Chapter Twelve
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“STOP THE TRUCK!” CAMRIEL demanded, startling his commander.
Amaros slammed on the brakes and the truck skidded to a halt.
Camriel opened the door and leaped out. “Stop!” he shouted, cupping his hands around his mouth.
“I’m not going to hurt you!” he bellowed, knowing it was useless, but trying anyway.
“What the hell has gotten into you?” Amaros asked, leaning over to speak to him through the open door.
“I sensed her again,” Cam said, tugging a handful of his blond hair in frustration. “She’s got to be my cambion. Why else would I be able to sense her when you can’t?”
“What do you want to do?” Amaros asked, checking his watch. “Should I leave you here so you can search for her and head to Manhattan alone?”
Torn between his duty and his compulsion to find his mate, Camriel let out a low growl. “You’re not going alone,” he decided. “My cambion is good at hiding,” he said wryly. “She’s made it this far on her own. I have to trust that Fate will look after her for now.”
He climbed back into the tank and Amaros sped off. He turned off the freeway when it became too congested to drive further. No one had set up any roadblocks so far, but he’d had a bad feeling the last time they’d passed through this area.
Reaching the suburb where he’d felt uneasy, Amaros slowed down and stopped. “Fresh corpses,” he noted, seeing two men and two women lying in a driveway.
“Someone bashed their heads in,” Camriel said, wondering if his cambion was responsible.
“It looks like they were hunting someone and they turned the tables on them,” Amaros figured, then took off again.
“It was my mate,” Cam said, feeling proud of her for taking care of the threat. “She’ll be a fine addition to our team.”
Amaros nodded thoughtfully. “She certainly appears to have impressive fighting skills,” he said. They’d never had a female on their team before, but he wasn’t about to reject a skilled warrior.
Returning to the same neighborhood where he’d left his truck before, he parked inside an empty garage on a different street. They got out and he closed the garage door to hide his truck.
“Let’s make this quick,” Camriel said, slipping a couple of empty backpacks over his shoulders. Amaros did the same, then they took off on foot. They both wanted to return to their base as soon as possible.
“I hope the library Grace told us about hasn’t been burned down yet,” Amaros said as they sprinted down the sidewalk.
“We’ll find another library if it’s been destroyed,” Cam figured. “Or a bookstore that contains the information we need,” he added. People would be more interested in looting food, water and clothing than stealing books, or so they hoped.
They reached the Henry Hudson Bridge to see new crowds coming and going. The fresh bodies lying here and there indicated fights broke out frequently. The sniper Amaros had slain was gone. Someone must have tossed his corpse into the water below.
Grace had given them rough directions where to find the New York Public Library.
Amaros stopped at an abandoned souvenir store and grabbed some maps of the city.
“These should come in handy,” he figured, handing one to his second in command.
He kept one for himself and shoved the others into one of his backpacks.
Cam opened his map and located the library. “There it is,” he said, then hiked his thumb in the correct direction. “We need to go that way. It’s on 42nd street and 5th Avenue.”
Following the map, they reached the gigantic library in Midtown and halted to study it. It hadn’t been torched yet. A mob was guarding the three doors that were set behind a trio of huge archways.
“That could complicate things,” Amaros said, scowling at the twenty or so humans who were blocking their way. They’d claimed the structure as their turf.
“We can probably get around them without them noticing us if we move fast enough,” Camriel figured.
“There could be hundreds more inside,” his boss said. “Let’s head closer and see what we can pick up.”
Walking casually, they circled around to approach the library from the side. “I can’t sense many people in there,” Camriel said.
“Me either,” Amaros agreed. “There has to be another entrance. Maybe it won’t be as well guarded as the three doors.”
“This place is huge,” his second said in wonder as they traversed along the side of the building. Sculptures had been added to the stone building to add character. It was both functional and beautiful.
“There’s a broken window,” Amaros noticed, pointing upwards at one of the large, arched windows. “We can probably get in through there.” It was too high for a normal human to reach without a ladder, but it wouldn’t be a problem for the warriors.
Camriel bent down and cupped his hands together. Amaros stood on his palms and was launched upwards. He caught hold of the sill and peered inside. The gigantic room below was empty of people. “It’s clear,” he told his warrior.
Cam took a running jump and grabbed hold of his commander’s foot.
He hauled himself upwards and followed Amaros inside.
They climbed down from the top of a long bookshelf onto a balcony with metal railings.
“This could take a while,” he murmured. Countless books filled the bookcases all around the walls of the balconies and the room below.
Long wooden reading desks and wooden chairs took up most of the room on the floor.
Lamps with gold shades stood on each desk.
“We’ll have to bring Zoe here one day,” Amaros said, looking up at the intricately carved ceiling and the paintings that adorned it.
“She’ll be blown away by this place,” he predicted.
Two long rows of tiered chandeliers hung from the ceiling.
He imagined they would be beautiful when they were lit up.
“Grace would be happy to live here,” Camriel said with a grin.
They went in search of the nonfiction books and managed to avoid the few humans that were roaming around inside.
Hundreds of books had been piled up on the floor in one room and were half burned.
Made of stone or marble, at least the floor didn’t catch on fire, since they were using the tomes for heat.
“Here we are,” Amaros said when they found the stacks where non-fiction books were kept. They split up and began searching for the ones they needed. Filling their backpacks with books on a variety of topics, they met up beneath the broken window.
“We didn’t even get spotted once,” Camriel said, pleased with their success.
“I hope we’ve got everything we need,” Amaros said, checking the list Zoe had made for them. His mate had covered everything she could think of.
“We can come back later if we need to,” his second said.
They’d left at dawn and it was now after two pm. At least they should be able to return to their base at a reasonable hour this time.
Climbing back through the window, they dropped to the ground and jogged away from the library. Once they were clear of the area, they sprinted back to their truck without being spotted.
Camriel kept his senses on high alert as Amaros drove back to their base. He was disappointed when he didn’t sense his cambion this time.
“Did you sense anything?” Amaros asked, knowing his second was searching for his mate.
“Not this time,” Cam denied morosely. “She must have changed her route to avoid me.”
“Zoe thinks she’s heading towards our base,” Amaros said to give the knight some hope.
Camriel’s head whipped towards him. “When did she say that?” he asked eagerly.
“When we were in bed last night,” Amaros replied. “It’s just a hunch, though,” he added. “She hasn’t had a vision of your female yet.”
“Her hunches are usually right,” Cam said, feeling happier now. “I just wish we could find her and take her home now,” he said, mood dropping again. He hated the thought of his mate walking for hundreds of miles on her own. “Why isn’t she using a car?” he asked.
“Maybe she hasn’t found one with the keys still in it,” Amaros figured. “Or maybe she can’t drive.”
That thought filled Camriel with uneasiness. “She’s not a kid, is she?” he asked in worry.
“Do you think a kid could have taken down four people who tried to ambush her?” his boss asked wryly.
“Grace could have taken them and she’s still a teenager,” Camriel countered.
“Good point,” Amaros conceded. “What will you do if your cambion is underage?”
“I’ll wait for her to grow up, of course,” Cam said immediately. “It’s our job to protect the females, not to abuse them.” Amaros gave him a proud nod for giving him the response he’d expected. “What does your bond feel like?” Camriel asked curiously.
Amaros thought about it before responding. “It makes me want to be close to Zoe all the time and protect her from harm,” he said. “That was before we became bonded. Now, she’s more than just my mate. She’s the other half of my soul.”
Cam blinked away the tears that tried to form, getting emotional from the description. “Does Zoe feel the same way you do?” he asked.
“Absolutely,” Amaros replied. “She’d tear the world apart with her rage if anyone dared to hurt me.”
“I still haven’t seen your cambion lose her temper yet,” Cam said.
“Believe me, you don’t want to,” his commander said, tone turning deadly serious.