Total pages in book: 100
Estimated words: 93448 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 467(@200wpm)___ 374(@250wpm)___ 311(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 93448 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 467(@200wpm)___ 374(@250wpm)___ 311(@300wpm)
But if he was out there talking, it meant that he likely had something he thought gave him an advantage over the Weavers.
“Your last brother, right?” John paused and chuckled. “He’s a cute thing. Spunky. He would have made a great addition to your team.”
Lucien’s stomach lurched and his knees wobbled, threatening to dump his ass on the sandy ground. Dead? Was the Weaver dead? Had they only waited until they attacked to kill him? And what about Gio and Baer? Where were they in all this?
“He’s not dead. Where is he?” Grey snarled. Lucien trusted the Soul Weaver to know what he was talking about. If he said the Weaver was still alive, Lucien would go with that.
“But he can be. So easily.” John gave a weary sigh. “Grey, I gave you the option to walk away from the Weavers. You’d be safe. Your friends would be safe. We’d trouble you no more.”
“And you’d continue to destroy the Earth. Not an option.”
John was standing in front of the house, a short distance from the dark area underneath the structure that likely served as storage. In the flickering light of the burning trees, Lucien could just barely see him shrug, as if what Grey was saying was the most obvious thing in the world.
“Since you wouldn’t take my offer, I’ve decided to extend my offer to the young would-be Weaver. We’ll keep him safe here with us for you until our work is done. And then you can have him.”
“You mean after the world has been sucked dry and destroyed?” Lucien bellowed.
John shrugged again. “It is a shame how this has to work out, but really, you’d do the same thing to save your people.”
Not true. They wouldn’t sacrifice the lives on an entire world to save their own people. They’d find another way.
“We’re not leaving here without him, John!” Grey shouted.
“So be it. You don’t leave.”
John quickly stepped back into the thicker shadows under the house. At the same time, great clomps of heavy feet echoed. A couple dozen men poured out of the darkness and started to ring the house. They were in black riot gear and had SWAT emblazoned in white across their chests.
Fuck. John had stolen a local SWAT team to fight them again.
“Grey?” Lucien growled, already conjuring up two balls of fire as he prepared for the attack. Lucien didn’t want to kill these men if he could avoid it. The last time John had attacked them with trained humans, they’d had no choice. Grey had been blind and incapable of removing the spell. It had been kill or be killed.
His heart hammered in his chest and prayed to the goddesses to try to look out for his mates.
“Shit. Shit. Shit,” Grey swore violently next to him. That did not sound encouraging. “It’s harder to remove the spell with John right fucking there. You need to stall or maybe knock them out. Cort and I are working on it.”
Definitely not good. Fire was a bad weapon when it came to knocking people out.
As soon as he thought it, a giant wave swarmed up the island, rushing past the stilts to crash into the SWAT team from behind. The men toppled over like dominoes. Their heavy armor and gear making them slow and awkward when it came to regaining their feet.
It was a start, but they were still in for a hell of a fight. Now they had to buy Gio time—as well as Cort and Grey—against some very scary guns. This had all gone to hell way too fast.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Gio darted inside the hall closet and quickly closed the door behind him before releasing his hold on his powers. He leaned against the back wall, grateful the closet was mostly empty. He thought he’d caught sight of a broom, mop, and bucket, but that was it. His entire body was trembling from exhaustion, and he was coated in a sheen of sweat. Clearly, he’d overestimated how long he could remain invisible.
His new power was far more draining than he’d expected.
When he’d reached the shore with Baer, the Animal Weaver had immediately shifted into a snake. Ewww. Gio had followed him best he could through the darkness and the thick brush toward the house. Only when they reached the edge of the coverage did he finally tap into his new gift.
The lower outdoor area was easy to search. Nothing to find except some fishing gear, some lounge chairs, a couple of old weed whackers, and some other gardening tools. No sign of anyone who was not a pestilent.
From there, he lost sight of Baer completely, leaving him on his own. Baer was supposed to find his own secret way into the house. The hope was that he’d be able to move faster through the building, find the Weaver, and leave Gio to secure him while Baer found a way out.