He groaned aloud. That damned cat. She’d flung herself in front of a gun for the animal. He should have known she’d be unwavering in her resolution to keep the animal safe.
I’m making my way up to the cougar’s den.
Are you heading south from your camp? He knew the answer before her words formed in his mind. The spotter was edging toward the southernmost point of Tansy’s camp. Maybe he saw her earlier tracks, or maybe something she’d done had tipped the man off to her presence in the brush, but the spotter was tracking her.
Yes, I’m in the rougher terrain, and circling around to make my way up into the granite to get closer to her den. I have a blind up there, and I can urge her to go to safety if they come close. They won’t see the blind.
Her voice still had the little lag time that often accompanied a new connection, but already he felt more familiar with her, his mind adjusting so they rode the same wave with precision. Few were as skilled as he was, and he’d never met anyone untrained who was able to use telepathy as smoothly as he could, but although she sent out her thoughts in a slightly different way from him, she was definitely adept.
I don’t want you to move. Stay right where you are, even if they come close. I’m going to draw their attention away from you . . .
No!
She sent an instant and adamant rejection of his idea, and he immediately caught the image of a cop pushing her away and going down, blood on his chest. He’d read the reports, so many of them, dating back to her teenage years, and that particular case had been vicious and bloody and took its toll on everyone. They’d lost the cop and she had been so broken up over it, and that had been in the early years of her tracking career.
He took a breath, let it out, breathing for both of them. Listen to me, Tansy. I have skills no one else has. I’m a GhostWalker. The things I can do, psychically as well as physically, give me a huge edge. And I’ve had more training than most men know what to do with. He was already on the move, soothing her as he used the granite cliff to shortcut his way to the sniper.
This time he moved fast, using the pads of his fingers to allow him to climb around and then down. If his boots had been off, he would have gone headfirst even faster, but he just used his upper body strength and fingertips, crossing the wall of granite, moving at breakneck speed, crossing slab after slab. Several times he leapt across gaps, catching by his fingertips.
Both the sniper and the spotter should have targeted him by now, but the expected bullet didn’t come. He didn’t make the mistake of slowing down; he almost leapfrogged across the rock walls, zigzagging and moving up and down.
I smell him close to me.
His heart jumped again. Adrenaline poured into his body. He looked down and saw the surface of another giant slab of granite. This one had several smaller pieces jutting out from it. It was the fastest way down, but a fairly large jump. He’d have to push off from where he was, catch himself on a rock across and down from him, about five feet away, and then spring back, making another five-foot jump.
Stay still. I’ll draw his attention.
He pushed off, deliberately brushing his elbow against loose dirt and rock, sending an avalanche tumbling to the ground below. The gap between boulders was wide, but his fingertips caught and held. The second jump was already planned in his mind, and he turned and leapt, just as the bullet hit the granite beside his left shoulder. Rock splintered, driving slivers into his arm, but he was already in the air, going for the surface below him. As soon as he landed, he let himself drop to the ground, rolling for cover. He kept rolling, smashing into the thicker brush and then going still.
Two more bullets hit the ground to the right of him and just in front of him. He belly-crawled backward into much heavier brush, careful not to disturb branches. Once in the small tunnels made by animals and debris catching on brush, he crawled, using elbows and toes to propel his body along the ground, making his way to where the sniper had set up his rifle.
Within minutes he could feel the violent energy coming at him in waves. The man was sweating; the scent of him carried on the wind. Kadan slid the knife from his boot, transferring it to his teeth as he crawled toward the sniper.
The man stared through his scope, scanning the area, trying to get a bead on Kadan, and Kadan could sense the man’s shock at how fast Kadan had come down the granite wall. Even though the sniper had seen Kadan leap with his own eyes, he obviously was beginning to think he’d imagined it. The night shadows had lengthened and grown, and Kadan’s reflective clothing and skin tones had made him virtually impossible to see until he moved. The sniper had fired on instinct, but now doubted himself.
Kadan let out his breath, shielding his psychic energy automatically. He didn’t have the impression that the sniper was a GhostWalker, produced from Whitney’s list of rejected psychic candidates, but he always erred on the side of caution. He had to get close. Very close. He moved again, this time out of the brush. He was more exposed, relying on stealth and his reflective clothing and skin changes to keep him invisible. Moving inches at a time allowed him to keep from drawing the sniper’s attention, although more than once, as the man surveyed his surroundings, he looked right at Kadan.
Kadan ceased all movement until the sniper settled behind his rifle once more and took a careful survey around the heavy brush. Once the sniper was busy, Kadan eased his body closer, hardly breathing, not allowing a single leaf to crackle beneath his weight.
The sniper knelt beside the tree, eye once again to his scope, and Kadan rose, still nearly invisible, his knife held low, blade up. The sniper turned and Kadan struck, taking the man out quickly and efficiently, doing his best to make the kill clean. Blood splattered across the trunk and over the rifle. Kadan stepped back, avoiding the bright red streaks. He waited a few moments before reaching down, without expression, and checking for a pulse. He wiped the blade clean and then checked the sniper’s hands, hoping to get a fingerprint. He wasn’t surprised to find that the prints had been burned off. This man was a sanctioned killer and wouldn’t be traced back to anywhere. More than likely he would have been declared dead years earlier. He was a ghost with no name and no home.
Kadan shook his head. This wasn’t the life he wanted for the GhostWalkers. He left everything right where it lay, not even touching the weapon.
Kadan? Tansy’s voice wavered.
I’m fine. Did the spotter turn away from you?
Yes, he’s gone. He took off running back toward the camp. She hesitated. I don’t feel a wave of violence. I can’t tell what happened.