Romani Armada by Tracy Cooper-Posey Read Free Book Online Page B

that little Pritti had been the one to bring him safely off the station before it had been destroyed. He kept underestimating the power of her abilities. They all did.
    “Pritti brought Stephano to me, too,” Fahmido said, from the other table.
    Ryan considered Pritti once more. “You mention this for a reason, Pritti,” he said as gently as he could manage.
    She nodded.
    “Why?”
    “I watched Gabriel use his weapon.”
    Nayara leaned on the table. “You know what the weapon is, don’t you?”
    Again, Pritti nodded slowly, as if she feared the consequences of her confession.
    “Tell us,” Ryan urged her.
    Pritti bit her lip once more. Demyan stroked her shoulder encouragingly.
    Then she eased herself from the bench and walked the length of the table. It was a slow, measured step and Ryan realized that it had been a while since he had seen her bounce or twirl, or even give one of her little coos, as she had always done before.
    Well, they were all more sober and serious since Gabriel had ripped their world apart.
    Pritti stopped facing Ryan. “Put up your hand,” she told him.
    Ryan held up his hand.
    “As if you are telling me to stop,” she added and he adjusted the position of his hand so that his palm was flat and facing her.
    She closed her eyes for a moment and her breathing increased. Ryan could feel the tension building in her and it made his own heart pick up speed, which wasn’t something that should happen when he was in his own time—not this easily, or this often.
    Pritti’s shoulders braced, then she lifted her hand and pointed the index finger like a gun. She cocked her thumb, then bent it sharply like it was tugging on a trigger.
    Something slapped into Ryan’s palm and knocked his whole arm sideways, wrenching at his shoulder. A hot rush of something swooshed through him and he clutched at the table with his good hand, as nausea gripped him. He was panting, now.
    Nayara was suddenly next to him. “Ryan? Pritti, what did you do?”
    He could feel Pritti next to him, too, a blinding white shape in his mind. “I can fix this,” she murmured.
    Her tiny hands were on his face, lifting it, making him look at her. He struggled to meet her gaze.
    Then her white hot shape encompassed his mind, covering it, containing the chaos, smothering the feelings, like a soft blanket of snow. Muffled peace descended, until finally, he found he could loosen his grip on the table. The nausea faded.
    “Better, yes?” Pritti whispered, her eyes still focused on him.
    “What did you do?” The words emerged as a croak.
    Brenden made a sound that was half snort, half growl. “Shoving things around with your mind ain’t anything out of the ordinary.”
    Ryan shook his head. “It wasn’t telekinesis. This was something more.” He looked at Pritti. “Tell me what you did.”
    “I did what Gabriel did. I watched him. Later, I went back and dipped into his mind when he fired his weapon at you. He sent....” She frowned. “He sent himself. The essence of himself. All the power, the rage, the hatred. All of it. Focused on you.”
    A profound silence greeted her words. Ryan knew that none of them doubted her. The depth of the silence was proof of that.
    “But Pritti,” Nayara said gently, “Gabriel was aiming at Tinker. I was watching him.”
    Pritti shook her head. “He knew one of you would protect the human. He was very, very happy it was Ryan. It made him send even more of himself.”
    “Do you mean he…shot a more powerful burst of the whatever?” Brenden clarified.
    Pritti pressed her lips together, as she glanced around the table. “He sent all of himself. He sent everything.”
    There was a little tick of silence as they all absorbed this news.
    “That would explain why only Ryan has suffered after effects,” Fahmido said, her tone cool and steady. “Rob, Christian and Tally were all targeted with the same weapon but all of them have returned to perfectly normal vampire physiology and health