Oaklie sensed beings who weren’t humans or knights even before they stopped.“Can you feel that?”she asked with a frown.One of them felt different from the others and they were rapidly getting closer.
“Soldiers!”Arkas snarled, calling on his sword as five of his enemies moved to surround them.
“Arkas,” one of them said with a sneer.He had the same dark hair and eyes as Oaklie.“You’ve brought my offspring to me,” the soldier said, smirking widely.“How kind of you.”
Oaklie felt the alien with red-tinted eyes try to pry inside her mind, but her shield was far too strong.“Arkas?”she hissed, trying not to give in to the panic that was plucking at her mind.
“Yonove,” Arkas said in derision.“I thought Rahab would send someone competent to try to kill my brothers and me as we enter the city.”
Yonove grinned nastily as his guards moved in closer.“Our orders aren’t to kill you, but to capture you.Neither of you will be harmed if you come with us peacefully.”
Oaklie couldn’t believe she was finally meeting the extraterrestrial who’d assaulted her mom and had fathered her.She resembled both of her parents, since they had similar hair and eye colors.“Are we just going to stand here, or are we going to fight them?”she asked.
Arkas hadn’t taken his eyes off her sire.“Let’s fight them,” he replied and lunged into action.
Oaklie sent her power into a nearby tree as two of the soldiers tried to grab her.They screamed in pain when thin branches punctured their bodies.
Yonove didn’t bother to call on his sword like the other two guards.He aimed his assault rifle at Arkas and pulled the trigger.
The knight moved like the wind, deftly avoiding the bullets.He beheaded one of his foes, then laughed in delight when Oaklie threw a sharpened branch at her sire.“Nice throw!”he crowed when it lodged in Yonove’s chest.
Yonove yanked the spear out and his rage-filled eyes landed on his spawn.He sprinted past Arkas, who was engaged in a fight with the other soldier.Grabbing his cambion by the arms, Yonove focused his mind control on her.
Oaklie was using her magic to pin the aliens she’d skewered with branches to the tree.Arkas was in a fight for his life and she was on her own.She was almost a full foot shorter than her sire.He was snarling at her in silent fury as he tried to dominate her will.
Catching a glimpse of someone on a tall building down the street, dread suddenly filled the cambion.Her instincts kicked in and she lurched to the side just as a shot was fired.Yonove grunted in pain when the bullet hit his shoulder.It went through him and almost nicked Oaklie’s temple.
Arkas stabbed his opponent, just missing his heart.He roared in fury when he saw Yonove had a hold of the cambion.Oaklie managed to shove him away now that only one of his arms was working properly.She picked up the duffle bags she’d dropped and took off at a sprint back towards the bridge.
Grabbing his own gear, Arkas ducked just as another bullet was fired by the human who was trying to snipe them.Yonove and his other guard yanked their fellow soldiers free from the branches they were impaled on.Their quarry had fled and it would be impossible to track them down once they left the city.
Oaklie knew Arkas hadn’t been wounded badly.He’d received a few nicks, but she couldn’t feel any signs of agony through their link.“Saved by a sniper,” she said when they were safely on the far side of the bridge again.
“The soldiers were staying back, waiting for us as if they knew we were coming,” Arkas said with a frown.
“Maybe they heard the Mad Prophet say we were on our way to Manhattan,” she figured.“So, that was my dad, huh?”
“Yonove?”Arkas asked, turning to peer at the now distant bridge.“So it would seem,” he added.He couldn’t see or sense their enemies giving chase.
“He tried to get into my head,” she said with a shudder.“My shield stopped him from whatever he was trying to do to me.”
“Soldiers have a parental bond with their offspring,” he reminded her.“They use it to control their younglings.You’re lucky you have such strong protection against him.”
“Now what?”she asked as the wind picked up.“The entrances to the city are being watched.We’re not going to get in easily, unless we really do swim our way across the river.”
Arkas was about to respond when a sheet of paper whirled past him and smacked into the cambion’s face.She let out a startled noise and dropped one of her duffle bags to peel it off.“Are you alright?”he asked, hiding his amusement at her scowl.
Oaklie was going to throw the flyer away, but glanced at it first.“I’m fine,” she said, then the words she’d just read registered.“I think Fate just gave us another clue,” she figured and handed it to him.
“It says we should visit the Adirondack Mountains for a much-needed vacation,” the warrior said as he read the flyer.“What makes you think it’s a clue?”he asked skeptically.
“The Rapture happened over three months ago, yet that flyer looks brand new,” she pointed out.“It just happened to land directly on my face right after I asked what we’re supposed to do now.”
“Good point,” he conceded.“How far away are the Adirondack Mountains?”
“I have no idea,” she replied.“I should have brought the map with me.”
“We should return to the truck,” Arkas suggested.“We’ll need it if we’ve still got a long way to go.”
