Page 35 of Dark Voyage Matters of the Mind

"Where?" Luis asked. "I don't see anything."

The camouflage the cartel thugs had done to hide their vehicles was pretty shoddy, but it seemed to be enough to fool Luis.

"Just drive. I'll tell you when to stop."

The drivers had been instructed to stay in the trucks and hide under the dashboard while the Guardians took care of business. Kalugal had used compulsion to ensure that none of the human men decided to be heroic and join the fight.

As their convoy came to a halt near the grim enclosure where the girls were being kept, the barbed wire gleaming in the harsh sunlight made Kalugal's blood boil in his veins.

The girls were huddled together, some rocking back and forth, while others were slumped on the ground, either asleep or catatonic from the trauma they had suffered.

His fangs itched, and his venom glands pulsated, but he suppressed his murderous urges in order to clear his mind and think. He wouldn't be doing the girls any favors by attacking without taking into account the situation and formulating an appropriate plan.

Jacki's vision had focused on the girls, and she couldn't tell him how many cartel thugs they would be facing or what weapons they had.

From what he could see, they were all armed with machine guns, and their vehicles were probably armed with rapid-fire equipment, too.

Most of the monsters were gathered around a fire pit, laughing while roasting some animal, and there weren't even that many of them. He counted fifteen around the fire and six more guarding the enclosure.

He needed the Guardians to split up, with some taking out one group while the others took out the second.

Casting his senses wide, he scanned for more of the scum and found two more inside the vehicles and three deeper into the wooded area, taking a piss or a shit.

Even with their superior fire power, the scum had no chance against a bunch of angry immortals, but the trick was to take them out before they had a chance to fire and just as importantly, without letting the girls see them getting torn to pieces by what would look to them like a bunch of demons.

They were traumatized enough already, and Kalugal didn't want to add to it by tearing out the throats of their captors in front of them.

Yamanu was still concentrating on keeping the shrouding bubble around them, and Kalugal wasn't sure if he could just incorporate all the cartel thugs into the bubble so the fight would be invisible and soundless to the girls.

Kalugal could shroud the small enclosure area separately, but his fangs were itching for some monster blood, and he couldn't do that and shroud at the same time.

Leaning over, he put his hand on the Guardian's shoulder to get his attention. "Can you create another bubble around the girls? I don't want them to see the bloodbath. "

"I can't do more than one. I can only include them in our bubble, but that is not going to help them."

"Right. Can you include the perpetrators instead?"

"I'm not sure. They are spread out."

So, he sensed it as well.

"Perhaps Dagor can help. He's not joining the fight anyway. I'll go talk to him." He jumped out of the truck and walked to the middle one where Dagor and Negal were seated with Frankie, Jin, Arwel, and two Guardians.

The god was holding Frankie against his chest and not letting her see the girls, but his own eyes were trained on the enclosure, and his fangs were on full display.

He looked up at the god. "Can you create a shroud around the girls so they won't see us tearing their captors to pieces?"

Dagor frowned. "Can't Yamanu extend the shroud to cover the battlefield so the girls won't see or hear anything?"

"The thugs are too spread out, and Yamanu can't cover all of them. I could shroud the women, but I'm itching for some scum blood, and I can't do both at the same time. You are not joining the fight because you are staying to guard Frankie, so you are the only other option, provided that you can create a large enough shroud bubble."

Dagor

The truth was that Dagor wasn't sure he could cast a bubble large enough to encompass the enclosure. It wasn't that the place was big, and there were only about twenty women in there, but he had never created a shroud bubble that size before.

He had done simulations during training, but that had been a long time ago, and the only shrouding he had done since arriving on Earth had been limited to covering himself and his companions.

"I'll give it my best shot," he said. "But it's not going to be nearly as good as Yamanu's."