God, if you’re real, let me live and I’ll start going to church again. Maybe. Probably. I will. Okay, just let us all get out of this alive and I will. Ipromise.
Chapter Ten
Smashedagainst a beautiful man with his rock-hard muscles pushed against your lady parts was a nice way todie.
I pulled my good arm up underneath his armpit and aimed behind his back. I was going to take out as many flesh eaters as I could. I pulled the trigger at the advancing horde and… nothing happened. Looking at my gun, I noticed the glowing blue hue wasgone.
“Damien, my gun’s broken,” I said, panicked. They were ten feet fromus.
“The cuff created a small EMP, took it out. A side effect I can easily have Jeremy fix back at thelab.”
So it didn’t work. Not perfectly. Well, it was nice knowing him. Now I was regretting that I didn’t take him up on his offer to take me out on a date. Life was too damn short to follow so manyrules.
A grunt was floating full speed at us, rising a few feet into the air before trying to slam into us. All I could do was flinch and hold on to Damien. When the ghoul got too close, the cuff on his arm shot the plasma shield out and the ghoul was thrustbackward.
Holy shit.Seeing an invisible wall launch out and toss a ghoul was amazing and never gotold.
Another grunt slammed his wet, slimy body against the shield, and then a pulse shot out from the cuff and an orchestra of shrill screams rose up as the ghouls tried to start a feeding frenzy and failed. But the force at which the grunt slammed into us was enough to knock Damien backward and we were falling. He brought out his arm so he wouldn’t completely crash onto the ground, but I had nothing to break my fall but his body. I went down hard, my teeth clacking together as my body crushed against Damien’s. He kept his arm with the cuff held high above me as it lit up like a strobe light, setting off burst after burst. My arm was on fire from the sentry bite, but I was more worried about the cuff no longerworking.
“How long will it last?” I knew it was battery powered, and sending out significant pulses of energy every quarter second, it couldn’t lastforever.
“I don’t know, but you lying on top of me seems like a perfect way to die.” He smirked, eyes falling to mylips.
I grinned, rolling my eyes. I couldn’t help it. His charming ways had gotten to me. “I’m glad you still have your sense of humor when we’re almost about todie.”
His good hand came up to rest on my lower back, keeping me securely tucked into hisbody.
“Listen, freckles, I’ve made it this far with a ton of shit stacked against me. We’re not going to die. Not tonight,” hepromised.
When he spoke, his chest rumbled with a deep vibrato and my belly warmed at his words, his empty promise. It wasn’t something he could keep, but I appreciated the attempt. The ghouls were still trying to grab us, but after so many failed tries they’d caught on and their creepy little hive mind must have been working because the onslaught hadslowed.
A streak of glowing pink caught my eye then, and I looked up to see Brisk and Nox riding Dawn. Thank God she’d saved Nox. She was lowering herself in small circles as Nox used his flamethrower to burn the grunts that were nearest. Their creepy teeth were dripping with saliva, and I tried not to internally revolt. In all my younger years of wondering what aliens would look or act like, flesh eaters with mouths that could stretch open three feet never made it to mylist.
I got an idea then. I’d never done it before because I’d had Tatum, but this was an emergency. I knew I could always contact Master Aki no matter how far away we were because we were so deeply connected. I also knew he never slept past 3:00 a.m., and it was justafter.
“I’m going radio silent. I’m going to contact a friend to wake us up,” I told Damien. He just looked down at me with a furrowed brow andnodded.
Closing my eyes, I rested my head on Damien’s chest and immediately blocked out the noises that signaled impending doom. I went into the sanctuary in my mind that Master Aki helped me build, the quiet place we all had within us, free of thoughts and words if you knew the art of true silence. Once I was there, I thought of Master Aki’s dojo, pictured it perched atop Stanyan Street with its well-manicured gardens, and tea house on the bottom floor that had a steady stream of daily customers. There, in the garden near his favorite tree, was Master Aki’s vibration. I would recognize his energy anywhere in the world; it reminded me of the moon, soft yetpowerful.
‘Master Aki, I need you to wake us up. I’m in a client’s house, and we’re going to die in the Dream Wars if we don’t get help soon.’Then I rattled off the address to Damien’shouse.
His energy bristled, and then he started running.‘I’m coming. You will not die if you use your gift fully. Use it against yourenemies.’
Dawn and Master Aki could be best friends for all the sense they made. Use my gift against my enemy? My physical fighting gifts? No, Master Aki was always saying my mental gift was my greatest asset in this war, but it never made sense tome.
Untilnow.
A lightbulb went off as I caught his meaning.Can I? Do I want to?The first time I tried to hijack someone’s mind and take over their functions was when Maxine was having a really bad PTSD flashback. I just… snapped and jumped inside her mind, forcing her to drop her gun and calm down.Can I do that to the ghouls? Is that what Master Akimeant?
Where are Ronnie? Josephine? Maxine?I was worried sick about everyone, and instead of being able to help them, I was stuck on top of this man as his arm cuff warded off the flesh eaters. But those batteries would die eventually, especially at this rate. They’d stopped attacking us en masse and were now watching us, swaying creepily in the air. They must’ve been talking, using their collective mind to plan their next move, only sending one at a time to test the plasmashield.
“I have a plan. I’m getting up.” Igrunted.
He looked down at me like I was crazy. I used my one good arm to push myself up and he sat up with me, keeping me caged into his protective space. I needed to sit up for this, go into lotus position and fullymeditate.
“Woman, what are you doing?” he groaned as a grunt ran right forus.
Damien lifted his arm and the grunt hit the shield, knocking backward, but the shield wavered, blinking out for the slightest second before reforming. We were running out ofjuice.
