Page 25 of Under a Wicked Moon
Protect me from the evil.
He surged upward to a stand, aimed, and shot at the sharpshooter. “Now, Flynn.”
The Glock came his way over the hood of the car. Four humans ran their way, shooting handguns at random out of panic. One. Two. Three. Four. All down.
None of his team injured.I’ve still got it.
He stumbled his way around the car and fell to his knees, ending in a wobble to the side. He bowed his head and kissed the pendant in thanks while listening for any movement. “I sense nothing. Anyone else?”
“Clear.” Roman squeezed his shoulder. “Good job. I knowyou’re hurting.”
“You got them all?” Vivi asked. Her tone meant what? Judgment? Didn’t sound impressed or full of pride.
“All dead.” A twinge of self-consciousness struck him. Should he feel guilty for having killed them? Should he feel something, even regret over the loss of life? He didn’t, which in his opinion is what made him a monster.
“That was fast.” She peeked around the car and didn’t seem angry he’d killed them.
Why was he questioning the rightness of what he’d done? It was them or the shooters.
The woman was making him nuts. He wanted her impressed by what he did, which was utterly ridiculous.
“What’s the plan? Are we going to run across the border if we can’t get to your car?” Ky asked.
“The Russian settlement of Zabaykalsk is right past those arches.” Roman nodded. “But no. We’re taking…” He glanced around the car they all still rested against. “The SUV is on the other side of the mall. About a thousand yards.” He pinned Ky with his eyes. “Any tracking devices on you or her that you’re aware of?”
Vivi shook her head.
Ky rubbed his side. “I was out of it a lot. They could’ve implanted something. I wouldn’t know. If I was them, I would’ve implanted something.”
Roman said, “We’ll get that figured out in a bit. We’re driving into Mongolia.”
“Farther into China?” Ky asked. “We need to get out of this country. It never treats us well.”
Flynn said, “The guards at the border are unfriendlies. Have to fly over it.”
Vivi perked up, even though she was still shivering. “I sense more humans coming.”
“I hear them, too.” Ky pulled her tremoring body back into him with one arm. He rested the rifle against his knee and held out his hand to Roman, wiggling his fingers.
Roman dropped bullets into his hand.
Ky listened and counted. “Six of them. They’re nervous, which means their aim will suck. Good for us.”
“Give me the Glock,” she said.
He handed it to her, distracted by the short German he remembered from inside the prison waltzing their way without fear. Anger detonated inside him. Just as he coiled to attack, Flynn grabbed his arm. “What’s he holding?”
“Oh, no…no, no, no,” Roman muttered. “Not tonight.” He pulled three amulets out of a pocket and threw one at each of them. “Put these on, now.”
Ky draped the talisman around his neck, then handed one to Vivi and whispered, “It’s protective.”
He peeked around the car again. “That cannotbe what I think it is. The Curmsun Disc? It’s locked up. As in buried a quarter mile underground in England. Are there two of those cursed things on the planet?”
“What’s bad about it?” she asked.
“The disc inflicts its intended targets with terror until the person usually commits suicide to escape.”
“Someone stole it a few months ago, right at the time you disappeared,” Roman said. “I don’t know how. I don’t know when. We’ll talk about it later.”
