Lethal Engagement (An Unbounded Novella) by Teyla Branton

Author:Teyla Branton [Branton, Teyla]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Romantic Urban Fantasy
Publisher: White Star Press
Published: 2015-11-16T05:00:00+00:00

BURNING PAIN SLICED INTO MY upper arm as I reappeared behind the big man. Fortunately, he was a lousy shot. Unfortunately, I hadn’t shifted fast enough to avoid the bullet. Deep red poured down the powder blue of my right sleeve. My fingers lost their grip on my gun, and it clunked to the ground. Unlike with my knives, I wasn’t nearly as good shooting with my left, so I didn’t bother to pick it up. The big man started to turn.

“What’s happening?” Keene shouted in my ear.

Ignoring him, I kicked hard, whipping around to jab my foot into the side of the Hunter’s knee. He went down with a satisfying crunch, his weight working in my favor. But there was still his gun. I shifted to his other side as he tried to aim at me.

My arm felt numb now, as though my body was so overloaded on pain that it couldn’t feel at all.

Good.

Lashing out with another right kick, I sent his gun clattering over the rooftop. He roared and lunged to his feet, his good knee holding his weight. I punched him hard in the stomach, but my blow bounced off without seeming to hurt him in the least.

Remind me not to pick a fight with Santa Claus, I thought.

Keene shouted in my ear, “Jace is almost there!”

“Shut up! I’m trying to concentrate.” I was so going to thump him hard the next time I saw him.

The big Hunter kept coming, arms wide as if to crush me to death. I threw my larger knife from the sheath on my leg. The metal sang as it embedded into the softness of his belly. He howled and clutched at it. I had another knife ready, but he backed away, nearly collapsing when he stepped down on his bad knee.

“Run and I’ll put this in the back of your neck,” I threatened. The numbness in my arm was fading now. Lurking somewhere was an agony I knew I’d have to embrace sooner or later.

A noise made me shift instinctively. I appeared once more behind the big man, expecting to see the first sniper with a gun in his hand. Instead, it was Jace, a grin on his face that was almost happy. He stood over the first sniper, one gun pointed down at him and another at Santa Claus.

My shoulders sagged and the pain finally came—blinding, white hot. I bit my lip to keep from crying out.

“Sorry I didn’t get here sooner,” Jace said.

I reached for numbers, focusing on them to push back the pain. “I managed.”

“Yeah. You barely saved any for me.” He sounded disappointed.

I stepped closer to Santa Claus, who was trembling, his breath coming in gasps. He’d balled up his plaid shirt and was holding it against his wound, my knife still inside him. “They’ve seen me shift, and we have enough problems.” Without mortals having proof of our abilities, I meant.

“We’ll get them to Ava and Erin after we question them. They’ll never remember meeting us.

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