Alpha Male by Mike Cooley Read Free Book Online Page B

Siren?”
    “Don’t know. Be ready,” said Iverson. With Drake badly injured by the witch, he was in charge.
    “Where’s the van?” asked Gregor.
    “Around a turn, or crashed,” Iverson replied. “Fire!”
    The AKs erupted, and Iverson pulled the trigger on his Glock, aiming above the weaving light.  
    The motorcycle came within range of their headlights, and they could see the girl. She was grinning and reaching for something.  

    Vena zigzagged toward the two pairs of headlights. The jeeps had stopped and the Daelius agents were standing up.  
    As she neared them, they opened fire. Bullets whizzed by, ricocheting off the front of the bike and grazing her nano-polymer bodysuit. She grinned big, reached down to her left, and grabbed her sawed-off shotgun. Raising the gun, she eased off on the gas and fired a shot at each jeep’s windshield. There was a loud bang as the shells hit, and then an undulating amethyst mist shrouded the men and the vehicles. More shots rang out from the AKs the agents were carrying. And then it was silent.
    The mist clawed at the air like tendrils from an unseen beast. The cloud covered the jeeps and the men like a dome, and it was alive. Guns clattered to the ground, and then the screaming started.  
    Vena kicked the stand down, shifted to neutral, and got off her bike, leaving it running. The air smelled like lavender and burning leaves. She walked forward as the mist began to dissipate and observed the reactions of the men closely, remembering every facial expression and sound. Their faces contorted with emotion and pain, and their mouths hung open. They all screamed the same scream, in harmony—which didn’t seem right.  
    They stopped screaming after a full minute. Vena timed it. The expressions of agony on their faces were replaced by peaceful calm. The men got out of the jeeps and started walking down the road toward the dam. One of them stopped to pick flowers on the way.
    Vena doused one of the jeeps with gas from a spare tank fastened to the back and then set it on fire. She turned off the key on her chopper and put it in her pocket, then she got in the other jeep and put it in gear. She glanced in the rearview, and the men were still walking slowly away, as if the battle had never happened. She hit the gas, went around the chopper, and headed down the ridge, heading in the direction the van had been going when it disappeared.

The Ocean

    Mel was exhausted, and I figured we had floated far enough downstream to be safe. I held onto her around the waist and kicked toward shore. A highway overpass was coming up, and there was a park to our left. I pulled Mel toward shore until my feet touched the bottom, then I picked her up and carried her the rest of the way. The wooden sign said we were in Hood Park. I found a stand of trees and lowered her to the grass, out of sight of the parking lot. Blood was still streaming down into my eyes and mouth from the cut on my head, but I ignored it.
    “Melanie? You okay?” I got down on my knees and knelt over her. Her eyes fluttered open.
    “Si. You’re bleeding.” She reached up and touched my head. A warming glow spread over my face from her healing energy.
    “You’re too weak, Mel. It can wait.”
    “Just have to. Have to stop. The bleeding.”  
    “That’s enough, Mel. I’m fine.” The steady flow of crimson slowed and congealed.
      I pulled her up to a sitting position and let her lean back on a tree. Then I sat next to her. It was still dark, but there was a glimmer of dawn to the east.
    “I’m just tired, Silas. Very tired.”  
    “We can rest here for a little bit. I don’t know who that girl on the motorcycle was, but she appears to have slowed them down. I heard gunfire.”
    “Maybe they think we’re dead.”
    “I hope so.”
    “Tell me a story, Si. While I gather my strength. Tell me about Suzi.”
    I pulled the granite chip out of my pocket and turned it over and over with my fingers. The shape was