Ghostwalker 07 - Murder Game

taste of cinnamon bursting in his mouth. There was fear, determination, even courage, although she didn't recognize herself as courageous. Mostly she was filled with concern—not for him, certainly not for herself—but for the cougar.

    e
    H 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 paint 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 able to use telepathy as smoothly as he could, but although she sent out her thoughts in a ABC Amber LIT Converter
    http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html

    ABC Amber LIT Converter
    http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
    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 i age of a c
    m
    op 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 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 t e
    h n down. If his boots had been off, he would have gone headfirst even faster, but he just used his upper body strength an
    d fingertips, crossing the wall of granite, moving at r
    b eakneck speed, crossing slab f
    a ter 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.

    Ismell him close to me .

    His heart jumped again. Adrenaline poured into his body. He looked down and sa w 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 shoul e d r. 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.
    ABC Amber LIT Converter
    http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html

    ABC Amber LIT Converter
    http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html

    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 s all tunnels m
    m
    ade by