Page 68 of Last Resort

“Can you get that damned bone away from him?” Ben asked as he cut through the web of thin roots.

“Not and keep the scrim intact,” Alessia hissed. “The relic has real power.”

Erik fired again, hitting the tree where Carr hid and sending up a spray of splinters. Carr stumbled back, losing his concentration, and the intensity of the relic’s assault wavered. It seemed to Erik that the glow around the saint’s bone had grown fainter during the fight.

“You really think the guy you owe is going to let you live after he’s got the money?” Erik taunted. “He’ll kill you—if your relic doesn’t do it first.”

Ben bit back a cry of triumph as his shovel cut through the last of the roots. He chipped away dirt from the edges of the suitcase, revealing a handle. Ben tugged, hoping the old bag didn’t disintegrate, but it remained firmly lodged. Lying flat on the ground to stay out of the line of fire, Ben continued working to free the treasure while Erik and Alessia held off Carr.

“What happens if I shoot the relic?” Erik pitched his voice so only Ben and Alessia could hear.

“Don’t know. It could come back on you. I wouldn’t try it,” she managed as she kept up the magical barrier.

“Shit. I was afraid you’d say that.”

Erik fired again, hitting Carr’s forearm this time. Carr shrieked and dropped the relic, bleeding heavily.

Erik dodged across the barrier and tackled Carr, meeting little resistance now that their attacker had been disarmed and was losing blood.

“We should leave you out here to deal with the witch,” Erik told Carr as he tied him with the man’s belt.

“I’ll give you some of the money,” Carr begged, eyes wide with pain and fear. “Just please don’t make me break my promise to the witch.”

“Not my problem.” Erik used Carr’s scarf to wrap both bullet wounds as best he could.

“You don’t think he’ll know you have the money? He’ll come after you,” Carr threatened.

“And we’ll deal.”

Ben pulled the suitcase free, and Erik scooped up the relic with the shovel’s iron blade.

“I’ve got a containment pouch,” Alessia said after she let the warding fall. “We can’t leave that damned thing out here.”

She set the cloth bag on the ground, opened wide. It looked to Ben as if the fabric had silver threads and sigils in a variety of colors woven into it. Erik carefully deposited the relic and pulled the drawstrings.

Carr lay sobbing behind Erik, no longer trying to put up a fight. Erik circled the area, returning with Carr’s gun, which he handled with a mitten.

“Let’s get out of here.”

Alessia closed the warding and offered her thanks to the nature spirit of the Barrens, then gathered her materials. Ben wrapped his belt around the suitcase so it didn’t burst open on the hike to the car.

Erik hauled Carr to his feet. “I didn’t shoot you in the leg because I didn’t want to carry your ass out of here. We’ll get you to a doctor soon enough.”

Alessia stepped closer, and put a hand over each of Carr’s wounds in turn, stanching the flow of blood. “They aren’t completely healed, but he’s not going to bleed out.”

Erik kept his gun in hand as they started the trek to the parking lot. The woods seemed too quiet, and he couldn’t shake the feeling that they were being watched.

He had never been to the Pine Barrens before and thought they might be beautiful under other circumstances, especially in summer. The wind swept through the branches, rustling the thick needles like the murmur of distant voices.

Erik caught a flicker of movement, and old training kicked in just as the crack of a rifle shot broke the stillness. Carr staggered as a fresh wound stained his chest.

“Down!” Erik dragged Carr with him and threw himself on top of their prisoner as Ben returned fire from behind a downed tree trunk. Alessia spoke an arcane command, and the protective dome appeared again just as the sniper fired a second time. His shot skewed off into the forest and thudded into a tree.

Therat-tat-tatof an automatic weapon made Ben and Alessia flatten themselves on the ground. Despite everything, the magical dome held, but Erik knew it couldn’t last forever.

Three men emerged from the trees. Two held high-caliber handguns and one carried an assault rifle. Dressed in black with their lower faces covered, they looked like a hit squad.

Ben and Erik rose just far enough to return fire when they realized their attackers’ shots weren’t getting through. Their own bullets, however, fired right past the barrier. The angle was bad and fouled their aim, but Ben managed to graze one man in the leg. Erik’s bullet went low, hitting a second man in the stomach instead of center mass. Alessia shrieked a spell, and the third man’s jacket caught on fire, forcing him to drop and roll.

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