by Lane Mason
Kat snapped back to reality. She fired her silver-thread magic at Karsova. The fae criminal mastermind had almost made it to the doors. Her thread snagged the legs of the fae and she pulled him back into the room.
She then had to focus on keeping up her ward magic, blocking the bullets from the two remaining convicts while she turned and hit the man Thomas was fighting with a shot of thread. She could see Thomas had taken several powerful blows to the head and she hoped he was OK, but there were still two of Karsova’s men to deal with before she could check on her friend.
One of the men who’d come to Karsova’s rescue was a giant of a man, one of Karsova’s thugs. These two seemed to finally realize their guns were of no use against Kat.
The giant-sized gangster slipped on a pair of brass knuckles while the second one pulled out a pair of swords and leaped towards Kat.
Ducking under the attack of the sword-carrying thug, Kat quickly realized he wasn’t human. He was fast, far too fast for a normal person.
Scrambling back, Kat pulled out her new blades. Thank you, Vesper, Kat thought to herself as she took a defensive stance. Having the new blades was a blessing, and they couldn’t have come at a better time. Now the only question was if her rusty technique would be good enough to fight off two paranormal opponents.
The giant lunged at her, trying to take her head off with a powerful right hand.
Kat pivoted, avoiding the blow, and as the giant’s momentum carried him past her, she used the back end of her right dagger to strike him in the back of the head.
The giant grunted in pain or frustration, Kat couldn’t tell the difference, but he was slow getting up, so she had a few seconds to focus on the guy with the blades, and she attacked.
Her blades spun through the air as she worked through several of the attack patterns she’d learned years ago. The difference was now she had superhuman strength and the speed of a draia, which even the paranormal in front of her couldn’t match. She pressed forward, in constant motion, attacking high, low, low high, keeping him off guard and unable to launch a counterattack.
Behind her, she heard the giant grunt again. It seemed Thomas was back in the fight.
Kat kept pressing forward until the swordsman stepped onto a barbell that had been haphazardly left on the gym floor. He stumbled back and fell into the wall behind him. As his head bounced off the wall, Kat came forward with a punch to the face. The butterfly sword’s guard acted as a pair of brass knuckles. The paranormal criminal’s face was not stronger than the blade and he crumbled to the ground, unconscious.
She spun to assess the situation with the giant-sized bad guy, but Thomas had it well in hand. He had him on his back and was putting a pair of handcuffs on him. She then looked around the gym floor at the bodies of the other convicts. No one was moving. They’d stopped the breakout, with the notable exception of the convict that had been taken by her brother.
My brother. Now that the fighting was over, Kat focused on that idea. It had never really occurred to her that she might have a draia sibling somewhere. And it certainly never occurred to her that she’d meet him during an attempted prison breakout, or that the first time she met him he would sic demons on her. Had that been some sort of test? Or had he been trying to kill her? It all made no sense, especially since he hadn’t even tried to attack her now, or take Karsova.
Thomas, holding his head, walked over to Kat. “Was it just me or did that guy call you his sister?”
Kat nodded. “That’s what I heard.”
“Huh,” Thomas said. “Well, I could see a family resemblance, and there no denying he was a draia.”
“A powerful royal draia,” Kat corrected. “Did you see how his silver thread worked? It was more like a vine or a creepy tentacle.”
“Yes, I certainly noticed that.”
Suddenly there was movement at the gym doors.
Dexter, with several agents behind him, burst into the room. They looked around the gym floor at the bodies either tied up, handcuffed, or covered in Kat’s thread.
“Looks like you’ve prevented the breakout. Good work,” Dexter said.
“Most of it,” Thomas said. “You didn’t happen to see two men leave?”
Dexter shook his head. “I didn’t see anything, and Dante is flying overhead. He hasn’t reported anything. Who is missing?”
Kat shrugged.
“Artami Marel,” Thomas said. “Kat’s brother came and grabbed him.”
Dexter raised an eyebrow. “Your brother? A little family reunion? That is unexpected and troubling.”
“You could say that,” Kat answered. “The lunatic who attacked me with demons at the car lot, apparently that is my brother.” It seemed her father was far more prolific than Mazidern Joharn had suspected. Did she have more siblings around waiting for an opportunity to kill her? The thought was unsettling, to say the least.
Dexter looked around the room. “Well, considering the lengths Karsova’s men went to free him, losing Marel is a small problem.” Dexter turned to the agents with him. “Have all the men taken directly to the courtroom. We’ll let the judge finish and then get them sent to prison before Karsova’s men can try again. Although I suspect he may be running out of associates willing to help him. That little attack on the building cost him many men.”
“What about our people?” Thomas asked.
“A couple court security guards are dead, and several more, along with a few MBI agents, are on the way to the hospital. Two are critically wounded and several more were injured in the initial blast. A few concussions and lots of glass cuts. As far as I know, that is the extent of it. For the amount of damage done, we got off lucky.”
“What are we going to do about Marel?” Kat asked.
“Sweep the building, see if we can find them, but we didn’t see anyone when we came in.”
“Don’t bother,” Dante said as he walked into the gym. “They’re gone. They entered some sort of portal.”
“Damn it,” Dexter said. “Well, there is nothing we can do about that. I don’t know what made Marel so important to your brother, Kat, but I’ll talk to our new friends from Unreha and see what they have to say.”
Dante looked strangely at Kat and then nodded. “Brother. That makes sense. I was confused when he first arrived. He smells much like you to me. A family tie explains that.”
Kat sighed. If Dante was convinced of the connection, then it was probably true. The gargoyle was as sensitive to paranormals as anyone. It was still a shock to learn she had a brother, and that he’d attacked her once. Why hadn’t he attacked her now? It was confusing and opened up a whole new can of worms when it came to her heritage. She’d always felt alone as a child, moving from bad foster home to bad foster home, but as dysfunctional as some of those homes had been, they’d never tried to kill her with demons. Perhaps all those years she’d dreamed of having a normal family out there somewhere were just that, dreams. Perhaps her tough upbringing had been easy compared to what she would’ve endured with her own family.
“How you doing, Kat?” Dexter asked.
Kat shrugged. “I’ve been better. This concept of having a brother is messing with me a bit.”
“Considering he tried to kill you, that is a pretty legit way to feel,” Thomas said. “I’d be a little confused myself.”
“Well, I can be a little abrasive. Perhaps I pissed him off somehow. All I know is that I’m getting really tired of this vacation you promised us, Dexter.”
Dexter nodded. “It has been a pretty eventful trip. Perhaps you and Vesper should head back home. Take a few days to work on your new truck.”
Kat smiled. She was now the proud owner of a piece of junk truck. But it was going to be sweet once she was done with it. “You’re right, Dexter. It is time to go home. I like Vegas, but I think I need a vacation from this vacation.”
End
Author notes
Thank you for reading Agent Dark: Vegas. I hope you enjoyed it!
If
you’d like to learn more about the Ruton Affair and characters like Dexter, Dante and Erica check out Savior, book one of the Dark Origins series. Each of the Dark Origins books tells a part of the Ruton Affair, they are separate but connected stand-alone novels.
Savior Dark Origins Book 1
Uprising Dark Origins Book 2
If you would like to learn more about my books or have any questions come check out my Facebook group: The Dark Side