She spared a glance at the other goon to make sure he wasn’t coming after her with a weapon, too. He pulled an oversized handkerchief out of his coat pocket and dropped it over the bleeding guy, who howled one time and glowed like a stoked coal in a fire, then turned to ash.
What kind of hanky was that?
Tattoo face swung again.
Her shoulders took the brunt of the constant attack from the machete. She braced one foot behind her and pushed forward, but she was losing ground.
Could he cut through her wall of power?
Tzader shouted,Can you run?
No. He’ll kill me if I drop my defense.
Where are you?Tzader said in a voice charged with fury.
Still under the parking deck at—Another barrage of blade attacks beat her backwards several feet.
Was she out of time? Would the Tribunal understand if Tzader reached Brina before the meeting and explained?
Tattoo face kept coming at her with the machete. Evalle strained to give everything she had to hold her protective wall, but he’d break through soon.
That blade had serious juice.
Power surged through the air and shocked her skin.
Light exploded, flashing against the walls of the dark buildings.
Her attacker and his buddy took one look, turned and fled.
Evalle lowered her arms, now aching from the pounding they’d taken. She drew a long, hard breath, pulling her body back into its normal form. Pain shot through her chest and legs. She had no idea how Z had found her or gotten here so quickly or what he’d done to scare off that bunch, but she was ready to hug him when she turned around.
Ah, crud. Could her night get any worse?
Sen stood with arms crossed and a look of disgust on his face that rivaled his usual hate-filled welcome for her.
His being here explained how someone had shown up so fast. Sen had the ability to teleport anywhere he wanted. He must have been in the park when Tzader had called to her.
She couldn’t believe she had Sen to thank for getting her out of that fix.
Standing much taller than her and twice as wide, he was dressed in gray T-shirt and black jeans. He wore his hair skinned short today, but it could be down to his waist tomorrow. Would be nice to know what he was or where he’d come from with those diamond blue, almond-shaped eyes. Or who had the power to force him to be the liaison between VIPER and the preternatural beings that were agents for the VIPER coalition.
A job he obviously loathed.
Tzader had warned her to play nice, so she said, “I can’t believe I’m going to say this, but I’m glad to see you.”
A muscle in Sen’s jaw flexed in and out. “You waste good oxygen just by being alive. Don’t think this little theatrical act fooled me.”
“Act?” Couldn’t he smell the Noirre majik? She sniffed and looked around. Where was that sack? Nothing smelled like Noirre majik now, but she couldn’t back down. “I was tricked into an ambush. They attacked—”
“Yeah, right. Tell it to the Tribunal.” He waved a hand.
She wrapped her arms around her stomach as it tightened from the first stage of teleporting. Couldn’t he at least sayReady?before doing that? There was no way to reach Tzader once Sen had her in transport.
Had those three men been trying to trap anyone with powers, or her specifically? What had the leader meant when he’d said they had to make sure they had theright one?
The right Belador? The right Alterant? The right VIPER agent?
Or the right something else?
