The Prof Croft Series: Books 0-4 (Prof Croft Box Sets Book 1) by Brad Magnarella (best business books of all time txt) 📕

former friend, a mother, the most dedicated public safety officer I had ever met. I glanced around at the crowd through the tapering rain.

“Anyone with a family to protect,” I said. “I suggest you go to them now.”

“You don’t talk to my men,” Stiles said. “I talk to my men.” He raised his pistol until it was staring at my face. “I’m not going to say it again. Take your partner and get the fuck off my plaza.”

I stooped toward Detective Vega. Her cheek was pressed to the concrete, face clenched in agony. Rain water mingled with the blood from her wound and pooled pink around her knees. My intention had been to pick her up and load her into the car, to get her to a hospital. Instead, fury threw me into a pivot. Sweeping my cane in a wide arc, I shouted, “Forza dura!”

The force blew from me with the roaring power of a jet engine. It slammed into Stiles and his men, sending them airborne in a wave. A chorus of cries rose. Shoes and weapons spilled to the plaza. I glimpsed Stiles’s flapping leather coat before he disappeared into the wave of bodies crashing against the nearest towers. I drew my cane apart.

“Protezione!” I called, forming a light shield around Vega and me.

Bullets sparked off the glowing dome, but not from Stiles’s men. The commotion had spurred Kahn’s army into action. They were charging from the west towers, gun muzzles flashing.

I glanced around. Many of Stiles’s men remained down. Others staggered into the east towers. A few had reclaimed weapons and were firing back at Kahn’s men.

I looked down at Vega. I needed to get her out of here, but I couldn’t let the situation degenerate into the war she’d been trying to prevent.

Flares burst across the plaza and two, three rockets blasted toward us.

“Respingere!” I shouted.

The pulse from my shield pummeled the rockets, knocking them off their trajectory. They wriggled skyward and detonated like brute pyrotechnics, the Manhattan Bridge to the north flashing in and out of view. Shrapnel rained down over my shield.

Christ. My abilities had been developed to cast nether creatures back to their realms, not wage urban warfare. And with the fae magic still bolstering my powers, I possessed punch but not precision.

I opened a rear door of the sedan and scooped Vega up. She felt too limp as she sagged against me.

“Hang in there,” I said. “I’m going to get you to a doctor.”

I fed her through the door and lay her across the back seat.

I was pulling away when her left hand reached out and seized the lapel of my coat. Words hissed from her grimacing lips. “Don’t you … dare … put me in a hospital.”

She released me, her hand falling back to her wound. I read between the lines. A hospital would mean being sidelined, unable to work on reclaiming her son. We’d have that fight later.

I slammed the door closed and grew the shield to enclose the sedan. Kahn’s army had reached the plaza’s center, and heavy fire was coming from both sides. Stiles’s retreating men had taken up positions inside the apartments, gunfire flashing between window bars.

That’s nice, you idiots, I thought, drawing fire toward your families.

A rocket launcher spewed gas from an upper-story window, and a missile dove toward the plaza. My force invocation was too slow. The missile detonated in front of Kahn’s men, blasting back the advance.

How in the hell am I going to end this conflict?

The short answer was I couldn’t. The best I could do was give the two sides a common enemy.

Me.

26

I dropped into the driver seat and slammed the door. Vega had left the sedan running. It was a different vehicle from the one I’d driven in October, but the same make and model. I took a moment to refamiliarize myself with the controls before pulling the gearshift into drive.

I glanced back to check on Vega. “Hold onto something,” I told her and waited for her to wrap a hand around one of the safety belts.

I stepped on the gas and peeled around until I was bearing down on Kahn’s army. Bullets flashed off the shield that glimmered around the sedan. I felt the impact of bullets from the rear, meaning I was taking fire from Stiles’s men as well.

Perfect.

Kahn’s soldiers began to back away, then scramble from my oncoming vehicle. When I was almost to the front lines, I shouted, “Respingere!”

With the fae magic acting as a catalyst, the pulse from the shield detonated like a daisy bomb, blowing men as far back as the fence ringing the project. I steered through the fallen men and ruined weapons, careful not to run over anyone, then wheeled around and accelerated back toward the east towers. More shots rattled and popped, impacts flashing beyond the windshield.

With another shouted Word, my shield expanded rapidly, knocking back Stiles’s men in the plaza. I cut the sedan hard right and steered toward the main gate. In the rearview mirror, I caught combatants from both sides giving chase, no longer shooting at one another.

How long the temporary truce would hold, I had no idea. But I’d done all I could.

The sedan’s passenger side scraped through the gate in a sharp keening. I braked too late, launching off the curb and into the rusted husk of a car that had been left curbside. I cursed and reversed, then took off west, away from the chattering gunfire still directed at me.

I jagged left at the next intersection, then right, then left again pulling up to a four-way stop. I was far enough from the Towers that I dispersed my shield to allow my powers to recharge. I twisted around to peer into the back seat. “You all right, Vega?” I still had to figure out where to take her.

I didn’t notice the dark van slide up beside us, lights off, until my driver side door cannoned open. A fist crushed my jaw and wobbled my