A tall woman with long, dark hair pulled back into a braid that hung to her waist shouted at them as her fellow soldiers moved into position around her. She wore faded blue jeans and a black sweater and held an assault rifle as if it were an extension of her arm.
To answer her question, he simply flashed into fire and appeared again outside the car. Weapons shifted to him and he felt the women’s hard, suspicious gazes as if they were knives slicing into him.
“You’re an Eternal.” It wasn’t a question. The dark-haired woman, clearly the leader, shifted to look at the car. “Who are they?”
“Humans,” he said. “Who the hell are you?”
One corner of her mouth lifted into a half smile. “You’re in no position to be asking questions, Eternal. There are at least a dozen guns on you—not to mention the magical weapons.”
“Immortal,” he reminded her, with a small smile of his own.
“But not immune to injury. I figure we can put you down if you make a wrong move, so don’t tempt me.” Her gaze narrowed on him, she said, “I’ll ask one more time. Who are the women traveling with you?”
Rune was as disgusted as he was furious. Felt like a damn fool. He’d stepped into a well-laid trap and couldn’t see an easy way out. He glanced at his surroundings, taking the measure of the situation. One side of the road was a steep, rocky face of the mountain. The other side was covered in trees so thick he couldn’t see beyond them. Behind him stretched a road that led back to civilization and danger for those whose safety had been entrusted to him. And ahead lay Sanctuary . . . if he could get past the witch guard.
Thoughts and options raced through his mind, but as long as he had Terri and her family to protect, there was only one choice. Truth. “Like I said. They’re human. One of them escaped from Terminal Island detention center a couple of days ago. The others are her mother and daughter.”
The dark-haired woman lowered her weapon and gave a silent signal to the other Amazons lurking close by. As one, they eased into a posture of cautious watchfulness. At least, he thought wryly, the guns weren’t aimed directly at him anymore.
“We saw the news coverage of that escape. Report is, two men made of fire broke in, killed some guards and stole two witches.”
“One witch,” he corrected. “One human suspected of witchcraft.”
She smiled then and Rune took a second for pure male appreciation. Not only was she mean as a snake and comfortable with weapons, but she was a damn beauty, too. He liked that in a woman.
“Now you want to tell me who you people are?” he asked.
“I’m Selena, commander of the Guardian Witches,” she said, then looked at the women surrounding her. “These are the Guardians.”
“Impressive,” he said, shifting his gaze from one to the other of the witches watching him with less than welcome expressions on their faces. “Now, how about you let me through so I can get these women to safety.”
“Not so fast,” Selena told him and called out, “Rachel!”
A woman dressed completely in black approached and handed off her weapon to Selena. Her dark eyes caught Rune’s briefly, then shifted to the car and his passengers. “I’ll take care of it,” she said.
Rune moved to intercept her and she snarled at him. He didn’t much care. “Take care of what?”
“Relax, Eternal,” Selena said. “Rachel’s going to check them for transmitters. Her magic will pick up anything that shouldn’t be there.”
“I already got the tracker out of Terri,” he said.
“Might be more than one.” Selena nodded at Rachel, who stepped around Rune as if he were a pile of shit and she didn’t want to risk getting her boots dirty.
Then the witch approached the car and Rune saw that her features relaxed a bit. She smiled at Terri and the others. “Don’t worry. This will only take a second or two.”
He watched as Rachel laid both palms flat on the roof of the car and closed her eyes. What looked like campfire sparks shot up as a wind ruffled her bright red hair and buffeted the heavy sweater she wore. Magic sizzled in the air around her and dropped over the car like a golden blanket that shimmered and shifted as if it were alive.