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

ducking out of sight just right, and then stay out of sight until she was certain she’d lost him. Of course everything that could pose as an obstacle to Daio could hinder her as well, but that was a moot point.
                  Running to the bus station was out of the question. So was her grandmother’s house. She didn’t want Daio using Grandma as leverage to get her to cooperate. That narrowed it to bolting either left, into the intersection, or right along the adjacent sidewalk. Before she could decide, Daio had her by the wrist. Her whole body flinched.
                  “Let go!” She tried pulling her arm out of his vice-like grip. To her dismay, he proved to be stronger than her new superhuman strength. She struggled more frantically.
                  His evil grin stretched a little wider.
                  “You need to act before you think, girlie.”
                  Roxie narrowed her eyes at being called “girlie.” She put her whole body into a lunge away from Daio. She managed to force him to shuffle a couple of steps with her. “My name is Roxie, you jerk! Don’t ever call me ‘girlie’ again.” She tried twisting her arm to the side.
                  “If you wish,” he said, maintaining his grip. “And I see no harm in letting you know my name is Daio. Feel free to call me that instead of ‘jerk.’”
                  “Whatever.” Roxie made a fist with her free hand. “Now let me go!”
                  Faster than a cobra, Daio seized her other wrist. Roxie struggled to pull free as her forearms were forcibly raised level with her face.
                  “Ha ha ha— ow !”
                  The moment Roxie felt Daio’s grip slacken she yanked her wrists free. Daio dropped his hands over his groin and sank to his knees, his face contorted with agony.
                  “Dat was low,” he said through clenched teeth, then flopped to one side and scowled at her from the pavement.
                  Roxie started running along the sidewalk, intent on finding Aerigo and the bus station. She ran three blocks to the right before turning left onto another busy street. This time she ran as fast as she could and discovered that dodging and darting around people still wasn’t all too difficult. She ran along this road until she reached the bus station road. She took one final left and sped down it. By now she was getting sweaty and starting to suck wind, but she pressed on.
                  As soon as the chain link fence surrounding a multitude of buses came into view, Roxie banged into someone. “Sorry!” She grabbed a man by the shoulders. He did the same to hers.
                  “Rox! What happened?”
                  She stopped and looked at the stranger’s face. He was no stranger. “Aerigo!” She shook her head of shock and answered, “It was Daio! I found him. We gotta go!” Aerigo put up no argument, and together they hurried toward a white wooden booth marking the station’s entrance.
                  “Where is he now?” Aerigo asked, anger in his voice.
                  “Beats me. I left him lying in pain on a sidewalk.”
                  He raised an eyebrow.
                  “I kind of kicked him below the belt.”
                  “ What ?”
                  Roxie shrugged. “I didn’t know what else to do.”
                  “I need to teach you some better self-defense moves.”
                  “What? Kicking him in the groin proved very effective...”
                  “Never mind,” Aerigo said. “Let’s just get on a bus before Daio recovers.”
                  They crossed the final street and Aerigo hid away his dagger before they stopped at the teller. They had