Read Online Guardians of the Portals by Nya Rawlyns - Free Book Online

exponentially.
    “Your way out, girl. Come here. I need to get you suited up.”
    “Please don’t tell me you’ve got one of those parachute things in there.”
    Jake looked at her with an odd expression and laughed out loud.
    “Fuck, why didn’t I think of that?”

Chapter Five
    ––––––––
    “D ad, I’ve got a problem.” She swivelled her head, keeping watch but the rooftop remained clear, for now.
    “Shush, girl. I’ve got my hands full. Need to concentrate here.”
    “I didn’t change completely!”
    Jake asked, “Whadya mean, you didn’t change completely? You blew it in there. That damn brother of yours made you while you went off into la-la-land.”
    Caitlin yanked at her fine, straight hair and quickly ran a hand over her nose and mouth. She wriggled her shoulders, confirming what she’d suspected but hadn’t had time to think about in their mad dash up the stairwell. Now that she had to stand back and watch her father make preparations in the dim ambient light from the parking lot floods, with the noise of a helicopter on fast approach, and a small army in the parking lot ten floors below them in full search mode, time slowed and her perceptions came into sharp focus.
    “My clothes. They didn’t change!”
    She leaned over and felt the slick leather straps glide across her small breasts, no longer binding her tight. The only thing keeping them in relatively the same place was an ornamental silver pin that anchored the pieces of leather together between her breasts. If she moved quickly, the straps slipped off to the side or toward her navel and she was left with no foundation garment. She had no other word for what the strange attachments could possibly be called.
    Jake grunted, “Well, make ’em change. I’ve got a tangled length of line here and I can’t see well enough anymore, so for God’s sake shut up for a coupla minutes while I work it out.”
    Caitlin mumbled, “Shit,” and turned to watch the approaching chopper. It had yet to turn on its high-powered floods; once the pilot did that, her dad would see just fine and they’d be perfect targets.
    “Let me help. My hands are a little more flexible than yours.”
    Jake flipped a length of line back to her, then knelt awkwardly and fished a metal box out of the innards of the storage closet. He opened and removed something that glinted briefly in the ambient light. The solid snick of a magazine being loaded into a weapon and the chink of metal-on-metal rang loud and clear as the waves of shouts from Greyfalcon’s militia faded briefly. The ‘pfft-pfft’ of the chopper dissipated as it dropped below rooftop level, obviously landing somewhere in the parking area. Jake motioned her closer. He looked like he had a plan, one she wasn’t going to like.
    “Come here. I’m gonna put this here harness on you,” Jake explained as he strapped a climber’s harness onto her thin frame, “and then I’ll anchor you to one of the pitons I put in place awhile back. I’ve got ’em on every floor except the first two. Figured I could survive a two story fall easy enough.”
    Caitlin spat out, “Not now you couldn’t,” trying for levity but the worry and uncertainty came across as surly and spiteful. Before she could apologize her father hissed, “Don’t you give me lip, we don’t have time. You listen and listen good.”
    Stammering, “I-I’m...” she failed to find the words to cover her anxiety.
    “Never mind that. Before the chopper goes airborne again and lights us up like a Christmas tree, I’m going to create a distraction.”
    “I don’t like the sound of that, Dad.”
    “You’re not supposed to, girl.” Jake moved in close and spoke into her ear, “Over to my right, other side of this A/C unit, round the corner, is the main parking lot. They’ll be keeping a close eye on the van, expecting us to make a break for it at some point, if we can. They’re not dumb. They’ll have figured out we’re on the