Chapter Twenty-Six
Chuck
“Holy shit!” I was staring at the screen on the tablet Pete held in his hand, fighting to hold back the peals of laughter at the insane scene unfolding at the edge of the property. The hounds had finally stopped racing around and collapsed, panting happily and continuing to ignore their masters. The colored smoke was starting to dissipate, but the humans didn’t notice. They were crowded around a burning bush in the center of camp, staring as words appeared in flames on the ground in front of it before burning out and making way for the next word.
Take thee from this place and return not. Indulge no more in persecution of thy neighbor!
“I cannot believe you all put this together!”
Pete wasn’t even pretending to stifle his amusement, guffawing loudly as the humans began to back away from the camp.
“That’s not even the best of it,” he gasped. “Wait for it…”
Sure enough, underneath the first line that had burned out but was still legible in the char, came another sentence, one word at a time.
Go and do not look back! Luke 17:32
When the last word appeared, the humans turned as one and began to run, adults hoisting the smaller children and carrying them in a desperate bid to escape.
I narrowed my eyes at Pete. “Is that a bible verse?”
“Um, not exactly,” Pete chortled. “It’s a reference to a bible verse that says remember Lot’s wife.” He snorted and wiped his eyes. “Keep watching! This is the part that should keep them from ever bothering you again.”
There was a movement to the side of the night vision camera recording the chaos for posterity and I caught a glimpse of large scales. “Oh, shit! What is Sylas doing? We said we weren’t hurting anyone!”
“We aren’t,” Pete assured me between giggles. “You know he can control the level of exposure.”
The nutjob with the pelt fetish decided to brave it and turned back, screaming and face contorting in horror when his feet frozeand he stumbled to his knees before freezing into a statue. Two men stooped down to grab him as they passed, screaming to the others not to look as they half-carried and half-dragged the frozen so-call shaman behind the fleeing Hunters.
“That was astounding,” I said with a grin. “I don’t know how the hell you did it, but it was amazing.”
Pete snickered and tapped the screen on his tablet. “They’re off the property now,” he yawned. “And it’s recorded, so we can watch it again once everyone gets back.”
“We have security watching the border in case they get brave?” I asked.
“Yep,” Pete confirmed. “But the troops are going to move all of the crap from their camp down to the road so that they can reclaim it without coming on your property.”
“All of it?” I asked with a groan.
“Well, everything that survived,” Pete clarified, the twinkle in his eye making it clear that we were on the same page. “It’s a shame that they weren’t able to get the rest of their weapons out of the shed before it went up in flames.”
“Definitely a shame,” I agreed with a laugh. “We’ll have Sonny explain what happened to the Sheriff and offer to pay for the loss.”
“That’s neighborly of you,” Pete agreed with a snort.
“When are you going to queue this up? I want to see if Jules wants to come and watch it.”
“Um, probably an hour or so?” Pete guessed. “We need to make sure all of the smoke bombs are out and move their stuff.”
Hmm, that would definitely give me plenty of time to wake Jules up and see if he was up for a round of celebratory snuggles now that the crisis seemed to be fully averted. Back in the room, I was surprised to find the bed empty and no sign of Jules anywhere. Even stranger, the window in the sitting room was open and the screen was missing.
I didn’t know what was going on, but I was positive it wasn’t good.
Stepping out into the hall, I drew in a deep breath, sifting through the layers of scent in search of the one I sought, but the only trace of Jules’s scent I found was hours old. Wherever he’d gone, he hadn’t left through the door. That was confirmed when I stuck my head out the window and found a much stronger scent than the one inside.
Shoving the window completely open, I climbed through and checked again, catching a scent that led toward the woods.
“Jules!” Calling his name, I strained to focus my eyes, cursing my less-than-ideal night vision as I tried to find him. Pulling out my phone, I sent a group text, asking if anyone had seen Julian.
