Chapter Seventeen
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CAMRIEL HAD AN OMINOUS feeling that something was wrong, but he couldn’t figure out what it was. It had started a few minutes ago and he was feeling sick to his stomach with dread.
“What’s wrong, Cam?” Grace asked. They’d all headed to town to search the hire yard that morning.
They’d been lucky enough to find several bulldozers and a truck to load one onto.
There was also a small cement truck that would be perfect for their needs.
They’d driven both vehicles back to their base to get to work.
So far, they’d managed to move both boulders out of the way.
Amaros had just finished driving the cement truck to the open area at the front of their base.
He was about to shift the boulders back with the bulldozer.
This time, he would leave more room to drive around them without the danger of driving off the cliff.
“I’m not sure,” Camriel said, rubbing his chest. Now he was starting to feel the muscles around his heart tighten.
“Are you sick?” Zoe queried in concern.
“The Knights of Order don’t get sick,” Amaros refuted. He studied his second, seeing he was pale and his eyes were a bit wild. “What are you feeling, exactly?” he asked.
“Anxious,” Camriel replied. “But I don’t know why,” he added in frustration.
Amaros cast his mind back to how he’d felt when he’d sensed his cambion was in danger. He’d felt the same weird anxiety. “You could be having a premonition that your mate will soon be in danger,” he said.
Cam’s eyes widened and his fists clenched. “That’s it!” he exclaimed. “My cambion will be in peril and I need to go to her aid!” He’d felt uneasy when Zoe and Grace had been in trouble, but this was far worse.
“Do you want us to go with you?” Amaros asked.
“I can handle it,” the warrior replied, already striding towards his pickup.
“How will he be able to find her?” Grace asked, concerned for their friend.
“Fate will guide him,” Zoe figured, just as worried as the teen.
Camriel knew they could handle the rest of their task without him.
He tore the tarps off his truck, then took off, tires spraying rocks behind him when he left the shelter of the trees.
Once he reached the road, he zoomed down the mountain to the freeway.
His anxiety grew as he followed his gut towards New York.
It was strange to be driving, rather than being a passenger this time.
It was even stranger to be traveling alone.
Both knights had weapons stored in their vehicles. Camriel reached beneath his seat and pulled out a pistol. He placed it on the passenger seat next to his shiny rifle. Spare ammo was in the glove box. He reached over and grabbed a couple of boxes for both weapons.
It probably would have been wise to bring Amaros with him, but Cam felt like he needed to do this alone. His cambion was wary of strangers and he didn’t want to scare her away.
“If anyone hurts her, I’ll rip them apart with my bare hands,” he vowed.
It was almost five o’clock when his instincts had him veering onto an exit. He heard gunfire coming from the small town ahead and gunned it. Screeching to a halt at a gas station, the knight grabbed his guns and shoved the spare ammo into his pockets.
“Come and get it, mother fudgers!” a female shouted, then laughed like a mad woman.
“Mother fudgers?” he muttered in confusion as he ran towards the ruckus.
“I’m gonna fudge you up!” she added, then her words were drowned out by more gunfire.
Cam could sense the same being he’d felt from a distance as he drew closer to a house halfway down the street.
He passed several corpses that were missing their heads.
Two dozen humans were hunkered behind cover, all firing at the same house.
One grew bold and made a break for it, heading for the front door.
Pausing to come up with a strategy, Camriel’s head whipped towards the house when the front door suddenly exploded outwards.
It had been kicked hard from the inside.
The human died instantly when the heavy wooden door slammed into him.
Cam sucked in a breath when a tall, beautiful woman with short black hair strode through the doorway.
“My cambion,” he said, instantly smitten with her. Fierce determination blazed in her dark brown eyes.
Her head jerked towards him and their gazes became locked. They regarded each other, knowing without speaking that their minds had touched before. Then the humans began firing again. The female warrior went into action, somehow dodging the bullets as she raced further down the street.
Unaware that a Knight of Order had come to cast judgment on them, the humans went in pursuit of the female. Camriel’s cambion smashed through the front door of another house and was lost to his sight.
Cam went into motion, determined to save his mate from the crazed people who were moving to surround the house. He shot three of them in the back before they realized they were under fire. Half of them turned and began shooting at him. He took cover behind a car to take stock.
His cambion peered through a window to stare at him in wary puzzlement. He mouthed that he was there to save her, but she shook her head. Lipreading clearly wasn’t one of her skills.
Wishing he could use telepathy on her, Camriel used his rifle to start picking off his opponents. A vehicle approached and he cursed when it came to a stop at the far end of the street. Humans piled out and raced to join the fray.
“I should have let Amaros come with me,” he muttered, annoyed that he’d had to play the hero and go on a solo mission. Now he and his mate were both in mortal danger.
From what he’d seen, the cambion didn’t have a gun. She’d made no attempt to pick up any of the fallen weapons. He’d spied a circular blade with a short handle clutched in her hand. Whatever it was, it was deadly. It also wouldn’t be able to take her foes down from afar.
As if reading his mind, the female smashed a window with a vase and began tossing kitchen knives at their enemies. Her aim was amazing and his admiration for her grew even stronger. “I can’t wait to bond with her,” he said, grinning when a human went down with a knife lodged in his eye socket.
Movement on both sides of the car warned him that he was about to be flanked.
Using his uncanny speed, Camriel raced to take cover behind another vehicle.
He shot the man and woman who’d tried to creep up on him.
Someone made a run for the house where his mate was holed up.
Cam shot him in the face, dropping him instantly.
“Score!” the cambion crowed from inside. He grinned, glad she didn’t have a delicate stomach. “To your left!” she warned him.
Three men were angling towards his cover, trying to get behind him. His female took one of them down with a knife in his neck. He finished off the other two with his pistol, then reloaded both of his weapons.
Zoe and Grace were going to love his cambion.
She could give them fighting tips to boost their skills and confidence.
His heart soared with elation that Fate had chosen such a perfect partner for him.
He just had to make sure they both survived this attack, then take her home to their base where she belonged.
They’d annihilated over twenty foes by now, but there were still at least ten on the loose.
Cam’s hopes that they could end this quickly faded when he heard two more vehicles arriving.
“Where the hell are they coming from?” he complained, then shot two women who were trying to smash the windows to get at his mate.
His attention was diverted from the house when several townsfolk rushed him at once.
Camriel stayed low and took them all out, then turned his attention back to the building where his female was trapped.
Dread rushed back when he saw two groups racing towards the front and back entrances.
There was no way he could reach her in time to save her from being overrun, but he was going to try.
Bursting out from behind the car, he went on the move.