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I feltback into place My foot twisted froether The blinding pain receded and sanity returned My gaze found a sea of lust in Stacey’s eyes as she wavered in a trance-like state, her tongue running across her full lips, hungry gaze regardinga steak I withdrew the connection The haze faded fro heavily

"Bloody hell," she said, rising unsteadily to her feet "Why didn’t I let you do that to irlfriend?"

"The truck," I said, cli my ribs and ankle I was still sore as hell Supernatural healing or not, I’d taken a beating "We have to catch the truck!" I retracted the gloves on the Nightingale armor, and fished in my pocket for my phone

A black sedan screamed around the corner, and slid to a stop at the side of the road Elyssa jumped out "What happened?" she asked

I pointed down the road where the truck had vanished "We have to catch up to theot in

"I need to help the others subdue the re hostiles," Stacey said "We’ll catch up later"

Elyssa nodded Juearshift into first "Buckle up," she said, and hit the gas

The acceleration slammed my head into the headrest She took a hairpin turn at a terrifying speed, the car hugging the road as though on rails I feltinto the armrest I wasn’t about to complain Mom was just up the road and we had no tiet just shway back toward Atlanta Moving fast

I told Elyssa "Why are they heading back into town?"

"Reinforce from Atlanta to meet them"

"Great," I said "If that boulder hadn’t hit the hood of the lead SUV, this wouldn’t be happening right now"

Elyssa didn’t take her eyes off the road "I was still co from the first spotter position, so I didn’t see what happened"

I told her

"Crap happens," she said, e to the sides a green blur "That’s why there’s always a Plan B" She glanced at the GPS map "Hopefully this shortcut will pan out, and we can catch up to theearshift

"Is this the Te as a pickup truck whizzed past in the opposite direction

"Yep" We hit a straight stretch of road Elyssa pointed toward an intersection ahead "There they are"

I saw the tractor-truck roar past on the highway perpendicular to the road ere on She gunned the accelerator

"What’s that big red button on top of the gear shift do?" I asked

She ignored the question "Get a sitrep from the others We’ll need them"

I took out ood here," he said "Stacey and those giant cats of hers helped us round up the Darkwater people"

"Any casualties?" I asked

"Just some scrapes and bruises on their part," he said "The tuh they couldn’t walk straight, ht hiht back to Atlanta," I said as Elyssa screeched around the corner, putting us on the highith the runaway seo-kart" Shelton blew out a breath "If that first SUV had fallen with the others, this would be over already"

"I know," I replied "Nothing to be done now but catch the to someone else in an indistinct tone "Good news Plan B is here and we’re on the way" He ended the call

I just had to hope Plan B was enough

Despite the ine in the tractor-truck, ere catching up The Teical h another intersection just as the light turned red Cars in front of us stopped, and traffic froh

"Why do they build highways and then clog therowled "Hold on"

Before I could ask why, she flicked a switch on the center console Gravity sucked hts grew large in the front view I threw up my hands and shouted as we narrowly cleared the electrical cables The ground rushed up to meet us on the other side The chirp of rubber on asphalt indicated all four tires had just kissed the ground