39Anthony heard and saw, and couldn’t react. His legs and arms felt disconnected from the rest of his body. His head buzzed, ears rang; the action in front of him—Rick running, fighting, breaking through—came to him from a narrow tunnel of vision.
Gabriela saved him, woke him from the daze as she ran by throwing every rock she’d collected, brandishing more flaming sticks. Anthony could have sworn that seconds previously Gabriela had been caught in the same hypnotic state. He raced after the reporter with nothing in his hand but the black pebble. Not nearly enough without either Lael or Rick to spark it into life. He leaned down and swooped up one of Gabriela’s burning branches and belted it across any non-human body part he could find.
The Ghouls were coming out of their daze with Lael’s
