The earth was erupting. Diego turned his head to see boulders burst upward into the misty sky. Then a strange darkness started seeping from the woods.

Diego blinked, but he wasn’t hallucinating. Darkness did emanate from the woods to crawl along the ground, the fog dissipating before it. The Fae warriors were panicking, terrified of it.

Diego wasn’t thrilled by it either. “Cass!”

But she was right there, her warm scent on him. “I don’t know what it is,” she said. “I have to get you free. This is going to hurt.”

“Yeah, you think?”

The general was shouting. The translator was no longer bothering with them.

Cassidy used her claws to rip up Diego’s T-shirt, then she put one hand on the knife. “Close your eyes and think of something good.”

Diego’s eyes slid closed. “That’s easy.”

Cassidy in his shower, her red lips smiling, her hand soothing his body. Leaning her against the wall, warm water pouring over their bodies…

White-hot pain shot through him as Cassidy jerked the knife from his hand. The pain dwindled to mere torture while she tightly bound his hand in a cotton strip torn from his shirt. She hated hurting him, he saw, but Cassidy had courage.

The weird darkness flowed up the hill and surrounded Diego and Cassidy, Fae warriors and all. The Fae made a ring, swords and bows out, the translator hiding behind the general in the middle.

The general shouted commands. Diego didn’t understand the words, but the man sounded exactly like his sergeant in the Marines.

The darkness disappeared, instantly and without warning. Sunlight shone down on about two hundred warriors dressed in skins and carrying short but mean-looking swords that glittered in the sudden light. They all had dark hair and skin and were tall and wiry like Reid.

Dokk alfar.

Cassidy got Diego to his feet. He stumbled, but she was strong, and they ran, step by excruciating step, as the dokk alfar swarmed the Fae and started to fight.

“The gateway should be over there,” Diego yelled to Cassidy, pointing. “But I don’t know if it will open again, and it’s about four hundred feet in the air and six feet away from the cliffs on the other side.”

“I could jump it. You can hang on to me.”

“I don’t think I can hang on to anything. I’d pull you down. Too much weight. Jump it yourself, bring help.”

“Like hell I’m leaving you here.”

“Cass, remember when they asked if I’d die for you? Well, I would. If that’s what the mate bond means—that my world would be all wrong if anything happened to you—then I have the effing mate bond.”

“Diego…”

“You said you wanted to rescue me. Well, this is you doing it.”

They reached the spot. Diego looked for mist, tried to feel a tingle. Collapsed instead.

“Damn it,” Cassidy said.

“Come on, Cass. Just go. I would die for you, but I’d rather live.” He gave a breathless laugh. “Sex with you is fantastic. I want a chance at more of that.”

Cassidy had tears in her eyes as she looked at him. “I love you, Diego.”

“I love you too, mi ja.”

She leaned down and kissed him. Diego’s pain receded the slightest bit, enough for him to savor the pressure of her lips.

Then she stuck her hand through the mist forming on the other side of the boulder. And shouted in surprise.

Diego tried to haul himself to his feet, but whatever had grabbed Cassidy on the other side of the mist now shoved her back into Diego. A form came through the gate, tall and lean and pissed off.

Reid, carrying an iron crowbar, sprinted toward the fight.

Shane charged in after him, in full bear mode, roaring as he ran past. Then a leopard with a Collar, a smaller bear without one, and finally, Xavier.

“Hey, Diego,” Xavier said, grinning, arm in its sling, as he stopped in the middle of the mist. Behind him, morning light shone on dry cliff walls, the Nevada sunshine hard and clear. “This time I’m saving your ass.”

Reid and Xavier had crossed the gorge on a bridge—a narrow platform seven feet long, drilled and anchored into the cliff walls. Diego learned later that Xavier had made the rescue team build it, using engineers recruited from the fire department plus the best construction workers from the dam.

Xavier held out his good hand. “Come on, hermano. Time to get you down off this place.”

“Wait.”

Reid had joined the fray behind them, incongruous in jeans and T-shirt while the others of his kind wore skins.

More hoch alfar were riding in over the open field, on white horses that glowed a little—the cavalry, Diego supposed, coming to rescue their comrades.

“We need to help Reid,” Diego said.

“Doesn’t look like it’s our fight,” Xavier said.

“They just saved our butts. I need to do something for them.”

Diego held out his left hand for his Sig, and Cassidy reluctantly relinquished it. His right hand, the one the knife had gone through, was pretty much useless, but Diego’s left hand was strong, and he was a good marksman with either hand.

“Got a spare clip?” Diego asked his brother.

Xavier wordlessly handed it over. Diego ejected his empty and reloaded. He looked at Cassidy.

He knew he’d waste his breath begging her to run across the bridge to safety. Cassidy was staying, would fight by his side, would haul him off to save him if he fell. As he would for her.

“Nice day for it,” Diego said to her.

Cassidy smiled back, her beautiful, loving smile that made his heart beat faster. “I say we go for it.”

Diego leaned down and kissed her warm lips. “Love you, Cass.”

“Love you back.”

Xavier put his arm around Diego’s shoulders, his shining chrome Sig dangling from his good hand. “When’s the wedding?”

Diego gave him a look and released Cassidy. “Let’s go help Reid.”

Reid didn’t look like he needed a lot of help. During the little time Diego had known him, the man had always been morose and unhappy, lashing out in anger or folding up in misery.

Now Diego saw what Reid must have been before his exile—a fighter. A good and bloodthirsty fighter.

Reid laid into the hoch alfar with his crowbar, going up against those with bows, swords, chain mail—he didn’t much care. He swung and brought down a Fae from a horse, smashing the iron bar into the Fae’s face. The Fae screamed and then went horribly quiet.