Page 10 of Nazab

“He might be just as fast as Grace,” Jacquin said.

“Nah,” the kid said dismissively. “I bet you wouldn’t even see me move at all if Xan filmed me in action.”

“We’re totally going to test that theory,” the electronics wizard said.

“What talent does the cambion have?” Queegly asked.

“I think she’s able to steal energy,” Amaros said. “But instead of siphoning his power to weaken our brother, she gave him a boost.”

“Ugh, not a stealer,” Ark said with a shudder. “I once saw a cambion leech three humans to death before I cut him down,” he said.

“I thought most cambions can’t use their power until they reach their teens,” Oaklie said with a frown.

“He was a teenager,” her mate replied. “That war dragged on for longer than usual.”

“We learned about most of the talents the cambions possess during that war,” Amaros said. “Our enemies spawned dozens of younglings during the fifteen years we battled each other.”

“That was the time Zee saved our boss from cambions rather than from their sires,” Ramiel recalled with a grin. “Do you remember what happened to him?”

“I remember,” Eze said, also grinning at the memory.

“Fill us in,” Cat said, always ready to hear a funny story.

“Amaros was fighting some Soldiers of Chaos and didn’t realize they were leading him into a trap,” Ram said. “Ziegel saw three cambions lying in wait and charged at them just before our boss could be ambushed. He managed to kill two of them, but the final one struck before he could chop the kid’s head off.”

“What talent did the cambion have?” Vic asked.

“She was a lightning wielder,” Eze said before Ramiel could respond. “She hit Zee with so many volts that he was nothing but bones and ash by the time she was done.”

Most of them snickered, except for Grace. The teen’s green eyes narrowed, then she turned on her heel. “I’m going to get breakfast started,” she said, then flounced off to the kitchen.

Queegly was the only other person who hadn’t laughed at Ziegel’s expense. Like the youngest cambion in their base, he felt the knight was worthy of respect rather than ridicule.

Chapter Eight

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NAZAB HAD SLEPT LIKE a rock in the bedroom he’d chosen last night. Dawn had just arrived and he sensed Monica in the bedroom down the hall. He’d been too exhausted to search for clothes, so he began opening the closets and checking the dressers. All of the clothing was far too small for him, so he settled on a tan-colored trenchcoat. It was larger than the rest of the outfits he’d found, but he had to tie it around his waist. His shoulders and chest were too broad to fit into it.

The knight headed downstairs and stepped outside. He ran a perimeter check in his bare feet before returning to the house. Other houses stood in the distance, but they all seemed to be empty. It was eerily quiet in this semi-rural area. Traffic should have been driving on the nearby freeway and roads. Instead, only birds, insects and wild animals could be seen and heard.

“Monica will need food and water when she wakes up,” Nazab reminded himself as he closed and locked the front door. Unlike their sires, cambions needed to eat and drink. He was still amazed that the female’s soul was gray instead of black. The younglings of their enemies had always taken after their sires in the past.

Just thinking about Thamuz was enough to make him scowl. “Why was he released from the Void so much earlier than the other soldiers?” he murmured as he headed to the kitchen. Thamuz had impregnated Monica’s mother, but he hadn’t bothered to stick around and take control of his offspring through his parental bond. Maybe that was why the cambion was good inside. Then he shook his head in denial. “They’ve always been born evil in the past,” he reminded himself.

It was a mystery he couldn’t solve without more information, so he put it aside for now. Opening the pantry door, Nazab began sorting through the canned goods and boxes of cookies, crackers and cereal. He took everything edible out and carried it to the kitchen table. Dust wafted up and he waved it away. Monica couldn’t eat at the table without her food becoming contaminated.

“I need to clean the table,” he decided, then shifted the food to the kitchen counter. He found cleaning products in a cupboard beneath the sink and went to work.

Monica stirred an hour later and he perused the kitchen, dining room and living room. He’d gotten rid of as much dust as possible, but the carpet in the living and dining rooms was still covered in it. At least the furniture was dust free.

He heard the female rummaging through dressers and closets upstairs, then she eventually descended. She took one look at him and burst into giggles. “I thought my outfit was bad,” she joked.

Nazab’s mouth went dry as he took in her tiny shorts and shirt that clung to her torso. “You look very pretty,” he said, then mentally kicked himself. Her hair had been freshly braided and was tied up in a ponytail.

“I look like a teenager,” she complained, glancing down at the shirt with a unicorn on it. “I never would have fit into these before the Rapture,” she said ruefully, then smirked at him again. “At least I don’t look like I’m about to expose myself to some poor innocent women in a park.”

He looked down at the trenchcoat that was tied around his waist and realized he had an erection again. “This doesn’t usually happen,” he said with a grimace.