Ruffle My Feathers (The Seven - Book 2) Read Online Free PDF Page B

gaze and noticed a man off to the side. He raised his wrist to his mouth and appeared to speak into his watch.
    Asha raised her glass. "Please lift your glass in toast to not only the joining of these two people, but the joining—"
    Just then, all hell broke loose. Men spilled from the press gallery, wielding weapons.
    "Oh no!" Nevaeh grabbed Gabriel's hand. "Oh no!"
    Time paused for a blink then restarted. In the next second, Augustus and several others were on their feet. A big man who reminded her of a lion with his mane of hair literally roared and grabbed one of the assailants.
    "Gabriel!" Nevaeh gripped his hand like a lifeline.
     
    Gabriel had time to cut his eyes from one side of the room to the other as time did an abrupt stop and restart. He turned his gaze to Nevaeh. She gasped as Connor lifted the assailant and tossed him a good twenty feet. He roared again but the sound cut off abruptly as his body jerked to one side and blood spurted from his shoulder.
    "Oh my god!"
    Before the words were out of her mouth, time did another stop and restart. Even amidst the perils unfolding, Gabriel couldn't help but be amazed.
    "Gabriel!"
    His attention went in the direction of hers. Two shifters had transformed into wolves and leapt onto the man who'd fired the shot. But there were three more attackers coming at the wolves. Gabriel kept hold of Nevaeh's hand and flew into action, plowing through four attackers, his free fist sending them flying through the air to crash into tables.
    Had it not been a horror, it would have been comical. Time was stopping and starting like an engine stuttering. People were screaming, trying to flee, and running into one another.
    He hurried Nevaeh back to the table, intend upon turning it over and getting her and Layla behind it. Gunfire sounded from the center of the room and Layla was propelled back in her seat.
     
    Nevaeh saw the blood that spurted from Layla's chest and screamed for Augustus.
    By the time she'd screamed his name he was already in motion. As servers dropped trays and pulled weapons from beneath their aprons, he plowed through them, his blows sending them careening through the air. He moved impossibly fast, so fast she lost track of him.
      Camera crews suddenly wielded assault weapons rather than cameras and more armed people were pouring in from the service entrance and main entrance to the ballroom. Gunfire and screams mixed with the sound of breaking china and glass as people trying to flee were cut down.
    Nevaeh was in shock, looking one way and the other. Eldric and Colton had jumped up and with their family, turned over the table to take cover behind it. Nevaeh saw the Council leader for the Fae get shot, his back exploding in a shower of red.
    Gabriel raced back to them, dove across the table, taking her to the floor with him. He gathered Layla in his arms. She saw his right shoulder spurt blood and the man climbing across the top of their table with a gun in his hand about to shoot again. She threw up both hands, palms out at the man coming for them. "No! Stop now!"
    The sudden silence was deafening. She looked at Gabriel and he was frozen. Everyone was.
    "Oh … oh my god." Nevaeh clamped her hands to either side of her head. Was she having an aneurysm, a stroke, hallucination? Had she been shot and was dying?
    This was impossible. Her heartrate kicked up so high she felt like she'd just run a mile in four minutes. "No, no, no … this isn't…" She took off into the room, darting this way and that, feeling like she was suddenly in an alien world. Blood and broken glass hung motionless in the air as did bullets and bodies.
    People in the motion of falling were suspended, looking like mannequins. She could even see drops of wine from glasses suspended in motion. No one breathed or blinked. There was a complete lack of sound.
    "Oh god, no. No. " She raced back to Gabriel and grabbed his arm to shake him.
    He blinked and looked around. "Oh, very cool."
    "Cool? What