Page 50 of Phantom’s Mate

Fucking idiot was going to do it himself, leading the mercs away by looking like he was trying to escape with the artifacts.

Trying to be a hero. Wasn’t that ironic.

He said to Britt, “I need to go after Jax. We can’t let those artifacts get into the wrong hands.”

“You mean even more wrong than the ones they’re currently in.”

“Right.”

They followed the lieutenants out of HQ, staying by the building. The women were herding the last of the kids into the barn; the big doors slid closed, and Nick heard heavy bars being dropped into place.

A few moments later, snipers appeared at the windows in the upper level of the barn.

Just in time. The gunfire grew louder, and a wave of defenders ran out of the woods and scattered to various spots of cover around the compound.

To Nick’s eye, it seemed like the defenders outnumbered the attackers at least two to one, but they were hampered by having to protect the huge barn.

And there was still that artifact to contend with.

There was a boom and a whistling sound, and a grenade exploded near the barn, setting a clothesline full of clothes on fire.

A couple of men ran up with fire extinguishers, but they had to dodge weapons fire from the attackers. One of them got hit, and crawled back to cover.

Brittany turned to Nick, her face white. “What if the next one hits the barn? There are all those kids in there!”

Nick shook his head. The part of him that was connected to Jax clamored to go after him, but he hesitated. This could still go badly for the defenders.

He heard faintly from the woods, “Get ready to breach the barn!” and then “Cover me!”

The leader came to the edge of the woods, and raised the arm with the golden armband. Amber light streamed out.

In a magically enhanced voice, he called out. “Spirits of the dead, come to my call. Fight as my army until my enemies are vanquished!”

That was followed by a word that sounded like the Draken language, and light shot out from the armband in all directions.

Nick felt a rush of energy as one of the beams hit him and Britt. Britt grabbed his hand.

All over the compound, they saw pockets of mist coalescing into the forms of men and panthers—at least two dozen. At first they were ghosts, but gradually they became solid.

A second later, Nick felt another surge of energy. Oh, no, fuck, no.

He and Britt became solid too.

Britt’s stared at him, and then down at her body. “Holy fuck,” she breathed. “Did he just bring us back to life?”

Chapter 24

Nick yanked Britt around the corner of the building, out of view of the attackers. And also out of view of the defenders. One side was just as likely to shoot them as the other.

“Not exactly back to life,” he said.

She looked down at herself. “So… this is bad, then?”

“In the middle of a gunfight? Definitely. In general? Still probably bad.”

He glanced around, assessing the situation. “Titan told me what some of the artifacts do. This one brings spirits back—ones with ties to wherever they are—but they obey whoever has the artifact.”

“Which is the bad guy.” She frowned. “Why aren’t we obeying him? Because I for one have no desire to. The dick.”