Chapter Four
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URZRA STRODE AWAY FROM the small, isolated house, mind foggy and slightly confused.
His thoughts began to clear by the time he reached the gate.
Halting, the knight turned around to face the distant house.
“Bria Janke can manipulate emotions,” he figured with a hint of admiration.
She’d actually managed to convince him he wasn’t attracted to her.
That was preposterous, since the tiny female was the epitome of perfection.
Never in his entire existence had he seen a cambion that he hadn’t felt compelled to eradicate.
Bria was nothing like the other spawn of his enemies he’d encountered in past eras.
While her soul wasn’t pure, he hadn’t detected any signs of malice in her.
It was obvious she’d been through some kind of trauma.
Why else would such a lovely young woman move to a small island and live there all alone?
“I triggered her into withdrawing from me,” he said regretfully.
He’d known it would be a bad idea to tell her the truth about her origins, but it wasn’t in the knights’ nature to lie.
“She deserves to know her sire is evil,” he told himself.
“Rahab and his unit have been here for eight months now. Fate only knows how much damage they’ve already done to this country. ”
Bria needed time to recover from the bad memories he’d stirred up and he needed to find some clothes.
“My foes could be on their way here right now,” he said as he vaulted over the gate.
He had the sense that they were a fair distance from Manhattan, the place his enemies had apparently landed near.
But they would find a way to reach the island soon enough.
He was all alone and he couldn’t sense his commander or brothers anywhere.
“I need to find a way off this island,” he said as he headed for the property next door.
Racing down the road, he sensed the house was empty when he reached the end of the driveway.
Humans hadn’t grown much during the past era.
The items he found in the closet and dresser were far too small for him.
“Did people shrink while I was in the Void?” he asked, trying to pull on a pair of shorts and failing.
The seams tore when he tried to pull them over his thickly muscled thighs.
Yanking the ruined shorts off in disgust, he tossed them to the floor. Nothing in the house fit him, so he continued his search. He avoided the houses that were occupied and sprinted from one distant property to the next. Most homes were empty and hadn’t been lived in for months.
He finally got lucky and found some clothes that were a better fit for someone of his size.
The tan trousers were tight around his thighs and too loose at the waist. The t-shirt felt like it was strangling him when he pulled it on over his head.
Flexing his biceps, he was relieved when it remained intact.
“Now for some shoes,” he said, opening the next door in the closet. Several pairs of shoes were on display. He chose the largest pair of sneakers, shoved his feet into them and grimaced when they squeezed his toes. Socks would just make it worse, so he didn’t bother to don any.
He found a backpack shoved onto a shelf above the clothes in the closet and filled it with more clothing. “I need to figure out exactly where I am,” he said, then carried the backpack to the living room.
Urzra searched the house and found some envelopes with the address on them. “I’m on Block Island,” he murmured. “Someone put a lot of thought into that name,” he joked. There had to be a history behind it, but he wasn’t in a hurry to know the answer.
He found a tattered old map in the same drawer in the kitchen where the bills had been.
Spreading it out on the dining table, his eyebrows rose when he saw how many cities and towns were on display.
“Obviously, the population of the entire world has increased substantially since the past era,” he mused.
It took a couple of minutes to find Block Island. “There’s Manhattan,” he said, peering at the city next. He would need a boat to reach Long Island, then make his way to where Rahab and his squad were lurking.
“Amaros has to be around here somewhere,” he said, sweeping his gaze across the map.
He just wished he had some idea of where to look for his leader.
Fate had dropped him near Bria Janke for a reason.
He sincerely hoped it wasn’t to kill her.
There was no way he would murder someone who didn’t deserve it, even if she was a cambion.
“She’s too small and fragile to be a danger to me,” he said.
Her dark blonde hair, gray-green eyes and flawless complexion still hadn’t left his mind.
Her face was embedded in his memory. So was her small, yet enticing figure.
She’d been strong enough to heave someone more than twice her size into that boat, risking her own life in the process.
“Bria has a boat!” he exclaimed, slapping himself in the forehead. “Maybe she’ll let me borrow it so I can see what’s going on in Manhattan.”
Folding the map up, he put it in his backpack, then shouldered it.
The warrior sprinted back the way he’d come, then halted at Bria’s gate.
He didn’t want to disturb the female and incur another bout of her wrath.
It hadn’t been pleasant to have his emotions altered like that.
“Maybe I’ll skip asking her permission and apologize for using her boat later,” he said uneasily.
Urzra had no idea where her boat was, but it had to be somewhere close to the ocean.
Following the distant sound of waves, he skirted around the edges of her property.
Crashing through some trees, he emerged into the bright sunshine again and saw a beach just ahead.
Several docks stretched out into the water.
A few boats were moored by ropes, gently bobbing in the waves.
He recognized the small metal boat Bria had used and loped over to it.
Tossing his backpack onto the seat, he jumped down into it.
“How did the female manage to get me onto dry land last night?” he asked, shaking his head that he’d been unconscious the whole time.
His blood was pooled on the bottom of the boat, reminding him how close he’d come to dying.
The fuel tank was only half full when he checked it.
“I need to top it up before I go anywhere,” he figured, then hauled himself back onto the dock.
A quick search of the larger vessels gave him some spare fuel and a bucket.
He carried them back to the smaller boat and filled the tank, storing the spare fuel in a container that was secured beneath the seat.
Flies were buzzing around him and the smell of blood would draw sharks to him. He filled the bucket with sea water and washed the boat clean, then climbed out and tilted the vessel to empty the water out.
Climbing back in, he untied the rope that was anchoring the boat to the dock.
Aiming towards land, he started the motor and sped away.
His clothes soon became drenched from sea spray and the sun beat down on him.
He could see Long Island far in the distance after he’d been steering for twenty minutes, thanks to his enhanced eyesight.
Ignoring the heat, he neared land another forty minutes later.
Instinct made Urzra slow down rather than heading to the shore. Stretching out his senses, he faintly detected five Soldiers of Chaos. They’d seen the gold comet land in this general area and were lying in wait for him.
“Damn it,” he muttered. Rahab had probably posted his men all over Long Island, making it impossible for him to sneak onto land without being detected. He resolved to keep going and find somewhere else to make landfall.
A wave hit him, lifting the boat just as he was about to take off again. Something smacked into the side of the vessel, missing him by inches. A loud bang accompanied it and he flinched. “That was a bullet,” he realized as the information filtered to him.
Urzra gunned the motor just as another shot was fired. It missed and he zoomed back towards Block Island. It was far too dangerous to approach Manhattan from this direction. He needed to rethink his plan.
The sound of another motor sputtering came from behind him.
He turned to see the five soldiers were squeezed into a boat not much larger than his.
One of them was trying to start it so they could pursue him.
“Deumos,” he said in recognition, then grimaced.
“I think I just figured out who Bria’s sire is,” he said.
Malevolent even by his foes’ standards, Deumos had the same dark blond hair as the cambion.
His eyes were a mixture of gray and green beneath the usual red tint.
Urzra realized he was leading his opponents directly to Bria Janke, which meant her safe, secluded life was about to suffer an upheaval.
Deumos would no doubt use his parental bond to force the female to do his bidding as soon as he found her.
Not even her ability to alter emotions might be enough to save her from becoming his puppet.
Still, Urzra continued towards Block Island rather than turning away.
Instinct had a hold of him now. One thing all of the knights knew was to never ignore their instincts.