Series: Shifter Ops Series by Renee Rose
Total pages in book: 32
Estimated words: 30911 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 155(@200wpm)___ 124(@250wpm)___ 103(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 30911 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 155(@200wpm)___ 124(@250wpm)___ 103(@300wpm)
We’ve got nowhere to run.
In the backseat, Allison and Laurie cling to each other. Both Declan and Fiona have a death grip on the oh shit handle above the door. Everyone’s already braced as best they can.
I glance at Fiona, and she nods, her eyes black with a red sheen.
“Do it.”
Nothing for it. I mash the gas pedal to the floor. The speedometer revs into the red zone. Full speed ahead, we smash through the barrier and sail into the blue.
Chapter Seven
Laurie
We’re airborne. My owl knows it like it knows how to stretch its wings and angle them best to catch the breath of the wind.
But I’m not flying now, not properly. I’m stuck in the back of this bus, bowed in half. Allison’s curled into my lap, and I’m folded over her, my face buried in her fragrant hair.
If I die, I’ll die surrounded by her scent. It’s the way I’d want to go, but not now. Not like this.
There’s a whooshing in my stomach, a sensation of falling, and then a great bang as the bus’s tires make contact with the rocks. My head slams into the seat in front of me, and Allison whimpers. She grips my legs harder, and I do my best to buffer her as the bus rockets down the side of the cliff, smashing into every boulder and bush on the way.
“Yaaaaaaaaaaaaah!” Someone’s shouting, screaming. Declan and Fiona both. Declan’s voice pitched an octave higher than hers.
We hit the bottom, and the doors pop open. Both Fiona and Declan tumble out. I half carry, half tug Allison out too. There’s a hissing noise that makes me think the bus is gonna blow.
The bus cants on its side, its front right corner smashed into a boulder. The windshield wipers swipe frantically over spiderweb cracks in the glass.
“Ya all right? Any bones broken?” Declan’s shouting.
“You scream like a girl,” Fiona mutters, rubbing her ear.
“O-okay?” I whisper to Allison.
“Yes.” She rubs her neck. “Just a little whiplash.” It takes a lot to hurt a shifter.
Parker staggers over to us, his hat in hand. Blood’s trickling from his forehead, but he rubs it away, his wounds already closing.
Fiona rounds on him. “Parker, what the fuck? You drove us off a cliff!”
“What was I supposed to do?”
“Nae try to kill us!”
“They’re trying to kill us!” Parker waves to the hearse parked at the top of the cliff. “We had to get away.”
“Now our bus is fucked.” Fiona kicks at a tire, and the broken windshield splinters further.
Beside the hearse, more SUVs have pulled up. Their doors are opening.
“Uh, guys?” Allison calls, pointing to our pursuers. Dark forms unfold from the SUVs and head towards the edge of the overlook. They’re searching for a way down to us. “They’re coming.”
“Shit. We’ve got to run.”
“Where do we go?”
She squeezes me.
“Laurie,” Parker shouts. “Can you shift? Get Allison to safety?”
Fiona’s head whips around. “Can you do that? Can you shift?”
I open my mouth, but my voice won’t come. At all.
“Hey,” Allison pipes up. “I could fly myself if I wanted. I’m not leaving you.”
Fiona ignores her. “Do it,” she snarls at me, a red sheen lighting her eyes. “Get her out of here.”
“He can’t do it on command!” Declan snaps at her. “We’ve got to find another way.”
My owl cowers in a corner of my mind. I stare down at Allison’s upturned face. The wind blows the metallic scents of our enemies to me.
They’re coming. The bus is toast. We have no way to escape unless I can shift and fly us out of here.
I have to do it. It’s the only way.
I stretch out a hand, willing it to sprout feathers. But my owl won’t come.
Allison rests her hand over my heart “It’s okay, Laurie,” she whispers. She’s so good, she’s forgiving me for not saving us all.
But when she touches me like this, I feel like I can do anything.
My owl blinks his big eyes. We have to do it, I tell him. It’s the only way to keep her safe.
He wants to retreat. He’s scared, has been scared since the day we woke up behind silver bars in the lab of Data X.
You’re not in a cage now. You’re free. And she needs you.
Tingles run down my back. In the deep darkness of my psyche, my owl shakes his feathers.
He’s ready.
I grip Allison’s hand, kiss the back of it. Then I straighten, pull off my thick glasses and hand them to her.
She nods solemnly, understanding. “I’ll keep them safe.”
Fiona’s got her shotgun up and is peering through the sight. Declan and Parker hover behind her, arguing in low voices.
“G-g-get in the b-b-bus,” I order. Allison won’t leave her friends behind, so I’ll have to fly all of them.
Parker looks doubtful. Declan opens his mouth to argue. On the cliff, figures are exiting the SUVs and starting to climb down the cliff, crawling like black ants.