Page 18 of Blood Sacrifice

I was just veering around a corner when I saw the ambush ahead of the bus. It was too late to phone Jethro, and all I could do was watch as the wheels of the bus were shredded by the device laid across the road. The bus swerved wildly on the road, and I was thankful it wasn’t one of the narrow, winding mountain roads that would have led to the death of every passenger.

My heart was in my mouth as the bus toppled onto its side and slid down the road before crashing into a rockface.

I sped forward, knowing Jethro and Paulo would be armed and ready to attack as soon as their vehicle stopped.

Smoke billowed from the engine region of the bus, vital fluids leaking across the road. Enemies slowly emerged from their hiding places dressed in dark clothes and wearing masks. Suitcases lay on the road since the side door had been torn off in the crash.

“Get those people to safety,” I called to Paulo. “Jethro, keep those fuckers back!”

There was only three of us, but there was a reason we had survived this many years. We were a deadly team who didn’t stop to ask questions or try to ascertain the circumstances of a situation.

I stalked forward, my wolf merging with me to strengthen my muscles, my bones trying to shift into my hybrid form. My fingers elongated, claws emerging at the same time my canines lengthened and filled my mouth.

One of the men tried to step in front of me, and I sliced across his throat with my claws, kicking him out of the way while arterial spurts of blood painted the ground.

My focus was set on the bus, and the safety of the woman on it. Paulo had ripped the back door off and was trying to help people climb out. I didn’t look away from the bus, my gun moving in the direction of the noise behind me, and my finger on the trigger to eliminate whoever was trying to sneak up behind me.

Jethro had taken the high ground, standing on a rock formation to fire at anything that moved toward the bus. I bent down at the front of the bus to tear the front door open, and climb in to kick the windscreen out and make a bigger door to get people out quicker.

One of the masked men tried to grab someone exiting the bus and received my gun in his face. “I would back up,” I suggested. “This is not your territory and right now I’m within my right to blow your braincells out.”

He stumbled back a step, fumbling to retrieve a machete from his belt, making huge circular movements in front of him. I pulled the trigger that was still aimed at his head.

“Asshole,” I muttered as he fell backward with a surprised expression on his face.

“Never bring a knife to a gunfight,” a guy who had crawled out of the bus said. I recognised him as the man who had been with the lady chatting to Luna.

My eyebrows flew up but I didn’t comment.

“This way,” Paulo said, leading him away from me.

“Step aside,” a voice said, gaining my attention. “This has nothing to do with you.” He aimed a gun at me. That was his first mistake as I didn’t appreciate people threatening me.

I folded my arms across my chest and glared at him until I saw him swallow. “Do you know who owns this territory?” I asked in a calm voice.

He nodded once, his eyes darting to the side. “I do, but we’ll be gone before he discovers what happened here.”

I pursed my lips together and tilted my head to the side. “I wouldn’t be so sure about that. Last I heard, he was in Cusco.”

“Step aside,” he said again, directing me with his gun.

Instead, I took a step forward. “And if I don’t?”

He met my eyes and that was his second mistake. There had been an alpha wolf to control us as Balor brought us all into the military. I killed him, which made me the alpha to our pack. Dire wolves possessed their own brand of magic, but those who ruled the pack were able to exert power over others of their kind. I could see inside him, feel his fear. More than that, I could mess with his emotions and inflame that fear into a very real all-consuming terror.

The problem with the wolves currently working with our enemies was that they had leaders but not an alpha. I stepped forward again and he blinked, trying to break my control over him.

“You have somewhere else to be,” I said in a low voice, sensing his indecision.

He was young, and I sensed a light inside him that hadn’t been corrupted yet.

“Get out of this place, and don’t go back to whoever your master is,” I commanded.

He struggled for a moment before dropping his gun and sprinting off in the opposite direction.

I turned in time to see Luna crawling out of the bus on her hands and knees, her backpack still strapped across her body. My mouth dried, and my feet felt as if they were filled with lead. There was blood on the side of her face and she looked confused. She touched the side of her head, blood transferring to her fingertips. She stared at it for a moment with her brow furrowed in confusion.

I was beside her in a heartbeat, lifting her up by her arms.

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