Page 74 of Ramiel

Chapter Forty-Three

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WATCHING RAMIEL HUNTdown his targets filled Caterina with awe all over again.Her male was focused on his task and executed the humans with precision that she envied.Five of the six guards went down in mere seconds, but the sixth one sounded the alarm by firing at her knight.

Her heart was lodged in her throat as Ramiel dodged the bullets.His shiny silver and gold sword flashed in the light of the camping lamps.His foe collapsed, but the rest of the bandits were surging towards him.

Abandoning the women they’d been abusing, the four marauders yanked their pants up.Caterina was holding six knives.She sent four of them spinning through the air.The weapons lodged in her targets’ backs, wounding them, but not fatally.It was enough to disable two of them.The other two staggered, then turned to fire blindly into the trees.

Already on the move, Caterina tossed another knife and it skewered a bandit in the eye.He fell backwards, finger clamping down on the trigger.His companion screamed in agony as bullets thudded into him.The final one blew his brains out and they both fell.

Staying in the shadows, the cambion continued to throw knives at the cannibals.The two women who’d been taken from the cage took off running without looking back.Caterina was glad she’d taken the keys from the truck.While she wished the females well, she didn’t want them to steal their vehicle.The other prisoners were screaming in terror or shouting in glee, cheering their rescuers on.

Ramiel was a deadly force of nature as he used his enhanced strength and speed to wipe out his opponents.Only two were left when his luck was extinguished.He turned to face one of the humans and was shot pointblank in the chest.

“Ramiel!”Caterina screamed, feeling his agony.She dropped the backpack and sprinted over as the bandit lifted his gun to finish off her knight.Clamping her hands on his head, she poured her magic into him.The human’s eyeballs popped and steam came from every orifice as she fried his brain.

Dropping the corpse, Caterina snarled when she saw the final marauder pointing his rifle at her.A sword flashed between them, severing his arms.Stumps spurting blood, the man turned in a dazed circle as if wondering where his limbs had gone.

Sobbing in terror that she was going to lose the man she loved, Caterina knelt beside Ramiel.He’d dropped down to one knee with his hand over his wound.“Did it hit your heart?”she asked, barely coherent.

“No,” he rasped.“But it stings a little.”

The bullet was stuck inside him and this time she didn’t think she could dig it out.Not without potentially causing him too much harm.

“Let us out!”one of the captives begged.

“What the hell are you?”a skeletally thin man asked incredulously.

“Ramiel is a Knight of Order,” a voice said from behind Caterina.She hadn’t even sensed anyone arriving.

“It’s about time you found me, boss,” Ramiel said in relief.

Caterina looked over her shoulder to see a handsome man with black hair and obsidian eyes.He was accompanied by a beautiful blonde woman and another stunning male with Asian features.

The blonde hurried over and put her hand on Ramiel’s shoulder.“You’ll be okay,” she said in a kind voice.“I’m Qiana and I’m a cambion, too.I have healing abilities,” she explained.“We need to take you back to our base and extract the bullet before I heal you.It’s too close to your heart to risk your body expelling it if I use my magic on you just yet.”

“We need to free the captives,” Caterina said, feeling like she was back in her strange nightmare.All three of these strangers seemed somehow familiar.She had a flashback of her dream where she’d been dying over and over.In the final one, she remembered seeing a glimpse of a blonde woman healing the Asian man who was watching her back.

“Check the captives for injuries, Qi,” the commander requested, then helped Ramiel to his feet.Caterina stood up and put her arm around her knight.“I’m Amaros,” he said, although she already knew his name.Ramiel had told her a lot about them.

“I know,” she said.“He’s got to be Kochab,” she added, hiking her thumb at his companion.

Amaros nodded, then held his hand out.She took it and felt power sweep through her.“I just scanned you to make sure you haven’t led a life of evil,” he explained.“It’s standard when we’re adding someone to our family.”