The Vow (Black Arrowhead #1) - Dannika Dark Page 0,100
blade swinging below his chin like a pendulum. He didn’t need to turn around to know that Kaota’s wolf was advancing. He raised his arms high, and when he lowered them, they morphed into wings as he shifted.
“Get him!” Lakota shouted, surging forward.
The giant owl flapped his wings and quickly ascended before either of them could capture him. Lakota spotted his dagger and snatched it. He held it over his shoulder as he took aim and then threw it in a quick motion. The flashlight on the ground didn’t provide enough light for Lakota to see, and the knife missed, striking a tree in the distance.
Lakota hurried to Crow’s bag and dumped out its contents. Keys fell out along with a coil of nylon rope, a serrated knife, what looked like a poison dart, and a few tribal trinkets. He grabbed the knife in one hand and the flashlight in the other and sprang to his feet when Kaota’s wolf took off. “Stay on him!” he shouted.
Lakota’s footfalls were the only sounds as he ran, the flashlight slicing in erratic motions like a light show at a club. When he heard a woman screaming up ahead, his heart caught in his throat. He couldn’t make out the words, only the desperate sound of someone in trouble, and that someone was Melody.
After a short distance, he reached a small clearing where Kaota’s wolf was pacing in a circle. Lakota skidded to a stop and aimed the flashlight overhead, his eyes fixed on the skyscraper trees. The beam didn’t reach very far, but he was searching for the distinct illumination of two large eyes. Owls were clever at hiding, and Crow wouldn’t wander far if it meant his prey escaping.
Kaota shifted to human form and stood beside Lakota. “He’s up there. I can smell him.”
Lakota continued searching every branch. “How good is your aim?”
“Better than yours with a knife. Let me have it.”
With the blade in hand, Kaota raised his arm, reached back, and prepared to strike. Lakota slowly moved his flashlight around the area where Kaota was looking.
When a large bird ascended from a high branch, Lakota blocked the throw with his arm. “Wait! That’s a hawk. Don’t blow your shot.” He lowered his voice, shining his light in the wrong direction so as not to tip off Crow. “I see him. He’s at your three o’clock.”
“How high?”
“Thirty-five… maybe forty feet. You think you can clear that?”
Kaota swept his hair back, his shoulder still weeping blood. “We have no choice.”
“Get ready. Throw it when I aim my light at him,” Lakota said. “One… two…”
Lakota swung his light up at the tree. The owl’s head spun around like a cap unscrewing from a bottle, and when his enormous eyes locked on them, he pushed off the branch and flapped his wings. Kaota backed up a step.
“Now!” Lakota shouted.
Kaota’s arm snapped forward, and the blade rotated through the air. Lakota’s breath caught when the bird twisted chaotically. The moment the blade struck the ground in the distance, Lakota cursed.
It was impossible to scale the tree in time. “We’re going to lose the bastard!”
Suddenly a shadow moved stealthily in a tree to his right. A figure circled around the trunk and into view, her appearance so gradual that she could have been slow-moving fog.
It was Melody. Not the quirky woman he had come to know but the brave warrior he remembered as a child. Anchoring her feet on the bough, she could have easily been mistaken for a tree nymph. Melody had exquisite form, her bowstring drawn back so steadily that she looked like a seminude statue.
“Holy shit,” Lakota whispered, turning his flashlight back onto Crow.
The owl moved erratically. It was obvious by his struggle that Kaota’s knife must have clipped his wing. When he ascended skyward, his wings stretched wide, and Lakota felt a cold wave of terror that he might escape. After a breathless second, Melody’s arrow whistled through the air and struck the bird.
Lakota raised his arms and howled victoriously. There was nothing more admirable than a woman taking down her foe. He swung his gaze over to Melody, who then gracefully lowered her bow and looked down at him. Fates, he wanted to pull that female into his arms. He’d never felt so much pride.
In the last seconds of victory, time stopped when Melody slipped from the high branch and fell.
Chapter 21
After I made the decision to hunt down Crow, I discovered it wasn’t terribly difficult to find him.