Crossfire (Book 1) (The Omega Group)

by Andrea Domanski

  A shiver ran through her as Daedric took her arm and led her into the house. Mirissa didn’t speak as he guided her toward the back of the house; rather she tried to memorize as many details of the layout as possible. They passed dozens of men in uniforms, scattered throughout the first floor, all of which eyed her with a mixture of trepidation and suspense. Perhaps they were waiting for the big show.

  Upon reaching a set of large double doors, Daedric stopped before opening them and turned to her. “I must say, young Mirissa. I am a little disappointed. Over the twelve years since I learned of your existence I have often wondered what you would be like. Your destiny being what it was, I expected someone more”—he paused as though trying to find the right word—“Formidable.”

  Mirissa gave him her best “I’m bored” stare. There just didn’t seem to be any reason to engage this maniac in conversation. She focused only on getting her father out of this place safely. In the hopes of moving things along, she reached past her host and opened the door.

  Mirissa’s heart leapt into her throat as she took in the scene in front of her. Daedric’s soldiers surrounded a large stage at the far end of the room. Her father was tied to a post in the center of it. The two SEALs on one side, and Grainger and his wife on the other, bound and kneeling. The expression on her father’s face as she walked in the room went from defiance to defeat in an instant.

  Although she wanted more than anything to run to her father’s side and wrap her arms around him, she kept her emotions in check. Stay calm. Stay focused. Turning to Daedric, Mirissa said in a voice that she hoped sounded stronger than she felt, “You have me; now let them go.”

  “I don’t believe I can do that. You see, young Mirissa, Grainger betrayed me when he helped the Omega group escape their safe house. His fate, and the beautiful Meghan’s, was a foregone conclusion. Your father and his Navy friends sealed their own fates when they broke into my home. What kind of example would I be setting for my men if I simply let them walk away?”

  Mirissa fisted her hands so tightly that her fingernails threatened to draw blood from her palms. The now familiar sensation of her powers began to course through her body as her ring came to life, wrapping around her arm and extending its blade. It took all of her self-control to keep from shattering every window in the room, but she couldn’t allow herself to do that. Mirissa had no knowledge of her powers until yesterday, so there was no way that Daedric could know of her abilities. Yes, she was on his home turf, surrounded by his army, but she did have that one advantage.

  With lightning speed, Mirissa swung her blade at Daedric’s throat with enough force to sever his head, but her blade hit nothing but air. His teleportation powers made him a difficult target as he moved instantly from one side of her to the other. Sensing his presence behind her, Mirissa continued her swing another 180 degrees, only to be met with air again.

  A low, rumbling chuckle came from the stage, where Daedric now stood next to her father. “You are fast, Mirissa, but not nearly fast enough. Perhaps my anonymous caller had it wrong all those years ago. Again, I’m disappointed.”

  Mirissa watched as her father pushed himself as far away from Daedric as he could with his arms still tethered to the post behind him, and looked her right in the eye. She knew he must have been pleading with her to run and save herself. But as she looked into his eyes she didn’t see worry or sadness or pleading. Instead she saw determination. He stared at her, flicked his gaze behind him and slightly down, then back at her again. As his intent dawned on her, she gave an almost imperceptible nod of her head.

  “So, you’re the big, bad, Daedric. I have to say, I’m a little disappointed, too.” Mirissa said with a smirk. “Don’t get me wrong. That teleporting thing is cool and all, but you have to admit it’s really just a faster way for you to run like a little girl. I expected a lot more from a half-breed god than that.”

  The ice in Daedric’s eyes turned to fire as he shot his arms in front of him and Mirissa was thrown violently through the air. She landed hard on her behind but used her martial arts training to tuck and continue the roll until she was up on her feet again.

  She sauntered back toward him as she continued to taunt. “So, teleportation and telekinesis. That’s two of the three T’s. What about telepathy?” Mirissa waited with her eyebrows raised, then continued. “Guess not. Must be the half-breed thing.”

  Daedric was shaking with anger now and Mirissa could see the blanched white faces of his men surrounding the stage. Just another minute. Keep focusing on me.

  The snake on Mirissa’s arm began to vibrate. Just a slight tingle at first, then it felt as though her entire arm was inside a sub-woofer at a heavy metal concert. Something was happening, but she didn’t know what.

  Daedric walked toward her with his arm outstretched and his hand fisted so tightly his knuckles were white. “Something wrong?” she asked. His frown turned quickly to a snarl as he lowered his arm. The vibration in her arm dissipated immediately.

  All eyes in the room were on her, which was exactly what she wanted. Behind Daedric, she could see her father and his SEAL team friends silently communicating through looks and small gestures, just as they’d done a hundred times before. A moment later they made their move.

  With their bindings falling to the floor thanks to Mirissa’s newfound powers, the three of them jumped off the stage toward their guards, incapacitating one each with a well-placed chop to the throat. Before the bodies hit the floor, they were stripped of their knives. Her father and Blackjack took out the next two guards with a quick upward thrust of those deadly blades under their rib cages and into their hearts, while Lincoln threw his knife expertly at the sixth man’s chest. It all happened in mere seconds.

  Daedric turned in time to see the last man drop to the floor with nothing but the hilt of the knife protruding from his chest. He let out a primal yell, but before he could raise his hands against her father, Mirissa swung her left hand out and Daedric was yanked off his feet and thrown to the wall. At the same time, she raised her right hand and pushed it fiercely forward. The entire wall of windows behind the stage blew out in a cacophony of shattered glass. “Run!” she screamed.

  Grainger, who had pulled his wife behind the stage when the fighting started, now grabbed her by the arm and dragged her outside. They turned to the right and were gone.

  Mirissa watched, horrified, as her father ran into the room toward her, instead of running out. “Go!” she yelled.

  “Not without you,” he said calmly. He grabbed her hand and pulled her to the now open back wall.

  As more of Daedric’s guards streamed into the room, Mirissa and her father ran, with his two former teammates right on their heels. When they rounded the stage she looked over her shoulder in time to see Daedric raise both hands above his head in a wide sweeping motion. He looked like a conductor bringing his orchestra to a dramatic crescendo. A moment later Mirissa and her father hit what felt like a cement wall.

  Her nose bloodied by the impact of Daedric’s force field, Mirissa turned back toward the room. The guards, more than two-dozen of them, formed a line behind their boss that stretched from one side of the room to the other. Their assault rifles were raised and at the ready.

  “Not bad,” Daedric said as he clapped his hands in a mock show of appreciation. “You caught me off guard. Not something that happens very often. But did you really think it would be that easy?”

  Mirissa remained silent.

  “Not so chatty now, are we young Mirissa? No matter. I have other ways of entertaining myself.” With a quick look over his shoulder, Daedric gave the order. “Shoot the one on the left.”

  A moment later, Lincoln grabbed his chest as the bullet tore through him. Steve and Blackjack jumped to his side as he fell to the floor, the red stain on his shirt spreading quickly. Steve put pressure on the chest wound in a desperate attempt to save his friend’s life, but it was too late. Lincoln’s vacant stare said he had already passed.

 
; “You bastard!” Steve screamed as he launched himself at Daedric. Before he’d made it even three steps he was jerked from the floor and flung against the wall so hard the drywall gave way in a man-shaped depression. Blackjack grabbed the knife that was still embedded in a dead guard’s chest and threw it with everything he had at Daedric. His aim was true, but the blade stopped a few feet short of hitting its target and fell uselessly to the floor. Another flick of Daedric’s wrist and the SEAL was thrown to the ceiling before falling unceremoniously to the floor, his left arm bent at an unnatural angle.

  “Stop!” Mirissa wailed.

  Daedric simply raised his eyebrows and waited for her to continue.

  “I’ll do whatever you want. Just don’t hurt them anymore.”

  “No, Mirissa. Please,” Steve begged.

  “Dad, I love you. I need you to know that.” Mirissa turned so she was facing her father head-on but could still see Daedric on her left in her peripheral vision. She felt the tears welling in her eyes as she spoke. “You are the most important person in my life and I can’t let you be hurt, or worse, because of me. Just know that what comes next is because I love you.”

  Unbeknownst to Daedric, Mirissa had used these last moments to not only say goodbye to her father, but to ensure his safety as well. She’d been forcing her blade into the wall of energy that was separating them from the outside, using her body to shield the movement. She didn’t know if she had the ability to erect such a barrier, but she was sure she could break one down. As the power surged from her body into the snake wrapped around her arm and down the blade into the wall, Mirissa felt the energy expanding until it hit critical mass. There was an audible “pop” when the wall finally disintegrated.

  “Sorry. This is gonna hurt.”

  Mirissa immediately did two things at once. Swinging her right arm in a wide arc, she used her power to lift her father and Blackjack into the air and flung them outside with all the strength she had. She watched them sail over the yard toward the water until the sun, still rising in the eastern sky, blinded her to their progress. All the while she used her left hand to create miniature tornadoes, seven of them, whirling around Daedric and his men.

  Once Mirissa felt she’d carried her father and Blackjack a good enough distance, she turned her full attention to Daedric. The cyclones were causing havoc with the guards, stripping them of their weapons and turning everything in the room that wasn’t nailed down into deadly shrapnel. They were effectively out of the game.

  Daedric, on the other hand, was cocooned safely in another one of his force fields. His shield was acting the same way Beck’s had during the attack at the safe house, which was what Mirissa had counted on. It was keeping everything out—the shrapnel, the errant bullets from startled guards, and the cyclones themselves—but it was also stopping him from fighting back.

  As she stepped toward the opening in the wall, Mirissa could feel her power waning. There was no way for her to know what her limits were but she had the distinct impression that she was quickly reaching them. One last burst to ensure the cyclones would continue to spin long enough to allow her escape, and she turned to run, catching a glimpse of Daedric as she did.

  He was smiling.

  Why is he smiling?

  When the water hit her it was like standing in front of the business end of a fire hose. The wind was knocked from her lungs at the sheer force of it. She was sent tumbling back into the room, both flying over the floor and impacting brutally against it as she somersaulted violently. The back of her head hit something solid while the rest of her body continued to somersault until it, too, made contact.

  The water stopped as suddenly as it had started and Mirissa fell to the floor in a tangle of limbs and dripping hair. She struggled to pull air into her lungs as she righted herself as best she could. She felt as though every ounce of her strength had been sucked out of her, leaving her too weak to stand. She lifted her chin enough to see the source of the water jet that had pummeled her and immediately wished that she hadn’t.

  There were eight people standing in front of her of varying heights, builds, ages and races. The only commonality among them was the look of pure evil in their eyes. The one on her far left she recognized immediately as a Kakodaemon, but the others were unknown to her, although she was pretty sure which one of them was responsible for hosing her down. He stood two over from the Kako. His skin, if it could be called that, looked almost gelatinous and hung loosely over his too skinny frame. Every movement made it jiggle like the surface of a pond after being pierced by a rock. His hands hung loosely by his sides and still had a steady stream of water pouring out of them.

  Gross!

  Mirissa’s study of the newcomers was cut short when the wall she’d been leaning against disappeared from behind her. Daedric’s removal of his force field caused her to fall backward and, yet again, hit the back of her head. She closed her eyes as the pain splintered her already aching brain.

  If there was one thing that would make her headache worse, it would be the smug look of satisfaction on Daedric’s face as he gazed down on her. She decided to keep her eyes closed and forego that particular pleasure. Then she heard his voice.

  “I see you’ve met my associates.”

  Chapter 38

  Mirissa?

  Mirissa found herself floating in a sea of black. She felt odd, disconnected, as though there was something she was forgetting, but she had no idea what it was. Perhaps she would remember after getting some sleep.

  Mirissa. Can you hear me?

  Who was talking to her? And why couldn’t she open her eyes to see?

  Mirissa, I can’t hold this connection for very long. You are in grave danger. You must wake up before the transfer is complete.

  Transfer? What transfer? Who is this? And where am I?

  My name is Artemis and you are still in Daedric’s home. Your powers are severely drained so we have little time left. You must wake up, Mirissa.

  Mirissa felt warm and comfortable floating in this dream. Waking up was just about the last thing she wanted to do. I just need a few more minutes to get my strength back. She could feel the pull of desperately needed sleep and it was consuming her. Just a few more minutes. I promise.

  NO! Mirissa, you are not simply tired right now. You are being drained of all of your powers. Daedric is using a succubus to transfer your powers to him. You must wake up before it is too late. It won’t be long now.

  There’s that name again. Daedric. Something was nagging at her from the back of her mind, but she couldn’t focus on it long enough to understand what it was. It was like trying to remember the details of a dream after waking up in the morning. They were just out of reach, and the more she tried to remember them, the farther out of reach they got.

  Call on your ring, Mirissa. It will help you. Do it now.

  Her ring. Yes, she remembered her ring. It was beautiful. The diamonds and emeralds shimmered when the light struck it. But it was more than that, wasn’t it?

  Hurry, Mirissa!

  The ring was a gift. A gift from… her mother. Yes. That was it. The ring was her Amazon ring. Mirissa used every last bit of her strength to focus on her ring. She knew that if she could just make the connection things would become clear again. Please.

  The tingle began in her right hand, then swiftly moved up to encompass her arm. She was no longer floating but rather lying on something hard. As she struggled to open her eyes, the memories of the past two days flooded in. Her mother, the Omega Group, her father—and Daedric.

  Mirissa bolted upright. She was on a long billiards table. A man, one of the eight people she’d seen in Daedric’s game room before passing out, held her left arm in a vise-like grip. She could feel her powers flowing out of her where they touched. His other hand was on Daedric’s shoulder.

  He’s the succubus. He’s taking my powers from me and giving them to Daedric.

  The look on Daedric’s face as he stood beside her—one of pure elation—con
firmed her thoughts.

  Oh, hell no!

  Mirissa tried in vain to wrench her arm free. She was too weak. The succubus’s grip didn’t give one bit and her powers continued to flow out of her. She used her right hand to throw a punch, but there was no strength behind it and the blow simply glanced off his shoulder.

  Blackness was threatening to envelop her once again. She was losing consciousness. Her time had run out. With one final effort she extended her ring’s blade and drove it toward the succubus’s neck.

  The last thing Mirissa saw before the darkness took her was her blade sailing past its target, never making contact.

  Chapter 39

  “Now!” Myrine screamed.

  Myrine watched as Orano fired an energy ball at the succubus’s back. An instant after it made contact, both Mirissa and Daedric convulsed as though they’d been hit by a fifty-thousand-volt Taser. Then all three of them fell limp.

  Myrine wanted to run to her daughter’s side—to hold her hand and say another prayer that she would be all right—but that would have to wait. Right now, Mirissa’s best chance was for Myrine to do her job.

  “Beck, cover them.”

  Beck put a protective force field around Mirissa and another one around Daedric, although the second was for their protection, not his. “Already done. Go get ‘em, boss.”

  With a quick nod, Myrine turned to survey the room. In mere seconds, she took in the entire scene. The rest of her team, along with Commander Pierce’s, were in a battle that was quickly escalating to epic proportions. The SEALs were taking on Daedric’s human army and each member of the Omega Group was fighting head-to-head with a member of Daedric’s preternatural army. It was unfolding exactly as they planned it. Once Julian was able to identify each of the eight passengers on that plane, it became a simple matter of proper pairing.