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“Same way I can find things,” Charlie replied. I could barely see him in the darkness, and he felt far away. “Quiet,” he suddenly whispered as he stepped in front of me, caging me between him and Zaide. His lips grazed my forehead, and his cold hands wrapped around my back.
From beyond the curtain, footsteps crunched across the forest floor, and heavy breathing—someone else’s, not our own—echoed in the silence until two men stood only inches away from our hiding place.
One was short with a round belly, while the other was tall and lean. They both wore black sportswear, their masks covering all but their mouths, and a jacket with a distinctive symbol. A red arrow.
Their weapons clunked against them as they paused to look around, and I swallowed thickly. Up close, the guns were even more frightening. Large, long assault rifles. The kind I’d seen spoken about in mass shootings.
“Shit. I thought for sure they’d gone this way,” the tall one growled and lowered his weapon. What surprised me most was his accent. He wasn’t European. He was American.
The short one smiled and shrugged nonchalantly. “Your tracking has never led us wrong before, Brian.” His easy-going manner suddenly disappeared, and an evil snarl twisted his lips. “But I bet they used magic to get away. These freaks are always getting away like that.”
His accent was harder to place, but it was clear he wasn’t European either. He sounded South African.
Have they really traveled this far to hunt us down?
“I’m just pissed we gave up the chance to bag the dragon over these unknowns, and now we’ve lost them,” the short one continued.
“I’m telling you, Stan, the group in that car were more powerful than the dragon. Our radar went nuts for them. We’d have gotten more with them than the dragon.” Brian kneeled to look closely at the ground.
Gotten more what?
Brian touched the grass, shifting through it, looking for something. “We’ll find them again. We always get our prize.”
“Yeah.” Stan kicked at the dirt and pouted as he mumbled, “The dragon looks cooler, though.”
“Got to wonder why the dragon was following them.” Brian crawled closer to the archway, following a track I couldn’t see, and slowly stood up to stare at the curtain that hid us. I gripped Charlie’s hand tighter and held my breath.
Stan’s scoff drew Brian’s attention, and I slowly let out my breath as he said, “Why do I have to wonder about that? It’s a beast, and they are freaks. Maybe they’ve abused it like a circus animal. They’re evil.”
Brian chuckled. “You know, that actually makes sense. You’re not as dumb as you look, Stan.”
“I’m going to take that as a compliment instead of kicking your ass and making you look bad in front of others.”
“Like you can make me look bad. I’ve got thirty-seven confirmed kills.”
I gasped and covered my mouth.Thirty-seven confirmed kills. Thirty-seven supernatural people he’d killed just because they were supernatural?
“Did you hear that?” Brian’s face snapped toward us, and even though the curtain protected us, I felt his eyes staring straight at me.
“What?”
I swallowed a whimper.
They waited. Listening. Brian took five slow steps toward us but stopped an inch from the curtain. “Nothing. I thought I heard something, but it could have been the wind.” He glanced around again. “Anyway, let’s head back. I got a glance at them, and we can probably use the car to find out more about them.”
Oh my God. They are going to try and find us again.
We waited, frozen, trying to control our breathing and panic until they’d been gone for at least ten minutes. Then we pulled back the curtain and headed toward town again. Zaide took my hand, and we began jogging slowly. I watched my feet as we hurried, concentrating on every step and not how far from safety we might still be.
The fact that he didn’t pick me up again was not lost on me. It told me he was close to his limit. We needed to get him home. Now.
Charlie raced ahead, his bare back glistening with sweat in the dim moonlight. The movement of his shoulder blades was mesmerizing, and a shot of lust blasted through me.
It’s not the time for that.I told myself and reluctantly dragged my eyes away from his back.Who knew that was such an arousing sight? I can’t be held responsible for my reaction.
“Almost there now,” Charlie gasped.
I almost cried at the sight of the streetlights, shops, and other buildings. Exhaustion was setting in quick and fast, and every step felt like I was trying to walk underwater.
