Racing through the crowd, dodging people strolling idly along with children, Alric thought only of reaching Cameron. He never should have taken his eyes off the man. Never should have let even a foot of space come between them.
His skin itched and burned. His dragon wanted out. Wanted to climb over these buildings and shove cars out of his way until he found the bastards who dared to lay hands on his Cameron. His mage. Cameron said people celebrated that dragons existed, but if any harm came to the mage, he would remind them why humans feared dragons for so long.
As he reached the mouth of the alley, Alric saw a flash of…something—light, color—at the entrance to a connecting alleyway. It was so very brief that he wasn’t sure. Magic was in the air, too, the biting and acrid tang of it. But there were more sounds of a scuffle and then Cameron’s frantic voice. He couldn’t make out the words, but he didn’t need to.
Running down the narrow alley on the uneven cobblestones, Alric slid at the entrance of a new alley and spotted Cameron being forced down the narrow space by three men, toward a white van with the side door open. A fourth man stood in the opening with a black balaclava covering all but his eyes, urging his companions to hurry.
“Release him!” Alric roared as he charged down the alley.
Two of the men released Cameron and turned to intercept Alric. He spared only a glance at Cameron to see the mage fighting against his attacker’s hold, digging his feet in and doing anything possible to slow his progress toward the van.
One of them took something out of his pocket, throwing it at Alric. Instincts from five hundred years ago kicked in and he dodged the attack utterly, catching up a trash can lid and intercepting it before the spell could fully unfurl. The spell hit the lid and half-dissolved it, magic splattering against the wall of the building in a hiss as brick dissolved.
The only way to combat magic was to give them no room to cast it. Alric closed the distance in a leap, forcing them into close-quarter combat.
Turning his attention to the two men who’d reached him, he deftly dodged a wild haymaker from one man and slugged the other hard in the gut, doubling him over as the air left his lungs in a noisy rush.
Pain exploded across Alric’s face as the first man with a green mask and angry blue eyes recovered faster than Alric had expected. The second punch just barely missed his nose as Alric deflected most of it with his left arm. Pain spiderwebbed up his arm and across his shoulder, sizzling along the old wound. He refused to be slowed any further.
Snarling, he punched the green-masked assailant again, then grabbed a fistful of his grey T-shirt. He slung him into his companion, who was just straightening. Both men crashed into the wall and fell to the ground in a tangled heap.
Alric didn’t spare them another glance. He turned his attention toward Cameron to find the mage already running toward him. The man holding him was partially bent over as he hobbled toward the van, both hands cupping his dick and balls. The man in the van was jumping down to the sidewalk, but Alric wasn’t sure if he was helping his companion or coming after Cameron. The important thing was that they were outnumbered and Alric couldn’t be sure by how many. They needed to retreat and regroup. Cameron had to be protected at all costs.
The mage crashed into him, and his hands fluttered over Alric’s chest and arms as if trying to check him for injuries. Alric winced when Cameron gripped his left shoulder and Cameron immediately released him, which wasn’t what Alric wanted at all.
Grabbing Cameron’s hand, he pulled him down the alley, pausing only long enough to kick the green masked man in the head before he could regain his feet. They ran back toward the festival only to meet up with Baldewin, Warin, and Sasha at the mouth of the first alley they’d entered.
“Hoheit!” Baldewin gasped as they nearly ran into each other. His friend was careful to touch him only on his right side as he moved Alric over to a nearby wall to lean against. Alric released Cameron’s hand only long enough to wrap his arm around Cameron’s waist, pulling him tightly against his body. Right now, nothing was coming between him and the mage, not even his best friend.
“Down the alley. At least four of them. White van. I want to know who they are and why they grabbed Cameron,” Alric barked.
There was a grunt from Baldewin, and the two other guards darted down the alley, but Alric barely noticed it. His eyes were locked on Cameron, closely inspecting his face, his clothes. His hair was disheveled, his glasses knocked askew, and there looked to be a small bruise forming on his chin, but otherwise he looked okay. He also looked torn between shock and anger, and it was obvious Cameron was perfectly willing to jump right back into a fight if the attackers returned.