Page 78 of Into Darkness (Night Prowler 6)
Bear Head whispered with reverence, “A woman!” The other four began to shift their weight and mutter, but Bat Ears fell perfectly still, his air of jaunty humor vanished. He gazed into the camera a long, silent moment, then removed his helmet.
Big mistake.
It was a peculiarity of Magnus’s Gift that he had to be looking directly into the eyes of his victim for it to work. That meant close quarters, which sometimes meant close calls, if those victims happened to be armed, as these six were. So instead of a direct assault, Magnus often had to resort to guerrilla tactics.
It was guerrilla fighters, after all, who’d perfected the art of the surprise ambush.
The invisible ambush.
Magnus gathered the shadows around him, and closed the last few feet between him and the armed group of thugs.
“What . . . where’d he go?” James stared in confusion at the black-and-white video display. Where only a second ago Magnus had stood, sneaking down the hallway like a burglar—actually it was closer to swaggering down the hallway like a pirate—now there was only blank space.
“Jack said he was special,” Nola whispered, her gaze glued to the screen. “I have a feeling we’re about to find out exactly what that means.”
Standing just behind them both, Lu watched in awe as chaos ensued.
&nbs
p; The man who’d removed his helmet to stare into the camera had a gaunt face, matted black hair, and black eyes that hinted at depths of violence that made her skin crawl. One second he was glaring into the camera as if he were going to eat it, the next he whirled around with a shout. His five companions froze, and stood unmoving as their leader clapped his hands on either side of his head and began, loudly, to scream.
He fell to his knees, then to the floor, writhing and screaming in agony. The other Scavs began to shout over each other, panicked.
“What the hell?”
“Luter! What’s wrong?”
“It’s poison! The air is poisoned!”
“Nothing’s showing on the readout, idiot!”
“Then what the fuck is wrong with him?”
The leader continued to roll and shriek, only now his nose was copiously bleeding. As were his ears. His helmet lay discarded on the floor beside him, blank-eyed and grotesque. He began to sob and beg.
“Please! Make it stop! Make it stop! OhGodJesusMotherMarypleasefuckingmakeitstop!”
A tingle of horror swept up Lu’s spine. She knew with chilling, bone-deep certainty that whatever was happening to this man, Magnus was the cause. Remembering what he’d said to her in the bedroom, her chill grew deeper.
You have no idea what kind of man I am, or the things I’ve done, or the things I’m capable of.
The man on the ground coughed up an extravagant amount of blood. Lu jumped, hand to her mouth, watching wide-eyed as two of the other men’s helmets were wrenched from their heads by an invisible force and tossed aside. They, too, fell to the floor screaming.
The other three made a run for the elevator.
They didn’t get far. All three were thrown to the ground within seconds, their helmets removed and thrown away, their screams rising in horrible harmony with the others. Their noses began to spray blood. Their screams were punctuated by wet, bloody coughs, and Lu knew what was coming next.
Magnus! No!
Instantly, the men stopped screaming.
An awful silence ensued, broken only by low groans and the sound of pained wheezing. The men rocked on the floor, clutching their heads, curled into fetal positions. The leader, the one who’d been afflicted first, crawled slowly to his knees and sat back on his haunches. He touched his face, shook his head as if to clear his vision.
“Today’s your lucky day, Scav. Any other time and I would’ve ended your sorry life without a second thought,” said a low voice, a growl from the semidarkness that wasn’t attached to anything visible. Wherever Magnus was, he must’ve been close to the leader, because the man cowered at the sound of his voice.
“Please!” he entreated in a ragged whisper. “We were just looking for food!”
His hands flew to his head again. He began, shrilly, to scream.
