Lycan Legacy - Paladin: Tales of Luna White - Werewolf Veronica Singer (children's ebooks online txt) 📖

He saw the smile, but didn’t understand that this contest was over. By the time he had cleared the action and loaded another dead round, I was at the foot of the tower.

The click of his useless last round seemed to devastate the sniper. He threw the inoperable rifle at my head.

I snatched the weapon out of mid-air. Using magic and werewolf strength, I twisted the barrel into a bow.

Another click came from above. The sniper had pulled out a .45 automatic and was trying to shoot me with that inferior weapon.

At my smile, he pulled the sandbag back and started to pull the window closed. He thought distance and bulletproof glass would stop me.

I made the eyes-to-eyes gesture again and showed my fangs.

Then I sprouted my claws, dug into the bare concrete, and started climbing.

20

In less than a minute, I was perched outside the locked window. My sniper was staring at me from the inside. He was a lot smaller than I had expected, skinny as a rail and dressed in military khakis. He had a thick black beard, a sharp nose, and piercing black eyes.

The sniper stared at my left hand, noting the way the claws extended through the gloves to give me purchase on the sheer wall. His nose wrinkled in disgust at my nearly-naked body.

“Hey, Zippy,” I said as I tapped on the glass with a knuckle. “Sorry I didn’t wear my Sunday best. Let me in.”

He shook his head, so I pulled back and swung my fist at the glass. It was a solid punch, but the combination of my unsteady position and angle meant it didn’t have my full force behind it. I almost knocked myself off the wall.

“You’re hiding behind armored glass,” I said reprovingly. “That’s not fair.”

He tapped the thick glass and smiled. But the sweat that dripped from his brow gave the lie to his bravado.

His smile faded when my claw made a one-foot diameter circle in the impervious glass. The high-pitched scream of armored glass being ground away overpowered the sound of prayers from the nearby mosque.

A few more swipes carved a groove deep enough to allow me to punch out the circle. The two-inch-thick portal thumped to the floor and rolled over to rest on the sniper’s boot.

I reached in and fumbled with the mechanism to unlock the window. Cool air and the sweet scent of his fear wafted out from the circle.

Then he surprised me.

He turned away and bowed deeply. What the hell?

He started chanting and I feared some magical attack. But no—he was praying. A check of my internal compass showed he was bowing toward Mecca.

He ignored me as I slid the window open and pulled myself through. I dropped the metabolic acceleration, bringing time back to normal.

As always, it took me a minute to recover. The acceleration trick takes a lot out of me, burning up weeks of energy for every minute I spend in quick time.

My recovery gave him time to finish his prayers. He waited with head bowed on the carpet.

“There was only one way this could end, Zippy,” I said. “I hope you find your paradise.”

Moments later, his head bounced on the courtyard, landing next to his twisted rifle.

I was so tired; I used the stairs to get down to the courtyard. With each step on the stairwell, I drew deeply on the moonlight energy of my amulet. I was almost back to normal when I reached my teammates at the foot of the tower.

Well, maybe not back to normal.

“You look like you lost twenty pounds,” said Mike with concern.

“Yeah,” added Manny, “your tits are a lot—”

He gulped and shut up at the glares Mike and I shot at him.

I shook my head to throw off Mike’s worries. “I’ll be okay,” I said. “We still have a long way to go.”

Manny was dragging. Carrying Alisha had wiped him out. Mike didn’t look much better—Logan was no lightweight.

“Mike, give me Logan and take Alisha from Manny. We need to make time from here back to the car.”

They both shook their heads. Stubborn men.

I jerked Logan off Mike’s shoulders with one hand to show how much stronger I was. Mike opened his mouth to object, but at the look in my eyes he turned and took Alisha from Manny.

Actually, it felt good to have Logan on my shoulder. His scent and touch were proof that I had managed to save a packmate from torture and death.

I started jogging toward the opening we had blown in the walls. Mike’s steps, slightly slower than mine, came after.

“Manny, put your geriatric ass in gear!” I shouted. “We need to move!” The sounds of sirens were much closer.

I scrambled through the rubble of the destroyed walls, jumping to evade the bits of razor wire that had landed back in the rubble. Mike and Manny stepped more carefully behind me, but they made good time and almost kept up.

Until I hit the clear road.

I sped away, intent on getting Logan to safety. I took a deep breath and increased my speed. My steps raced faster and faster, echoing back from the buildings in a rat-tat-tat rhythm, and the wind pushed my hair back from a sweaty brow.

In the background, the song of morning prayers wound through the city. How long did the morning prayer take? It seemed like we had been fighting and racing for hours. Overclocking always messed up my sense of time.

I wondered what the residents would think if they looked out their windows and saw me—a nearly-naked woman, carrying a severely wounded naked man, running through the breaking-dawn streets of Riyadh at a speed no thoroughbred racehorse could match.

I dodged a pedestrian on the sidewalk, the wind of my passage whipping his checkered headdress away like a sudden sandstorm.

That was a close call. Good thing almost everyone was still at prayers.

At the SUV, I had to make a decision. I had stuffed some sweatpants and shirts into the rear in case Logan