Page 27 of Ramiel

Phul grimaced and Xathan watched the pair leave in disgust.“Those two are sick,” Phul murmured.

“You’re not wrong,” Xathan agreed.He wasn’t in the mood to contact Ivy on her walky-talky and advise her he was coming to her apartment.Instead, he headed to his own apartment where he could have a few hours of peace alone.

Chapter Seventeen

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RAMIEL WAS UP AT DAWNas usual.He’d spent the night in one of the many abandoned homes that were scattered along the freeway.Passing through a hilly area, he had to leave the road when a landslide blocked his passage.

A group of humans was camped nearby as he picked his way around the rubble.They were chatting about the oracle the knight had heard people talking about back at the town he’d left far behind.

“I’m glad the Mad Prophet is back on the air,” a man said.“I wonder why he went quiet for a couple of weeks.”

“We’ll probably never know,” a female replied.“He confirmed that another good alien has arrived.He must have appeared in that gold comet we saw a few nights ago.”

Shock coursed through Ramiel and he didn’t see the trap he stepped into.Something tugged on his ankle when he took his next step, then he was suddenly yanked into the air.Bells on the rope he’d stepped into jingled loudly as he flailed around.

“We’ve caught something!”a younger male exclaimed, then the group stampeded towards him.

Swinging backwards and forwards, Ramiel called on his sword and sliced through the rope.His weapon vanished a moment before he slammed to the ground, landing hard on his back.The humans’ souls were gray and he didn’t want to kill them unless he had to.

Five men and three women moved to surround him with various types of weapons drawn.“I mean you no harm,” he said, holding his hands up.

“He’s big,” a female muttered.

“And clean,” another said in surprise.

“Why are you sneaking around our camp?”one of the men demanded, pointing a gun at the intruder’s face.

“A landslide is blocking the freeway,” Ramiel said.“I was just skirting around it.I didn’t even know you were camping here.”

Another male bent over to peer into his bags.“He’s not a psycho,” he said in amusement.“He’s just a big book nerd.”

The group seemed friendly enough, so Ramiel figured they wouldn’t murder him in cold blood.“I saw some deer a mile back,” he said as one of the humans offered him his hand.Grunting with effort, the male hauled him to his feet.

“Can you show us where?”their leader asked eagerly.“We’re city folk who fled from New York,” he admitted.“We’re still figuring out how to live off the land.”They were so green at it that they didn’t ask him how he’d cut himself free without a weapon.