"Of course not. I'm telling you, Jonah did do recon on him. He did recon on all our targets. The man I killed tonight was a Dark-Hunter. Jonah would never have authorized hunting and terminating someone else."
Sundown gestured to the TV with the remote in his hand. "Obviously somebody had bogus information. Or he just plain lied."
She started to respond when all of a sudden, the floor near her buckled. She'd no more righted herself than dozens of scorpions swarmed out, scattering across the floor as they'd done in the desert. And worse, these were the deadliest ones. Bark scorpions. Whereas a sting from a single one might not kill her, to be stung by this many would without fail. The neurotoxins in their stinger were known to be fatal.
And she was allergic to them.
Shrieking, she tried to get away, but the floor shifted even more, pitching her toward them. Frozen in terror, she couldn't move as she watched them wide-eyed.
I'm going to die....
She had no doubt. They were going to overrun her and sting her all at once.
Everything seemed to slow down as they advanced on her with a swiftness that was indescribable. Those little bodies twisted as they moved their legs faster and faster, their tails arched and thrusting for a strike.... She couldn't breathe as the sound of their scuttling feet and snapping pinchers echoed in her ears.
Her entire body cringed in expectation of the pain. They were on her.
Just as they swarmed her feet, she was yanked off the floor and shaken until the scorpions fell away. Once they were clear, she was thrown over a well-muscled shoulder and carried from the room as if she were a rag doll.
Sundown slammed the door shut behind him and set her back on her feet. Unable to speak, she flicked the one remaining scorpion on her boot to the ground and then stomped it until it stopped moving.
Every millimeter of skin on her body crawled in revulsion. It was like they were on her again.
But her relief was very short lived. The scorpions were now tearing through the door.
She gaped in disbelief of their power and persistence. What were they going to do? "How are they doing that?"
"I ain't gonna ask them right now. Don't really rate on my importance scale." Sundown sprinted to a locked cabinet. He entered a code on the electronic lock, then opened the doors. It was a gun case with enough weaponry inside to arm a small nation.
Sundown grabbed a pump-action shotgun and a bunch of shells, which he put into his pockets. She ran toward him as the scorpions began flooding into the bedroom from the space they'd made under the door.
He slammed the cabinet doors shut and then pulled her behind him before she could arm herself. With a feral gleam in his eyes that was more frightening than the scorpions, he opened fire on them.
They blew back in every direction like a clawing cloud.
But it didn't stop them. They kept coming, and in greater numbers.
Desperate, Abigail looked at the cabinet. "You have a flamethrower in there?"
"Yeah. Bad news, though-it'd burn down the house if we used it, and that wouldn't do us any good."
There was that. However, she'd rather be burned alive than stung by that number of scorpions. "What are we going to do now?"
"Find a steam roller?"
If only ...
"You're not funny." Growling, Abigail tried to think of a real solution. The first thing she'd learned as a kid when they found a scorpion in her bed was that scorpions didn't react to insecticide, and even if they did, Sundown would have had to have gallons of it to stop them. The only way she knew to kill them was to squash them.
Yeah ... her feet weren't big enough to even make a dent in that horde. She'd be overrun and dead in a matter of seconds.
"What we need here, folks, is a really big chicken."
She scowled at his bizarre comment and the fact that his drawl had actually gotten deeper as he spoke. "What are you? Hungry? Now?"
He laughed at her irritation. "Nah. They love to hunt and kill scorpions. Damn shame I don't have a flock or two million of them right about now. Who knew? I just hope those damn things aren't chowing down on my Squire."
Sundown pulled her through a doorway and into another bedroom. He held the gun in one hand as he slammed the door shut and locked it.
They could hear the scorpions on the other side, scurrying about. The sound made her cringe. It wouldn't take them long to breach this door, too.
"We're dead, aren't we?"
Jess wanted to deny it, but right now, he couldn't think of anything else to escape. They were out of rooms to run to, and the scorpions were chewing his door down. Not that it mattered in his case. He couldn't die from their stings.
But the woman could.
And even without death, those sons of bitches would hurt. Not exactly something he was craving.
He glanced around the room, then grinned as an idea hit him. "Get on the bed."
She stiffened indignantly. "Excuse me?"
Jess grinned at the direction her thoughts had gone. Normally he wouldn't mind, but right now, sex was the last thing either of them should think about. "We need height. Get on the bed." He didn't wait for her. He launched himself at it. He loaded more shells into his gun, then fired up at the ceiling.
"What are you doing?"
He didn't respond as he reversed the gun and used the stock to widen the hole by slamming it against the plaster and knocking it down. Don't let the damn thing go off by accident. If it did in this position, it'd take out a piece of his anatomy that he sure would miss.
Abigail let out a squeak before she sidled up against him. She actually wedged herself between him and the wall. Any other time, he'd appreciate having those curves pressed so close against his body.
But right now ...
"They're swarming in."
He glanced over his shoulder to confirm her words. "All right. I think there's enough room that I can lift you up into the floor above."
Sundown was trying to save her? Abigail was stunned by his offer. Especially since she'd been trying to kill him just a short time ago. Before she could respond, he dropped the gun, then braced his hands on her hips and lifted her up with an ease that was startling. She reached for the hole he'd made and pulled herself up through it.
It wasn't easy, but she finally wiggled all the way through the tight opening.
Laughing in triumph, she started for the front door, which was only a few feet away. She'd barely gone a step when she heard Sundown firing at the scorpions again.
He was still trapped.