Page 219 of Vameer

I wait for the door at the top to close, and then for the sound of the electric dead bolt to turn, before I reach for my watch.

These ancient assholes took my phone when I got here for security. But they forgot it’s not the eighteenth century.

My service is shit. One bar. Underground and in the middle of a godsdamn forest. But the call still connects. It just goes straight to voicemail.

“Johnson, I don’t know where the hells you are, but I need an extraction. I haven’t seen Jones since we got here, and I just met a dude with glowing eyes.”

Chapter 127

King Tosa

Istop in front of my four guards positioned outside the door.

“We will win. But if we need to leave in a hurry, kill them both.” I nod toward the bunker. “But hurry or not, kill the human when we leave.”

These guards will join the fight when it begins, but they’ll wait here in case Vameer decides to be a coward. I will not have him sneaking in and stealing the pup.

My guards nod their understanding, and I stride away. My priest remains at my side. The only druid I trust.

The moss-covered forest is dense with towering trees. And quiet.

I’m not meeting that sword-swinging caveman in an open field. And I don’t want another building brought down on top of me. But an abandoned training camp in the mountains felt right.

It’s spread out. The bunker is already a four-minute walk behind me. Off to the north, on the top of a cliff, is an old fire lookout with a couple of men on watch. There are a handful of half-collapsed buildings, for who knows what. One of which is on the edge of the clearing a quarter mile ahead.

“Go get ready,” I tell my priest. “I’ll check in every sixty seconds. If more time than that passes, open the portal.”

He lowers his head, then creates a portal and steps through, closing it behind him.

Beside me is a large, camouflaged tent set up by the humans. It will hardly protect them from gravito, and the cameras and explosives they’ve rigged throughout the forest will do little more than irritate Vameer, but I’ll let them have their pretense.

Ducking into the tent, I stride to the front.

The humans have their camera feeds on computers, but I stay looking forward. Down the sloping ground. Through the trees. Into the clearing below.

It’s an obvious ambush site. One a warrior like Vameer can see from a mile up. But he’s just cocky enough to drop right there. Which, when he does, will prove I have something he doesn’t. Brains.

Putting your life on the line for some random child, who isn’t even of our kind… Pathetic.

Even if he brings Volik, I have a lot more than four guards ready to battle. And Johnson, the coward who never showed up, still sent me thirty humans and a truckload of useless cobalt bullets. Which may work as a distraction if nothing else.

“Stay alert, men.” I keep my voice low. Humans might be worthless in a fight, but they still have eyes. “There won’t be a warning. He will either drop from the sky, or he’ll come through a portal, so look for the glow.”

Guns are adjusted in grips.

Feet shuffle as men stick their heads outside the tent to look up.

I personally briefed the humans here today. Even if I don’t think they’ll be of use, I’m not foolish enough to underutilize a tool. So I warned them about druids. And portals.

They won’t leave here alive anyway. So where’s the harm?

I check in with my priest. Resetting the clock.

Fear tints the air. And I feel alive.

My mouth pulls into a smile.

This is it.