Chains of Fire: The Chosen Ones by Dodd Christina

Author:Dodd, Christina [Dodd, Christina]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Signet
Published: 2010-09-06T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 33

The old guy got the door shut and glared at Aaron. “You John Powell?”

“I’m Aaron. This is Charisma.” Aaron gestured. “John’s in the van.”

Aaron and Charisma stood in the mayor’s office, all right: a single large room, three desks, six chairs, one large metal file cabinet, and, through a narrow, open door, a tiny restroom.

Glass and shards of wood crunched under Charisma’s feet. Every window had been shot out. Chunks of the windowsills had been blasted away. The shades were peppered with holes, hanging crooked or fallen to the floor. Rifles and ammunition had been strategically placed throughout the room.

“It looks as if you’ve already been through a war,” Aaron said.

“Sorry I didn’t tidy up. I wasn’t sure I was having visitors,” Billy said in his slow West Virginia drawl. “Or at least—I wasn’t sure I was having welcome visitors. If we stay back here a ways, they can’t see us. But it’s a good idea to stay down, because they send in a shot every once in a while.”

“You’re hurt.” Charisma didn’t need to see the blood matted on the back of Billy’s shirt to know that. Her stones were vibrating.

“They got a few shots in,” Billy allowed. “Mind if I sit down?” But he didn’t wait for an answer. He slithered down on a desk chair.

His thinning hair was still red, his faded eyes were blue, but what should have been a ruddy complexion was gray with exhaustion and drawn with pain.

Aaron pulled out his cell. “So I can bring in my people—where are the shooters?”

“I’ve got three in the house across the way. Two in the houses on either side.” Billy used four fingers to point. “One somewhere in the general store, although I think he isn’t doing as well as he thought he would when he went in. Might have got a good shot in myself.”

“None in the woods around us?” Aaron asked.

“No, they’re city folk. They don’t like all them trees and such.” Billy’s face crinkled in disdain.

“Anyone out there with powers?” Aaron was assuming the worst.

“The sweetest-faced little gal you’ve ever seen—she’s about eighteen, but I can’t quite figure out what her job is. She’s sitting in the house across the way, watching the whole operation and waiting for . . .” Billy sighed. “I don’t know what she’s waiting for, but she scares me. I think she’s here to make me talk, and I think she’s got some kind of pretty nasty gift that could do it. I’ve been thinking that today was a good time to die. My Ruby Lee is going to be glad you got here before I did.”

While Aaron dispensed the information to the group in the van, Charisma commanded, “Billy, take off your shirt.”

“If I had a dime for every time a pretty girl like you said that to me.” Billy pulled his shirt out from beneath his belt, unsnapped it, pulled it off.

“Wow!” She ogled the carefully etched marks across his belly. “Awesome tat!”

“Thank you, little lady, but as I’m sure you must know, it’s not exactly a tattoo.

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