The guy who mentioned the sound looked up at him with wide eyes while several of Rive’s men snickered. It was clear Katona’s men were not from this region while Rive’s people were.
“Egypt has a lot of interesting snakes.” Max lifted his voice, trying to drown out any hissing noises. He couldn’t hear it—but then, he wasn’t the target of the mercenaries. “There’s the Sahara horned viper and the Egyptian cobra. The red spitting cobra. Oh, and the Egyptian carpet viper. Not to mention the Field’s horned viper. I’m personally a fan of the horned ones. They’re like these horned devils slithering through the sand.”
“Are any of them poisonous?” the man demanded in a panicked voice.
“Poisonous? No, not really.” Max made a face and shook his head. “But I’m not sure you want to eat one.” He paused, letting the man sigh and then look at him strangely before he continued. “But a lot of them are extremely venomous. That red spitting cobra can spit venom at a target from over eight feet away. And the black desert cobra is the most deadly, because it’s all black and good at blending in with its surroundings.”
“Max!” Katona shouted in a mom voice that he hadn’t heard in years. He nearly cackled. She was pissed because he was making her cold, hard goons shit themselves with fear.
“What? Shouldn’t they know they’re easy targets right now? The stones and the surrounding air are cooling at a much faster rate now that the sun is sinking, and these snakes are heat seekers. If any of them are looking for a late-day meal, these guys are just walking bite-me signs.”
“Is…is that smoke?” another one of the criminals asked.
“It is! Why is there smoke spreading?”
Shit. The jig was up.
The guys had been quietly setting off little smoke bombs around the hall as they sneaked between the different column bases in the growing darkness. The smoke and shadows would help them move safely without being noticed.
“Ahh! I’ve been bit!” another man shouted, his hand going to his thigh. He plucked something from his jeans and held it up. Not a snake. A tiny black dart. A tranquilizer dart. He opened his mouth to say something. Maybe to warn his comrades, but he never made a sound. Simply collapsed to the ground like an overstuffed bag of dirty laundry.
“Fuck it. I don’t know what the hell is going on. Better to kill him now and sort it out later.” Katona and Mironov lifted guns and pointed them in Max’s direction.
His heart stopped and he froze, panic locking up everything in his body like a rabbit staring at a pair of rabid wolves.
Out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of a dark blur before it trucked straight into him. He flew through the air, his brain only at that second catching on that Ed had launched himself at his body and was now taking him to safety on the ground behind some large square stones.
Ed’s strong arms tightened on him and turned just enough so that Max landed on top of him rather than Ed crushing him under his weight.
“Oof!” Max exhaled as the air was still knocked out of his lungs.
Ed rolled, placing Max flat on the ground while using his larger form to shield him. “You okay?”
“How could I not be with my sexy protector?” Max teased. He tried to ignore the fact that his voice was shaking and high-pitched. That was…that had been too fucking close.
“About time you let me be the hero,” Ed chided, though it was hard to hear over the various people in the earpiece taking that moment to cheer and celebrate.
It had become a free-for-all as the mercenaries started shooting the criminals. Only Charlie sounded grumpy as he’d drawn the short straw and was stuck on cleanup. He was positioned near the gatehouse and his job was to dart anyone who escaped the hall. Clearly the guys weren’t letting anyone get that far.
Max smiled, comfortable under Ed. “You’ve been my hero since the first time we spoke at the airport.” Sap. He was a sap and he didn’t care. “But aren’t you missing out on the fun? Don’t you want to shoot my family?”
“Nah. They’ve got it. This is much more important.” Ed bent his head and took his lips in the sweetest kiss.
Hands down, this took the prize for the best kiss in the weirdest situation, but he was so glad he could share it with Ed. The kiss ended slowly, and Max bumped Ed’s chin with his nose, demanding another.
Okay. Fine. Maybe he had some kittenish qualities, but he was never admitting that out loud.
“Ed? Max? You guys coming up for air or just planning to fuck where all the old gods can see you?” Alexei called out, his voice falling from the earpiece and the hall.