Page 25 of Deathless
Despite his size, the Bull managed to wriggle around enough to drive an elbow into my gut. He must have hit a nerve because the pain made me black out for a second and also loosen my grip around him.
He rolled away, and I found myself staring at the sky and part of the garage roof. I tried to find the strength to move, to grab a foot and trip him again, to yell for help, anything. But I should have known better than to fight one-on-one with a former gladiator.
All my limbs moved too slowly and my lungs couldn’t inhale a full breath. Fuck! I couldn’t let him get away, couldn’t let Rori down. Rolling to my forearms and knees felt like it took afull minute, and the Bull was already grasping the side of the motorcycle, pulling himself up.
Hudson moved faster than either of us could perceive. In the time it took to blink, he stood between the Bull and me, hands on the other man’s shoulders as he forcibly threw him off the bike.
The Bull was lying prone next to me, palms splayed out and eyes blinking like he couldn’t figure how he’d ended up on the ground. Hudson was on his back in the next instant, bringing his arm to lock around his opponent’s throat.
The Bull’s face started going red and then purple. He gasped for air as he clawed at Hudson’s forearm but was quickly losing the fight.
“Don’t kill him,” I rasped, finally finding air in my lungs. “We need to question him.”
“I’m not. He’ll just pass out soon.” Hudson was calm as he answered, his chokehold rock steady on the other man.
Within another minute, the Bull’s eyes rolled up and his body went limp. Hudson released him, and the color immediately began returning to the passed-out man’s face.
“Holy fuck.” I rubbed the tender spot on my stomach where I’d been elbowed. “Thanks for the assist.”
Hudson nodded, his face remote. “We should get him restrained before he wakes up.”
“Yeah. Help me take him to the basement?”
As we dragged the traitor across the ground, I could only hope Rori was having an easier time than me.
8
RORI
It was three days of riding before we found them.
Aside from the general direction of south, we didn’t know exactly where the four elder women were headed. For all we knew, they could have doubled back and returned the direction they came from. But that would have come from the assumption that they knew they had been watched, which LJ would not have allowed. The only other reason for changing course would be paranoia, and while this cult had that in spades, they also had a staggering amount of arrogance.
Whatever this split-three-ways plan was, I was counting on them being confident in it.
LJ and Val had triangulated their most likely positions based on the main road taken by the RV, and the estimation of where they’d end up based on distance covered and potential routes taken. So many of the roads out here hadn’t been maintained for decades, since before I was born, probably. We eliminated most potential routes due to the sheer impassibility of them, all overgrown, cracked, and potholed to hell. It’d be suicide to travel those roads in something as bulky as a van, not to mention one carrying supposedly precious cargo.
“You think they’d avoid these towns?” Val pointed out a few settlements on the map. “Because, you know,men.”
“I didn’t see them pack much food,” LJ said. “They’ll need to stop for supplies, men or no. Safe to assume they’ll avoid men if they can, though.”
“Here.” I dropped my fingertip to a dot marked Portisville. “This place has one of those self-serve stations. You grab what you need and then leave cash or goods in exchange. No need to interact with anyone.”
LJ lined up his ruler on the map, muttering under his breath as he did the measurements in his head. “The distance fits within our time frame. If they kept a steady pace, they’ll have been there today or yesterday.”
“Let’s go.” I headed for my bike, trusting everyone would follow. “They’re not likely to stay in one place for long.”
I pulled out my phone the moment I lowered into my rumbling seat. Again, no service, just like every other time I checked. Sometimes I’d barely get a bar of reception that would only disappear in the next second. Regardless, I wrote a quick message to Torr, fully aware of the low chances he’d ever see it.Connection’s bad, but we’re fine. Love you.
Shoving the phone away, I went for the handlebars and hit the throttle, accelerating on the road with a roar. A glance in my mirror showed Santos just to the right and behind me. He looked relaxed on the bike, a complete natural. It wasn’t lost on me that he was in Torr’s usual spot, my right hand.
I returned my attention to the road with a smile, pleased that my men’s formation on the road was just as seamless as it was off. Santos and Torr knew how to cover each other as if on instinct. When one had to stay behind, the other naturally stepped into his place at my side.
Devin hung a few paces behind Santos, and he also seemed at ease with the formation of our small group. More so than Iexpected, considering it was Tezca who said he had to be part of this mission.
My gaze shifted to the side, looking for the big cat running alongside us at a speed no regular jaguar could maintain. Tezca didn’t like running on the road, so my peripheral vision caught the cat-shaped shadow keeping up with us through the brush, shrubs, and rocky terrain along the roadside.
Somewhere in the sky, Astarte watched over us too. The companion gods stayed with us, keeping us in sight while they remained out of reach. Their steadfastness was the only real confirmation that we were going more or less the right way. It wasn’t like they were alerting us to the contrary, which by this point, I figured was as much as we would get.
