Page 4 of Whispered Warnings: Part One

Neith

“What?” Van asks me.

Looking at Ransom, I say, “Is there a way that you can let us see out without anyone who may be out there being able to see in? I have visions of us being surrounded and immediately getting killed when the barrier drops.”

“Shit, I didn’t think of that,” Van replies and looks at Ransom questioningly.

Ransom shrugs, “Yeah, I am pretty sure I can do that. Give me a second.”

We all watch silently as he works, and I can’t help but study him. His bright blue eyes almost start to glow with power, and I swear for a brief moment the tattoos covering his arms also begin to move. Which is pretty fucking cool and signifies just how strong he is. I can’t remember the last time that I heard of a warlock having tattoos that were embedded with power. If ever, I’m going to have to look into that.

Of course, there is a really big chance that I could be seeing things.

I shake off my thoughts about tattoos that may or may not be moving when my brain decides that the best way that we can figure it out, is if we get up close and personal with them. I need to shoot that shit down now, it has the potential to get really messy, really fucking quickly.

“But you can look. There isno harm in that,”my inner voice says, and unfortunately, the voices are still far too subdued to override her with their usual hum of noise.

I guess she may have a point.

Ransom’s hair is mussed, his clothes covered in dirt, blood, and God knows what else, and he has this small furrow between his eyebrows as he focuses on his magic. From what I can tell, he is not so much having to build his magic so that he can do the spell, but rather, he is having to hold his magic back so that he doesn’t use too much.

“Why are you frowning at me, Neith?” Ransom asks as he looks up at me, momentarily distracted from the spell. The fact that he can just pause it halfway through is also a really big indicator of how strong he really is.

Not many warlocks are able to stop a spell because they want to ask a question. In fact, most warlocks wouldn’t have even been aware that I was frowning at them.

I’m impressed, although I seem always to be impressed when it comes to these men.

I shake my head, questioning my theory, but deciding to ask him anyway, “Erm, well, I’m probably wrong, but it’s not taking you a long time because you have to build your power, is it?”

Surprise flashes through his eyes, and he replies, “Why do you say that?”

“I can feel it,” I frown, trying to find the right words to explain what my intuition is telling me, “you are having to hold back aren’t you?”

“Damn,” Doc whistles, “that’s impressive.”

“I’m right?” I ask.

Ransom nods, “You are.”

“Awesome, let’s add that to the pile of shit I can do that we have no explanation for and come back to it later,” I say, hoping that my smile is believable because I’m very quickly becoming tired, and although that pizza that Winston gave me helped, I didn’t get to eat much of it thanks to Reed pissing me off. As I look around the golden bubble, I see that in my haste to yell at Reed for yelling at me, I have stepped in it.

It's inedible.

Shit.

All I have to do is last for a small while longer, and then I can raid the guy’s kitchen for something else to eat. They said they don’t cook, but they must have snacks and things in the house, surely?

The guys all seem to agree with me because no one says anything as we wait for Ransom to do his thing.

Suddenly, the bubble turns see-through, and I stare at the sight beyond. There are a few fallen bodies, people that we killed, but there aren’t nearly as many as there should be. We were very much overwhelmed, and there were far more attackers than I can currently see on the ground.

I frown, “Where are the others? The portal closed; they couldn’t have gone through it. Shit, if they are still around, it is going to be even more complicated than we thought to get back to the van.”

“They didn’t escape,” River says, “Reed . . .”

“Enough,” Reed interrupts, shaking his head.

“Seriously, I really don’t think that she . . .” Evander starts, but Reed silences him with a look and a slight flare of power.

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