Page 28 of Defying the Relic Hunter

“The way out.”

“If it’s all the same to you, I think I’ll stay here. Really. Let go of me!”

The light spun faster and faster and faster until it became a vortex.Slurppp!We were sucked inside. It was like going from zero to warp drive in five seconds flat. The horrific, twisting funnel of energy rocketed us across a weird black void.

I clung to Adan and did a great imitation of a Barbie. I was still screaming when the vortex spat us out on a tarmac. I shuddered as the world spun wildly around me. It was hard to breathe. I couldn’t feel my face and I was covered in goopy, green slime.

Adan pushed me away.“Hide.”

“What?”I wiped the crap out of my eyes.

“Hide! Now!”

I blinked to clear my vision and sucked in a horrified breath. A horde of Rodan warriors were closing in on me.“Are you fucking nuts?”

Adan was too busy stuffing the monsters down his gullet to reply.

I threw up anothing hereillusion and backed away. To me the Rodan look like a rat who had mated with a T-Rex. They stood about five feet tall, had black armor-plated skin and used their tails as a weapon. Like the Tai-Kok, the Rodan were always hungry.

A Coletti electro-fence surrounded the pen with dozens of automated laser canons strategically placed along the barrier. One wrong move and zap! I would be incinerated.

Sniffing like a bloodhound, a Rodan lunged for me, I jumped to one side and he crashed into the fence.Zap!The monster was instantly cremated.

The wind changed. I grimaced as I got a good whiff of myself. The odor of rotting flesh would send most people running, but not the Rodan. Oh no. It was like waving a red flag at a bull.

Another monster seized my arm. I slipped out of his grip like a greased pig. No matter how many times he grabbed me, he couldn’t hang on to me. Who knew being coated in goo had an upside?

Adan’s tentacles were still stuffing Rodan after Rodan down his cavernous jaws.

“I could use some help here!”

Adan nabbed a Rodan getting ready to pounce on me.

“How about you just toss me over the fence?”

“The laser cannons would reduce you to ash,”Adan replied.

“That’s better than being eaten alive.”It was like a horrible game of slip and slide. A Rodan would grab an arm or leg and I’d squirt out of their grip. There was only one person who could save me. I screamed with every ounce of power I had, “Ethan! I need help now!”

Ethan, Zarek, Voss and several other Coletti warriors appeared outside the fence.

“Get me out of here,” I yelled, dodging another Rodan.

Thirty seconds later, Ethan teleported in, scooped me up and poof! We were outside the fence. The color drained from his face. Dumping me on my feet, Ethan backed away. “Good God. Did you fall in a sewer?”

I planted my hands on my hips and glared at him. “No. I got this lovely smell from Adan. I want my bracelet and weapons back. Now!”

“Once Voss has made alterations to your bracelet, you’ll get it back.”

“What kind of alterations?”

“He’s adding a direct link to Central Command and General Jones.”

I gave him the stink-eye. “Why would I need those?”

“You’re my mate.”

“And the joy continues.” I spotted a water hose, stomped over to it and turned it on.

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