Page 158 of Coerced

“Want me to take over?”

Chance crouched on my left side. I shook my head and kept my hands on Monkey, flooding her with golden power.

“Okay, first rule of combat healing,” he said. “Stabilize to mobilize. Get the patient good enough to move ’em and stop. Don’t drain yourself down to nothing while still on the battlefield.”

“I won’t, but this poor girl! She’s so broken, and I’m worried about the places that I can’t reach.”

“I know. Me, too.” He patted my shoulder.

“We’ve got more company,” called Spin, who’d been keeping watch through a gap in the boards over the windows.

“What is it?” Chance stood up.

“Humans or nephs approaching. You and Gemma stay right there at the front of the church with Monkey. Use that big bell for cover if you have to. Jax, do what you can from a distance. Tara, maybe you could get the tree limbs to grab them or something.”

“I can do better than that.”

Her face stony, Tara strode to the window and yanked off the board covering it. As pinkish light flooded the church, Spin yelped, but quickly manifested a bow and started firing one red-rimmed arrow after another over her head.

Tara lifted her hands and the room went dark again. I figured she was building an earth shield.

A wave, not an earth shield.When I heard a roar like a landslide, I revised that to a tsunami.

“Wooo-hooo!” Jax hollered. “Dug their graves and filled ’em in! You go, garden girl!”

Sudden gunfire peppered the west wall, and Monkey surprised me by jumping up and pelting down the aisle.

“Hey! Come back here!”

“I got her!” Chance shouted.

He sprinted after her and grabbed her before she could get too far. I started to go to her, but the hair on my arms stood up as a sense of unease filled my chest.

“Incoming!” Spin screamed and dropped to the floor. “EVERYBODYDOWN!”

A massive force hit the church, and the shockwave threw me into the air. I crashed into one of the wooden supports that held up the massive bell. As fire tore up my spine, I knew at least a few vertebrae were damaged, maybe even broken. I started to heal them, but the bell above me lurched drunkenly.

Horror froze me in place before panic took over. Nowaywas I going to be trapped under that thing.

Ignoring the agony in my back, I scrambled to my knees, but my skull slammed into something. Seeing stars for the third time in one morning, I fell on my butt and the broken parts of my spine shifted. Numbness ran down my legs and arms, and I had no choice but to continue healing myself.

Someone shouted my name, but I was awash with pain and couldn’t call back. After pumping all that power into Monkey, I was getting woozy. It was all I could do to make sure none of my fingers and toes were chopped off as the bell above me dropped straight down.

#

Kerry

If lives weren’t on the line, and if I wasn’t so worried about my girl, I woulda been having the time of my life. One thing after another came at me and I was free to destroy them all.

As I finished off a human guard, a hellion sloshed out of the river and shot a jet of muddy water at me. I dodged, then wound up and hurled a ball of power laced with a little something extra. The hellion roared as white phosphorus foamed up in the wounds and began to burn.

“A special surprise for your ugly self!”

Leaping forward, I swung my katana and sliced through its neck with a meatytwack!Then I pushed off its wide chest with one foot, landed in a crouch, and looked for my next victim before its head hit the ground.

I found nothing and, figuring I cleared the area, I put my long legs to work. I followed my angel’s scent along a dirt path, racing across a rotting footbridge and up a steep hill.

Suddenly, I could hear two men arguing. I knew those voices. I’d heard them during the ambush.

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