Natural Evil (Elder Races #4.5)(14)

“I’m going to enjoy making you hurt,” he said. “And I’m going to hurt you a lot.”

“No, Rodriguez would have gotten involved only if his job depended on it,” she continued. “That would mean this matters to your father somehow, and I think what matters to your father is the silver mine. How’m I doing so far? Am I hot or am I cold?”

“You’re dead f**king meat, is what you are.” He said to the others, “Right here.”

She tightened her abdomen muscles against a blow. They slammed her down, stomach first, against the trunk of one car and held her bent over. The cold of the metal trunk bit through her jeans and sweatshirt. Junior moved up behind her, putting his hands at her waist.

Time to reel in the fish.

She started to laugh. “Wow, are you inept. You can’t even do this by yourself.”

He grabbed her by the hair, cruelly pulling at the roots. “Back up,” he snapped at the two that held her arms. They let go of her as he pinned her with the weight of his body. He hissed in her ear, “You should have stayed silent. Should have moved on. Should have taken the money when I offered it. There are so many ‘should haves’ you should have done, so I figure that means you asked for this. You’ll be begging before we’re finished with you.”

As he talked he reached around her waist to the front of her jeans, searching with hard fingers for the fastening.

She didn’t have enough room to leverage out a serious blow. No normal human woman could have broken his hold.

But she wasn’t quite a normal human woman.

Telekinesis can be a finicky Power. Some people could manipulate things from a distance away. Others, usually those with a lesser degree of Power like her, needed to be able to touch what they wanted to shift.

Since Claudia’s aptitude for telekinesis wasn’t much, she’d had to work to figure out what she could and couldn’t do. Someone else might not have bothered, but the army was interested in her talents, and they spent a lot on training her. She was interested too, and she worked hard at every opportunity they gave her. As a result, what she could do was well thought out and well practiced.

She could hit like a motherf*cker. Kick like one too. From a standstill, she could throw a roundhouse punch that could bring a two-ton troll to its knees.

She had to be careful when she was fighting those of the Elder Races who were faster than she was, and whose bodies were more durable. She had to think strategically. Turned out, she was good at doing that too. Fighting was a dance like no other, as each one of her opponents became her partner for a deadly brief period of time.

She had maybe eight inches of space to work with. That was more than enough. She struck back with her elbow and hit Junior’s midsection.

Junior coughed out all his breath and crumpled to the ground. She twisted around.

He had no air in his lungs with which to speak. His bulging gaze was astonished. It asked her, What the f**k?

So she answered his question. She showed him what the f**k. She kicked him in the chest, using her foot to leverage his body weight. The blow lifted him off the ground and slammed him into the back of the building several yards away. When his three friends rushed her, she showed them what the f**k too.

When she finished with the would-be ra**sts and walked away, all four of them were on the ground. Two of them were unconscious, and one of them was crying.

Because Junior wasn’t the only one who had a hellish temper.

Claudia had a hellish temper too.

Chapter Five

Sacrifice

“Wake up, Precious,” a male said.

Luis came awake instantly. Once again, he almost lunged to attack but he managed to check himself before he tore off the other male’s face. It was the older man, the veterinarian. Jackson. She wouldn’t like it if Luis hurt him.

Jackson was a smart man. He had jerked back as Luis came awake. “Here now, none of that,” he said gruffly. Despite his obvious age and experience, the human didn’t sound nearly as confident as Claudia had when she’d shushed Luis. “I’ve got something for you.”

Luis was in the trailer, but Claudia wasn’t. A strange male, also human but much younger than Jackson, stood well away from them both, his nervous scent spiking the air.

Luis bared his teeth. He was groggy, confused and angry that the men had gotten into the trailer and Claudia had slipped away without waking him up. That would never have happened if he hadn’t been injured and heavily medicated. She had promised to protect him. Where had she gone?

Then Jackson showed him three liquid-filled vials. He stared. Jackson offered him the chance to sniff them but he didn’t bother. In his mind’s eye, the vials shone with Power.

“Don’t worry, son,” Jackson said. “I’m not gonna talk baby talk at you and ask if you’ll take the num-nums. I have a feeling you’d bite me a whole lot sooner’n you’d bite her. Feel like having a drink?”

“That’s all we had at the Urgent Care Clinic, Dan,” said the strange man. “You didn’t tell me why you needed it. You’re not really going to give thousands of dollars worth of healing potion to a dog, are you?”

“Yeah, Stewart, I think I am,” said Jackson. With a near-silent grunt, he levered himself down on one knee in front of Luis. “At least I’m gonna give him one to start with. We’ll see how that goes.”