Free Charles' Choice (Penny's Choice) by Annette Archer Page B

car.
    Another man dressed in black fatigues, a long black t-shirt, a nd a black hat stood by her car . He had wooden daggers around his belt and a quiver full of wooden arrows. Brotherhood. Penny stilled her body even more with that realization. If she were discovered without the rest of the group, she would surely be dead.
    The man, who looked like the leader, looked into the forest and made the motions for his compatriot to leave his cover and join him. The man below Penny got up from his crouch positioned. He exited the forest, but not alone. Eight other agents left the forest and joined the group.
    A full contingency? Penny thought. This is not good.
    Penny watched them for a couple of seconds. She didn’t have piercing vampire ears, so she couldn’t make out what they were saying from her perch in the trees.
    What are they up to ? Penny thought, while straining to hear their conversation. One of the agents had taken something out of his bag and was setting it up. Penny wanted to see what he was doing, but she didn’t want to move. The limbs were thinner up toward the top and she didn’t want to take the chance that one of them would crack or break.
    Penny checked her body for weapons. She had three throwing knives: one in her belt and one each in her boots. Not enough weapons to take out the whole contingency of agents.  Penny had one huge advantage over her enemy, surprise. They must have thought that she went into the castle with Thomas.
    The man that was fiddling with his bag handed his finished products to the leader. The leader held it at an angle that allowed Penny to see. It was a bomb, not much bigger than Penny’s thumb. She had seen them used a couple of times while she was in the Brotherhood. While it was small, it would incinerate everything in a ten foot radius. The only issue with the devices was that it gave off a slight smell that a vampire could usually detect.
    Suddenly Penny got an idea. Everyone one of the Brotherhood agents was within the ten foot blast radius. She readied a throwing knife and waited for the agent to attach it to the front of the car. He was going to set the device off before they finished crossing the bridge. As soon he moved away from the explosive, Penny threw her knife at the detonator.
    Penny hit her mark and the bomb exploded into a fury of flames. Car doors blew off and the gas tank burst into flames adding to the inferno in front of her. She could feel the heat from the flames in her tree top stand and it almost took her breath away. She had to move her face away from the flaming spectacle. The agents were dead in milliseconds after the flames licked forth from the device.
    It took about twenty seconds after the explosion for Thomas and Charli to come bounding across the rickety bridge. Since the blast, there was even less material in the bridge.
    “Penny,” Thomas screamed midway through the bridge. “Penny!”
    “Oh, my god,” Charli said, as she came across the threshold of the bridge and surveyed the flaming carnage.
    “Penny,” Thomas said, scrambling up to the wreckage. He stopped short when he saw several sets of charred human skeletons.  Penny?” Thomas voice had changed from panic to intrigue.
    “Hey,” Penny shouted down from the tree.
    “What in heavens happened,” Charli asked as she looked at the bones and the cindered remains of the car frame.
    “I was just hanging out in this tree,” Penny started to climb down the tree, “when a whole contingency of Brotherhood agents decided to drop in.”
    “You were just hanging out in the tree?” Thomas asked, catching Penny as she jumped the rest of the way.
    “I was feeling nervous about the bridge,” Penny replied. By now Charles and Lorelei had joined them.
    “Holy crap,” Charles said taking his first glimpse at the wreck.
    “I think they must have been following Charles,” Penny looked at Charles and Lorelei, “because they were already entrenched in the woods when Thomas and I got