Reconciliation by Lisa Oliver

Chapter Seven

It took Seth a moment for his head to convince his feet to move. Luka’s words rang around his skull like a bell. No one, in his very, very long life, had ever vowed to protect him the way the small mortal wolf shifter had. There was a part of Seth that wanted to scoff – blow off Luka’s words as just more of the lies shifters were famous for. But there was a bigger part of Seth – deep in his very soul – that recognized the vow for what it was. Luka, that tiny wolf shifter was prepared to protect him against a trouble of his own making.

A hail of bullets hit the front door. Throwing out his arms, Seth shielded the house as best he could, but he knew that wouldn’t last. There were people around. Luka lived with neighbors, and sooner or later someone would call law enforcement. Bullets bouncing off wooden houses weren’t natural.

Following Luka, Seth ran up the stairs, peering in one room and then the other. There was no one in the master bedroom, or the bathroom, but the sash window was wide open in what looked like a storage room/office space. Running over to it, Seth checked the ground below and then some instinct made him look up. Luka was hanging on a piece of down pipe, climbing up onto the roof.

“What the fuck…” Seth cut his words off as he heard footsteps below. Hissing silently, Seth eyed the window. His shoulders were going to be a tight fit. Kicking off his boots, Seth shimmied out the window, reaching for the down pipe as Luka’s feet disappeared over the line of the roof.

The pipe creaked and rattled, and Seth moved fast, using his feet against the wall of the house to help shift his weight off the pipe. The roof edge spread about two feet out from the edge of the house and Seth stretched out with one hand, grasping the edge and kicking away from the walls. And swing. Throwing his whole body into it, Seth rolled up onto the roof.

“You were supposed to leave,” Luka whispered. He was lying flat on the roof, peering over the edge, his feet hooked into a tile. “I can’t save you if you insist on being here.”

“I find I like the idea of protecting you too.” Seth sidled over on his stomach, until he was mimicking Luka’s position. “Can I have that a minute?” He pointed to Luka’s gun.

“Do you even know how to shoot?” Luka handed it over.

Remembering how he’d cloned Ra’s phone months before, Seth did the same thing with Luka’s gun before handing back the original. “I prefer a crossbow and arrows myself,” he confided in a whisper. “Spear throwing is fun, and I’m not bad with a catapult either, but I’m guessing anything like that would be difficult to explain here.”

“You guessed right.” Luka looked over, flicking back his hair. “I know I seem to be asking this a lot, but why are you still here, Seth?”

Seth swallowed around the sudden lump in his throat. “In my entire existence, no one has ever wanted to protect me before. I find that rather precious. Now hush.” He pointed to the corner of the house where a shadow was moving, created by the streetlamp. “We’ve got company.”

/~/~/~/~/

Luka actually didn’t plan on shooting anyone. It just made sense to have a gun handy when his visitors shot out his front door. He had hoped, that by being on the roof, the guys after him would shoot a few rounds off, probably trash his house and disappear before the police arrived. The light on at the house across the road suggested someone had already made the call. All Luka, and now Seth, had to do was wait.

He’d counted at least eight men heading closer to his house and none of them were trying to hide, but they were sensible enough to split into pairs, so he assumed all sides of the house were covered. Luka’s sharp eyes picked out at least two of his captors, and thought he recognized a few of the other faces too as they slunk around the corners.

“What are you doing?” he whispered as Seth set his gun aside and pushed his fingers among the leaves and grime sitting in the bottom of the guttering.

“I was looking for something to throw.” Seth gave up and clicked his thumb and middle finger together instead. A pile of stones appeared in his hand. “Maybe we can convince them to shoot each other.”

He grinned and Luka was struck with how ruggedly handsome the god was. He’s enjoying this, Luka realized, and somehow that grin settled his wolf. Seth was partially leaning over the edge of the roof watching the two men underneath them, peering in the windows. Seth waited, and then when he was sure he couldn’t be seen, he flicked a stone so that it dinged the edge of the house and disappeared.

The two men didn’t speak, but Luka watched as they ran towards the sound and disappeared around the house. “Is this where we get down and run for it?” he whispered.

“Not yet.” Seth narrowed his eyes as he looked out across the small front yard. “We’d have seen more if we’d climbed on your neighbor’s roof.”

“I’ll keep that in mind for next time.” Luka moved back as two more men came around the house. “How come they’re not going in – they could smash out the windows. I already heard them shoot out the door.”

He watched as one of the men lifted the butt of his rifle and smashed it hard against the glass. Nothing happened. “Was that your doing?”

“I put a shield up, but it won’t hold too much longer.” Seth raised his arm to throw another stone, but one of the men below must’ve caught the movement in their peripheral vision and turned, yelled and raised his rifle.

“Shit.” Luka leaned back and without looking at where he was pointing his gun pulled the trigger twice.

“You missed,” Seth yelled above the sound of bullets that were hitting the roof thick and fast. “It pays to look at your targets.”

“I’m more concerned about how to get down off of here,” Luka yelled back, staying low and shuffling his way towards the middle of the roof. “This might have been a miscalculation.”

“I’m not sure why you came up here in the first place.” Seth was at his side.

“I was trying to give you more time to get away.” Luka huffed and flicked some hair out of his face. “I guess we’re just going to have to wait for the police to arrive and hope they don’t do something silly like set fire to my house.”

“Or,” a deep voice said, close enough to make Luka jump, “you could take my hand and I’ll get you two out of here.”

“Who…?” Luka’s eyes almost fell out of his head as he looked around. Sure, it was night, and even with streetlamps, there were still a lot of shadows around, and the bullets were still flying but… fuck, look at those teeth.

“Cas, Luka doesn’t want to go to Cloverleah. I did ask him,” Seth said quickly.

“I heard he wants to get off the roof, though.” The teeth shone even brighter, and a hand appeared near Luka’s face. “Name’s Cas, fancy getting out of here?”

“Not without Seth. He can’t…” Luka shut up quickly, sure his proud mate wouldn’t want any weakness discussed.

“I did say both of you. My Lord, if you hold Luka in some way. Quickly. I can hear the sirens. The police are on their way, and it would be best if we weren’t here.”

A heavy arm wrapped around Luka’s waist as he touched Cas’s hand and then grabbed hold of it.

“Close your eyes, little wolfie,” Cas said cheerfully and before Luka had a chance to ask why, he felt a burst of magic flow through his body and suddenly the roof disappeared. Holy shit balls. Don’t let me lose Seth.