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“Bloody hell, Rogers! You want to blow it up with us standing right here? Shoot the bitch It won’t kill her, but—”
“Cripes, look at Tiunfire Thunk, thunk Though she flinched, anticipating the engine block igniting, she realized quickly they weren’t shooting for her Air whistled out of the tires The vessel lurched, the punctured tires rapidly deflating Gasping, she shoved against the undercarriage as it pressed toward the earth, sinking lower into the sand Jesus, this was heavy She hated the feeling of being closed in Could she toss it toward one of them, use the distraction?
The sunrise was co in her skin If she rolled the vehicle and fire destroyed it, she had no cover, no protection from the sun’s rays, because the coated canvases had been in the other vehicle Another stupid decision She’d been in the city too long
“He wanted her alive”
“He said if we couldn’t make her come, to kill her You hear that, love? You’ve left us no choice, unless you’re willing to let us stick this tranquilizer into your bum”
“Try it,” she hissed, baring her fangs “You’ll look like your mate”
“Have it your way, then,” he responded shortly, but she had the brief satisfaction of hearing a faint quaver in the unnaers Reconsider, darling We’ve got a nice canvas in the ute, so the sun doesn’t fry you like an egg Otherwise, we fry you here”
“Go to hell”
As her arm muscles strained, she realized her quick plan wouldn’t work She’d never actually lifted anything this heavy, and while she could hold it off her for a while, tossing it like a soccer ball was out of the question She heard the roar of the flaered The , apparently prepared to detonate the vehicle with the counfire While she didn’t need to breathe, she was gasping, and she recognized it as fear catching up with her racingthe suffocating inescapable burn of the fire or the sun, the predawn light starting to show in the scrap of sky she could see
No She wouldn’t die this way She wouldn’t surrender, but they sure as hell wouldn’t outlive her Twisting her body, she shot out fronoring the crackle of flames that could easily spark in her hair, she channeled her terror into a predator’s rage She swerved, leaped behind Rogers His neck cracked beneath her hands, but then, with a deafening roar, she was tossed as the vehicle exploded Twenty feet she sailed, thudding down in a patch of sharp barbed grass that stabbed through her clothes Bloody perfect At least it served as soh her bones did not easily break
Scraht too damn fast on his feet He’d seized up the abandoned flamethrower and now redirected it toward her, a wild arc that caught the brush as she dropped to the ground beneath the wave of it It surrounded her, licking greedily toward her legs as the
He’d panicked, though Misdirection of his weapon and the flaht the tires of his vehicle It would be going up in a matter ofthe fear as he aze Yeah, you worthless bastard You’re dead, no matter what happens This far out, no supplies, on foot, you’ ll cook as good as me
You’ d beg me to kill you
Then he stopped, the flaers Fear became confusion and then vacancy as he fell to his knees, a knife protruding between his shoulder blades, the saed around the petrol bonfire that was her re Land Rover, snatched his blade out of the ive herself time to think, just focused on a clear spot and leaped out of the fla up toward her hips As she landed, she stu her such that she almost dove into the flames of the Rover
Dev caught her, rolling her to the ground to douse the small licks of flae of the rapidly spreading fire Her startled cry washer with his back as her attacker’s vehicle went up in another wave of blasting heat and noise
“Christ, just e need” He was up and pulling her forward again, even as he swore and muttered “Come on, I have a bike over here”
“Dev, sunrise Everything to protect me—”
“Is gone I know Coot her to theout, he re across the ground, unrolling it in a deft, practiced move “Lie down on this”
“It won’t be enough—”