I watched his eyes flicker over mine. A hint of emotion grew discernible in the dark...then pain came off him, sharp, taking my breath. Before I could think, he was beside me. His fingers circled my upper arms.
I am here to help you. He hesitated, pulling me closer to where he stood. Trust me. Please...I can get you out. Once I do, things won’t be as bad for you. I promise you this.
I felt my throat close. “And that’s my only option?” I said. “To get out?”
His fingers loosened.
“Yes,” he said, stepping back. His eyes still watched mine with that unnerving scrutiny. “Your human family,” he began aloud, then switched to his mind. There might still be time to move them. If I can get in contact with some of my people, they might be able to—
A flash lit the clearing.
With it came a thwup-thwup sound, like staccato inhales of breath. The man beside me moved like liquid shadow.
He shoved me, hard.
Before I could put the different pieces together inside my mind, my feet had already separated from the ground.
I flew through the air...
...and slammed, hard, into the trunk of a nearby redwood tree.
My face smacked into rough bark. Pain sucked the air from my lungs, blinding me even as it blanked out my mind. I couldn’t hear, couldn’t breathe as I crumpled in mud and pine needles. The pure shock and intensity of that pain both woke me up and stunned me in the same breath.
Then I heard another series of shots.
Thwup, thwup, thwup...
I fought to rise, but my back lit up like a Christmas tree in an electrical fire. Spots flashed before my eyes as an odor like sulfur hit my mouth and nose. Gunfire. Not like I was an expert, but I’d heard it before. My fingers fought for purchase on wet bark. I was full-fledged panicking now, but also in shock, a deer in headlights. I couldn’t figure out from which direction the shots had come. I had no idea where I was in relation to where I had been before.
The man with the black hair was on the ground. I felt a sharp pain where he held his shoulder. I smelled blood.
I tried to stand, but another volley of shots peppered the clearing, bringing me to my knees. Scrabbling with feet and hands, I slid halfway around the base of the tree, at least understanding from which direction they came from that time.
That time, when I looked back at the clearing, the black-haired man was gone.
He’d left me here, while I was being shot at.
Great.
A crackle of branches being shoved aside caused me to turn back toward the other side of that same clearing. I found myself face to face with the shooter, and recognized him at once. He still wore the same dark blue suit and red tie. Flipping aside a longer greatcoat, he extracted a fresh ammunition magazine from an inside pocket, and deftly replaced the one he let fall to the ground, seemingly without concern for where it fell.#p#分页标题#e#
He stared directly at me.
“Interesting.” He snapped in the fresh magazine, chambered a round, and raised the gun so it pointed at my face. “Was he flirting with you just now? Please tell me, dearest, for that is simply too delicious for words...”
I pushed my body off the trunk with my palms and slipped, landing hard on my tailbone on a protruding root. I winced, gasping, bracing myself to be shot.
I was in shock. My mind acknowledged this, as if from far away.
In front of me, the man with the amber eyes fell to a crouch, so that our gazes were level.
He looked exactly how I remembered him looking, including his oddly, light-brown eyes, which were riveting, difficult to look away from, even now...maybe especially now. His long, reddish-brown hair framed high cheekbones and a sensual mouth. Some of this I pulled together from memory, of course, since it was dark, but his eyes caught some unseen light, reflecting a glow that made them look distinctly inhuman to me.
“Are you hurt, sister?” he said.
“Yeah...no.” I fought to control my voice. “...I’m okay.”
He smiled. “My apologies for scaring you.” Unlike the other, this man had no discernible accent, but the construction of his sentences remained foreign-sounding to my ears.
Seer, I found myself thinking. He has to be another one.
If he heard me think it, his expression showed no indication.
“This man.” He gestured towards the trees with the gun. “He is a criminal, you see. He has been harassing you, yes? Following you?”
When I remained silent, his mind prodded mine.
“Yes,” I managed.
“I am Terian.” He waited, as if expecting me to introduce myself next, as if we were at a dinner party. Even as I thought it, he prompted, “...And you are? What? Another Sark, surely. Living among the worms, trying to pass. Succeeding too, or so it would seem. And Dehgoies felt obliged to out you, did he?”