“No!” Jeremy said, panicked. “My calculations show that’s toorisky.”
Ronnie’s eyes widened. “Okay….”
Damien nodded. “We want to minimize variables, so we’re going to do the blood exchange once we’rein.”
“I want to be partnered with Josephine.” Jeremy stated, staring at his mac andcheese.
Damien looked worried for a moment, then nodded. “Okay,bud.”
“I’m with Ronnie,” Brisk said, making more than one of us to grin as shehuffed.
“Maxine?” Noxasked.
She nodded, giving him a sweetsmile.
There were three of us left. That was going to leave someonealone.
“I’m a tough brute. I’ll be fine on my own,” Mr. Hansen affirmed, looking at Damien andme.
I guess it was settled. I was partnered withDamien.
He nodded. “Okay, so when we get out of the Dream Wars, hopefully together with our partners, call Francisco. He’ll pick you up in the jet. He knows to bring everyone to the new loft inVancouver.”
Francisco was Damien’s private pilot. Always handy to have around, especially since we’ve been showing up all across the planetlately.
We finished the rest of our dinner in reverent silence. It had been three weeks since we’d given the bands to a large chunk of humanity. By our scientists’ calculations, most of the ghouls were officially starving. That thought brought a smile to mylips.
I am in control, I project peace, I give protection, I harnessstrength.
The end to the ghouls’ time on our planet had arrived. I could feel it in mygut.
* * *
That night,I dropped into the Dream Wars and immediately spunaround.
Shit!I popped a short rapid burst of gunfire as the grunt lunged for me. The plasma shield on my wrist shot up just in time for him to crash into it and bounce off, landing on his ass. He was holding his head,whining.
The data dump.I scanned over his prone form. It was sickly looking, skin and bones, and now that he was lying on his side, I could see up his… skin skirt. Grunts didn’t have legs, just floated over the ground, and up his flappy skin skirt were his organs. Bile rose in my throat.Oh my God.I’d never seen one so close, at that angle, for that long before. They were absolutelyrevolting.
Damien dropped in next to me and did a 360 spin, something we all did when arriving in the Dream Wars. Upon seeing the ghoul cowering on the floor, he frowned. “Is it dying?” heasked.
I shrugged. “I hopeso.”
I’d brought us in near the big mountain range. There were over twenty ranges like this in the Dream Wars, huge green glowing mountains with weird rope-like plants that moved. It was usually a good place to drop in, a safe place, but I could see some grunts, and maybe even a sentry in thedistance.
“Let’s set up camp,” Damien suggested, then lowered his plasma brick to the ground just as the rest of our team, sans Maxine, droppedin.
The grunt just laid there, panting, holding his head and giving us a view of all of his internal organs. I was sick of looking at him, and even though I hated these flesh eaters with every ounce of my soul, I couldn’t stand suffering of any form. I put a bullet between his eyes, and then he moved no more. Master Aki would beproud.
“Aw, getting soft on us?” Nox purred behind me as he set up his brick to align with our circle. About a dozen ghouls were running toward us, plus two sentries, and it didn’t bother me one bit. I wasn’t afraid of them anymore. Not like I used tobe.
I chuckled. “Not on your life. I’ll kill all of these bastards without a secondthought.”
Nox grinned and lit his blowtorch. Walking over to the dead grunt, he touched the tip of the flame to the skin of the dead alien. Within seconds, the body of the deceased creature burst into flames, sending a pungent odor of death throughout thearea.
“Do you have to light everything on fire?” I askedhim.
He shrugged. “Just sending a message to hishomies.”
