“Fucking hell,” Pellini shouted. “They have some kind of goddamn forcefield shit!”
A smile spread across Carter’s face as he put a bullet into the tree behind Pellini, keeping him pinned down. A broad-shouldered man with red and grey hair stepped out from the brush behind Katashi and moved toward me. Angus McDunn.
I saw a flicker of sigils around him before Katashi’s ritual drained the last bit of my arcane sense. Pushing against the unseen power, I forced my hand a few millimeters closer to my gun and touched the holster, muscles trembling. I managed to get my hand to the butt of my gun and wrap my fingers around it, then had nothing left to pull the gun free of the holster.
McDunn appeared unaffected by the overwhelming weight of the ritual as he approached. Frustration and anger coursed through me. The sigils protected him like arcane armor. Yet more evidence that Katashi had planned this in advance.
McDunn crouched at my side, unconcerned by my hand on my gun. He reached for my shoulder then hesitated, his mouth drawn down by indecision. My breath hissed through my teeth as I continued the futile attempt to draw my weapon. I knew it was hopeless since I’d be unable to bring the gun to bear and fire it, but no way was I going to lie there and take whatever it was these assholes intended to do to me.
Angus enhances talents. That’s what Idris said. But it made no sense that he’d want to beef up my abilities.
McDunn regarded me with keen hazel eyes set in a craggy face but remained motionless, hand inches from my shoulder. His inaction freaked me out more than if he’d attacked me. What the hell would a cold-blooded killer be reluctant to do?
“McDunn!” Katashi spoke his name like a slap. “Do it now!”
“No,” I tried to gasp, and when McDunn’s eyes swung to mine I knew he’d heard me.
He closed his hand into a fist and withdrew it. A pale flicker of hope ignited within me. Was he having second thoughts? He shifted his weight to stand, but Katashi’s voice cracked out again.
“Jesral.”
McDunn flinched and drew a sharp breath. Regret lingered in his eyes, but his expression tightened with a determination that gutted my hope. Whatever threat the demonic lord Jesral held, McDunn was no match for it.
He gripped my shoulder, firm and heavy, and a wave of dizziness swept over me. Eilahn let out a shriek of rage even as a second, harsher wave crashed through me like the stab of a live wire. Blood roared in my ears, muffling all other sound. Yet another electroshock wave struck. And another. Color faded to shades of grey. In desperation I locked my eyes on McDunn’s face and sought to anchor myself against his assault.
His hand tightened on my shoulder. Wave after wave pounded me, deadening my senses as if wrapped in smothering layers of wet cotton.
“St-stop . . . please.” I forced the words out.
A droplet of sweat rolled down the side of his face. “I can’t,” he said, voice strained. He squeezed my shoulder again, plunged me deeper. A strangled cry escaped me as another vicious breaker scoured me, pulverized an essential aspect of my self to sand and washed it away. I scrabbled for it only to have it slip through my grasp.
“It’s all I could do.” McDunn’s low, rough words cut through the surreal fog. He released my shoulder, stood and backed away several steps, then flinched at an abrupt flurry of gunshots. Pellini had given up on shooting directly at Katashi and company and instead emptied his mag into the branches high above them.
One large branch made an ominous crack as debris rained down, which was all the distraction Pellini needed. While the bad guys dodged pinecones and the falling branch, Pellini started toward me in an impressive low crawl that I’d have been hard pressed to match even at my best. McDunn reached for the gun at his hip, and for an instant my heart stopped, certain Pellini was going to get a bullet in his head. Yet instead McDunn inexplicably dropped his hand and jogged back to the others. Maybe because Pellini was his son’s partner? More likely he didn’t want the hassle of cleaning up after a murder.
Jaw set, Pellini waved his hands as he approached as if shoving trash out of his way. The crushing weight began to lift. Pushing potency away and dispelling the shit affecting me, I realized. I couldn’t see the flows, but that had to be because the ritual had temporarily pulled the arcane away.