Page 8 of Kiss the Dawn (Order of Helsing #4)

T he people tailing us kept a respectful distance, and Rodney held our speed. They probably thought they had plenty of time to attack us. My stomach was in knots with a combination of dread and excitement, but Lorenzo was perfectly relaxed. He’d refreshed his coffee and sat sipping it while I tapped the table with my fingertips, on tenterhooks.

“Relax,” he said. “It’ll be over soon. I’ll convince them to back off.”

“And if they refuse to back off?”

“Then I’ll kill them,” he said flatly. “It’ll stop them continuing to pursue us and also send a message to anyone else who comes for you.”

“Have you killed many people?”

“A few.” His eyes narrowed. “You don’t like my plan? ”

“No, it’s just…do they deserve to die?”

“They want to kidnap you and blackmail your family, and I doubt they’d have any qualms in hurting you to make the Bloodmeres pay.”

“Which the Bloodmeres won’t because if I’m dead, then…” An awful possibility bloomed in my mind. “What if?—”

“Yes, I did consider that. But the Circle wouldn’t take the risk of killing you now that they know how important you are to the curse holding Loviator at bay.”

I relaxed into my seat. “I wish I’d brought my sword.” It was still a weapon even if I no longer had a blessing to activate the power inside it.

“You won’t need a sword. I’m your weapon.”

Now why was that so damn sexy? I pressed a hand to my chest and drawled, “Be still my heart, because that is a fabulous chat up line.”

He chuckled. “Only to a warrior like you, Orina, only to a warrior like you.” He drained his cup and stood. “Bridge is coming up. Stay inside the vehicle, and you’ll be safe. They can’t get in.”

“Then why don’t we just keep driving?”

“Because once we get into the pockets, the wards I have in place will disintegrate.”

The mobile home decelerated as he hurried to the front, and the four-by-four tailing us drove past.

“They’re cutting us off.”

“No matter,” Lorenzo said. “We’re close enough. Let them think they have us.” He shrugged on his blazer and opened the door. “I won’t be long.”

I hurried to look out of the windshield in time to see him round the front of our vehicle and approach the two men stepping out of the four-by-four.

They were big, muscular guys, Crush-size guys with hands like spades and blocky heads. They had to be ogre bloods or half-blood fae. I couldn’t hear what was being said, but their body language spoke of impending attack a moment before they launched themselves at Lorenzo.

He didn’t flinch, he didn’t even raise a hand, but the hunters flew back and slammed into their vehicles.

They shook it off and attacked again, only to be made airborne once more. Lorenzo stood with his hands in his pockets looking like he was posing for a shoot. Surely this was enough of a show of power to get them to leave us alone?

Nope, they were regrouping, rolling their necks and…grinning? What the?—

A loud horn blast shook the road. It was coming from one of the hunters. From his mouth. How the?—

Movement by the bridge caught my eye.

Oh…Oh God.

Several large figures emerged from the shadows. Huge hulking men like the hunters.

“Shit,” Rodney said. “They have backup.”

“No, no, no, this is bad. ”

“Yep,” Rodney said. “Mr Crescent is powerful, but there are ten of them and one of him.”

“I need a weapon.”

“Boss wants you to stay put.”

“Dammit, Rodney, you know he can’t take them alone.”

Out on the road, Lorenzo was surrounded. Wait, there were eight around him, where were the other?—

The vehicle rocked, and a static boom tore at my ears.

“They’re attacking the wards,” Rodney said.

Lorenzo knocked the hunters back with sweeping motions that sent some kind of sonic wave outward, but they kept coming for him. He did a twist with his hand, and one of them dropped, his neck at an odd angle, but the focus it took disrupted the sonic wave he was manning, and two hunters broke through and slammed into him.

Lorenzo went down, buried beneath the huge bodies.

“Weapons! Now!”

“Under the sink,” Rodney said.

I yanked open the drawer and released a rack holding several blades set around a short sword. I grabbed the sword and ran for the door.

The vehicle rocked again.

“There’s a hunter by the door,” Rodney warned.

“Good!” I shoved it open, slamming it into the hunter on the other side, then leapt out and stabbed him in the gut as he lunged at me.

He went down, and I spun and sliced a path across the other one’s torso.

He bellowed in rage and rushed me. My sword found a home in his neck.

I yanked it free, kicked him out of the way, and ran toward Lorenzo.

Lorenzo was back on his feet, a shimmering dome of power surrounding him as the hunters attempted to break through, but then they spotted me.

“Dammit!” Lorenzo yelled as they rushed me.

I was ready to fight even though logic told me that if they attacked me as a unit, I’d fail, but they were plucked off their feet one by one and flung toward the bridge before they could get to me. Only one made it.

He charged me like a bull. I smashed the hilt of my blade against his head, then smashed my knee into his face when he doubled over.

“Orina, get back in the vehicle!” Lorenzo yelled.

The hunters were on their feet and headed straight for us once more. Seven left now. “You can’t take them on alone.”

“Yes. I can!” he yelled. I was thrown back toward our ride. “Go!”

The door behind me opened, and Rodney yanked me inside.

Fuck! I climbed into the driver’s cab in time to see Lorenzo hit the hunters with another sweep of power and snap a neck.

The wind whipped at his blazer and hair as he moved his arms in fluid motions, making a strange pattern that created pulses of power, snaring the hunters and keeping them at bay while he picked them off one by one.

But the jets of power were getting weaker, pushing the hunters only a fraction of the distance that they were a moment ago.

I gripped the seat tightly. “He’s losing steam.”

“He can do this,” Rodney said with confidence. “I shouldn’t have let you out there.”

“I managed to take out three of them, so?—”

Movement on the bridge above caught my eye, and my stomach dropped as two men jumped off it and ran toward the fight.

“Lorenzo, watch out!”