Page 54 of Wonder
“Yeah.” He took his reading glasses off and fiddled with them.
“Sure. Do you want to call them, or—” My phone rang. “Hold that thought. It’s Cal.” Nicky and Jackson were watching TV, but they paused it as I put the phone on speaker. “Hey, Cal, how did it go?”
His voice was urgent. “Get Nicky, and all of you stay together. I think they’re in the house.” Reno and I jumped to our feet as Cal kept talking. “The Hunters in the backyard are dead. The rest of the Hunter team will know, but I don’t have any idea how long it will take them to get there. My vision was for right now, I’m sure of it.”
Reno and I both looked out the window to the backyard, but nothing was visible except the grass and shrubs. He took hold of my arm, and I grabbed the phone. “Cal, can you call Tucker? No, he’s at work. Shirley then. She might be able to get here faster than the Hunters.” We ran over to the sofa and stood next to the outside corner of the sectional. Nicky was wide-eyed with fear, and Jackson crouched over him on the cushions in their panther form.
I cast around. My mek’leth was in the guest bedroom. Too far, especially if Reno had to come with me. “Weapons?”
“Here.” Reno pulled me over to the side table nearest the front door. I held onto him while he opened the cabinet and took out a gun case. He unlocked it and proceeded to load the handgun. “This is all I’ve got.”
“No.” From beneath Jackson’s stomach, Nicky stretched out his hand so he could reach over the back of the couch. The baseball bat Tucker had left by the back door flew into it, and he held it out to me.
“Thank you, but your magic is still weak. Don’t waste it.” But I accepted the bat as Reno and I took position again at the corner of the sectional. “Reno, I’m going to do the thing with the bond.”
A pause, then he nodded. “Do it.”
I didn’t dare close my eyes, but I reached inside and did the best I could to twist the bond so it didn’t flare between me and Reno like a beacon. Tentatively I took a step away from him, sighing with relief when there was no pain.
“Should we take this outside?” Reno answered his own question. “No, we’re more defensible here. Alright! Let’s take these fuckers down.” Reno kept the gun down at his side as he swept the room with his gaze.
We didn’t have to wait long before Roibeart and Marcas misted into the living room from the guest bedroom hallway. My claws came out and I could feel my fangs elongating. I stood between the intruders and Nicky and Jackson, holding the baseball bat at the ready. “You won’t win here. The Hunters are on their way.”
They reformed, Marcas coming at me with a sword, and Roibeart darting around us to get to Reno. I blocked Marcas’ blade, trying to shove him away from the sofa and into the open space next to the kitchen table. The gun fired, and Roibeart grunted. I laughed into Marcas’ face. Vampires should be too fast for a magic carrier to shoot, but the mate bond must have gifted Reno with some of my speed.
I deflected Marcas’ swing again and reached under him to swipe at his belly with my claws just as Reno shouted, “No!”
My head filled with a roaring pain, and I fell.
GUATEMALA CITY, GUATEMALA – AUGUST, 1992
I pulled out my ear plugs and left the target range, heading for my van in the parking lot. The submachine gun was probably my favorite of my new purchases. It was astonishing what kind of weapons you could buy if you had enough cash.
I reloaded all of the weapons before putting them in a carryall in the passenger side footwell so I could reach them on the fly.
Getting into the driver’s seat, I slipped on my sunglasses then tugged on Davi’s jaguar pendant before letting it fall to my chest. I gritted my teeth against the familiar wave of grief and put the van in gear.
The one friend I’d made in the last fifty years was dead. And he’d left me a legacy of so much more than a necklace.
Davi’s gift from the Elves had turned out to be an intuitive understanding of strategy, which made computer hacking and financial investments simple for him. As a result, he hadn’t had to think very hard to know what I’d be like after he was gone. “Promise me you won’t be alone. I know you have to travel around, but you can talk to people online. Get to know them. Let them get to know you. Let them care about you.”
I might not make any online friends, but the chat rooms dedicated to “the campaign” were a good way to find local magic carriers. In my downtime from searching for theluchd-òl fola, I planned to meet as many as possible. One of them could be my mate. It’d been long enough since that Seer’s vision. Surely my mate was out there by now. If I had a mate, I wouldn’t be alone, and I could complete my mission.
In addition to teaching me about computers and how to sneak around online undetected, Davi had helped me rethink how I’d been hunting theluchd-òl fola. Before, my goal had been to recover Prince Nicol first, then take out as many of theluchd-òl folaas I could. Davi pointed out that I should be focused on reducing the number ofluchd-òl folaso it would be easier to rescue the prince. And it wasn’t like I wanted to leave any of them alive to kill more Wonders.
That afternoon, as I drove through some nameless little town roughly an hour from where the gossip in the chat rooms said the latest Wonder had gone missing, I idly turned my head and saw Barabal walking along the sidewalk, bold as you please. “Well, fuck. Thank you, Davi.”
I pulled over on the opposite side of the street and watched as she turned into a parking lot and got into the passenger side of a rusty Ford sedan. As the car circled the lot to exit, I caught sight of the driver. Tavish.
I followed the car until we were outside of town on a rural two-lane dirt road. No one else was around for miles. They might already suspect I was following them, but if they made a turn, I wouldn’t be able to pretend anymore. No way would they lead me to where they were hiding the Wonders and the prince. Time to implement Davi’s plan.
I reached into the carryall and pulled out what I needed. I waited until the road was as smooth as it was going to get, then I rolled down the window. Bracing my knees against the steering wheel, I propped the barrel of the grenade launcher on the side mirror.
I bared my fangs at the car ahead. “Davi, this is for you.”
CHAPTER 15
RENO
