Read Online Prince of Time by Sarah Woodbury - Free Book Online Page B

I said. “Come with me.”
    He trailed after me across the plaza to the student parking lot, half a mile away. The night before, I’d miraculously found a closer space. Usually I was lucky to find any parking at all.
    Unfortunately, today wasn’t my day for cars, either. When we were within a dozen yards of my car, I noticed a man beside it, who wasn’t getting into the car next to mine as I first thought, but was trying to get into mine !
    David put out a hand to stop me, but I was already shouting. “Hey! What are you doing?” I raced forward, leaping across the sidewalk and the grassy median which fronted my car.
    As I reached the man he spun around. A switchblade flicked out. My hands automatically came up and I braked, leaning back out of the way before taking a step backwards over the concrete parking block behind me. David had run with me and now stepped in front of me, his arms also up.
    “Stay back,” the man said. “Turn around and walk away if you know what’s good for you.”
    “That’s my car, David,” I said.
    “I won’t let him take it,” he said, “not with our weapons in it.”
    Well, thanks. We took another step back, matched by the man’s step forward. He was thin, shorter than David, with very dark eyes and pale skin, and wore a trench coat—not exactly usual Penn State summer wear, and looked more out of place than David.
    “What are you going to do?” I said.
    “Disabling him would be easy,” David said, “if I didn’t mind getting cut. But I really don’t want to go to the police station and answer a lot of questions, so my best suggestion is that you scream your head off.”
    I paused, thought a second, and screamed.
    At that same moment, David took one step forward and kicked the man’s hand. But he didn’t just kick his hand, he swung his left foot and hit the man’s wrist in exactly the right place so that the man released the knife and it flew across the hood of my car. David moved in, but the man ran and David didn’t follow. I stopped screaming. The thief’s feet thudded as he retreated across the parking lot, matching the pounding of my heart.
    “What did you do?” I tried to get my breath back.
    “A crescent kick from karate,” David said.
    “Where did you learn karate?” I placed my arms on the roof of my car and rested my head against them, feeling my heart slow. “Wales?”
    David stood beside me, waiting. When he kicked that man, David had unleashed violence within himself. I could practically see it leaking out his ears in the aftermath as the adrenaline drained off him. Pulling myself together, I stepped to the back of my car, unlocked the trunk, and gestured inside. David looked at the contents with satisfaction. He rummaged through the gear and pulled out a knife with an eight-inch blade.
    “My sister, Anna, and I are both black belts,” he said. “She’s really good, but small,” he glanced at me, and then back. “Shorter than you.”
    “Where’s your sister?”
    “Still in Wales,” he said. He held out the knife he was holding. “Here. Do you think it’s possible to sell this for enough money to purchase a vehicle?”
    I looked from him to the knife, but didn’t move. He held it out to me further, flat across his palms. I wasn’t going to let this go. “Weren’t you afraid of getting hurt?”
    “More for you than me,” David said. “You really should know better than to go after a guy like that. If you were alone who knows what would’ve happened.”
    Now I was irritated. “And it was okay for you?”
    “I’m ten inches taller and weigh a third again as much,” Dafydd said. “On top of which, I’m wearing armor, remember?”
    I shook my head. David pushed the knife toward me.With some hesitation, I picked it up and weighed it in my hand. Huh . More interested than I wanted to admit, I turned the knife around in my hands. It was beautifully worked; hand-crafted and from another era. My fingers itched. Although, like