Oath Bound (Unbound) - By Rachel Vincent Page 0,59

knew how close to disaster we all sat. Sera’s head bobbed between the seats as she gathered her things, still oblivious. But her movement drew his eye.

The guard pulled a radio from his belt, swinging his rifle up with the other hand. But he couldn’t aim one-handed, and since the intruder hadn’t noticed him yet, policy dictated that he call for backup first.

I aimed.

I’m fast. But I’m not faster than the spoken word.

I could hear the static of his radio, but not what was said into it, or the reply that came back. I fired once. The gun thwuped. The guard tumbled backward and went down on the patio steps. I couldn’t see his wound from where I stood, but I knew he was dead before he hit the ground, because I knew where I’d hit him. The middle of his forehead.

Sera still hadn’t seen him, and more were surely on the way.

Shit! I glanced at the house. No activity yet. But that wouldn’t last long.

Gun aimed at the ground to my left, I jogged across the grass and into the parking lot, where the light made me feel exposed. Naked. Vulnerable.

“Sera!” I hissed, but she didn’t hear me. She was below seat-level again, doing something I couldn’t see.

I scanned the back of the main house as I approached the car, then squatted next to the rear tire just as the back door of the house opened and two more guards came out. I pulled open the rear door of her car, and Sera’s squeal of surprise was swallowed by the shouts of the guards as they discovered their coworker’s body.

“It’s me!” I hissed, and Sera exhaled. “We gotta go!”

“Okay, just let me...” she whispered, bending again to gather her things.

“Now!” I snapped, and she flinched. And that’s when I realized what was taking her so long. She was gathering the photos that had fallen across the backseat and floorboard. Her mother’s album was old and worn out. It had practically fallen apart in her hands.

They must have looked through it all the time. That thought nearly broke my heart.

But then there was more shouting. More footsteps. I peeked through the rear windshield to see that three guards had become five, and they were fanning out across the porch, handguns and rifles drawn, prepared to search the property. They wouldn’t have to go far to find us.

“Sorry, Sera, but we have to go.” I sank out of sight again. She peeked over the backseat, then dropped onto her heels in the floorboard, air wheezing in and out of her lungs.

“Shit!” she whispered. “Do you have another gun?”

“Can you shoot?”

She shook her head, but her hands were steady as she gathered the photos. “But I’m a fast learner.”

“Good. I’ll teach you—if we get out of here.” I scooped the last of the loose photos into my left hand and dumped them into the computer bag she held open, then took it from her and slung the strap over my shoulder. I helped her out of the car—awkward, with us both squatting—then carefully, silently closed the door.

Then I peeked around the end of the car.

There were too many of them. They were all armed. Even if they were all horrible shots—and they wouldn’t be—they were close enough that it would take more effort for them to avoid hitting us than to hit us.

“Change of plans. Give me your keys.”

“What?” Her eyes were huge again. But her voice was steady. “We can’t drive out of here!”

“We can’t walk out, either, unless you’ve decided your body didn’t come with enough holes in it.” And that wasn’t possible, because her body was perfect. My job was to keep it that way.

She peeked through the rear window again, then dropped into a squat with her back against the car, eyes wide. “What’s the plan?”

“Give me your keys. Crawl into the backseat and stay down on the floorboard. I’ll drive us into the dark, then we get out and shadow-walk into the closet.”

She nodded. “Sounds easy enough.”

“Except for the part where you lose your car to a storm of bullet holes.”

“Can bullets penetrate a car?”

“This car? Yeah. So stay down. Ready?”

“No.”

“Too bad.” I plucked the keys from her hand and pulled open the back door. Three of the guards’ heads swiveled in our direction, but they weren’t at the right angle to see the open door.

Sera climbed onto the rear floorboard, then pulled the door mostly closed. I opened the front passenger door and crawled across the