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  Dani’s eyes narrowed again, and I knew the look on her face. She was seriously losing patience with Grace. Astonishingly, Grace looked just as annoyed with Dani. Why was a mystery to me, but I wasn’t going to stick around to find out. Grace was right; it was time to leave. “As fun as this little reunion has been, we have a Cinderella to get home by midnight. Thanks for the acquittal and all. Peace out, losers.”

  When the six of us stepped toward the door despite Ethan still being handcuffed, a dozen guardians stepped in our way. “You’ve got to be kidding me!” I roared, whirling around to face Mason.

  “I assure you, I am completely serious.” His face stayed calm, making me even angrier. “Your friend is divinely appointed. This council has an obligation to protect her and uncover her true calling.”

  There was a flash of light and a rip of fabric as Ethan busted out his wings and brought on the glory. In angel mode, drawing on his angel strength, his handcuffs snapped apart easily. Sure, they were built to withstand vampires and werewolves, but Ethan was built to withstand demons. The entire council gasped. “Um, son of the Avenging Angel, duh,” I reminded them. “Not a random teenage nephilim. You guys seriously don’t have a freaking clue.”

  “You will let us go,” Ethan warned in a voice so hard I about peed myself. “None of you will lay a hand on Grace. If any of you try, I will bring the full wrath of the Heavens down upon you all.”

  He sounded fierce enough that he could have rocked the skirt look, like his father. Michael would have been proud. Councilor Mason was shaking in his council robes. It was so awesome. “Fire and brimstone, Councilor,” I said. For clarification purposes only, of course. “Fire and freaking brimstone.”

  “Councilor.” Gabe grimaced as he sized Ethan up. “Remember he is not merely nephilim. I do not think you want to see the extent of his power unleashed in the consulate.”

  I really hate Gabe, but sometimes you can’t help respecting him. He totally recognized how freaking bad-a Ethan is.

  “It’s wrong, anyway,” Dani said, coming around the table to stand next to me. “Councilor Mason, I understand that certain measures were taken in my case, but I was completely ignorant, I had no way of protecting myself, and I was in immediate danger. Someone was trying to kill me. Gabriel was guided by the Creator to find me. There is no need to keep Grace here. Nobody’s after her, and she has protection that was sent directly to her from the Creator.”

  Councilor Mason scoffed. “The girl has already nearly lost her life once. Where was her warrior when she was taken by a coven of vampires? I’m sure this young man is already strong and a fine fighter, but he’s still just a boy. He shouldn’t be on his own. We can train him properly here.”

  Both Ethan and Grace sucked in sharp breaths, and my vision went red. “You arrogant dillhole!” I moved but Duncan was on my butt in a second, holding me back before I could smash my fist into Mason’s fat face. “Ethan could mop the floor with your precious guardians, and he could do it blindfolded. He’s being trained by Michael. He’d barely found out what he was when Grace was taken. He couldn’t watch her every second. He got her back, and their bond isn’t even complete! Ethan is more than capable of protecting Grace. If you ever insult him like that again, I’ll kill you!”

  The councilors all jumped to their feet, and the handful of guardians present looked ready to kick my butt. Dani put her hand on my chest. “Calm down, Russ. Everybody calm down.”

  If I weren’t so livid, I’d have collapsed beneath Dani’s delicate fingers. But I was too enraged to be affected by the energy leaking into me. “He’s a jerk, Dani! He’s trying to do to us exactly what he did to you, but we’re not just going to take it.” I glared at Mason and then met the eyes of every councilor and guardian in that room. “Do you really want us to have to fight our way out of here? Because we will.”

  “We’ll try not to kill anyone,” Ethan added, pulling Grace even closer. “But we make no promises. We’ll do what we must to get Grace to safety.”

  Councilor Condescension laughed. “And how are you going to do that? You are unarmed against a dozen guardians, and Russ may be a Devereaux, but he is weak, untrained, and there is so much magic in this building that I doubt even Danielle could get past our protection wards.”

  I gritted my teeth, wondering if I could somehow find that über-powerful dark magic I’d recently discovered. There had to be some in the air somewhere if I’d used it to disable my handcuffs earlier. As I closed my eyes and searched the magic around me, Councilor Mason sighed and said, “Take them all to the white room.”

  Duncan moved first, coming to take me by the arm again. He was going to be sorry. I was not about to get slapped into another pair of magic-blocking handcuffs. I was no Ethan, but Michael had taught me a lot in the last five months, and Duncan had no idea what I was capable of now. When he reached for me, I rammed him in the stomach and kicked his feet out from under him. Since the dude is a vampire, I hadn’t expected it to work, but Duncan was taken by surprise, and he went down.

  At the same time, the horde of guardians blocking the door attacked us from behind. Ethan took out one of them with ease, somehow ending up with a sword, and squared off with three more, while Cynthia and Caleb shifted and faced two others. Caleb held his own surprisingly well. Cynthia had more trouble. She was good, but she was up against a guardian. He was also a werewolf, and I’m guessing a very dominant alpha. He was twice her size and got a vicious swipe into her hind legs, pinning her to the ground. I needed to help her, but I was unarmed, had no magic, and only had the strength of a human. I was going to have to jump on the thing’s back. Good times.

  Before I moved, Duncan’s hand gripped my ankle. I glanced down, prepared to kick him in the face, but he met my gaze and subtly slid me a dagger from his belt. Our eyes met for a brief moment, and his said so much. He’d fallen on purpose. He was helping me. He wanted us to escape. Mouthing my thanks, I kicked him in the face to keep up the pretense of a fight and scooped up his dagger. Seconds later, I plunged it into the guardian attacking Cynthia. Judging by the wolf’s howl, the blade must have been made of silver. Sweet. I was so keeping it. Duncan was a crafty one, for sure.

  That’s when the real chaos broke out. Guns came up from the remaining guardians in the room, and the nephilim, vampire, faerie, and werewolf councilors jumped out of their seats to attack. When the magic users attacked, I cast a shield spell with everything I had left in me, but as weak as I was, I was no match for both Councilor Mason and the witch, Constance. I was hit hard and thrown all the way across the room. My head cracked hard against the wall before I fell flat on my butt.

  Clara counterattacked, sending Mason to the ground as well. Stupid witch was always showing me up nowadays. I hated that she was more powerful than me now. At least she wasn’t the most powerful magic user in the room; Dani still trumped her.

  We all would have been riddled full of tranquilizer darts had Dani not taken control of our battle. “Enough!” she roared. “Everybody will stop, right now! The next person to attack our guests is going to get a supernatural beatdown!”

  At her shout, everyone in the room froze in place. Even the darts that had been fired were suspended midair. We could all see, hear, and speak, but none of us could move. Gabe and I had seen her do this before, but everyone else in the room was shocked.

  I snickered, especially enjoying the stunned and annoyed look on Clara’s face. It was a lot like the expression her mother, Simone, wore when Dani had once bested her magically. This might be a dire situation, but it was still fun to see Dani sticking it to the Man. Laughing at all the angry protests and questions of the council members, I said, “That’s what you get for messing with the Chosen One’s bestie. Isn’t that right, Dani?”

  Dani tried to remain serious for her stick-in-the-mud husband’s sake, but she caved to my charm and grinned at me. “Darn skippy, Rusty.”

  “Hey, now. Call me ‘Rusty’ again and I’ll kick your butt from here to Carmine,
best friend or not.”

  Dani smirked. “Yeah? How’s it going down there on the floor, Rusty? And speaking of butts, how does yours feel right now? Since, you know, it just got handed to you, and I had to save it.”

  “Ha ha. It’s a little sore, actually. Would you like to kiss it better for me?”

  “I am not kissing your ass, Russ.”

  It was just like old times. While we bickered, Grace rushed to Cynthia’s side. Ethan shadowed her as if they were superglued together. Cynthia had shifted back to her human form and was bleeding all over the conference room carpet. When Grace fell to her knees beside Cyn, she gasped and burst into tears. “Cynthia!”

  “I’m okay, Gracie,” Cyn wheezed. “Just a few scratches. I’ll heal.”

  In truth, Cyn’s leg had been shredded something awful, but she was right. She was a wolf, and she’d heal. It would take a while, though, and it was going to be a pain to have to carry her out of here.

  Ethan took the honor and used his angelic healing to close up her leg. Guess the practice this morning healing my zombie bite had paid off.

  “Wait a minute,” Dani snapped. Her eyes darted back and forth between Ethan and Grace in shock. “How in the world are you two not frozen right now?”

  Oops. I forgot about that. “Awesome One,” I said to Dani, laughing at her incredulous face, “Meet Awesomes Two and Three.”

  “Why isn’t my spell working on you?” she asked them again, ignoring me.

  Ethan gave her that sickeningly pretty smile of his. “What kind of warrior would I be if a simple binding spell could incapacitate me? My father trained me to resist magic.”

  “Your father?” Mason asked while Councilor Torres had a different question. “How is that possible?”

  The angel wannabe looked very anxious to learn the trick. I was more than happy to burst his bubble. “It isn’t. Not for you, anyway. It’s a warrior thing. They have all the power of the angels.”

  While Councilor Torres’ jaw fell to the ground, Councilor Sena pointed to Grace, but her gaze was on Ethan. “And her? Can you protect her from magic as well?”

  “Nope, that’s just Gracie,” I said, giving Grace a wink. “She’s her own kind of Ungifted awesomeness. Forgive us if we don’t feel like explaining it, though. Considering you’re trying to keep us hostage, giving away trade secrets isn’t at the top of our to-do list right now.” I hit Dani with my best pouty face. “So how about it, Dani girl? Are you going to stage a prison break for us, or what?”

  Ignoring the grumbles of the councilors and guardians, Dani glanced at Gabe, who looked a lot more conflicted than I expected him to. She flicked her eyes over Ethan and Grace before settling her gaze back on me. Not that I doubted she’d let us go, but I still let out a breath of relief when she smirked and said, “I always knew I’d have to break you out of jail one day.”

  Caleb laughed, but I couldn’t appreciate the joke. That chest-crushing pain I’d become so familiar with was back. I couldn’t believe that for a few minutes I’d actually forgotten everything that had gone down between Dani and me. Swallowing hard, I muttered, “I always figured we’d have to bust out together.”

  The smile slipped from Dani’s face as reality caught up with us again. “I’m sorry, Russ.”

  “Yeah, me too.”

  Dani’s eyes glossed over with a layer of moisture. “You could stay,” she whispered.

  One glance at Gabe had me shaking my head. “I really can’t.”

  Dani sniffed, but she accepted my rejection. “Okay.” She nodded to the doors. “Go, then. Get Grace home to her father safely.”

  “Danielle!” Mason shouted.

  Dani ignored him, and after unfreezing Gabe, Cynthia, Caleb, Clara, and me, she took off her council robe and dropped it over Cyn’s shoulders since Cyn was rather naked after shifting back to human form. Gabe followed suit, holding out his robe to Caleb, who shifted and accepted it. I could tell the twins were a little shocked by the kindness. “Thank you,” Cynthia said, stretching her leg to test its soreness. There wasn’t any, of course. Ethan had mad skills.

  Dani smiled at her and helped her up. “Look after Russ for me.”

  Cynthia glanced at me and grinned. “I always do. He’s not the kind of guy who should be left unsupervised for too long.”

  Laughing, Dani shook her head. “No, he’s not.”

  “Hello, I’m right here.” I pouted at the two of them, but smiled too. I could totally see Dani and Cynthia getting along.

  They both smirked. “Yes, still sitting around like you’re on vacation,” Dani said. She came over and helped me up. “Get up, and get your friends out of here.”

  Mason didn’t like that too much. “Danielle! You can’t just let them go. If you defy this council, you will no longer have a seat on it.”

  Dani turned to argue with Mason, but, shockingly, it was Gabe who beat her to it. “Is she defying the council, Mason?” he asked, his voice nearly as hard as Ethan’s had been. “Or is she defying you? The decision to keep these people here was yours alone. You acted without consulting the council on this matter, and I agree with Danielle. Such an action is too brash, and unnecessary.”

  I didn’t know the softie had it in him, but he was chewing out Mason as if the old man were a naughty puppy. It was a little bad-a. Dang it! I did not need reasons to like Gabe.

  “Of course he’s going to side with Danielle,” the fey councilor muttered, earning a glare from both Gabe and Dani.

  Gabe came around the conference table to stand next to Dani. He took her hand and sent a scathing look at the faerie. “Are Danielle and myself alone on this issue, Councilor Alistair? Shall we vote on it?”

  “Great idea,” Dani said. “Raise your hand if you think it’s a terrible idea to kidnap the President of the United States’ daughter and the son of the fiercest angel ever to exist?”

  Besides Dani and Gabe, only Councilor Sena and the super old necromancer lady raised their hands. Four out of nine. It was still the minority, but it was more support than I’d expected.

  “It is not kidnapping,” Constance whined. “They need protection. We need answers. It wouldn’t have to be permanent.”

  “Yeah, right,” Dani scoffed. “Just like my visit to the consulate wasn’t going to be forever?”

  Mason frowned. “You said you made the right choice coming here. You said this was your home.”

  “I said Gabriel is my home, and I made the right decision in staying because someone had to keep you people’s heads out of your butts. Not that it’s working.”

  She was seething now, and it made me wonder what issues she was still fighting them on. Clearly all was not perfect in Council Land. I was glad to see that they hadn’t brainwashed her entirely yet.

  Gabe sighed and tugged on her hand. “Danielle. Now is not the time for that.”

  “Yes, it is!” She gave him a pleading look. “They’re doing it again. They don’t care about humans at all. They’ll never change. Humans are just as much the Creator’s people as supernaturals are. If the Creator wanted us to intervene with Grace’s life, she’d have shown us as much, the way she led you to me. Grace, Ethan, and Russ should be free to live their own lives. If they decide to work with this council, it should be because they choose to, not because we’re forcing them.”

  This time, it was Councilor Torres who argued. “No one is forcing you to work with us, Danielle.” He sounded insulted by the insinuation.

  Scoffing, Dani pinned each council member with a glare as she spoke. “You know damn well that if I asked to leave the consulate right now, you’d never allow it. For all your kindness to me, I’m still not free. Neither is Gabriel.”

  “You belong here,” Mason grumbled. “As do they.” He waved his hand toward Ethan and Grace. “We shouldn’t have to force them to help us. It is their duty as the Creator’s appointed to help their people.”

  I couldn’t listen to one more second of this hogwash. I’d seen it once before. Different
pompous a-hole, same ignorant prejudice. Heck, it was the same war my father was fighting. The same argument and shortsighted thinking that made him go crazy and try to take out the council. “Grace is human!” I roared, losing every last shred of my control. “And Ethan’s sole purpose on this Earth is to serve and protect Grace. They were divinely appointed to help humans, not you, you power hungry prick!”

  I was so worked up that my entire body started to shake. My anger swelled somewhere deep inside me, its darkness climbing slowly to the surface until my rage consumed me. The only way to describe it was as if my inner demons were feeding off my emotions, and this time they were winning. I was a mass of raw, angry power.

  “Russ?” Dani asked. I was too withdrawn into myself to respond. I had one thing on my mind—getting my friends out of there.

  Instantly, Ethan’s busted cuffs were on the ground, and with a flick of my wrist every guardian in the room was thrown back against the far wall, their weapons in a pile at my feet. When I broke Dani’s spell, she collapsed to her knees with a startled cry and sucked in a breath, as if I’d stolen all the wind from her. “Russ?” She coughed as Gabe helped her back to her feet. She was shaking violently. They both stared into my eyes in disbelief. “What did you do to me? What’s wrong with you?”

  “Your eyes,” Gabe muttered. “That is impossible. How are you doing this?”

  I didn’t know what they talking about, nor did I care. I was filled with the magic I’d felt twice before, and this time I realized that the dark magic was in me. It was a part of me. I could call upon it. Control it. And it was powerful. Stronger than anything I’d ever felt.

  It wanted out, too. My body was screaming for release. I was stuck in this suffocating room that had been suppressing my magic for hours. But the power that had been blocking me was no match for the energy inside me, and my darkness knew it. I threw my hands out and blasted the wards that were restraining me.