Total pages in book: 136
Estimated words: 125037 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 625(@200wpm)___ 500(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 125037 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 625(@200wpm)___ 500(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
The owl flew overhead, drawing Diego’s attention. They were nearing the gorge where the bodies of the soldiers who had attempted to murder Leila lay. The owl called out to warn him of a disturbance in the trees above the gorge. Branches shook on the oak tree looming above the ravine. Because he was looking for him, Diego spotted Dean shimmering like a transparent veil as he balanced on the branch and peered down at the decomposing bodies.
Movement caught Diego’s eye below the tree. It was Billy, or at least half of him. His upper body contorted and twisted as if trying to emerge from a ghostly egg. The bottom half of his body—hips, legs and feet—was invisible, hidden in that oval shell surrounding him. A teleporter? Diego knew they existed. A couple of the GhostWalkers could teleport, but not in the same way. As far as he knew, they didn’t get stuck between. What had Whitney done?
Every single GhostWalker was flawed in some way. Some had worse defects than others, but all of them had strengths to make up for the problems they had. Was Whitney continuing to experiment with animal and reptilian DNA even when he knew how badly things could go wrong? Looking at the soldiers Whitney had sent, he was certain the man hadn’t learned his lesson.
Dean stayed in the tree, and Billy managed to pull himself together by the time Russ, Bobby and Jim arrived to peer down into the gorge. Diego was still unsure of Jim and what gifts or drawbacks he had. The others seemed to give him a wide berth and a lot of respect. Even Russ, who was clearly in command, seemed leery of Jim.
Diego waited to hear what the others thought they were looking at.
“You’ll have to go down there, Billy,” Russ said. “We need to know who’s dead and if the woman is there as well. It would be good to know how they died.”
The soldiers stared down into the ravine and then looked carefully around them. Russ indicated to Bobby to fall back to protect them. He sent Jim ahead to scout for any tracks that might indicate what had taken place.
Billy didn’t hesitate. One moment he was standing under the tree Dean was sheltering in, and the next, he appeared in the gorge. At least a part of him appeared. Once again, he seemed to have to fight to bring his entire body forward with him. Diego knew teleporters had to be precise when they moved from one location to another, or they could end up in the middle of a boulder or tree trunk. But to have to struggle to get your body to come together each time you teleported had to be terrifying. The idea that you would never be whole had to take its toll each time the man made a jump from one place to another.
Diego studied Billy as his body slowly appeared. The soldier was slumped over, unable to stay on his feet without support. Teleporting made him extremely weak. Diego had experience with weakness after healing. Depending on how much energy he used, the crash could be anywhere from mild to extremely dangerous, rendering him unconscious.
He still had no idea what kinds of gifts Jim had. He needed to know his strengths and weaknesses before he began his attacks. He had no problem using his rifle to kill them from a distance, but he had to know he could kill them that way. Whitney was notorious for protecting his soldiers with armor.
Below, in the gorge, Billy had begun to straighten up. He looked around him, carefully inspecting the dead. “Smells pretty bad. The vultures and beetles are having a field day. There are at least eight or nine bodies. Don’t see a woman.”
“Can you tell what killed them?” Russ asked, raising his voice to be heard.
Vultures circled above the gorge and stared down at the carnage below them. Diego noticed several of the birds looked warily toward the tree Dean was in. Not a single vulture took up residence in the branches overlooking the gorge. Did that mean they could see through the cloak to the man shielded behind it?
Diego blinked rapidly, calling up the raptor in him. Eagles had excellent vision, and he used the sight of the large bird to view Dean and his shimmering cloak. When he looked at the soldier through the eyes of the raptor, the outline of the man wavered repeatedly behind the blurring cloak.
The fact that birds were aware of the soldier’s presence even when he was cloaked was very interesting to Diego. It was a major flaw. It wouldn’t take soldiers with the enhanced vision Diego had very long to become aware of the enemy hiding in the trees. All it would take was one soldier very aware of his surroundings and nature to spot there was a problem if birds were reactive.