Tainted: Book Three - Enslaved

45. A War is Brewing

Spin

Getting up off my knees, I stared in shock at all the fast-dissolving div bodies.

Man, my girl is powerful! Speaking of...

I whirled around and saw her helping Chessie stand. She looked okay - they both did - and I breathed a sigh of relief.

"You two all right, honey?" Chance called out before I could.

"We're good," Chessie called back to him.

"Try to drag the neph over to the SUV," I told them. "Quick as you can, please."

I glanced down at my injury. Seeing that the bleeding had almost stopped, I ignored it and hustled over to where Chance was hunkered next to the dead delivery driver. I turned over ideas on how to stage this scene for the humans. We couldn't leave any evidence of Diabolical or Divine involvement.

"What would the humans see as the main cause of death?" I asked.

"Besides the claw marks? Probably his crushed chest."

"Heal the claw marks, leave the chest, and prop him in the driver's seat of his truck. Don't put his seatbelt on. And hurry. We don't want to be found here."

Standing up, I manifested a bow once more and a pair of arrows, then shot the front tire of the truck and its rim. Now the whole vehicle listed on the driver's side. I eyeballed it and figured it would pass human muster as damage inflicted from driving through the sudden crater in the road.

And the humans will have to speculate what caused that because I've got nothing.

Chance slung the human up in a fireman's carry and started to position him as I'd directed, so I checked on the girls' progress. It wasn't much. They'd each taken one of the neph's arms, had dug their feet in, and were pulling so hard that their faces turned red - and the guy's body slid an inch.

Letting the bow dissolve, I hurried over there.

Monkey dropped the guy's arm, came over to me, and raised a hand to her mouth. Her eyes were fixed on my bloody clothes. I put my hands on her shoulders.

"I'm okay, sugar. I promise. It's only a little wound. Chance will fix me up in a second."

She sniffed, her eyes welling with tears, but nodded when I gave her a soft smile.

"The guy weighs a ton," Chessie puffed. "I think it's his armor."

"Probably," I agreed and released Monkey. "Grab the straps of his vest here at his shoulders. You take this side and I'll take that side. Monkey, get his feet. Chessie and I will drag him. You keep up as best you can."

I might have been able to carry him myself, but I'd burned through a lot of power manifesting and maintaining bows and arrows and felt a little spacey. Unconvinced we were out of danger, I didn't want to completely drain myself or use up all my physical strength since I was going to have to drive now.

We slithered our way over to the SUV, and Chessie ran to the driver's door and popped the back open. Monkey clamored in, put down the third-row seats, and shoved our gear around to make room.

By then, Chance had trotted over, saw my bloody shirt, and laid hands on me. I felt my wound close up with a sharp zip that made my breath catch for a second. Shaking it off, I helped the others manhandle the neph into the cargo area. Chance crawled in after and coated him in golden healing power.

"Chessie, get in behind the driver's seat and keep your eye on Chance. Don't let him drain himself until we're sure we're safe."

I closed up the back and pushed Monkey along to ride shotgun.