Priceless

after her,” O’Shea said, stating what I thought was rather obvious.
    “Yup. So you ready to kick some ass and break the law to rescue a little girl?”
    He turned his head, his dark eyes holding mine for a brief moment. He didn’t say anything. From outside, they shouted at us to get out of the car with our hands up. Of course, that wasn’t going to happen.
    I placed my foot lightly on the gas pedal, ready to go the second O’Shea gave me the nod. Because I wasn’t taking him with me if he wasn’t in one hundred percent. I didn’t need dead weight and worries about the law dragging me down when it came to getting India out alive.
    “I’m crossing to the dark side I guess,” he said, and that was all I needed.
    The car was made for ramming, and even in the tight space between us and the two vans, it did its job.
    With my foot hard on the gas pedal, we smashed into the van in front of us first. I shoved it almost out of the way before being forced to throw the car into reverse, but it gave us enough room to spin backwards, do a one eighty and peel away from the underpass.
    Bullets ricocheted off the back of the car, and I ducked instinctively.
    “Ever lose a tail before?” O’Shea asked.
    “Once, but I wasn’t in a police car. This isn’t exactly a car that’s going to blend in you know.”
    He grunted. “Move over.”
    “What?”
    He was already shifting, sliding across the seats to take my place and forcing me into the passenger seat. My ass rubbed across his upper thighs, and he let out a sharp hiss of air that, in any other circumstance, would have made me think I’d hurt him. Not so much here.
    He flipped on the lights and sirens and headed for the freeway. A glance behind showed the two vans were already on us, only a few hundred feet behind. I clicked my seatbelt into place, the possibility of falling out extremely high due to the passenger door hanging by only a half a bolt.
    “We need gear, climbing gear.” But where the hell were we going to get that kind of stuff now?
    “They’ll have it in the vans,” O’Shea said, cranking the wheel and dodging around a slow moving car.
    “You mean in the vans behind us?”
    “Yes, along with lights, weapons and body armour. Those vans are always fully loaded, prepped for anything that might cross their path.”
    A thought hit me. “Don’t lose them. We need what they have.”
    He barked out a laugh. “Shit, they’re exactly what we need.”
    “I think we have the diversion we need to get past the Harpy and our rigging all in one shot.” I stared out the back window as O’Shea dodged in and out of traffic.
    The chase, if it could be called that, was pretty sedate in terms of what I was thinking would happen. There were no more gun shots, no car crashes and no squealing tires. We led, the black vans followed, and no other law enforcement showed up. That alone made me wonder. What if this was the mysterious Arcane Arts division of the FBI? A chill inserted itself into my middle. That would make the most sense, but it also had the biggest ramifications. O’Shea drove and I focused on India. She was alive, terrified, but still with us. As I connected with her, I felt a shard of pain rip through her psyche, one that rolled over into me, stealing my breath away.
    “What?” ’The concern was evident in O’Shea even as he worked to lose the two vans.
    “India, they’re hurting her,” I whispered, the pain making my throat close.
    “Are you psychic?”
    I didn’t answer. Couldn’t. I was too busy trying to stem the pain India was being forced to endure. It started as it always did when a supernatural had had enough of being patient. The Coven was trying to break her; make her pliable to their will.
    While O’Shea drove, I fought hard to give India the strength she needed. “I’m here,” I whispered. “Just hang on a little longer.”
    It didn’t take long for us to be back in the badlands, skidding down side roads and hitting the same bumps Alex had been so excited about earlier. The mineshaft came into view and, hovering above it, was the last Harpy. Eve; her eyes even at this distance glittered with hatred. We’d killed two of her sisters. She had every reason to want our guts on a platter.
    The downside was we had no weapons, no spells, and no back up.
    The upside? You got it, there wasn’t one.

~21~
    T he vans were pretty much right on top of us when we spun to a stop. Eve rose into the air above us with a screech. She