Page 58

Spin

Getting up off my knees, I stared in shock at all the fast-dissolving div bodies.

Man, my girl is powerful! Speaking of…

I whirled around and saw her helping Chessie stand. She looked okay—they both did—and I breathed a sigh of relief.

“You two all right, honey?” Chance called out before I could.

“We’re good,” Chessie called back to him.

“Try to drag the neph over to the SUV,” I told them. “Quick as you can, please.”

I glanced down at my injury. Seeing that the bleeding had almost stopped, I ignored it and hustled over to where Chance was hunkered next to the dead delivery driver. I turned over ideas on how to stage this scene for the humans. We couldn’t leave any evidence of Diabolical or Divine involvement.

“What would the humans see as the main cause of death?” I asked.

“Besides the claw marks? Probably his crushed chest.”

“Heal the claw marks, leave the chest, and prop him in the driver’s seat of his truck. Don’t put his seatbelt on. And hurry. We don’t want to be found here.”

Standing up, I manifested a bow once more and a pair of arrows, then shot the front tire of the truck and its rim. Now the whole vehicle listed on the driver’s side. I eyeballed it and figured it would pass human muster as damage inflicted from driving through the sudden crater in the road.

And the humans will have to speculate what caused that because I’ve got nothing.

Chance slung the human up in a fireman’s carry and started to position him as I’d directed, so I checked on the girls’ progress. It wasn’t much. They’d each taken one of the neph’s arms, had dug their feet in, and were pulling so hard that their faces turned red—and the guy’s body slid an inch.

Letting the bow dissolve, I hurried over there.

Monkey dropped the guy’s arm, came over to me, and raised a hand to her mouth. Her eyes were fixed on my bloody clothes. I put my hands on her shoulders.

“I’m okay, sugar. I promise. It’s only a little wound. Chance will fix me up in a second.”

She sniffed, her eyes welling with tears, but nodded when I gave her a soft smile.

“The guy weighs a ton,” Chessie puffed. “I think it’s his armor.”

“Probably,” I agreed and released Monkey. “Grab the straps of his vest here at his shoulders. You take this side and I’ll take that side. Monkey, get his feet. Chessie and I will drag him. You keep up as best you can.”

I might have been able to carry him myself, but I’d burned through a lot of power manifesting and maintaining bows and arrows and felt a little spacey.

Unconvinced we were out of danger, I didn’t want to completely drain myself or use up all my physical strength since I was going to have to drive now.

We slithered our way over to the SUV, and Chessie ran to the driver’s door and popped the back open. Monkey clamored in, put down the third-row seats, and shoved our gear around to make room.

By then, Chance had trotted over, saw my bloody shirt, and laid hands on me. I felt my wound close up with a sharp zip that made my breath catch for a second. Shaking it off, I helped the others manhandle the neph into the cargo area. Chance crawled in after and coated him in golden healing power.

“Chessie, get in behind the driver’s seat and keep your eye on Chance. Don’t let him drain himself until we’re sure we’re safe.”

I closed up the back and pushed Monkey along to ride shotgun.

Then I had a brainstorm. We’d passed several places with signs that warned about falling rocks.

Looking around, I saw a huge boulder half-way up the ridge on the right.

I manifested my bow one more time and knew it’d be the last for a good while.

I fired one arrow at the base of the rock, making it teeter.

I slid behind the wheel and only then did I notice the SUV was still running.

Dropping the gear shifter into drive, I stomped on the gas.

Looking in the rearview mirror, I saw a cloud of dust from the boulder’s slide down the ridge.

It landed right where I’d wanted it to in the dead center of the crater.

We traveled in silence for about twenty minutes and hit the outskirts of a little town before I spotted a small, rundown motel.

It’ll have to do.

I wheeled up next to the office and parked. Telling the others to wait, I ran in, got us a room, and came back.

“We’re all set,” I told them.

The room wasn’t anything special, but it had two queen-sized beds, a couple of chairs, a desk, and a bathroom, which was more than we needed. We wrangled the neph inside and dropped him on one bed, then Chance plopped on the other and passed out.

“Chessie, watch him, please.” I jerked my head in Chance’s direction. “Monkey, wait here. I’ll be right back.”

I went to the SUV and grabbed my bag and my bow case. I wasn’t going to get caught by surprise again.

While we waited for the neph to wake up, I whipped off my tattered jacket and shirt and dumped them in the trash.

I had blood and div ichor all over me, so I decided I might as well clean up and change.

I went to my bag, grabbed a handful of clothes, and disappeared into the bathroom.

I washed up quickly and had just pulled on clean pants when the door opened, and Monkey walked in.

“You should knock before you barge in on a guy,” I scolded her with a smile.

She ignored that and came closer to run her tiny fingers over the faint pink lines where the div’s claws had caught me. Chance would finish healing it after he re-charged, so I wasn’t concerned, but her eyes filled with tears again.

“Aw, don’t worry about that. I’m fine, thanks to you.” I smiled at her, but her bottom lip trembled.

Uh-oh.

With a little sob, she flung her arms around my waist and buried her face in my chest. I didn’t know what else to do other than hug her and whisper soothing things.

“It’s over now. We’re all safe. You saved us, sugar. Everything’s okay.”

I ran my hands up and down her arms. After a few moments, she drew back and stared at me. Then her cheeks grew rosy as her eyes dropped to my mouth.

Not going to lie. That made my insides squirm like a writhing ball of snakes.

She stood on her tippy toes and leaned closer, which was all the encouragement I needed. I slid my hands up to cup her face and touched my lips to her pouty pink ones, wanting to keep our first kiss innocent and sweet, just like her.

“Anne?” I whispered, checking that she was still okay with where this was going.

She shivered and wrapped her hands around my neck. Taking that as permission to continue, I sank both hands into her silky hair and angled her head to deepen the kiss. When I slid my tongue in her mouth, she moaned, and all thoughts of keeping things sweet and innocent went out the window.

Looping my arms under her bum, I lifted her up and dropped frantic kisses along her jaw. She tilted her head back, and my lips followed the sweet line of her throat until I reached her collarbone. I bit down gently, just hard enough to leave a tiny mark, and she shuddered.

“You like that, sugar?” I asked, my mouth brushing her skin with each word.

“Don’t stop,” she rasped.

Shocked she actually spoke to me and delighted she wanted me to continue, I nibbled my way to the base of her throat and swirled my tongue in the little notch there. She dug her fingers into my hair as breathy little noises slipped from between her lips.

“Michael,” she gasped in her ruined voice.

Smirking a little, I placed open-mouthed kisses in a line up her throat and chin until I reached her mouth again.

“Dangerous,” I said against her lips. “This mouth, it’s dangerous. It’s going to get you in all kinds of trouble.”

Her grin was sassy, and I started to kiss it right off her face.

“So, uh, guys? Sorry to, um, interrupt, but he’s awake.”

Chessie’s voice hit me like a sudden shower of cold water.

Monkey squeaked. Her face fire-engine red, she wiggled free from my arms and ran out of the bathroom.

I glared at Chessie.

“Cockblocker,” I grumbled.

She stuck out her tongue, spun on her heel, and left.

Groaning in frustration, I grabbed the edge of the counter and took a few deep breaths to calm down. Then I pulled on my clean shirt and followed them to find the neph had taken off his high-tech helmet, but I didn’t recognize him.

He has to be in one of the top tier teams, though. Who else has gear and skills like that? I guess he could also be one of the international teams that I don’t follow.

“What happened to the divs?” he asked in a sandpapery voice.

I quickly explained everything, starting with how I saw him fall from the sky.

“And then I found this motel and got us a room,” I wrapped up. “Now tell us how you’re still alive.”

“I have a talent for healing,” he said, “and the new tactical suits are virtually indestructible.”

He swung his legs off the bed and sat with his elbows on his thighs and his hands dangling between his knees.

“Talk about being blessed when it came to a side skill,” Chance chimed in. He rubbed his eyes and looked groggy, but kept talking. “A warrior with healing is the perfect person to be on a high-stakes team. You can be injured, then heal yourself and jump back into the fight.”

“Over and over. Only this time, I owe my survival to your team. There were too many divs. They would have eaten me before I could have healed myself enough to fight them. Thanks for the assist.”

He stood up and held out his hand for Chance to shake.

“I’m Ray.”

#

Chance

The nephilim world doesn’t have sports. What we do have is the Scoreboard, and Spin is an avid follower.

The Scoreboard keeps track of sanctioned teams operating in the Real World.

As there are thousands of teams in the field at any one time, it’s a massive amount of data, so the focus is primarily on the top one hundred, or Hundred.

Of course, those slots are dominated by older teams with centuries of experience.

I’m not sure how much they care about it, but following their stats is like Fantasy Football for us junior-leaguers.

When the Scoreboard is updated on Sunday afternoons, you can hear groans and shouts echoing throughout our dorm as everyone either collects their winnings or pays their debts, and Spin is always right in the thick of it.

He knows every stat of every member of every team in the U.S.

Hundred and usually makes a grand or two each week.

Ray shook hands with everyone except Chessie. Even Monkey had come out of her comfort zone to greet him, but Chessie stayed hidden behind me.

Meanwhile, Spin’s eyes unfocused as he went through his mental filing cabinet trying to figure out who this guy was.

“There are only three Rays in the Hundred,” he said at last. “Hester goes by Raymond, and Devereaux is a woman who shortened Raquel to Ray. So you have to be Ray Chapman!”

Spin bounced up and down on his toes for a second, then broke out in a little dance. Chessie pulled on the hem of my shirt and looked at her to see her eyebrows raised in question.

“He gets excited,” I murmured to her, then turned back to Spin. “Dude, he could be an international.”

“He has an American accent,” Spin argued before ignoring me to talk to Ray. “It’s an honor to meet someone who served with Hank Bishop. You took over his team how long ago now? Three and a half, four years ago?”

“Ah. No wonder he’s manic.” I smiled down at Chessie. “Hank Bishop is his hero.”

“You were 84th last week, but taking out a flight of divs will level you up a few slots,” Spin rambled on before Ray could get a word in. “Your team might even break into the 70s for the first time ever.”

“Right now, I’m more worried about where the rest of my team is .” Ray threw his hands up. “I don’t even know where I am.” “New York,” I told him.

“I’m back in the States?”

“Did the divs take out your helicopter or something?”

“No, we teleported and bounced off something. A ward, maybe. We ricocheted in every direction.”

“Where were you going?” I wanted to know.

“Madagascar. Guess it doesn’t hurt anything to tell you the divs besieged the Sanctuary there.” Ray shook his head. “I cannot understand their attack here today, or why it so conveniently coincides with the trouble off Africa.”

“The queen of the peris was kidnapped three weeks ago,” I explained. “The divs are taking the opportunity to create whatever chaos they can.”

“Parvenah has been kidnapped? Who holds her?” A blue fume surrounded him, as if he were ready to launch into battle then and there. “How did the peris keep that a secret from us? Wait. How do you know that your information is accurate?”

“No worries.” Spin held up a hand. “A friend of ours took care of it and freed her. She’s rallying her troops and getting the divs under control as we speak.”

“Good. The divs running loose in the world is the last thing we need right now,” Ray said with a frown. “Too many in the Dark World are already stirring over something big. I have a bad feeling that a war is brewing.”

“Uh, we may know something about that,” I told him.

“Oh?”

“Well,” I began, “we’re in the middle of a rescue mission to get one of our friends back. So far, it’s involved Solomon’s djinn, a demon prince and his shadow, peris, divs, a miracle worker, an archangel, the sheba, and a group of humans called the Alchemists.”

Ray stared at me for several long moments.

“Tell me,” he finally said. “Tell me everything you know.”