Lightning Game (GhostWalkers #17) -Christine Feehan Page 0,75

a reason.

Crouched on a crooked limb, about thirty feet up, was a man. Dressed in camouflage gear, his face streaked with paint to reflect his surroundings, he nearly blended right into the tree itself. He wasn’t armed with a rifle. Rather, he had a strange device in his hand and he was pointing it upward, not down toward the ground. Every now and then, he would look at something much smaller, nestled in his palm, that Rubin couldn’t see.

Although it was clear the hunter was a patient man, he was also frustrated. He was pushing the clouds farther out, back toward the Campo cabin, as if whatever had made him think Jonquille was in the area he was rethinking. He consulted the device in his palm over and over.

Rubin watched the clouds move away from Jonquille. She wasn’t entirely safe. She had to remain quite still until the electrical charges settled. They could be miles away and still find her, but she would know that. He didn’t take his eyes off the hunter to look for Jonquille. He had to trust that she was every bit as trained as he believed she was.

The hunter in the trees remained still the entire time other than to glance between the two devices. There was no doubt in Rubin’s mind that the man in the trees was forcing the thunderclouds to migrate across the sky toward the Campo cabin in search of Jonquille. Over the next few minutes, the towering clouds spread across the sky, the electrical storm lessening over the area so that the static charges dwindled significantly.

Rubin was concerned with the way the clouds were beginning to take shape overhead. From the original formation, the way the hunter was forcing them to move, they were taking on the appearance of an anvil. That could be very bad. Anvil clouds could produce lightning that could strike as much as ten miles away, where skies could appear blue and people would be completely unaware they were in danger.

The hunter abruptly leapt from the tree, into the nearest branches of the closest spruce, and then continued on to the next tree, his body taking on the appearance of a large flying squirrel. He moved so fast he blurred, his clothing blending into the needles and branches of the swaying limbs of the trees as he sprang in and out of them. It was difficult to track him, and would have been impossible had Rubin not been using his enhanced eyesight.

Rubin was up and after him, running full out, using every one of his many enhanced senses to keep track of the enemy as the man sprang from tree to tree. As he ran, Rubin, through the hairs on his body, felt the shift in the wind just enough to warn him that the clouds were moving back into place overhead. As their opponent ran, he was capable of thinking and acting. The foliage on the forest floor hadn’t been that affected, but the canopy above them swayed.

Diego, he’s going to attack with a lightning strike. Rubin crouched in place. Keep your eyes on him at all times. Don’t let him escape. I’ll take care of the lightning.

He worried about sending telepathic warnings to Jonquille. That involved using energy and it could enable that hunter to pinpoint her. Still. He knew she had strong protective instincts, just as he did. Just as Diego did. Their enemy had been after her, using the clouds he’d seeded to try to draw her out. Don’t answer me, Jonquille, and don’t move. Let me take care of this.

Lightning crackled, lighting up the bottoms of the clouds in forks, sizzling and building the negative charges, attracting the positive charges in the ground. Rubin couldn’t imagine the pull on Jonquille’s body from the clouds and the ground both. He couldn’t spare a glance in her direction. He couldn’t look to see where the enemy was. The lightning strike would happen so fast even the human eye couldn’t follow it, but his body’s electrical perception and the hairs on his body would be able to act as a tracking system and trigger an interception. He needed to deflect the strike and keep it from hitting anywhere near his brother.

The buildup was shockingly fast. Now. He warned his brother. The light would be so bright after the dark of the night that it would hurt his eyesight. Diego would have to close his eyes against the flash and then open them to catch