Page 53 of Dark Stars
So he was perfectly capable of taking thelead, no matter how much Bobby's protective streak chafed overit.
They arrived in practically no time, whatfelt like mere minutes instead of the hours of walking it wouldhave required otherwise. Loud and obvious, but that hardly matteredanymore.
Everything was quiet, unremarkable, and thefew protections in place didn't even require real power todismantle. All he needed once he'd broken the altar was a snack,which was easily obtained as he didn't have to hide his power asthoroughly as before.
"So where next? Right up to four? Or backacross the block to try for nine? How scattered do we wanna dothis? We'll need gas really soon, too."
"Gas I can take care of," Bobby said. "Stayhere, keep watch." He slipped through the dark again to a hardwarestore where he bought gas cans, and then to a gas station to fillthem up. Thankfully, a sheepish looking dude walking up to a gasstation was an ordinary enough occurrence that all he got wasoffers of help and well-intended, if slightly condescending,advice.
Once he was loaded up and out of sight, heslipped through the dark again and back to Alejo. "Here we are, allset. And when that runs out, I'll get us more, though I think we'llbe running into supply stashes at some of these points, sincethey're preparing for war."
"Fuckheads," Alejo muttered around theprotein bar he was eating with little enthusiasm. Which was fair,because Bobby had yet to find a protein bar that didn't taste likedisappointment to some degree. "So where to, you think?"
"Let's head to four. Now we can movequickly, we'll be there before they have time to act. I think wecan hit four and three before we switch back to nine, ten…"
"Then back over to two, one, twelve, andthirteen? So they'll be waiting for us at thirteen inevitably, buthopefully all this darting around will do what we hope and scatterthem, maybe frazzle them a bit."
"That's the hope. Let's move."
As they'd hoped, having speed on their sidemade it absurdly easy to take out sites four and three. Maybe theyshould have done this from the start, though it would pay toremember that they were drawing attention this way. Lots ofattention. And their luck wouldn't hold for much longer.
After another quick snack, though thanks toall the family blood in his system now, he wasn't really wantingfor energy, it was back togo go go.
"Stop," Bobby called out as they approachedsite nine. Alejo slowed down and turned to come back to him beforekilling the engine. "I can feel another trap. Similar to whatnearly fucked me up the first time, though not my cretin cousins, Idon't think."
"So we rush in and take them by surprise,"Alejo said. "They aren't going to be expecting a bumrush."
"Being careful has gotten us this far,"Bobby said.
"The four wheelers got us this far."
Bobby sighed.
Chapter Twenty
"Fine, fine, we'll do it your way," Alejosaid. "Stealth missions were never my favorite, though."
"You're a hunter: stealth is what youdo."
"Catching the monster of the week is what Ido. How that gets done doesn't matter."
Heaving a melodramatic sigh purely for thegrin it got him, Bobby climbed off his four wheeler. "Stay here,keep eyes and ears alert for me. If I say run, do it."
"I'm not the one who needed rescuingearlier, just saying."
"Fair enough."
Bobby slunk away, the darkness folding inaround him without asking, like an old friend with a cozy blanket.At the very edge of the circle he was meant to rush into and bepromptly trapped within, he knelt and rested a splayed hand down onit, sank into it, and slowly unwound the spell bit by bit, pullingone thread at a time, until the whole thing unraveled and collapsedback into the nothing.
By then, it was too late for the acolytes todo anything but attack him. These ones had guns, which washilarious, because guns weren't going to hurt him, not withoutmeeting very specific requirements that were impossible to meetwithout a thousand years of work at least.
They were all dead just minutes later, andhe returned to Alejo, who had settled his praying mantis on anice-looking bush and seemed to be chatting with a couple ofspiders. "Going to leave your new friend?"
"She wouldn't be happy living her short lifein a terrarium, and this is a nice new stretch of forest she'dnever have been able to see on her own. So yeah, here is where wepart. I'm guessing all was well, despite the gunshots? One flewthis way, but nowhere near hitting me, thankfully."
"I'm glad. That was an oversight on my part,I'm sorry."
Alejo scoffed. "I know how to hit the groundwhen bullets fly. Dumbasses shouldn't be using guns out here whenso many of their own are running around too."
