Blowback by Stuart Jaffe

Author:Stuart Jaffe [Jaffe, Stuart]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: fantasy thriller, action and adventure, Australia
Publisher: Stuart Jaffe
Published: 2022-08-11T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER ELEVEN

When he awoke, Nathan squinted against bright sunlight angling through a car windshield. He sat on the passenger side while Octavia drove. East? South? His brain pounded, throbbing most at the base of his skull. Dried blood crinkled on his skin, but not nearly as much as stiffened his torn shirt. He lifted his hand to touch the back of his head but couldn’t reach — he had been handcuffed to the car door.

“What the hell?”

Octavia glanced his way. “You’re awake? Good. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen an Immortal have to come back from such a death. Those men destroyed you.”

Through the fog of his thumping hangover, Nathan recalled the final bullet shoving his head back into the dirt. His second soul had drifted away — indeed, thinking on it made him aware of the void inside — while the Darkness lurked around him. Peeking at Octavia, he remembered trying to use it. But he had failed. He knew it because his recollections snapped to the debilitating agony he had endured when his fresh soul took over and his body healed.

“I can’t think of a time in my long, long life that I ever heard a healing sound so terrible.” With an awkward attempted at warmth, Octavia patted his knee. “You did a good thing with all of your screams. Scared those men who killed you. Terrified them.”

“Gave you an opportunity.”

Nathan could hear it now — a muted memory stretching into his consciousness. While he had been convulsing with each new snap of his bones coming together, with the fire of shredded muscle stretching and growing, he heard the dull cracks of distant gunfire. His eyes had not reconnected to his brain by that point, but he knew. Octavia had taken out all of those men.

“You saved me?”

Tilting her head with a look he had not seen since she mentored him years ago, she said, “I would not let another Immortal permanently die. Even you. And I did not wish to permanently die myself.”

Nathan leaned against the headrest, but the bruise on the back of his skull lanced fire straight through his brain. “Barrett? He saw, didn’t he?”

“I ran out the side door and swept my way to you. When Barrett saw you stand, he just stared with his mouth wide open, and his men backed up behind him.”

That part floated in a haze for Nathan, but he remembered getting up while not fully-healed. Maggie dangled at his side — his hand lacking the strength to do anything more than grasp the weapon. Then another moment flashed into his sour head, and his cuffed hands tightened into fists.

“You let Barrett take her.”

“Robin? Oh, yes. Dieter, too. But remember — he wanted to cut their heads off. You scared him too much, though. When he changed his orders to take them alive, I thought it a good thing. As much as I have warned you about relationships with humans, I must admit that girl has carved out a place in my heart.

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