Chapter Twenty-Seven
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HAIL BEGAN TO FALLjust after dawn, snapping Arkas and his cambion awake.“I need to put the truck under cover,” the knight said, instantly alert.
“I’ll unlock the doors,” Oaklie said in a slightly fuzzy tone.
With her shield down, he distantly felt her power sweep out, then the door became separated from the frame again.Arkas snatched the keys from the nightstand, then hurried outside.He jumped into the truck and rammed the seat back, then reversed the vehicle under cover.The roof and hood were dented, but at least the windows weren’t cracked.
Arkas climbed out, glad the office was separate from the motel and had a roof over the gap to block the weather.He figured the manager used to park their car beneath it.Grabbing more supplies from the boxes, he loped over to the side door of the motel.
Oaklie opened it before he could try the handle.“I was just coming to grab some more food and water,” she said.Her hair was still down.It fell around her in a lush black cloak.
“I think we might be stuck here for a while,” Arkas said ruefully when the hail grew even bigger.
“At least it’s coming straight down, so it hopefully won’t smash the windows,” the female said philosophically.He stepped inside and she fused the door shut again.
Arkas followed Oaklie to their room and placed the box on the floor.She’d changed into fresh clothes.He grabbed a change of clothes for himself and changed in the bathroom.She was eating canned fruit when he emerged.
“Does it usually storm this bad?”he asked, taking a seat on the chair next to the window.He pulled the curtain aside so they could watch the display mother nature was putting on for them.
“I’ve never seen hail this big before,” Oaklie said.“Winters have been pretty brutal for the past few years.Storms are more frequent all year round and there’s been a lot of flooding during spring and summer.”
“Let’s hope we won’t be delayed for long,” the knight said.“Amaros is probably waiting for me in Manhattan, wondering where I am.”
“Do you get along with all of your brothers?”she asked curiously.
“We’re united in our purpose,” he replied, crossing his ankles and trying to get comfortable.The chair wasn’t big enough for someone with his bulk.“Unlike our enemies, we don’t squabble amongst ourselves.We do have some rivalries at times.”He grinned at the antics the knights got up to on occasion.
“Like what?”Oaklie asked.
“Jacquin and Camriel decided to hunt a mammoth together during a war back in an ice age,” he said.
“Why?”the artist asked in shock.“You guys don’t even need to eat.Why would they want to kill a majestic animal like a mammoth?”
“They had no intention of killing it, female,” he said with a smirk.“They wanted to see who could ride one the farthest.”
She shook her head, then spooned more fruit into her mouth.“Did they catch one?”she asked when she swallowed it down.
“Yep,” he confirmed, grinning nostalgically at the memory and lacing his hands over his stomach.“Camriel snuck up to a mammoth first.He climbed onto its back before it even knew he was there.It took off, trumpeting in alarm and making the rest of the herd flee.He managed to cling to its fur for a few hundred yards before falling off.”
Oaklie laughed and his gut constricted.Everything about her appealed to him on a fundamental level.He’d never met a female as perfect as she was before.“What about Jacquin?”she asked.“How far did he manage to ride a mammoth?”
“He had to wait a couple of days until the herd calmed down before trying.We had no idea our enemies were watching us from a distance.”Arkas’ expression darkened and he lost all traces of amusement.“Jacquin managed to climb onto a mammoth.He rode it for a couple of hundred yards, starting another stampede.Then one of the soldiers leaped onto the mammoth behind my brother and cut his head off.”
