Believe: The Complete Channie Series (143 page)

If he’d known he could stop bullets, he could have saved Shep.

“How far can you extend your shield?”

“Last time I tried, about thirty feet. I’ll be in a foxhole behind a wall of sandbags.”

Hunter scratched the back of his head. “all right.”

It took a couple of hours to dig the hole in the rocky ground. Josh even had to use his elemental powers to blast through a layer of granite.

Channie planted her hands on her hips. “You need to make it wider.”

“It’s fine.” Josh hopped into the hole and crouched down, hugging his knees. It was crowded, but he wasn’t going to be in there for more than a few minutes. “See? Everything’s covered. Even my head.”

“But there’s no room for me.”

“Oh, hell no.” Hunter held up his hands and arched his back. “I ain’t gonna do it.”

Channie punched Hunter’s arm. “You’re willing to shoot at Josh, but not me?”

Hunter rubbed his arm. “There ain’t no way to test his shield if I don’t shoot at it, but there’s no reason to jeopardize anyone else.”

Josh grinned then gave Channie a swat on the ass. “You lose, babe.”

“The Book of the Dead said for me to stay by your side.”

“I’m pretty sure that only applies to combat situations.”

“And I’m pretty sure that letting Hunter shoot at you
is
a combat situation.” Channie cupped Josh’s cheeks in her palms. “What if your shield works and the bullet ricochets off it? It could hit me.”

Josh hadn’t thought about a ricocheting bullet and from the look of horror on Tim’s face, neither had he.

“We can build a sandbag berm to protect Hunter. I’ll be sure everyone else stays in camp.”

The firing range was in a natural valley so the camp should be safe, but now that the seed of doubt had been planted, Josh didn’t feel good about disobeying the Book of the Dead. Maybe Channie
would
be safer in the foxhole with him. “Stand back. I’m going to widen the hole.”

When the dust settled, Josh hopped into the hole then reached up and grabbed Channie’s hips. She rested her hands on his shoulders as he lowered her into the hole.

Josh gently pushed her lower then covered her body with his.

Channie wiggled beneath him. “What are you doing?”

“I need to see the target.” He also needed to be sure she was safe.

Josh pictured bullets bouncing off his impenetrable shield as he raised it. He ducked his head and yelled, “Clear."

The
crack
of the .22 being fired was followed by a
ping
then a whoop of joy. “Ye-haw! It worked!”

Josh waited for Hunter to yell, “Clear,” then stood up and pulled Channie against his chest. For the first time, in a long time, he felt a surge of hope. He could protect her from bullets as well as magic.

He’d just pulled Channie out of the hole when one of her CDC boys ran up to them with the camp’s satellite phone. He was too out of breath to speak and just handed it to Josh.

A chill ran down his spine when he heard the sounds of battle coming from the phone. He recognized Zen’s voice, shouting orders.

“What’s going on?”

“We’re pinned down inside Lake Wappapello State Park. Can you send help?”

“What’s your situation?”

“We’re outnumbered. It was a trap.” Zen rattled off the coordinates. “Please, hurry.”

Josh used magic to remember the coordinates Zen gave him then grabbed the messenger boy’s arm. “Go get Intimidation Nesbit. Tell him to meet me at my tent.”

It took less than an hour to assemble a team, gear up and take off in the chopper. They landed in a small meadow about a mile from Zen’s coordinates and hiked the rest of the way in. Josh kept one hand on his weapon and the other on Channie. He wanted to raise his shield, but Tim warned him that it could reveal their location to the enemy.

Hunter kept his gaze focused on his GPS locater to guide them past the misdirection spells hiding the battle from empties. When they broke through the final magical barrier, the sounds of war hit Josh like a punch to the gut. He simultaneously cast his shield over his entire group and shoved Channie to the ground.

A hailstorm of bullets pinged off his shield. The assault lasted for a full minute then stopped.

A blast of raw power slammed into Josh’s shield. But just like before, instead of draining him, it gave him even more energy. “Everyone stay close and whatever you do, don’t fire your weapons inside my shield.”

Josh locked his fingers through Channie’s then ran forward into the fray. The enemy continued to fire, but without success. One by one, Josh and his men gathered what remained of Zen’s team into the safety of his shield.

Zen was the last one they found. He laid, curled up on his side, clutching his stomach.

Channie knelt beside him and covered his bloody hands with hers. She closed her eyes, obviously focused on healing Zen.

A bullet whizzed by Josh’s ear and splintered a branch next to his head. He hit the ground, pulling Channie down with him.
What the hell?
He wasn’t pouring any less energy into his shield. Why had it failed?

More bullets rained down on them, but these ricocheted harmlessly off his shield.

Channie wriggled out from under Josh and went back to work on Zen. A spray of bullets shredded the leaves on a bush next to her. Josh grabbed the waistband of her jeans to yank her back under him, but as soon as his fingertips brushed the bare skin of her back, the bullets started bouncing off his shield again.

For some reason, his shield couldn’t stop bullets unless he was touching Channie’s bare skin. He splayed his fingers across her back.

“Stop that. You’re distracting me.”

“Channie, I have to touch you.”

“If you don’t want Zen to die, you need to let me focus.”

“You don’t understand. My shield can’t repel bullets unless I’m touching your bare skin.”

She shot him a quick glance over her shoulder then went right back to work.

Josh wanted to help heal all the wounded, but he’d already promised everyone that he would focus all his energy on maintaining a bulletproof shield until they were out of danger.

Channie sagged against Josh’s side. “He’s stable, for now. Let’s go.”

Tim ordered everyone that wasn’t wounded to slip outside Josh’s shield. “We’ll hold ‘em off as long as we can while y’all evacuate the wounded.”

“No!” Josh wasn’t going to leave his entire team behind, unprotected.

“We can’t let them sons-a-bitches get close enough to fire at the chopper.” Tim squeezed Josh’s shoulder. “We’ll be a lot faster without all the wounded.”

Josh didn’t like it, but he understood Tim’s reasoning. He grabbed Hunter by the back of the neck and pulled him closer. “Be careful and keep your head down.”

He nodded. “I will.”

“I’m serious. Put a leash on that huge ego of yours. Don’t be a hero.”

Hunter grinned then punched Josh’s shoulder. “Don’t you worry ‘bout me.”

The trek back to the chopper took three times as long as the hike in. Those that could still walk, helped carry those that couldn’t. The entire time, Josh worried about the men he’d left behind…especially Hunter.

They’d just loaded the last wounded man on the chopper when the distant sound of gunfire raised the hair on the back of Josh’s neck. He grabbed Channie’s hand and extended his shield over the helicopter. He stretched it out as far as he could and still repel bullets. He counted off the men as they crashed through the underbrush. They leapfrogged each other, taking turns running towards the chopper and firing into the forest behind them.

When the last of Josh’s team entered the safety of his shield, he contracted it, keeping his men safe, and the enemy out.

Several of Dominance’s men charged the chopper, firing weapons and curses as they ran.

Hunter stood in the door of the chopper and yelled at the enemy as they lifted off. “Take
that
you ugly mother truckers!”

Miraculously
, Zen was the only one of Josh’s men that sustained any injuries. His wounds were serious, but thanks to Channie’s healing skills, he pulled through. He insisted he was ready to go back out on patrol after just three weeks, but Wisdom didn’t clear him for duty until the end of September.

Josh and Channie went on every patrol and won every battle they fought. His shield withstood everything Dominance’s men threw at it, including grenades.

As Josh’s men grew more confident in his shield, they grew more daring. They stood at the very edges of the shield so they could poke the barrels of their guns outside to fire on the enemy. They were invincible. And lethal.

Hunter carved so many notches in his rifle’s handle it looked like a pit bull had used it for a chew toy.

Between the casualties of war and Dominance’s policy of killing her own soldiers for the smallest offense, she had to be running low on men. It was increasingly difficult to find enemy bands to pick a fight with.

In spite of the Book of the Dead’s prophecies, Josh couldn’t help but hope Dominance would surrender before their fated show down on December twenty-first.

As summer turned to fall, life at Freedom Ridge improved for everyone. Log cabins replaced tents. The emaciated faces of the children grew round and plump. Their laughter filled the camp and echoed off the cliffs. The community garden yielded a bountiful harvest that required a special shipment of canning supplies. Everyone pitched in and helped bottle tomatoes, beans, carrots, potatoes, spinach, chard, and blackberries. But Josh’s favorite was possum grape jelly.

As the days, and more importantly, the nights, cooled down, Channie became more interested in sex. There were no drug stores, gas stations or convenience stores nearby, so Josh asked Hunter to explain “magical” birth control.

“It’s not a hundred percent reliable, so don’t blame me if it don’t work.”

“It’s better than nothing.”

“Actually…nothing is better than nothing…if you get my drift.”

“You better not be suggesting abstinence.” Josh gritted his teeth. They’d been abstaining all summer.

“all right, all right, don’t get your skivvies in a bind.” Hunter pointed at one of the simple, but beautifully made, wooden chairs at his kitchen table. The set was obviously one of Carver’s. “Have a seat.”

Hunter grabbed a chair, spun it around and straddled it, resting his arms on the back. “How much do you know about how babies get made?”

“Are you kidding me?”

“Well there’s two types of birth control. The easiest is for the woman to suppress her cycles.”

“Channie’s already done too much damage to her reproductive system, casting moon curses on herself to keep from…” Josh paused. He didn’t like the way Hunter arched his eyebrows. This conversation didn’t need an explanation of the effects his shield had on Channie, and girls in general, when she’d first made it for him.

“Oh, yeah. I forgot about that.”

“You knew?”

“You told me about it when we was living together in Vegas. Remember?”

“Vaguely.” Some of Josh’s less important memories were still a little hazy.

“Okay, so no moon curses.” Hunter scratched the back of his head. “You need to disarm your swimmers.”

“Say what?”

“Different fellas do it differently, but basically, you just need to be sure you’re shooting blanks.”

“I get that.” Josh sighed and rolled his eyes. “But how?”

“I use a heat spell. But you gotta be careful or you could wind up sterile.”

“What’s another method?”

“Shep used to…” Hunter clenched his jaw and swallowed then took a deep breath and started over. “Shep used to dehydrate his boys, but that’s a bit risky, too.”

“Channie and I want kids some day. I guess we can wait a little longer.”

“I can’t believe y’all already went through your ration of rubbers.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You know…condoms?”

“I know what a rubber is!” Josh ran his fingers through his hair. “They’ve got condoms in camp?”