Sin's Gift (Veiled Alliance 1)

Chapter 7

“Dammit, Sin!” Jake gritted out as he watched the two of them take off like bats out of hell after some homeless transient.

For all they knew, the guy was armed to the teeth. Sin could be walking smack into another gun, and who’d be there to save her butt this time? That pansy-assed detective?

He’d watched the furtive glances Sin gave the man all through the late afternoon, while inside, his belly churned. Jake hit the remote lock on the cruiser, pocketed the keys, and headed across the grass toward the footpath.

Just when he reached the wood line, Danny stepped from the brush.

“God, not now, buddy,” Jake said, surprised he was really annoyed at the apparition’s timing. Sin must be rubbing off for him to take Danny’s appearance so nonchalantly.

Danny gave him a dark, fiercely intense stare then turned and preceded him down the footpath.

Jake hesitated to follow. “Whatcha doin’, Danny? Are you taking me to her?” he whispered, hoping no was around the hear him talking to himself.

Danny glanced over his shoulder and waved his hand to hurry him along. The footpath was deserted, moonlight filtered through the trees, lending only a dappling of silver light.

Because Sin and the detective had taken the same route, Jake didn’t question following in his friend’s footsteps. He hurried behind him, drawing his weapon, training his ears to catch the sound of the other two moving ahead of them.

Danny veered off the path into the woods. He glanced back again.

“All right, I’ll follow,” Jake said quietly, pushing past low-hanging branches and trying to keep his footsteps muffled on the woodland floor.

Danny pushed onward, walking through underbrush that seemed to melt through him, leaving Jake to curse as he stumbled a time or two on a vine in his old buddy’s wake. At last, Danny halted, turned, and pressed a finger to his lips.

Jake pulled up beside him. They stood at the edge of a brightly lit opening in the forest.

Suddenly, the sounds of several individuals crashing through the underbrush erupted into the clearing.

First, the lean, silver-haired transient Sin had spotted. He ran with surprising speed, his arms in front of him as he pushed away a branch, paused to glance into the darkness ahead of him, and lurched forward again.

Jake’s gaze left the man to follow the sounds of two more figures speeding into the clearing—Petrakis and Sin, their weapons drawn, their faces etched with deadly intent as they stayed on the first man’s tail.

Instinct pulling him toward the action, Jake moved to rush into the clearing, but Danny shook his head. Jake gave him a glare, but kept hidden, his weapon trained in case they needed cover.

“Halt or I’ll shoot!” Sin shouted, then crouched and raised her weapon to fire.

The detective cursed. “Get on the ground, you bastard!”

The transient laughed, the sound oddly thick and growling. He halted in the center of the clearing and turned back to grin at the pair quickly gaining on him.

Jake tensed, knowing this was going to end badly as the two hurtled toward the transient. At the last moment, light sparked behind the gloating man, exploding outward into a circular, white halo.

The transient lifted his hand, shot them the bird, and then leapt through the hole.

Before Jake even understood what he’d just seen, Sin grabbed the detective’s arm and the two of jumped through the narrowing hole, which blinked out instantly, leaving the clearing empty and silent.

Jake rushed past Danny, heading toward the spot the three had disappeared. As he approached, he saw a body lying on the ground. The transient.

He knelt, keeping his weapon trained and leaned down to feel for a pulse.

The body was already cold.

Jake stood and turned in a circle, searching the shadows, but found it eerily empty. He glanced back at Danny still standing in the shadows of the trees. “Buddy, where the hell did they go?”

Sin bent double, trying to keep the contents of her stomach south. The nausea passed quickly, and she jerked upright. She mused she must be getting used to this trans-dimensional hopping.

Beside her, Theo had already shed his holster and his shirt. “Don’t leave this spot. I’m going to try to find him in the rocks,” he said, lifting his chin to point behind her.