The Prof Croft Series: Books 0-4 (Prof Croft Box Sets Book 1) Brad Magnarella (ink book reader txt) 📖

my shoe but couldn’t see where the other one had clattered off to. Dammit. I pushed the silver bullet into the next slot and, with a wrist flick, snapped the chamber closed. Though Vega had dropped a couple more werewolves, the rest quickly reassembled.

“How you doing for ammo?” I shouted.

“Just reloaded,” Vega replied, squinting down her gun’s sights.

The werewolves rammed into the shield again, causing it to flicker.

“I’ll set them up, you knock them down,” I said through gritted teeth. “Like we did outside.”

Vega nodded quickly.

“Vigore!” I cried, willing a force from the ground into one of the retreating werewolves. The force caught him under the chin, knocking him up and back, exposing his chest. Vega didn’t miss. The shot blew through the werewolf’s sternum, and we were down to eight.

The remaining werewolves let out savage barks, their eyes blazing yellow, bared fangs running with saliva. The deaths of their pack members seemed only to be making them more mindless, which was to our advantage.

With their next charge, I shouted another Word. The uppercut-like force bared another werewolf’s chest, and Vega finished the job.

We’re winning, I thought as the shield stood up to the collision of the remaining wolves. We’re going to get out of this.

Shouting Word after Word, I flung the werewolves up, and Vega shot them dead. When the final werewolf fell and became human, I looked around for Penny. She was no longer on the staircase. I was opening my mouth to ask Vega if she’d seen where the mayor’s wife had gone when the window behind us shattered. I wheeled as a massive stone planter ricocheted off the shield.

A pair of wolves were outside, the larger one’s arms bulging around a large-diameter hose nozzle. Water blasted through the window, spattering my shield and flooding the room. The magic I wielded fizzled and sparked. Vega leveled her firearm at the werewolves and squeezed, but no explosion followed.

“I’m out,” she shouted.

“So are we,” I said, taking her arm. The running water was drowning my magic, and we were down to two bullets. I pulled her into the foyer as my shield dispersed with a soggy pop. Through the blown-open front door, I could see the werewolves coming around to head us off.

“The window,” Vega said, pulling me back into the sitting room.

We splashed toward the shattered window. Taking the end of a waterlogged rug, I heaved the thick fabric over the window’s jagged lower frame and then lifted Vega so she was sitting on it. She wasted no time swinging her legs around and dropping the three feet into a flower bed.

I was preparing to follow when I heard snarling behind me.

The two werewolves had entered the sitting room and were running toward me. I drew my revolver and squeezed twice. The point-blank shots nailed their chests, dropping them to the parquet floor.

Nice shooting, Tex, I thought, looking down at their melding bodies. But you’re out of ammo now.

Meaning it was really time to get going. We had identified Alexandra’s mother as the First Lady of New York City. More than that, we had discovered that she was the one trying to kill her daughter. Somewhere in there was the information Arnaud had wanted us to find.

“Oh, and you were so, so close,” Penny said.

I turned to find her sauntering in from the foyer, dragging Detective Vega by her hair. The blood fell from my face. I jerked my leg back inside and shot to my feet, revolver raised.

“Drop her,” I said, cocking the hammer on the empty weapon.

Penny jerked Vega up and around, clutching her in front of her, a human shield. “I will when you toss your weapon. Go on. Out the window.”

I didn’t move.

Penny dug her nails into the skin on either side of Vega’s trachea. “Would you rather I tear out her throat?”

I sighed and did as she said, the revolver thumping onto the grass.

Penny deposited Vega in the same chair where the mayor had been reading. Beneath the light of the standing lamp, I caught a knot of bruising beneath Vega’s right eye.

“Let her go,” I said. “She has nothing to do with this.”

Penny chuckled as she sat on the armrest, her fingers still clamping Vega’s throat. “Such chivalry, Everson. But she has plenty to do with this. Now have a seat.” She nodded toward a hard couch that had tipped over during the melee. “I’m going to ask you some questions. If you don’t want to watch your partner die horribly, you’re going to answer them.”

“Okay, okay,” I said, quickly righting the couch and lowering myself to the edge.

“And keep your feet in the water.”

I looked down to where shallow waves lapped against the soles of my shoes. Water was a poor conductor of magic, and she knew it.

“Question number one,” Penny said. “How did you learn that Alexandra was my daughter?”

“Good detective work,” I replied.

Penny’s nails dug deeper into the skin around Vega’s throat. “Try again.”

“Your old boss told us. Sonny.”

“One more lie and she dies.”

I glanced around for anything I could use as a weapon. No matter how I answered, her plan was to ultimately kill us both. My gaze fell to the bodies of the fallen werewolves. If only I hadn’t expended all my damn silver.

“How did you learn Alexandra was my daughter?” she repeated.

“Why do you care?” I said. “Afraid that if you don’t tie up all the loose ends you won’t be able to pull your husband’s strings anymore?”

Her eyes narrowed in a way that told me I was skating on paper-thin ice. But I needed time to come up with something. Penny probably only had one or two questions. The minute I handed her the answers, Vega and I were history. At the very least I needed to spare Vega that fate.

“You must not care for your partner very much,” Penny said.

“Fine, I’ll tell you.” I blew out my breath. “It was Arnaud Thorne.”

“Arnaud?” Penny sniffed for a lie.

“That’s right.”

A look of worry or anger deepened