Stay down! Shaker’s on you, Camellia,Jonas snapped.
The bullet hit the rock just above her head, splintering off shards of granite. She had dipped her face down and covered her ears, but the sound was deafening. Splinters peppered the backs of her hands and arms. Two stuck in her scalp, up near her forehead, the blood immediately running down in little rivulets.
Damn it, Camellia. Don’t you move.
She’d never heard Jonas use that particular voice before, but itfroze her in place. She had no intention of moving, not with Shaker being so accurate with his gun and his intention. She didn’t blame him. She’d killed Angel. Technically, she’d killed Gorman as well, although Shaker had no way of knowing she had been the one to actually kill him.
Don’t you worry about Shaker being on me, Jonas, not with them all converging on you.That was the best she could do. She couldn’t lift her head, not to get up and help, but she wasn’t cowering behind a boulder waiting for Shaker’s crew to kill Jonas, Kyle and Jeff if she could do anything to help.
She rolled over and crawled on her belly, wiping at the blood running down her face, depending on the underground network to keep any foliage from moving as she crept out from behind the shelter of the boulders to seek another spot. When she’d chosen her lookout perch to begin with, she’d scouted two other areas, discarding them as not being ideal. She didn’t need ideal now, only a place where she could see what was happening and know whether or not she could help the crew below by joining them or staying where she was.
Kyle’s pain jarred all of them. He gripped the spear in both hands, and her heart began to pound with alarm.
You’re a damn doctor, Kyle,Jonas declared.Leave it until one of us gets to you. It might be keeping you from bleeding out.
I can’t stand it, Jonas. It’s got to come out. If I just lie here, they’ll use me as bait to draw the two of you in. I won’t have that.
Camellia took a deep breath.It’s Shaker, Kyle. He’s burying his voice in the fog again. I almost stood up because of him. You’re trying to remove the spear because of him. It’s possible I can find a way to plug off the hole and any damage it’s done from here. You have to give me a few minutes to get to a safe place. Don’t do anything until I can help you.
Damn it, Camellia, I can’t worry about you and kill these bastards at the same time,Jonas said.Stay put.
Camellia didn’t reply. She monitored the underground network as she moved in the dense fog toward her destination, a depression hidden in a small grove of trees ringed with several large rocks. The depression was to the right of the smallest of the trees between two of the rocks. As shelters went, it wasn’t the best, but she could hide herself in the mist if she didn’t move around.
I’ll stay here, Jonas, for now. If I can help Kyle, I will, so he can move. That way, Shaker can’t use him as bait.She tried to sound reassuring.I’m in my second-choice location, so Shaker won’t know where I am.
She detested that Jonas was surrounded by Shaker, Tusker, Pops and Lowell. It didn’t matter that Shaker was currently focused on trying to shoot her. She suspected he was a multitasker, and if he was, his brother had to be as well. She also felt Jonas’s heavy guilt. He had loved Oliver. Whatever had happened, he had yet to come to terms with it. She worried that he might hesitate to kill Oliver’s brothers, even in self-defense.
Lewis moved, his boots stomping on the vegetation deliberately as he approached Jeff. Leaves and twigs snapped and crackled beneath his weight. He began to sway slightly, his body seeming to disintegrate and rematerialize in the fog.
Those connected to Jeff were able to see Lewis and his mesmerizing effect. Camellia felt her heart lurch. There was something wrong. Shaker’s voice continued to try to weave his spell on them. Pops scooted closer to where some of Tusker’s bats had returned and found Jonas with their echolocation. Lowell had begun some odd movement, swingingawayfrom Jonas at the last moment, which should have made her happy, but instead, it made Camellia so uneasy she wanted to leave her new location and rush down to help out.
Jeff suddenly launched himself skyward just as Lewis rushed him. The wicked-looking blade that had been concealed up against Lewis’s wrist slashed upward toward Jeff’s belly, but it missed himentirely. Jeff sliced with his own knife as he came down behind Lewis, the blade cutting deep, right through the jugular. Jeff kept going, jogging away from Lewis, heading toward Kyle along a narrow deer trail.
Keep your eyes on him, Camellia,Jeff warned.
I’ve got him,Camellia said.
She expected Lewis to go down, but he didn’t. He clamped his hand over his neck, the blood pouring between his fingers. Turning his head toward Shaker, he let out an odd cry that was muffled in the fog. Shaker turned toward him, and as he did, she could see the absolute pain on his face. Shaker sent a single sound back into the fog. The note matched that same sound.
Camellia analyzed the way the musical note twisted and moved in the rolling fog as it rushed back to Lewis. Sound could do so many things, including kill. Shaker didn’t kill with his voice. He could persuade with it. What else could he do? Was it even possible to repair a wound with sound? She doubted it, at least not the sort of fast-bleeding mortal wound Lewis had. Already, Lewis had dropped to his knees. That pain on Shaker’s face had told the tale. He knew it was a lost cause, but he was willing to try.
“Shaker,” Camellia whispered into the fog, “take your brothers and go home. This is so wrong. It’s all wrong. There’s no need for more deaths.”
“I’ll get to you soon enough,” Shaker whispered back.
There was no sense in trying to talk to him. He was so certain Jonas had murdered his brother and that Ryland and the rest of Team One had covered it up. Why they would do that made no sense, but then what Shaker was doing made no sense either.
Contact Team Two’s men and tell them it’s a go. Take out the advance scouts,Jonas ordered Camellia.I had hoped we could get Shaker to call them back, but he isn’t going to listen to us. We have to stop them before they get to the compound.
Camellia tapped into the underground network and sent the green light to Team Two, who were waiting to take out the four enhanced scouts. She wished them good luck and then turned her attention to Lowell, who had turned away from where she thought Jonas had been.
Jonas, he’s moving back toward Kyle and Jeff.
I’m on him.Jonas sounded completely confident.
She didn’t understand how he could be so certain of himself. Shaker might not be able to disappear into the fog, but like them, he could use it, and he was adept at using it. Tusker could hear a whisper of sound. There was no hiding Jeff’s movements from him. Jeff didn’t care if they heard him. He wanted them to know he was going to protect Kyle.
Camellia turned her attention to Kyle’s wound. The mycelium network pushed close to the surface, allowing Red to bring one of the flowering vines right over Kyle’s shoulder where the spear had entered. Petals of a blossom pressed around the blade.
