Page 98
Roark gripped my arm and pulled me back. If I could see his face in the dark, I’d recognize the intent firing in his eyes. He wanted me to stay here.
I yanked my arm away. “Here’s a thought. I know this will eat at your overprotective soul, but how about you have a little confidence in me?” I stabbed a finger at the door even though he couldn’t see it. “Against them, I’m faster than you. Stronger than you.”
“And more stubborn than me.” A smile teased through his brogue.
“Count on it.”
I could command the aphids to run away, but how long before they returned? And if there was a nymph out there, would she run away with them?
I let Jesse and Roark sidle in front of me as I spoke into the dark. “Shea, you’ll stay here with Darwin, right? And watch over the nymph?”
We could’ve used her skill with the bow, but it wasn’t worth the risk. She survived a bite from a nymph, but we still didn’t know if she was immune to an aphid’s bite.
“Be careful.”
Her voice followed us into the temperate darkness. With two quivers on my back, I carried about forty arrows. Would I use them all? I’d have to remember to collect them as I went.
The property stretched several acres, dotted with thick groves of trees at every turn. Jesse led, his bow up and ready, and his shirtless muscles flexing in the moonlight.
Each time he glanced back at me, I pointed in the direction of the vibrations. My arteries felt near to bursting with adrenaline, my skin chilling in the cool breeze.
Roark stayed on my heels, his finger hooking in the belt loop on the back of my shorts whenever I ran too far ahead. I didn’t fight him. Poor guy needed some semblance of control.
A few minutes later, Jesse held up a fist and gestured at the low-lying brush on the left. Roark ushered me into the bushes and squatted behind me, pulling me down to crouch between his thighs.
Jesse sat on his heels beside us, his hand hot and heavy on my knee. “I thought I saw movement in there.” He nodded at the small clump of trees thirty yards to the right.
I traced the dozens of threads squirming inside me, each trajectory leading to the left. “They’re still gathered at ten o’clock.” I reached out my senses, scanning the circumference of my telepathic limits. “No stragglers. But I still sense some winking out.”
Roark grazed a thumb over my elbow. “Are they stepping out of your reach?”
“No. They’re too close.” And too quiet. My heart pounded, and my palms grew clammy. “Only twenty or so yards away. We should’ve heard their growls or their movement through the brush by now.”
“They’re stealthier.” Jesse’s profile cut a severe outline in the moonlight. “Especially if they’re being hunted.”
I followed his gaze to the clump of trees on the right. Men. It had to be. Men with quiet weapons.
The vibrations on the left shifted, the aphids moving with inhuman speed toward those trees. In the next heartbeat, their glowing neon bodies flickered into view, scattering over the open landscape.
I held my breath as the silhouette of a man stepped from the shadowed area Jesse had been watching. He stopped within eyeshot of the aphids, then another man joined him, and another, until five men stood beneath the moonlight, holding crossbows, huge hunting knives, and axes.
For a desperate moment, I thought Michio might’ve been with them. That he’d built an army of men and had come here to find me. I mentally reached out, searching for his warm presence. But I couldn’t feel him amid the riot of sensations.
Roark’s arm hooked around my waist, and Jesse moved to crouch with his back against my chest, effectively pinning me. Or shielding me.
With one hand on my bow, I gripped the other against Jesse’s waist as the aphids charged toward the men. I couldn’t hear the bugs, but I sensed them moving in a line, slinking through the overgrown brush, their hearts drumming, drumming, drumming for blood.
I wanted to warn those men, but Roark’s hand slammed over my mouth. Didn’t matter. When the first bulbous form blurred into view, the arrows flew and the men bolted. Not away. No, those crazy fuckers ran toward the horde.
Without the report of gunfire, I could hear every grunt, footstep, and whooshing arrow.
Jesse and Roark tensed against me, the sweat on their skin seeping into my shirt. They wanted to help them, but not with me here, their precious liability.
The connective strands in my stomach pulsed wildly. Some cut off, dying, dead, but not enough. There were too many. The bugs were too fast. I needed to command them.
I reached for the hem of my shirt and stopped. Feral quakes raged inside me, but stabbing through the network of noise was something steadier, saner, colder.
Table of Contents
- Page 1
- Page 2
- Page 3
- Page 4
- Page 5
- Page 6
- Page 7
- Page 8
- Page 9
- Page 10
- Page 11
- Page 12
- Page 13
- Page 14
- Page 15
- Page 16
- Page 17
- Page 18
- Page 19
- Page 20
- Page 21
- Page 22
- Page 23
- Page 24
- Page 25
- Page 26
- Page 27
- Page 28
- Page 29
- Page 30
- Page 31
- Page 32
- Page 33
- Page 34
- Page 35
- Page 36
- Page 37
- Page 38
- Page 39
- Page 40
- Page 41
- Page 42
- Page 43
- Page 44
- Page 45
- Page 46
- Page 47
- Page 48
- Page 49
- Page 50
- Page 51
- Page 52
- Page 53
- Page 54
- Page 55
- Page 56
- Page 57
- Page 58
- Page 59
- Page 60
- Page 61
- Page 62
- Page 63
- Page 64
- Page 65
- Page 66
- Page 67
- Page 68
- Page 69
- Page 70
- Page 71
- Page 72
- Page 73
- Page 74
- Page 75
- Page 76
- Page 77
- Page 78
- Page 79
- Page 80
- Page 81
- Page 82
- Page 83
- Page 84
- Page 85
- Page 86
- Page 87
- Page 88
- Page 89
- Page 90
- Page 91
- Page 92
- Page 93
- Page 94
- Page 95
- Page 96
- Page 97
- Page 98 (Reading here)
- Page 99
- Page 100
- Page 101
- Page 102
- Page 103
- Page 104
- Page 105
- Page 106
- Page 107
- Page 108
- Page 109
- Page 110
- Page 111
- Page 112
- Page 113
- Page 114
- Page 115
- Page 116
- Page 117
- Page 118
- Page 119
- Page 120
- Page 121
- Page 122
- Page 123
- Page 124
- Page 125
- Page 126
- Page 127
- Page 128
- Page 129
- Page 130
- Page 131
- Page 132
- Page 133
- Page 134
- Page 135
- Page 136
- Page 137
- Page 138
- Page 139
- Page 140
- Page 141
- Page 142
- Page 143
- Page 144
- Page 145
- Page 146
- Page 147
- Page 148
- Page 149
- Page 150
- Page 151
- Page 152
- Page 153
- Page 154
- Page 155
- Page 156
- Page 157
- Page 158
- Page 159
- Page 160
- Page 161
- Page 162
- Page 163
- Page 164
- Page 165
- Page 166
- Page 167
- Page 168
- Page 169
- Page 170
- Page 171
- Page 172
- Page 173
- Page 174
- Page 175
- Page 176
- Page 177
- Page 178
- Page 179
- Page 180
- Page 181
- Page 182
- Page 183
- Page 184
- Page 185
- Page 186
- Page 187
- Page 188
- Page 189
- Page 190
- Page 191
- Page 192
- Page 193
- Page 194
- Page 195
- Page 196
- Page 197
- Page 198
- Page 199
- Page 200
- Page 201
- Page 202
- Page 203
- Page 204
- Page 205
- Page 206
- Page 207
- Page 208
- Page 209
- Page 210
- Page 211
- Page 212
- Page 213
- Page 214
- Page 215
- Page 216
- Page 217
- Page 218
- Page 219
- Page 220
- Page 221
- Page 222
- Page 223
- Page 224
- Page 225
- Page 226
- Page 227
- Page 228
- Page 229
- Page 230
- Page 231
- Page 232
- Page 233
- Page 234
- Page 235
- Page 236
- Page 237