The bastard backed Rafael against the wall. The other two moved toward me. There wasn’t any way past them—and no way was I going to leave Rafael anyway.
“You want a good time?” Rafael’s voice was—odd. Deeper than usual, with an undertone I’d never heard before.
The leader pressed into him, holding the tip of the knife against Rafael’s throat. “Oh, yeah.”
Rafael lifted a hand to the man’s face. “This will be more fun if all three of you take me at the same time. The girl isn’t worth it.”
What? What was he doing? I pushed myself off the wall, my legs shaking. “I amsoworth it,” I protested.
But no one even looked at me. “It would be more fun,” the leader agreed. His eyes were strangely unfocused, and now, the other two moved closer. Rafael placed his hand flat against the leader’s cheek, and the man went completely rigid.
I wasn’t prepared for Rafael’s other hand to shoot free from his cloak, and grab the advancing thug around the throat. The leader sliced the knife along Rafael’s collarbone, but he didn’t even flinch.
“Drop it,” he boomed.
To my shock, the knife spun from suddenly nerveless-seeming fingers. Which was when the other two thugs seemed to snap out of it, and jump to assist their leader.
I flung myself at them. Tackled one around the waist, and twisted him away from Rafael.
His friend turned toward me, also brandishing a knife. I released my thug and spun to face the knife-wielder.
Which was when their leader made a strangled, high-pitched scream, and we all froze.
Rafael had lifted the much bigger man by the throat, and held him against the wall. The man’s hands scrabbled at the hold, but it was his face that riveted me—his eyes bulged from a skull that seemed to become more prominent with every second. Veins stood out on his temples and along his jaw. He started making horrible, high-pitched squeals, his feet kicking at Rafael. The acrid scent of fresh urine wafted off him.
Then his eyes rolled back in his head. Rafael dropped what was so clearly a dead body and spun toward the remaining two. My breath caught—his eyes glowed in the darkness—one gold, the other a pale silvery blue.
“Who would like to be next?” he asked, in a deep voice that echoed through the alley.
The two thugs bolted for the exit, flying right past Lucas. One black wing shot out, clipping a thug in the throat and sending him careening off a wall, before he picked himself up and departed.
“Ouch.” Lucas shook his wing. “Gotta stop doing that.”
I dropped like a sack of potatoes onto the filthy alley stones. Rafael was there in an instant, boosting me back to my feet.
Lucas stared at the body, and then at Rafael. “You just killed that guy with yourmind.”
“Yes,” Rafael said.
“You are very much like your sister,” Lucas stated.
Rafael stiffened. “What do you know of my sister?”
Lucas measured him with his gaze. “I was with her when she killed your father.” He glanced back up the alley. “Look, we can talk about this later. We’ve got to go. I booked us a room for the day.”
The surge of adrenaline had finished me, so I couldn’t get my legs to cooperate. Rafael pulled his hood back up, wrapped an arm around my waist, and all but carried me along behind Lucas.
We left the alley and entered the crowds walking the main street. Despite the fact most street walkers wore their hoods pulled up, I was hyperaware of the stares as we walked. They set off every alarm bell I possessed, and I forced my legs to move, keeping my body upright. Rafael shifted his grip so that his entire forearm aligned with mine, supporting me while having it appear as though I walked freely.
But I didn’t think we were fooling anyone. I sensed rather than saw two cloaked figures fall in behind us.
Rafael leaned closer to Lucas. “How much farther?”
“Not far,” the Morph answered through clenched teeth. His wings had partly spread, as though he wished to take off. “Just keep walking. Eyes straight.”
Instead, Rafael handed me off to Lucas, spun around, and walked right up to those following.
Lucas cursed and stopped.
