose, but I’d seen scarier. And if she could only control the wind, then she wasn’t as strong as Killian, which should work in our favor.
I kept Dinah on her. “Hold.”
“I’m ready,” my gun whispered back to me.
“Killian,” his mother said, her voice soft and lilting with an accent that made Killian’s seem mild, “we told you that we didn’t want you causing trouble. That we liked the status quo. But here you are, tangling with things you would be better off ignoring. Like that one there.” She flicked a hand at me and I smiled back.
“Not causing trouble, Mam. Just chasing down the bad boys to give them a spankin’.” Killian grinned, and I wondered if it would work on his mother.
She frowned and the wind whipped around him, picking him up. His hands went to his throat.
That was sideways enough for me.
I squeezed Dinah’s trigger as I stepped to the right. I hit Killian’s “Mam” in the shoulder, spinning her backward. Killian fell to the ground, but I couldn’t look at him. The other members of his family rushed us and there was no time to second-guess.
I did my best to hit them in non-lethal, but debilitating places. Knees. Shoulders. Hips. Feet. Hands. Not pretty, bone-crushing, but at least they’d have a life after I was done with them—
Lightning arced from the sky and slammed into me, throwing me backward, my back arching so hard, I was sure my head would touch my heels. I didn’t fight the current. I let it slide through me, let it pool under my skin, gathering it even as it stole my breath and tried to stop my heart. Mancini’s words replayed back to me that an Ascendant like me had taken in too much power from someone else, and it had killed him.
But I could feel it in my belly that if I didn’t keep taking it, the electricity would stop my heart.
A split second before I knew it would be too much, the current stopped.
I hit the ground and lay there a moment, doing all I could to remember how to breathe.
“Killian, we don’t like your choice in women,” his mother said with a voice filled with anger.
Damn it, everyone thought we were fucking each other. I sucked in a hard, pain-laced breath and sat up.