Fire and Thunder
Page 18
Kila recovered enough to stumble to Connor’s aid. Strands of her curly brown locks hung in front of her eyes as she stomped over to Lincoln and Connor. She grabbed Linc by his hair and pulled him off Connor. But then Sebastian did the same to her, throwing her to the side and into a table.
Connor got to his feet and kicked Linc hard enough to send him stumbling backward. He tripped over a chair, hit his head on a table going down, and collapsed to the ground.
Turning away from his friend, Connor faced Sebastian. “Let’s finish this.”
In reply, Sebastian went invisible again. Connor clenched his fists and steeled himself. This was the fight he’d been losing all day. He had to pull out a way to win it. Somehow, inside him, he had to find the knowledge that would send Sebastian to the mat.
Sebastian shifted into visibility behind Connor and punched him hard in the kidneys. The leader of the Sons of Thunder wheeled around but by the time he completed the turn, his foe was once again invisible.
Connor randomly threw a punch out to his left, just in case Sebastian lurked over there. He hit nothing. He threw a heel kick backward and again came up empty.
Sebastian materialized to his right, grabbed Connor’s arm, and threw him to the ground. He leapt back to his feet quickly, throwing a kick as he did. His foot connected with Sebastian’s shoulder, and the latter staggered back a couple steps. Then he faded from view again.
Connor spun randomly, throwing a punch or kick with every new direction he faced. Each time he hit nothing but air. Worse, it made him dizzy.
Kila called out, “Right in—”
Connor barely had time to wonder why she would be shouting, when Sebastian emerged from his invisibility and delivered a solid uppercut to the jaw. The momentum of the blow pushed Connor backward. He nearly tripped trying to regain his footing.
Was that what Kila was trying to say? Right in front of you? But why…
Before he could finish the thought he heard, “Behind you!”
Moments later, Sebastian’s arm clasped around his throat. Connor shifted his body weight and brought his elbow down on Sebastian’s forearm to break the grip, spun to face him, and again he was gone.
“In three seconds, hit to your right!”
Kila.
Kila whose gift came in visions of the future.
Kila who learned to fight with that gift.
The knowledge to beat Sebastian was never inside him. It was with Kila — with his team.
Certain that three seconds must have passed, Connor lashed out with the hardest side kick he could and felt his boot smash into Sebastian’s solar plexus. An anguished grunt came out of thin air as the young man shifted into view, doubled over and clutching his stomach.
Lightning fast, Connor spun to his right and threw an uppercut that caught his opponent in the face as he bent over. He slipped to the side and put another uppercut into his ribs. He would have grabbed Sebastian by the hair, but his flat top didn’t leave enough, so Connor took hold of his black tank top instead and threw him forward, shouting as he did.
Sebastian crashed through glass tables and chairs, knocking them aside, shattering them. Shards of glass cut him as he landed on the floor. He groaned and rolled over to look at Connor.
“Next time. Next time just me and you. Where you can’t let your friends fight for you.”
“They don’t fight for me, Sebastian. They fight with me. That’s why we win.”
With that, Sebastian disappeared. Seconds later, Connor saw a table near the door tip over; Sebastian must have bumped it as he stumbled out.
He was gone.
Epilogue
Outside the Star of Fortune, agents of the AAA groaned and recovered from their fight with Connor. Terri Jackson moved among them, handing out bandages and ice packs from the first aid supplies in the chopper.
Flake regained her full faculties quickest. She used a radio to call for more agents, warning them to expect people with AA. Terri walked over beside her and offered her a bottle of water. She took it and gulped it down.
That’s when the Sons of Thunder walked out of the building.
All around, federal agents straightened up, some of them groaning as they did. Most of them looked at Connor like they wished he had chosen some other way to leave.
Behind Connor, the rest of his friends, new and old, emerged from the hotel, battered and wounded. Last of all, Drake and Hope walked out, holding hands, with eyes only for each other.
As guns came out of holsters, Connor held up his hands.
“Wait! I don’t want to fight.”
Flake held her arm up and out to the side, her fist clenched, the standard hand gesture military and law enforcement personnel used for “wait.” Behind her, agents trained their weapons on Connor and the others but didn’t attack.
“I hear you all are looking for an atomic bomb,” Connor said. “There’s one upstairs. It needs to be properly disposed of. You’ll also find a couple people with miraculous gifts up there. Both of them could use some time in a cell to think about their life choices. If you want to do me a favor, you’ll treat them gently while they’re in your custody.”
Flake’s hands held no weapon, unlike the rest of her agents. She rested them on her hips and stood up straight.
“After everything you’ve done, you think you can just walk away?”
From behind him, Anna put her hand on Connor’s shoulder. Everyone else reached in to either touch her or hold hands with someone who was.
Connor said, “Well, not walk…”
And they were gone, winked out of existence.
finis
Did you like this book? Have you already read the first book in this series: Sons of Thunder? If not, check it out!
You can get another book by Bowen Greenwood free at
www.bowengreenwood.com
Or, check out another of my novels: The Prophet Conspiracy.
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Acknowledgements
Always and every time, thank you God. Thank you Stephanie. Thank you Mom and Jane. Thank you to my editor, Sherrie Dolby-Arnoldy. As always, we had some areas where we don’t share the same opinion about style. I have many points where I insist on styling that breaks the rules. Where there are mistakes, they are mine. Where the grammar and spelling are correct, it’s because of her.
I want to say thank you to you, the readers. It is truly a delight to write novels, and I could not do it without you. I’m grateful that you choose my stories.