Page 21 of Camriel
Chapter Twelve
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“STOP THE TRUCK!”CAMRIELdemanded, startling his commander.Amaros slammed on the brakes and the truck skidded to a halt.Camriel opened the door and leaped out.“Stop!”he shouted, cupping his hands around his mouth.“I’m not going to hurt you!”he bellowed, knowing it was useless, but trying anyway.
“What the hell has gotten into you?”Amaros asked, leaning over to speak to him through the open door.
“I sensed her again,” Cam said, tugging a handful of his blond hair in frustration.“She’s got to be my cambion.Why else would I be able to sense her when you can’t?”
“What do you want to do?”Amaros asked, checking his watch.“Should I leave you here so you can search for her and head to Manhattan alone?”
Torn between his duty and his compulsion to find his mate, Camriel let out a low growl.“You’re not going alone,” he decided.“My cambion is good at hiding,” he said wryly.“She’s made it this far on her own.I have to trust that Fate will look after her for now.”
He climbed back into the tank and Amaros sped off.He turned off the freeway when it became too congested to drive further.No one had set up any roadblocks so far, but he’d had a bad feeling the last time they’d passed through this area.
Reaching the suburb where he’d felt uneasy, Amaros slowed down and stopped.“Fresh corpses,” he noted, seeing two men and two women lying in a driveway.
“Someone bashed their heads in,” Camriel said, wondering if his cambion was responsible.
“It looks like they were hunting someone and they turned the tables on them,” Amaros figured, then took off again.
“It was my mate,” Cam said, feeling proud of her for taking care of the threat.“She’ll be a fine addition to our team.”
Amaros nodded thoughtfully.“She certainly appears to have impressive fighting skills,” he said.They’d never had a female on their team before, but he wasn’t about to reject a skilled warrior.
Returning to the same neighborhood where he’d left his truck before, he parked inside an empty garage on a different street.They got out and he closed the garage door to hide his truck.
“Let’s make this quick,” Camriel said, slipping a couple of empty backpacks over his shoulders.Amaros did the same, then they took off on foot.They both wanted to return to their base as soon as possible.
“I hope the library Grace told us about hasn’t been burned down yet,” Amaros said as they sprinted down the sidewalk.
“We’ll find another library if it’s been destroyed,” Cam figured.“Or a bookstore that contains the information we need,” he added.People would be more interested in looting food, water and clothing than stealing books, or so they hoped.
They reached the Henry Hudson Bridge to see new crowds coming and going.The fresh bodies lying here and there indicated fights broke out frequently.The sniper Amaros had slain was gone.Someone must have tossed his corpse into the water below.
Grace had given them rough directions where to find the New York Public Library.Amaros stopped at an abandoned souvenir store and grabbed some maps of the city.“These should come in handy,” he figured, handing one to his second in command.He kept one for himself and shoved the others into one of his backpacks.
Cam opened his map and located the library.“There it is,” he said, then hiked his thumb in the correct direction.“We need to go that way.It’s on 42ndstreet and 5thAvenue.”
Following the map, they reached the gigantic library in Midtown and halted to study it.It hadn’t been torched yet.A mob was guarding the three doors that were set behind a trio of huge archways.
“That could complicate things,” Amaros said, scowling at the twenty or so humans who were blocking their way.They’d claimed the structure as their turf.
“We can probably get around them without them noticing us if we move fast enough,” Camriel figured.
“There could be hundreds more inside,” his boss said.“Let’s head closer and see what we can pick up.”
Walking casually, they circled around to approach the library from the side.“I can’t sense many people in there,” Camriel said.
“Me either,” Amaros agreed.“There has to be another entrance.Maybe it won’t be as well guarded as the three doors.”
“This place is huge,” his second said in wonder as they traversed along the side of the building.Sculptures had been added to the stone building to add character.It was both functional and beautiful.
“There’s a broken window,” Amaros noticed, pointing upwards at one of the large, arched windows.“We can probably get in through there.”It was too high for a normal human to reach without a ladder, but it wouldn’t be a problem for the warriors.
Camriel bent down and cupped his hands together.Amaros stood on his palms and was launched upwards.He caught hold of the sill and peered inside.The gigantic room below was empty of people.“It’s clear,” he told his warrior.
Cam took a running jump and grabbed hold of his commander’s foot.He hauled himself upwards and followed Amaros inside.They climbed down from the top of a long bookshelf onto a balcony with metal railings.“This could take a while,” he murmured.Countless books filled the bookcases all around the walls of the balconies and the room below.Long wooden reading desks and wooden chairs took up most of the room on the floor.Lamps with gold shades stood on each desk.
