“Dammit!” the captain shouted as he pulled the car over, conveniently to our side of the road rather than his. I sprang out from beneath the cover of the trees, landing directly in the passenger seat—the fool had put the top down on his car. Stupid, since it left him more open to attack, but I wasn’t going to complain.

“W-what is the meaning of this?” the captain stuttered, his eyes widening with outrage. He was a tall, bulky man with thick brown hair and a mustache, bright red thread embroidering his dark blue uniform. “Who are you?”

“A good guy,” I said, clapping a hand over his mouth. He tried to struggle as I spoke the Words to the sleep spell Fenris had taught me, but he was no match for my shifter strength. The struggle lasted about three seconds, and then he was snoring in my arms.

“Great job,” Elnos said, emerging from the foliage. I hopped out of the car and walked around to the driver’s side, then hefted the man out of the car. Elnos helped get him onto my back, draping his arms across my shoulders while I held his legs, piggyback style. “Give me a second to hide the vehicle, and then we’ll be on our way.”

“No way.” I swiped at a bit of drool that dribbled onto my shoulder from the sleeping guy on my back and grimaced. “I’m not carrying this guy around for a second longer than I have to. I’ll meet you back at camp.”

Elnos rolled his eyes, but he let me go on my way as he put an illusion spell on the car to hide it from human eyes. It would have served the owner right for us to just destroy it, but Rylan was going to need it if he hoped to pass himself off as the man I’d just knocked out cold.

Elnos caught up with me just as I reached the camp. Iannis, Fenris, and Rylan were sitting on logs around the fire pit in the center of the encampment discussing the next phase of our operation, and they all looked up as I arrived.

“That’s a big one you caught there, cousin,” Rylan said, coming over to me. “Want some help?”

“No.” I rolled my shoulder to the side and dumped the man onto the ground. He grunted a little as he hit the dirt, then rolled onto his side and immediately continued snoring.

“Damn. That sleep spell really is effective. How long do you think he’ll be out?” Rylan asked me.

“Only a few hours,” Iannis said, coming up from behind him. He touched my shoulder briefly. “Did everything go as planned?”

“Yep,” I said. “No witnesses, and the car’s waiting.”

“Excellent.” Iannis turned his gaze to Rylan. “It’s time to turn you back into a Resistance soldier.”