from the sun. The bombs stripped away the protection the night offered and the Altered finally found themselves unable to hide. Now they didn’t want to.
The troll cocked its head to the side as if listening for her response. Evidently, her silence wasn’t going to convince it she wasn’t there.
“I feel it,” she answered. “Not that I’m complaining, but is there a reason you stopped?” She bit her tongue to keep from asking it about Nathaniel.
It chuckled. “I grow tired of playing with you. You would have caught me eventually at any rate. You’re much better than the others. Maybe it’s because you’re female. You are, aren’t you?”
A smile curved the edge of her mouth. She was beginning to like the troll in spite of herself. “Last time I checked.”
“Thought so. Cursed hard to tell with your kind sometimes.”
Juliana tried not to be offended but she’d never been confused for a man before. At least, not in the daylight. At night when she was kicking the crap out of something, well...mistakes were understandable.
“If you’re waiting for your friend, I’m afraid he won’t be joining us,” the troll said.
Adrenaline spiked through her making her pulse race and her heart pound. “What did you do to him?”
A low chuckle answered. “I merely delayed him. He’ll find his way out eventually.”
She breathed in relief and started planning her approach again. She’d worry about finding Nathaniel later. Right now, she needed to concentrate on herself and getting the troll relocated. Though the element of surprise was no longer on her side, she still held the high ground. If she intended to kill the beast, that would have been great. Since she wanted it alive, it didn’t mean crap.
“I suppose that means you aren’t going to cooperate then?” she asked, unable to quash the thin thread of hope that took up residence in her brain even though she knew better.
The troll snorted. “You are correct. I’m just saving my energy for our confrontation.”
It twisted its torso and snarled, flashing sharp teeth. Her heart skipped a beat at the primal display. No longer the predator, she was now the prey. At least she was smart enough to realize it.
The troll’s eyes flickered red in the fading light. A male then—the females had blue eyes. “Why should I go anywhere? This is my land. My home.”
Juliana sighed. She agreed with him in theory, but in practice, she was a Realm Walker. An officer of the Agency. The International Law Enforcement Agency created by the UN in their first official act after the Rending to deal with the Altered threat. As society realized that the Altered as a whole had no grand plans to take over the world, the goal of the Agency changed. But her sworn duty remained pretty much the same as it was then. To neutralize the threat posed by Altered that failed to conform.
Such as a troll poaching from the nearby civilizations.
She preferred the part of her job that involved hunting down the real threats to civilization. The jobs that helped her save humanity, such as it was. Relocation was crap work, but it paid just the same. “You’ve been warned numerous times about the livestock raids. I’m not even going to get into the pets that have been reported missing.”
The troll rose to his full seven-foot height, all arms and legs with a compact body in between. Her eyes locked on the arms that hung just short of touching of the ground. Wicked talons decorated each crooked finger. The best way to handle trolls was to stay the hell away from them. When that wasn’t possible, Juliana got as close as she could, making it difficult for the beast to get its claws into her. Gods, she hated trolls. Trolls and pixies. Both vicious bastards in their own way.
“I was here long before they came. This is my territory and everything in it belongs to me.” He thrust his chin forward, daring her to argue.
If it were up to her, she’d just go home and say she never found him. It wasn’t as if the troll killed anyone. Not that they knew of anyway. But that wasn’t how it worked. They’d keep sending agents out until the troll relocated or died. “Look. The government says this is their territory and the land belongs to the people living on it. You’re stealing. They want you gone. You’re going to a marked troll reserve. There are no people there. No one to bother you.” For now anyway. The reserves never stayed protected for long.
“And if I refuse to go?” The troll’s voice was quiet, almost sad.
She stood and drew the Taser from the holster where she normally kept her gun. “They didn’t send me because of my charming personality.”
“Come, then. Let’s end this.” He rolled his shoulders and shifted his stance so his weight rested forward on his toes.
This was going to hurt. She just knew it. After taking off the pack she carried on her back, she took off her duster and tossed it aside, afraid it would impede her movement. The troll watched, waiting for her to come down the hill. She lit a trail of fire to ease her way, causing the few birds she noted earlier to take flight. There would be no witness to the battle.
Her feet barely touched the ground at the bottom of the hill when the beast lunged for her, swinging one of its massive arms like a scythe. Ducking under the arm, she rolled to the right before coming quickly to her feet. She danced around the fire looking for an opening to close the distance between them. Her goal was to get close enough to use the Taser without getting her head taken off in the process.
Electricity was the easiest and most reliable way to kill a troll. The others were very messy and, in all likelihood, she’d be killed in the process as well. Juliana used a modified Taser that enabled her to control the duration and frequency of the charge. It was up to her whether she wanted to subdue or terminate. As such, the Tasers that shot probes wouldn’t work. They were too unreliable and could only be used once before needing to be reloaded. She was going to have to get much closer.
Without warning, the troll leaped over the fire, his arms spread straight out to the sides. His feet dragged through the flames, singing the fur. She managed to jam the Taser into his ribcage just before he engulfed her in a ferocious grip. He squeezed, pressing her face into his rancid fur. The smell of old blood and pure troll invaded her nostrils. Death, mold and dirt all rolled into one. Not a pleasant combination.
She squeezed off a two-second jolt, feeling only a slight tingle herself, though electricity coursed through her captor’s body. It wasn’t enough to make him let go. She twisted, jammed the Taser into his underarm and squeezed again. Longer this time. The arms twitched and then released her. She staggered back, sucking in mouthfuls of untainted air and blinking tears from her eyes.
Juliana realized she hadn’t put enough distance between herself and the troll about the time he snapped his head forward and sank his teeth into her left shoulder. Pure, white-hot agony flared through her chest and down her arm. “Son of a rotten corpse!” Panic rolled through her in waves. If she didn’t get this bastard subdued, he was going to kill her. And one of these days, that was going to be a permanent condition. Like the day a troll took her cursed head clean off her shoulders.
The troll picked her up with nothing more than his teeth in her shoulder and shook her like a hellhound with a chew toy. She clenched her jaw in pain and let out a terrible keening groan as muscle and tendon ripped. She fought her base instinct to struggle, to squirm away from the source of the pain. If she did, she’d only injure herself further. Blood poured from the wound, staining the ground a horrible, vibrant crimson.
A growl tore through the clearing seconds before a brown blur flew through the air and landed on the troll’s back. Nathaniel. They all rocked forward with the impact and fresh pain lanced through her shoulder. The troll roared in anger, releasing Juliana’s shoulder by default and she dropped to the ground. She backed away, eyeing the two of them warily. The troll reached over his back, trying to grab Nathaniel who still had his teeth and claws dug deep into the beast. The wolf snarled, growled and shook his head as the troll danced around the clearing trying to get a grip on his attacker.
Juliana’s arm hung limp and worthless by her side. Pain burned through the wound and nausea rose in waves. Her head swam. She swallowed the acid down, sucked in crisp, cool air. She used her right hand to wrap her left arm around her waist in an effort to keep the shoulder from moving any more than necessary.
“Nathaniel,” she yelled as the troll ran backward into the trees.
He slammed his back with Nathaniel still attached into the trunk of a large oak tree once, twice, three times. The blows stunned Nathaniel enough that the troll was finally able to snatch the wolf and hurl him across the clearing. Her friend lay unmoving on the ground.
