Page 29 of Warrior Unraveled

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Virginia heard the dogs before Wesley did.

“Fuck, they’ve got dogs,” she cursed.

Wesley whirled his head to her. “What does that mean?”

“They’re using dogs to sniff us out. They know we’re here. And they know we’re invisible.”

“Ah, fuck!”

“We need to run.” She pointed to another tunnel.

He shook his head and pointed in the direction the barking of the dogs was coming from. “Our way out is in this direction.”

“Not if the dogs rip us to pieces.”

“Then we have to make sure they don’t smell us.”

“They’ll smell us. We’ve gotta get out of here.” She turned.

He snatched her arm. “Take off your jacket.”

She snapped her gaze to him. “What for?”

“Just do it.” Wesley was already unbuttoning his shirt and sliding it off his shoulders, revealing a sculpted chest and muscled abs.

Virginia looked away from the tantalizing sight and took off her leather jacket. “What are you planning?”

“Spit on the jacket.”

She looked at him and witnessed how he rubbed his crumbled up shirt under his armpits, then spit into it, and realized what he was doing: transferring as much of his scent onto the piece of clothing. Quickly, she spit onto her leather jacket.

“Now what?”

Wesley pointed to the tunnel that veered off to their left. “Let’s leave the stuff down there.”

They started running, until Wesley stopped her. “Stuff your jacket into this crack.” He motioned to a large hole in the rock.

Virginia followed his order. “And yours?”

“A little farther up.” He ran and she followed him closely, cloaking him with her mind instead of her touch now.

A dozen yards farther, he stopped and shoved his shirt into another crack. Then he turned back and they both ran back toward the tunnel they’d come from.

“They’ll still smell us though,” Virginia said.

“Not if we cover our scent with something much stronger,” Wesley said. “And I think I’ve got just the thing. Come on.”

He was already running back down the tunnel they’d originally come from. She was on his heels. Following her was the barking of the dogs, coming closer with every second. Her heart started to pound. Stealth Guardians weren’t exactly fond of dogs, for obvious reasons. She could only hope that Wesley had a plan to disguise their scent so the bloodhounds didn’t discover them.

Wesley finally stopped and crouched down. She followed his gaze and noticed a yellow substance he was scraping off the base of the tunnel wall.

“What is that?”

“Sulphur deposits. Rub the stuff over your T-shirt and pants, and your arms, too.”

Virginia bent down and reeled as the smell of rotten eggs assaulted her even more violently than before. “Shit,” she cursed, but started scraping the vile substance off the wall and smearing it over her T-shirt.