The old man’s mouth hung open, and his eyes were unfocused. Though SK couldn’t be sure, he would have sworn the man next to Liv had been dark-haired. This man was nearly bald and completely gray. His skin was an ashy white, and his wheezing was clearly audible. Without a word, he crumpled and lay back with a thud.
Though Liv was standing, she was breathing hard and holding her side.
“Liv?” SK said.
But there was no time for her to reply as a hulking figure filled the doorway. Sidirov looked around the room, obviously trying to make sense of what he was seeing.
SK’s jaw tightened. This was the man who’d given Liv the black eye. As Sidirov’s eyes landed on Liv and he moved toward her, SK’s hands found the handle of the metal case. SK ran at him and swung the case upward. It nailed Sidirov right between the legs. As he collapsed and grabbed his crotch, SK spun with the case at shoulder height, swinging it for all he was worth. It smashed into the side of Sidirov’s head, and he went down hard. Only when SK tossed the case to the floor, did he realize it had opened. It tumbled to a stop, empty.
CHAPTER SEVENTY-TWO
“DID YOU SEE that?” Ursula screamed as she ran past, but Dominique didn’t have time to answer.
They had all seen the torrent of pinpoint lightning strikes. It’d been perfect, just not enough. The worst part, though, was it had distracted Nicole.
“Don’t look at them!” Dominique yelled. She cut off Nicole’s view. “Look up there!” Dominique pointed up at the glacier.
Though crossing the river and sending Siberian shamans to the lake had been a good tactic, it was a dead end. On this side of the river, the open terrain backed up to the sheer walls of the glacier.
Nicole painted frantically, but it was controlled chaos all around them. Wan-li and her tiger were speeding by, dangerously close. She was crisscrossing the area from one hotspot to another, keeping the younger shamans focused. One of them had the use of wind and was able to drive the Siberians back, but it never lasted long. Alvina’s pressure waves were their biggest weapon, but like the wind, she had to keep them away from Ursula’s fireballs.
Though Dominique had created the flood, any use of water now would affect them all. She didn’t have the control the Lightning Shaman apparently had.
“Paint!” she yelled at Nicole.
Once the painting was started, they couldn’t relocate–not unless they wanted Nicole to start over. Her framed doorways hung in midair but they were stationary.
“I’m almost done!” Nicole said.
It’s going to be close.
There were fewer enemy troops now–about a third less by Dominique’s estimate–but they were still hugely outnumbered. The younger shamans were getting tired, their attacks less and less effective. The Siberians were starting to swarm. Dominique did the only thing she could do: She waded into them.
Her fists and feet connected in a furious flurry of punches and kicks. Though the enemy had closed, they hadn’t expected a physical attack. Dominique spun and ducked, pivoted and lashed out, and took down one shaman at a time. She pummeled and stomped anything within reach: the backs of heads, stray ankles, vulnerable wrists, and surprised faces. The bodies of dazed and numb shamans were piling up around her. A fireball crashed into her back.
“Dominique!” Nicole screamed.
Dominique ducked and rolled, but it did no good. The leather duster was on fire. Dominique lurched upright, grabbed the lapels and yanked the burning coat off her shoulders, but a fist snapped her head sideways. She slipped to one knee. A kick landed in her stomach and she doubled over. The smell of burning hair filled her nose.
No choice now.
“Rain,” she breathed.
The downpour was instantaneous, crashing all around. Drops the size of marbles pockmarked the snow and soaked everything, but put out the fire. A pressure wave burst on her, and Dominique smashed sideways into newly made slush. Without a moment to try to get up, rough hands seized her and yanked her up. It was Alvina!
“No time for laying down,” the older shaman said, rain pouring down her face. With a strength that belied her small frame, Alvina passed her to Ursula.
“Nicole is done,” Ursula said and dragged her backward.
Alvina backed up with them, thrusting her hands forward. A semi-circular pressure wave blew shamans off their feet. Rain sailed horizontally. Nwa cawed and Dominique caught a glimpse of him diving toward her as she and Ursula tipped backward. Dominique landed with a thud on the ice. Up above was the clear sky and then Nicole’s face. Dominique struggled to sit up, but she saw Alvina leap through with her coyote. The painting disappeared. They’d made it to the glacier.
CHAPTER SEVENTY-THREE
LIVVY GRABBED HER side and took a look at it for the first time. Five parallel slashes through her clothes had gone across her lower right side and midsection. The bear’s claws had raked through skin and muscle. Was that rib bone she saw? She sucked in a breath and winced
“Liv!” SK said. “You’re bleeding!”
Though he reached for her, a scream from Min split the air.
“Livvy!” she wailed.
Livvy made a futile attempt to cover the long, painful gashes with an unsteady hand. It would have to wait. She took in a shaky breath and stepped toward Min, but Colin jumped up and came between them.
“You stay away,” he said, holding up his hand to her.
“Min needs her,” SK said.
“Like hell she does,” Colin yelled. He pointed at Livvy. “I don’t know what’s happening to you, but don’t come near.”
Livvy held up one hand and backed away.
“Colin, no!” Min screamed.
“How far apart are the contractions?” Livvy asked, holding her side tight.
Colin only glared at her.
“I don’t know,” Min panted. “They’re close.”
Livvy looked at SK. Though he stared at her bloody hand for a moment, he returned her gaze and nodded. “The contractions are close.”
Min was breathing hard, clutching herself, and doubling up. The baby would be here soon. Sure to be premature, that’s not what bothered Livvy. The metal case lay open and very empty. The magnetic field of the Stone of Alatyr was still in effect. If Min’s baby was going to stand a chance, Livvy had to find the Stone. The Siberian shamans were networked with it, and Dominique and her crew were fighting for their lives.
I have to find it.
Valentin was unconscious. Brad was a babbling mess. But in the Multiverse, when she’d asked Valentin for the Stone, he’d glanced at the bear. Brad had wanted to avoid the forest. And if Brad wasn’t a shaman, then the bear wasn’t his spirit helper.
Though she kept her distance, Livvy slowly and painfully crouched down to be level with Min. “Hold on, Minnie Mouse,” Livvy said. “I’ll be here for you. I promise.”
CHAPTER SEVENTY-FOUR
FROM THE BACK seat of the car, Mamacita quietly watched the two men in the front seat peer out the windshield. She leaned forward to follow their gaze. They were watching the broken window of the loft.
“Mmm hmm,” she said, and both of them started so badly that the car jerked.
The one on the left cursed in Russian, while the one on the right swung a gun on her.
“Where did…” the one on the right said, looking at both back doors. They were still locked.
The driver sniffed the air.
Mamacita held up the pipe bomb, the fuse burning dangerously low. “I think this belongs to you,” she said.
She’d never seen such big men move so fast. There hadn’t even been time for curses. The front doors of the black Mustang flew open. She even thought she heard a gun clatter to the ground. They ran in opposite directions, never once looking back.
“I don’t know, Pete,” she said, pinching the fuse and snuffing it out with a sizzle. “It seems like an awfully nice car to just blow up.”
From the top of the driver’s window, the white cockatiel’s upside down head cocked
toward her. “Awfully nice,” he cawed.
She smiled at him and nodded. “Mmm hmm.”
CHAPTER SEVENTY-FIVE
WITH NICOLE’S HELP, Dominique got to her feet. But as soon as she stood, Ursula was in her face.
“Are you insane?” Ursula said. “Bringing us up here?”
The icy glacier was windswept, crevassed and bleak. The enormous flow of blue and white ice backed up into the narrow river gorge that lead up to the snow-capped mountains. At its opposite end were the sheer white cliffs that plunged into the lake.
“It’s as bad as down below,” said Wan-li. Her tiger shook out rain from its orange and black fur.
“Exactly!” Dominique said. “We’ll have them where we want them.”
The couple dozen shamans huddled around her and Nicole. They’d done well, very well, to survive this long. But if the Siberians were still networked, then they still had the Stone of Alatyr. If Livvy didn’t have it by now, there had to be a good reason. They all understood that they weren’t done.
“This is where we’ll strand them,” Dominique announced.
“Strand them?” said a young woman at the front. “How are they even going to get here?”
“Oh, they’ll get here,” Alvina said. She pointed up the gorge.
Though small in the distance, the multicolored swarm of shamans was easily visible. They seemed to flow to the edge of the rocky cliff that overlooked the glacier and then flow away from it. As Dominique and her crew watched though, the cliff began to crumble. The delayed sound of the tremor reached them. Dominique felt Nicole’s hand trembling in hers as they watched a new slope form. Though neither powerful nor organized, the Siberian shamans’ numbers guaranteed an onslaught. The dust had barely settled when the first few began picking their way down the boulders that led to the glacier.
As the faces of those around her turned to Dominique, she turned to Nicole. But the look on Nicole’s face froze her. Nicole wasn’t looking at Dominique. She wasn’t looking at anybody.
“No,” Dominique muttered. “No.”
Nicole’s face was blank, her eyes staring, and then she glanced sideways.
“Nicole!” Dominique said, but it was too late.
Nicole popped out of existence.
CHAPTER SEVENTY-SIX
SK COULDN’T STOP Colin, and he wasn’t sure he should.
“Okay, Babe,” Colin said to Min. “Arm around my shoulder.”
There was no doubt she needed a hospital. But the positive effect that he and Liv had was clear.
“SK,” she breathed, refusing to let go of his hand. “I want to stay.”
Colin reached under her already bent knees.
“I know,” SK said.
But everyone’s phones were dead. Nothing in the building seemed to work. There was no way to call emergency help.
Colin half-crouched, getting ready to lift. Intermittent thunder still sounded outside, and rain continued to pelt the window.
“Don’t try to stop me,” Colin said, his voice half order and half request.
“I wouldn’t do that,” SK said, standing back, though he still held Min’s hand.
“Your arm, Babe,” Colin said to her.
Reluctantly, she looped it around his neck. Colin picked her up and she groaned.
“The elevators,” SK said. “They’re not going to be working either.”
The thought gave Colin pause. “I’ll need your help on the stairs.”
Liv’s goggles rested on the mat where they’d dropped. She said she was going to be here. SK knew they needed to stay.
“I’ll manage without,” Colin said.
Min’s hand slipped from SK’s. Colin had hardly taken a step when she convulsed. Her shriek paled Colin’s face and shook SK to the core. It was more than a birth pang. SK grabbed her hand again, but it didn’t do any good. She threw her head back and shrieked again, her body going stiff as a board. Colin tried desperately to juggle her uneven weight. SK thrust his arms and chest under her as well. Together, he and Colin barely got her to the floor when liquid gushed onto SK’s arm.
“Min!” Colin said, leaning over her. He put a hand to her face. “Min, what is it?”
SK scooted down to her knees. He moved the nightgown aside.
“Her water broke,” SK said.
“What?” Colin exclaimed.
Gasping for breath, Min lifted her head and looked at him between her knees. SK had been about to say more but saw the desperate fear in her face. Would it do any good for her to know?
It wasn’t just water. It was also blood–lots of it.
CHAPTER SEVENTY-SEVEN
DESPITE THE CAWING of the red ravens, Livvy heard the sound that came from the yurt. It was clearly a knife being sharpened. She and Blanca hung back at the edge of the deformed trees. Livvy withdrew her hand and checked her wound. Though she couldn’t be sure, it seemed as though the deep gashes had stopped bleeding. Blanca nuzzled her thigh and looked up into Livvy’s face. Livvy mustered a smile for her.
“I’m all right,” she said quietly.
They had alternately followed the ravens and been herded by them. The vicious creatures had swooped at them many times, though she and Blanca had easily evaded them. But the further into the dark forest they’d gone, the thicker the birds had become. The trees surrounding the clearing were full of them, the snowy branches more red than white.
The flap on the yurt’s door opened, and their cawing abruptly stopped. Livvy covered her nose and mouth. The same smell that pervaded the shaman stalls of the Institute wafted from the door. Though the covering had been moved aside, no one came out.
Of course not.
Though Livvy was anxious to be done, rushing through the yurt opening would be a mistake. She gazed up at the hundreds of birds. Blanca’s tail twitched and her lips curled back. More than once the amazingly swift birds had nearly come within the mountain lion’s reach. As malevolent as their cries had been, their silence was even more menacing. Every beady, red eye was on her.
Livvy glanced down at the mountain lion. “You’ve got my back,” she said.
Blanca blinked at her and then surveyed the trees around the clearing. She loudly licked her lips.
That’s my girl.
Livvy crouched down, almost in a runner’s start. “Let’s go,” she said.
In a blur, she and Blanca flew through the clearing, but Livvy wasn’t about to use the front door. Instead she went left and stopped at the yurt’s edge. The fabric billowed inward, announcing her arrival. That would not do either.
Behind her a great flapping of wings and harsh bird cries mixed with growling and crunching. Like a swirling cyclone of beaks, the red ravens dove for her, but Blanca held them off. Several already lay dead on the ground and Blanca’s muzzle was red with blood. Livvy moved sideways, leaving the cacophony behind her, hoping it drew the occupant’s attention. With her fingers under the bottom edge of the fabric, she felt her way along the tent until it felt loose enough. Though not a sound had come from inside, Livvy knew that someone waited. In one swift movement, she bowed low, lifted the tent, and ducked inside.
It wasn’t as dark as she’d anticipated. The interior was awash in a brilliant green light. But silver metal glinted in her peripheral vision and she dodged left without even thinking. As the surroundings blurred, she heard fabric tear off to her right. At the opposite side of the yurt, she stopped. The giant man where she’d been crouching was whirling toward her. There was a long slit in the side of the tent.
But it wasn’t a man; it was a bear. Or was it? For a moment–
“Oh ho!” the man bellowed. “Some fun!”
He tossed a giant cleaver from one hand to the other as he stood up to his full and considerable height. To Livvy’s right was the open door of the yurt. Shadows of birds sailed past and Livvy heard Blanca’s snarls. To her left was an enormous cauldron with a fire built underneath. But in the center of the yurt, between four wood posts, was the Stone on a sawe
d off stump. It glowed an electric green.
“Yes, he said you would come for it,” the huge man said. “I told them no one would be so foolish. Imagine my surprise when it…landed in my lap, so to speak.” He grinned at her, his wiry black mustache like whiskers. “And you, little girl. Where do you think you’ll land?” He cocked his head at the black iron pot.
As he took a step forward, Livvy raised her hand. Thunder boomed outside and lightning, though muted, was visible at the seams of the yurt. The big man circled right, stretching his arms out. The leather shirt, like the one that Brad wore, was stretched tight across his wide chest. He deftly tossed the cleaver to his other hand.
Livvy sidestepped left. In the close confines, he was going to be difficult to avoid, even with her speed. His reach was long. Though it’d bring the yurt down around their ears, she was left with little choice. She was going to have to call down lightning. She’d grab the Stone at the last second.
She stretched her fingers up. “Light–” she said.
He abruptly pointed his index finger at the sky. “Ah, ah, ah,” he said, smiling. “I don’t think you want to do that.”
He moved right again and she moved left. The Stone glinted in his eyes. He arched his thick, black eyebrows upwards.
“Go ahead,” he said, still pointing up. “Take a look. I can wait.”
A sound intruded–one she’d only been dimly aware of until this moment. It came from over their heads. Livvy’s jaw tightened when she recognized it. Someone was crying. Though it was the last thing she wanted to do, she looked.
Tamara! She hung from a large rafter, gagged, giant eyes staring. To either side of her hung large joints of meat. Except the meat was…oh gods. Tamara furiously shook her head and pointedly aimed her wide eyes at the man.
Again, before she could look, Livvy dodged at lightning speed. But this time the man had expected that, even known she’d be moving left.
Shaman, Lover, Warrior: An Urban Fantasy Thriller (Olivia Lawson Techno-Shaman Book 5) Page 25
