Page 36 of Four Calling Birds

“Cover us while we move,” said Mack, following my lead. He and Veder would bound forward, while I had my rifle up, looking for threats.

“Got you covered!” I yelled back to them.

I watched, keeping my head on a swivel, looking back and forth as Mack and Veder purposely, and quickly moved down the gorge.

Mack’s knees were bent, his rifle hitched in the low ready, the butt against his shoulder. He moved from one bit of cover to the other, his head in a swivel as he looked for threats around him.

There was something about him, how he moved, like a leopard stalking in its natural habitat that made me glad that he was my husband. That he was on my side.

There was a muzzle flash out the corner of my eye, and Veder announced his kill. “Two!”

We echoed the number, meaning there were only two of the original twelve left. When there’s such a low number of enemy alive, it’s a game of finding a needle in a haystack. They actually have a small advantage.

Taz’s flares were starting to fade. They went from being vibrant yellow sparks, to a dying orange flame. Even with the moonlight and the darkness, I knew the small river was running red with blood. I could even smell it in the air. The metallic scent of hemoglobin.

One of those two guys left were Magnus. I prayed to God he didn’t get to Taz.

The hairs on the back of my neck prickled with anticipation. Something was wrong. Something was very, very wrong. They say you can’tfeelwhen someone is watching you. Not really. It’s a trick of the mind. It processes what you see from the corner of your eye faster than you can, so it gives you that uneasy feeling to warn you of danger.

I personally think that’s bullshit, because I’ve felt like I was watched, and the person was well out of my visual range. That’s what I felt now. I couldn’t see him. I couldn’t smell him. But I knew Magnus was out there, and he had eyes on me.

Well… not hiseyes.Just the one eye.

I tried not to laugh with satisfaction as I remembered the feel of it squishing in my hand.

That’s when I saw it. The moonlight gave me just enough time to see the shape of a single black boot. I saw the hint of a heel, and from there, my eyes adjusted to see the outline of a figure.

I took a shot.

“Fuck!” Veder said, hitting the ground a little sooner than he expected.

“One!” I called, as that booted heel went from pointing up towards the sky, to flat on the ground.

The guys echoed it. We knew there was only one hostile alive out there. Magnus. Was he lying in wait somewhere? Had he run away? No, I don’t think so. He wouldn’t run from anything. I just didn’t see that as a possibility.

“Cover me while I move?” I turned my head a little to where Veder had settled into the ground.

He quirked a brow at me. “Do I have a choice?”

With a small laugh, I got up and ran. I’d have to get to the bank, and step over a small rock-bridge that gave us just a slim wadable path through the water, and to the other side where Taz was. Then we’d be together, and things would feel… safer… with all of us close, and able to protect our perimeter. I could protect the kids better if I could see them.

But that feeling of uneasiness was still there. Like there was something out in the night. A great evil. A witch in the woods, or something going bump under the bed.

I stepped onto the bank, my boot sinking into the cold mud made by melted snow. I stepped over to a rock. I thought I had slipped. I thought my boot had just fallen off the slick rock, and I fell into the water. But I was wrong. I knew it when I heard a growl, a scream of “Momma!” and “Lotte!” as my head went underwater. I knew it when a hand went around my calf, then my neck. I knew it as my lungs burned, and the cold surrounded me, my eyes blurring in the raging water.

I hadn’t slipped. I had been pulled down.

Magnus. I caught a glimpse of his face through the white water. I recognized the rectangular, big-mouthed, ugly Cro-Magnon mug. There was a black eye patch where I had plucked his eye out.

Then the cloud covered the moon again, and I was in black, frigid water. My body locked up and I choked, unable to hold my breath any longer. I grasped for the rifle that was long gone, probably swept down river by now.

I reached down to my calf, to the compartment sewn into the lining. I fumbled for it. I tried to feel for the blade that I had always kept. My one last chance. My final blow…

I found it, but my vision blurred. I was losing consciousness.Fuck.

The clouds parted and the moon came out again. I saw Magnus, his face contorted as he held me underwater, his own jaw barely above the waves himself.

He will not be the last thing I see before I die. I made that vow before, and I would keep it now.

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