“No.” I propped my hands on my hips. “Only on TV.”
“Must be a soldier who fell out of his helicopter or something.” The human pushed his ball cap back to scratch his head. “Nothing else makes sense, right? I mean,whatin theworld?”
“Yeah.” I looked at the body, which was decked out in full tactical gear complete with dark-visored helmet. Only thing missing was a weapon. “I didn’t hear or see a helicopter, though.”
“Guess there’s no point in calling 9-1-1, is there?” he asked, pulling his eyes up to mine.
“Probably not, but let’s make sure.” Chance knelt down and felt for a pulse.
As he pushed the person’s glove out of the way, the sun flashed off a familiar bracelet, and I sucked in a sharp breath.
“Chessie.” I beckoned with my fingers and led her a few feet away. “Can you get the human to move on?”
“What? Why?”
“That’s a neph.” I jerked my head toward the body. “I think we’ve stumbled into a battle.”
“More like the battle stumbled into us,” she grumbled. “Sure.”
We went back to where Monkey stared off into the clouds. Chessie went up to the human and whipped off her sunglasses. His eyes widened as he took a step back, but he froze when she started to speak.
“A rabbit ran out in front of you. Nothing unusual happened. Go on your way.”
His movements were jerky, but he turned and started to walk back to the truck cab.
“Will that work?” I asked.
“Probably.” Chessie put her shades back on. “Human minds are usually willing to suppress traumatic experiences.”
“This guy’s still alive.” Chance sat back on his haunches. “Don’t ask me how, but he has a pulse and is breathing.”
“That’s impossible.” I blinked. “No neph could have survived that. He fell at least 5,000 feet.”
“There’s no blood,” Chessie pointed out, “and he doesn’t look like a pancake. Do you think the armor he’s wearing protected him? It looks futuristic.”
A soft pop was the only warning we had before dozens of divs came out of nowhere and charged us. I manifested a bow and a quiver of arrows and fired one after another, but these big buggers were quick. I missed my first two shots, compensated for their speed, and hit the next two right where I wanted. They crashed to the ground and dissolved.
“Bigfoots?” Chessie screamed. “Really?”
“Grab Monkey, get in the car, and get out of here!” I screamed back.
Chance flung out sleep bolts, which, while not lethal, were probably his most effective weapons against divs. At least it put them down. I fired arrow after arrow after arrow—and neither of us made a dent in their numbers.
Some of the divs broke off from the pack and headed for the front of the delivery truck. They were going for the human, and there was nothing any of us could do about it. A scream cut off, and I knew he was dead.
I fired into the herd of hairy bodies, but the divs suddenly wheeled and zipped after a pearly cloud. I whirled to see that Chessie hadn’t followed my orders. She stood square in the middle of the road with a pyx in her hand.
She’d called the human’s soul to her, and the divs followed it like fish after a lure.
Chance ran in front of her, his arms spread wide, and created a wall of golden power.
What is he doing?! He won’t be able to hold that for long. He’s going to get himself killed!
All I could do was continue firing arrows as I made my way over to them. Once Chance and I were back to back, he called out to Chessie to retreat back to the SUV. He pulled his wall with us while I shot more arrows.
We almost made it when Chance’s wall fizzled out.
The divs pressed their attack, and I sent Chance after the girls. He couldn’t do any more good on the front line.
