Page 35 of Shadow of the Moon

Devlin continued to record as she flipped, but Amberly felt like she was out of time. With a jostling move, she sent the phone flying. It landed in the dirt about twenty feet away.

Nothing happened.

Devlin gave a raspy chuckle. “I think you were a…”

The blast that struck them was just strong enough to knock them on their asses. Amberly gasped, then choked on dust, coughing. She sat up first, brushing burning debris from her clothes. “What the fuck! That’s overkill. No pun.”

Devlin moaned, holding his head as he lay in the dirt. Amberly brushed crap off of him, too. “Are you okay, babe?”

“I feel like a roadside bomb just went off beneath me.”

He rolled to his side and retched. Amberly frowned. That was one of the signs of a serious concussion. “Well, it was kind of a roadside bomb. It was beside the road, anyway.”

She looked at the remnants of the phone. It had blown a hole in the dirt about five feet across, and flattened the straggly grass for another twenty feet around. The grass nearest the center was burning. She would need to stomp that out before they left.

“Fuck,” she hissed, scraping her hair back.

Wrapping her arms around his shoulders, she helped him to his feet. Then she held onto him, because he had a definite sway. Devlin wrapped his arms around her shoulders and braced his head on top of hers. “Hold still just a minute, please,” he said softly.

Amberly held him. Actually, she kind of sagged into him. Or they sagged into each other. What a fucking unbelievable night. Tiredness beat at her, but excitement too. They now had more information than they ever had, and she wanted to move on it. Their bodies were not keeping up with their determination, though. They needed sleep and food, and maybe a damn shower. And she still had only dirty clothes to put on.

For just a moment, the task of what lay before them hit her. The entire country was depending upon them, and she needed to go to the bathroom.

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