Just last week, Jax would have laughed off a warning based on a blackaura. Now, he had mental images of AK-15s gunning down an unarmed populace. He swore and lifted his head above the wall to find the van. Evie’s family was scattering for the hills or the road, instinctively dividing to provide confusing targets. The town council simply looked bewildered at their abrupt departure. Seeing no threats, they were casually trailing back to their trucks.
The sheriff, blessedly, was shoving a protesting Stephen toward the road and his official vehicle.
Before they reached it, the Titan van shot from the shrubbery, a rifle protruding from the driver’s window.
“Sheriff, down!” Jax shouted, just as the rifle barked. The sheriff and Stephen both went down. He couldn’t tell if they’d been hit.
Evie placed two fingers in her mouth and emitted a piercing whistle.
A hail of flaming brooms rained down around the speeding van, causing it to bounce and swerve erratically. Hadn’t he just seen the women running for the hills with their torches?
“How the hell did they do that?” Jax muttered as the rifle’s next shot went awry.
“Gracie’s talent isn’t always useless. We owe her a fat steak. She’ll be drained.”
He didn’t have time to question as his team’s armored van roared into the field. So much for the frogs and quail. One expert shot from Professor Sharpshooter Reuben, and the Titan vehicle spun out, crashing into an old dogwood tree and snapping it like a twig. Like good soldiers, his guys were out of the van, armed, and racing for the enemy.
“Oh, they’re not twisted anymore,” Loretta breathed happily, peering over Jax’s shoulder. “Roark has silver in his bubble! They’re like knights with swords.”
Dark knights with rusty swords, maybe, but Jax didn’t argue the point. As Blue leaped from the disabled truck’s cab, Reuben and Roark grabbed him, flung him to the ground, and disarmed him.
“They owed me!” Blue roared while struggling helplessly. “They all owe me!”
Thunder crashed and the first patter of rain hit the dust. Jax shuddered, fearing who Blue thought owed him. But that would come out later.
“You did it, babe,” Jax said into Evie’s ear over the roar of the storm. “You caught a killer.”
He lifted Loretta in one arm and Evie in the other and rushed them toward the sheriff and Stephen, while his team kept their guns trained on the murderous surveyor.
Twenty-five
“I oughtto send you to bed without supper,” Evie scolded, drying Loretta’s hair after they’d both had a good shower. “You should have gone straight home after school.”
She was still thoroughly shaken by the past hour’s mayhem. People could havediedout there. As it was, Jax’s father had been wounded. But Jax and Loretta were safe because Jax had believed their weird warnings. He’d listened to black bubbles and fourth chakras and taken defensive action. That might take time to process.
“Ididcome home. There was no one here, not even Psy.” Loretta tugged on her robe and sounded piteous. “I thought you’d all left me.”
“You’re such a liar.” Evie hugged her anyway. “You know perfectly well that we wouldn’t leave you. You just got curious.”
“You could have been killed!” she wailed, flinging her skinny arms around Evie’s neck.
That had been Evie’s reaction, only in reverse—Loretta could have died in a hail of gunfire! She’d never come that close to death before. She hugged the kid back, reaffirming they were both living.
“I’ll try not to die just so I can harass you for the rest of your life, but even if I did get killed, I’d come back to haunt you. And you have lots of cousins and aunts to annoy you the way I do. Dying really isn’t bad. It’s just graduating to the next level.” Evie had never been inclined toward motherhood, but she had to admit that hugs were reassuring, even if the child turned her hair gray.
“Well, don’t graduate until I’m ready to go with you.” Loretta indignantly pushed away. “Where’s Jax?”
“With his father. He got hurt and they took him to the hospital.” That could have been Jax or any of her family. It gave her cold shivers thinking about it, so she tried hard not to. It was hard to remain detached when facing death. She was trying to reassure herself as well as Loretta.
Evie took a comb to her ward’s damp hair and began plaiting it into a single braid.
“Will they put the man with the black bubble in jail?”
“Definitely, if only for shooting at us. But I think they’ll learn more now that everyone knows he’s a very bad man.” Evie wished she had bothered to examine Blue’s aura, but he was such a bit player... It didn’t make good sense. She hoped the sheriff got a confession.
“Supper’s ready,” Mavis called up the stairs. “There’s so many of us, you’ll go hungry if you don’t come right down.”
Evie sighed and tied a ribbon in Loretta’s braid. “Do me a favor and distract them, will you? I’ll tell you all about it later.”