Right back at ya, Sen.Although hate required an emotion. He was more like a boil on her life she’d like to lance with a sledgehammer.
He was dreaming if he thought she’d miss this meeting.
A cry ripped through the air.
Evalle had just crossed a section of the old railway tracks covered by the parking structure. She slid to a stop and turned in the direction of the shout. Several box trucks had been left in the bottom level of the parking area near loading docks.
The scuffling of soles against gravel reached her. It sounded as though two people fought.
A sharp scream cut off midstream raised gooseflesh on Evalle’s arms. If not for her exceptional vision, she might have missed the brief image of two figures struggling.
Was that a pair of drunks settling a dispute, or was it gang related?
Evalle opened her senses. No unusual energy wafted through the air. No preternatural creature involved.
Instinct to protect a human pushed her to step that way before she stopped. She couldn’t get involved. Not tonight. If she called Tzader, he’d send the police to deal with the two humans.
Someone else would have to save the world tonight.
Turning away, she started to call Tzader when a pain-filled, high-pitched wail wrenched her attention back to the fight.
This time, she saw the smaller figure more clearly.
A woman . . . being beaten by a large man.
Evalle glanced at her watch. She had fourteen minutes.
She could pass up intel from Nightstalkers and give up time to see Tzader and Quinn, but she could not allow some monster to hurt a defenseless woman.
Not after what a man had done to her at fifteen.
Evalle took off toward the pitiful whimpers and begging of a woman under attack. Adrenaline surged through her blood at the memory that sound raised, a dangerous thing when handling humans. She’d just have to be careful when she kicked the attacker’s worthless butt, because she was not letting him harm that poor female.
Worst case, she might only lose a minute or two dealing with a human. That still wouldn’t put her late reaching the park.
Dealing with a human male would be quicker than hitting speed dial on her phone.
Calling the police, or even Tzader, would be futile. Evalle doubted this woman would survive the wait for police to arrive, and Tzader would order Evalle to leave while trying to convince her he could get here in time.
As she rounded the corner of the chain-link enclosure beneath the street-level parking deck, she passed through an open gate. A crack of flesh against flesh rocked the air when the behemoth of a man slapped the woman. He dragged her toward one of the delivery trucks.
Evalle gritted her teeth to keep from throwing a blast of kinetic power at that two-legged snake, but he’d end up in a thousand pieces if she did.
A bright spot in her day, but VIPER agents weren’t allowed to play smash-a-rama with humans.
She ran forward, wishing she could do more than knock the guy away long enough for the woman to escape. Evalle had nothing to tie him up with to leave him for the police.
Too bad she couldn’t give him a dose of her cure for jockstrap bullies. That bastard was lucky she’d sworn an oath to Macha not to use her powers to harm a human, or Evalle would hand him his head while he was still talking.
The closer she got to the altercation, the stronger the female victim’s fear reached out, begging for anyone to save her. Fisting her hands, Evalle forced calm into her voice as she closed the last fifty feet.
She called out, “Let her go and I won’t hurt you.”Much,she should have added.
The bastard laughed. “Come on, sugar. I can handle two wildcats.”
Oh, yeah? Can you handle a beast?She wished.
Twenty feet out, she slowed to a walk but kept moving forward. Could she get away with crushing his knees so he could never get to another female?
