The Curse (Belador #3)(107)
You know we have Beladors in national security positions … this is coming down from those offices. The concern in his voice said there was more at stake than a few cows.
What do you mean, Z? They think this thing could cause a national disaster or something?
Worse than that. One reason VIPER was formed was out of concern over preternatural creatures being used in terrorist operations. Our people in Washington need a definitive answer that someone is or is not developing creatures like the one we’re hunting, and if so, why? Plus, they need to know quickly, because the president is making a campaign stop here this week. That’s why we can’t just kill this thing and risk another one popping up unexpectedly.
She wanted to ask more questions but they’d reached a fence that looked like the normal white-board, three-slat fencing in rural areas until she stepped up close. A laser beam ran between support posts. On the inside of the fence, wires had been stretched through two-inch metal support tabs and power hummed from the wires. A warning had been stamped on the outside of each wood section that read: NO TRESPASSING: ELECTRIC CHARGE - DANGEROUS.
Tzader’s orders to the team filled her head. Trey, give Casper a hand so he can make it over the fence, then we’ll follow him on our own.
She turned around as Tzader gave Casper hand signals.
Casper had the ability to shift into a shadow that could attach to a surface or move like vapor, but sending him over the fence in his human form was more efficient right now.
Standing with his back to the fence, Trey wove his fingers together to make a step support for launching Casper. Leaning forward, he bent one knee to support his arms.
Casper nodded at him then took several long strides and stepped into Trey’s big hands. With the boost of Trey’s kinetics, Casper flew up and over the fence in an arc fifteen feet off the ground, flipping in the air and landing on his feet.
Grinning, of course.
Evalle and the other Beladors used their kinetic powers to take a high leap over the fence on their own, landing well inside a shorter electric “hot” wire fence meant to keep the cattle away from the higher-voltage rails. As she sailed across the barriers, the evening breeze was flush with the odor of cow manure and grass. Once inside the pasture, Tzader directed the team to move across the field to where a small herd of cows had bedded down for the night beneath the half moon. The cows chewed their cud and made soft mooing noises as the team approached.
Evalle had never had a pet and knew zero about farm animals, but as she got closer she saw a field of bellies obviously swollen with baby calves.
All the cows were pregnant?
She could not sit here and watch those animals get attacked, but before she voiced her concern, Tzader gave a hand motion and communicated silently to the Beladors. Surround the pregnant cows. Stay at least seventy-five feet back.
As they created a perimeter, Evalle said to Tzader, We could use a tracker who can follow something preternatural. This would be a good time to have that tracker you keep telling Sen we need.
Sen acted as a liaison between VIPER agents and the ruling Tribunal body … when he wasn’t acting like an A-hole. But he saved the majority of his obnoxious personality traits to use on Evalle.
He considered Alterants a genetic blight on the rest of the world.
Sen could take his opinion and shove it where he kept his head most days.
Tzader cut off her wandering thoughts when he said, Sen claims he’s found a potential tracker who’s coming in soon. A Navajo shaman.
Evalle said, I’ll believe it when I see it.
Don’t know that it would matter in this case unless the shaman could follow something with wings.
Tzader had a point.
Evalle found a place to flatten close to the ground where she wouldn’t end up with her face in fresh cow poop. She was just getting settled when she caught a movement in the woods a hundred yards away on the opposite side of the cow she was nearest.
The way the men were positioned like hour marks in an oblong circle around the herd, she was the only one who might have noticed the movement.
She slowed her breathing to listen, but everything was quiet. Silent, in fact.
No chirping or croaking.
Should she say something to the others? No way. Not until she determined what she’d seen was more than just a turkey.
Bending her arms at the elbows, she slid them close to her body and pushed back on her knees, staying low, but prepared to move the minute anything tried to attack one of the cows.
She scanned the tree line filled with pine trees and old hardwoods. Wouldn’t something in search of a meal come out and maybe even circle one time to scope out his attack point?
If that was the case, the team should be able to intervene before—
All at once a huge black shape with wings burst from the top of a massive oak tree thirty yards beyond the men hunkered down between her and the tree.
Fifteen feet of wingspan flapped in a mad rush toward the cows.
It’s coming! she yelled telepathically and shot up first, rushing to reach the cow closest to her in time to shield it.
Based on the angle the creature was heading down at a fast clip, it was going to overshoot most of the others and land near the edge of the herd.
On the cow closest to Evalle.
Just peachy. How lucky was she?
When moonlight brushed across the creature’s body, she could make out human arms and legs with fingers and toes sporting claws Satan would envy. Mangy-looking skin covered its body, a thin sheath over bone and muscle.