Page 82 of Reforging Onyx

The werewolf shook his head. “None. Everything looks good.”

Dominic nodded. “Good.”

Shane helped him get into the lightly-armored SUV, and they started to head back into town. The warehouse was a good distance outside of the city; it had to be, both to offer it some level of obscurity and to conceal just for what Dominic was using it for. Any indication that he was letting Onyx have even a second of time uncollared would be substantially bad.

Which was also why he had everyone involved under binding magical NDAs.

Still. One could never prepare too much, and even with every contingency ruthlessly examined, there were always things that got through.

Even as he had the thought, the escort vehicle exploded.

The force of the explosion slammed into their SUV, sending it skidding and spinning across the road. Burning shrapnel sank deep into the side of the vehicle.

Dominic instantly and instinctively wrapped impact barriers around the center portion of the SUV and the participants in it, which helped protect himself, Shane, and most critically Onyx from being as battered as the vehicle flipped and tumbled onto its side and over.

“Fuck!” Shane yelled.

Dominic cried out as a sharp piece of metal scored through the back of his shields and tore a gash up the back of his shoulder. He curled protectively around the witch he was cradling, layering shields upon shields until the vehicle finally crashed to a stop.

Sound wasn’t moving properly, but Dominic ignored everything else to check and ensure that Onyx was undamaged. Thanks to the shields and barriers, he was.

“Can you get us out of here?” Dominic asked Shane.

The werewolf had made it through the initial attack with some damage as well, and he was bleeding from his thigh. “Yeah. Hold on.”

Even a lightly armored vehicle could get broken into — or out of — by a determined werewolf, and Shane was able to pry the door open with a screech of angry metal. Shane popped out of the SUV and immediately looked around while Dominic got himself and Onyx out of the car.

Shit. Shit. Fuck.

With his shoulder the way it was, Dominic couldn’t carry Onyx, and his ability to do anything magically was severely hampered — both defensively and offensively.

“Anything?” Dominic asked.

“Nothing. Yet.” The werewolf’s voice was grim.

Somewhere out there were the individuals who had just blown up his other security vehicle, and they had no idea where, or more importantly who they were. Dominic hadn’t heard a single whisper of anything like this.

“Waking Onyx,” Dominic warned Shane before removing the sleeping spell.

Onyx came alert all at once, sitting bolt upright. “What happened?” he asked as he cast a quick glance around them.

“Attacked,” Dominic said grimly. He’d have preferred not to even admit to that much, but since it was far more dangerous to have Onyx asleep and a potential target than awake… well, here they were.

“Someon—” Shane started to say before a series of gunshots rang out.

“Stay down,” Dominic ordered Onyx as he started to cast a series of spells to set up a defensive perimeter of sorts, and cast a bird’s-eye view over the area. “Six to the south, four west, seven north,” Dominic rattled off as a series of electrical strikes came down not far from their position against the back of the flipped over vehicle.

“Three west,” Shane responded, shooting in that direction.

“Who are they?” Dominic snapped.

“No one else needs to die,” a voice rang out, as clearly as if someone had spoken directly into his ear. “Give us the boy, and you may leave.”

The boy.

Onyx.

They wanted Onyx.