Free Shield of the Gods (Aigis Trilogy, Book 1) by S.M Welles Page A

was blocked by bumper-to-bumper cars waiting for the light to turn green. Aerigo veered back onto the sidewalk just behind the Camry. Roxie followed and lost sight of him in the sea of pedestrians, but she didn’t panic. At the very least they’d meet back up outside the parking lot. She slowed her pace and stuck to the sidewalk, not wanting to chance the street or test her reflexes. Roxie couldn’t decide whether to be amazed by or grateful for how fast she could run.
                  “Hey there,” said a voice to her left.
                  Still running, Roxie stole a glance. A man ran alongside her. Bile burned her throat. It was Daio, back down to normal size, but no less intimidating. She searched for the back of Aerigo’s clean-shaven scalp. She didn’t see it anywhere. Another stranger fooled her, but that man was bald as a cue ball and nowhere near as fit. She kept searching.
                  “What’s the hurry?” Daio asked, this time from Roxie’s right.
                  “Why won’t you just leave me alone?” She turned to glare at him.
                  He wasn’t there.
                  Roxie lost her scowl and began to feel vulnerable, along with a sore need to return to Aerigo’s side.
                  “Oh please!” The voice came from her left again, and he was there this time, effortlessly matching her pace and dodging people. “You know why.”
                  “Stay away from me!” She swung at his face. He shied away, chuckling, and put a shoulder-width’s gap between them. Roxie had a feeling he’d backed off out of sport. “What do you want with me?”
                  “I’m not sure yet,” he replied. “My master isn’t sure what to make of you either. I could kill you right now and save us a lot of trouble, but my curiosity has gotten the best of me.”
                  “Why would you need to kill me? I haven’t done anything!”
                  “It’s what you can do,” he said.
                  “Yeah, save lives! What’s wrong with that?”
                  “A conflict of interests, kid. One that won’t be resolved with civil talk. But don’t worry just yet. I want to stick around for a little while and see if I can learn something from Aerigo.”
                  “I thought you two don’t like each other.”
                  Daio laughed and looked ahead. Roxie wasn’t sure, but it looked like his smile had turned into a frown right before he’d looked away.
                  She then realized something: she needed to stop heading for the bus station. She needed to shake this guy so he couldn’t get on the same bus or another and follow them all the way to New York City. Roxie reached a crosswalk and stopped, even though the sign shone green. She tried to decide which would be the best direction to run in.
                  “Why are we stopping?” Daio asked, unconcerned.
                  Roxie broke from her strategizing and turned her attention to him, then mouthed a choice curse and backed away a couple of steps. He’d been standing right next to her with his face mere inches from hers. Stopping was turning out to be a stupid idea—even worse than leading Daio right to the bus station. At least the latter would have helped her catch up with Aerigo and let him take care of things. She didn’t want to get squashed again.
                  “You think you can outrun me?” he said, then lunged so they were face-to-face again.
                  He’d covered the gap faster than Roxie’s eyes could follow. It took her a second to register their uncomfortable closeness but once she did, she backed away. “I can try,” she said, trying to sound brave. With all the people and cars to pose as obstacles, all she had to do was time