Something beeped on Damien’s device, and he shook it as if assessing if it were broken ornot.
“What now?” I askedhim.
He frowned. “It says there’s a ghoul right near us, but I don’t see anything.” He craned his neck to lookaround.
“Well it’s probably on the ground.” The wind cut across my face, picking my hair up and blowing iteverywhere.
He shook his head. “No, we’re too high forth—”
His words were cut off by a screech and then a Galadria was right on top of us, ridden by a sentry. The bastard had cut into the Galadria’s neck with razor wire and was pulling and yanking her to do hiswill.
Damien paled. “Where the hell isRonnie?”
I closed my eyes. There was no point in keeping them open right then, because I was a dead woman if that sentry made it to us. I was in no state to fight. With my eyes closed, I did what Master Aki taught me to do in a crisis—go blank and see what poppedup.
Breathing in and out, I felt my awareness expand. That’s when the idea came to me.Tatum. That Princess Leia hairdo popped into my mind. Now that I’d felt the grogginess abate a little, I decided to try my gift. I sent out my awareness further. Already in my quiet space, it was easy. Tatum was there in the room on Earth, but something was wrong. Her energy was very frantic. Maybe my surgery wasn’t going well. It was hard totell.
‘Tatum, you need to wake us. There’s a sentry that’s about to take off ourheads.’
Her energy bristled, even more frazzled than before. She was afraid, filled with so much fear. Why? Was I dying? Bleeding out over freaking foot surgery? What would happen to my body here if I died there? Could I live forever in this world, never waking up? People in comas were the first to go, stuck here for so long with no weapons. I imagined that’s what would become ofme.
“No!” Damienshouted.
My eyelids snapped open just in time to see the sentry jumping from his Galadria over onto ours. He had two blades, one in each hand, and his mouth was wide open and ready fordinner.
‘Roger, dropdown!’
Roger let his engines sputter out, or whatever it was he did before, and suddenly his body dropped ten feet. The problem was that Damien and I weren’t ready and were completely bucked off. We’d missed the sentry’s mouth, and he was now falling to plummet to his death, but we’d also missed Roger. Now we were free-fallingtoo.
My eyes met Damien’s and so many unsaid things went through that look. I wish he had kissed me. I wished I’d lived my life more carefree like Maxine, and not been such an uptight asshole. I wished so many things. I didn’t even scream, and for that I was proud ofmyself.
Just as the ground became alarmingly close, my body jerked and nausea hitme.
I was wakingup.
Holy shit, that was the closest call I’d everhad.
Chapter Twelve
My body jerked againand I opened my eyes, immediately regretting it. A bright light blinded me, and I made the mistake of rolling over to get away from it. Pain laced up my leg andarm.
“Don’t move!” Ronnieshrieked.
“Get that out of her face or I’ll take your balls off with a dull kitchen knife!” Maxineyelled.
What thehell?
The light dipped down and away from my face, and I took in the scene beforeme.
Ronnie was stitching up my leg, the rest of my gang scattered around her, including Tatum. But there were others too. Six men in black suits. One had a gun pointed at Maxine, the other five guns trained onDamien.
“Damien Striker?” one of themsaid.
He sat up slowly. “Who the fuck are you?” His voice was laced with so much barely contained rage, that I thought he mightburst.
“Your research has been deemed a matter of national security. Yourbrother—”
“Jeremy!” Damien shot out of bed, which was bold considering these men had guns pointed at him. One of them cocked his and Damien froze. “Where is my little brother?” he said, through grittedteeth.
