Page 21 of Lost and Stolen Gods
I slowed my pace to fall abreast of them. “Instead, what you’re doing right now is being a bully.”
She glared at me. “I don’t give a fuck what you think.”
“Back off.” Dharma grabbed her shoulder and yanked her away from me.
“Aw, you standing up for your girlfriend?” she crooned.
Dharma flinched.
“I recognize a rug muncher when I see one,” she continued. “Your kind make?—”
I punched her in the face. It was pure reflex, leaving me staring at my fist as if it was a foreign entity.
Eve clutched her bloody mouth. “You futhing bith.” She flew at me but was plucked off her feet by one of the elite dudes.
This one had silvery white hair streaked with deep blue accents and eyes like sapphires. He bared his even white teeth, which morphed to pointy razors when he brought Eve close to his face. She squeaked, and he shook her slightly.
“Youwillrespect your fellow,aadha rahkt,” he growled.
He dropped her, and she fell to the ground with a yelp, scurrying to the back of the entourage to get away from him.
He turned his penetrating gaze on me. “You need to work on your punch attack.” He lifted his chin. “Wewill fix it.” He stomped off, and the group gave a collective exhalation.
“He was…” Priti licked her lips.
“Scary?” Remi supplied.
“Yeah…u-huh, totally.” Priti nodded a little over-enthusiastically.
“Did you see his teeth?” Black-eye boy said.
Remi stumbled, and I grabbed her elbow to stop her falling. “Hey, you okay?”
“Yeah, just tired. Did an all-nighter to get an assignment in, then was supposed to meet Chris and…” Her expression pinched as if it hurt to think about her boyfriend. Someone she might never see again. “I’m running on fumes.”
We all were. The humans anyway. These other beings didn’t seem tired at all. Maybe because they weren’t, and they didn’t realize that we were.
I didn’t want to clash with Umbra again, but someone had to say something. I broke away from my group and jogged to catch up with her, internally wincing when I realized that she was walking with savior dude.
They cut off their hushed conversation as I fell into step beside them.
“What is it?” Umbra snapped. “Anotherpeebreak?” Her tone dripped with derision. As if it was our fault that we’d been attacked.
I’d come to her intending to find out how much longer we’d be walking, but I found my temper risinginstead. “If you’re going to kidnap humans and make them work for you, then you probably need to be more prepared to protect them when they have no choice but to satisfy their bodily functions.”
If my words bothered her, she didn’t show it. “What do you want?”
“I want to know how long before we get to our destination. We’re tired. Some of us need sleep.”
Her frown deepened. “The sooner it kicks in, the better.”
“What?”
“Nothing. We’ll be at the vortex soon enough. An hour at most.”
The vortex? Wait… “Anhour!”
“Yes. Is there anything else?”
