by J. L. McCoy
Not long after I rounded the first corner, I ran into Trouble. Trouble was six foot, five inches and three hundred pounds of solid “waylay your ass.” I don’t know who was more surprised, him or me, but he pulled his gun out to shoot me, and I grabbed my dagger and launched it at him. It missed his heart but embedded itself deeply into his shoulder, and he growled furiously as he pulled it out and launched it back at me. Ducking, I spun left as I palmed my Desert Eagle and brought it up to his face. Trouble froze, bringing his hands up slowly, his pissed-off expression evident on his ugly mug.
Just then I heard one long static transmission on the radio and knew that was the all clear to execute on the guards in the towers. A few seconds later, the air was filled with the sound of two precise pops as the guards were taken out.
“Your guard towers are down,” I stated matter-of-factly as I leveled the gun with his heart. “How many more of you are there?”
“More than you can handle, sweetheart,” he growled as he unexpectedly brought his arm up and pushed my gun to my right, a second before he punched me in the face.
Seeing stars, I recovered quickly and blocked his next swing, but a few heartbeats later, without warning, I was put into a choke hold from behind. Using my expert training, I jumped up, planted both feet onto Trouble’s chest and kicked out as hard as I could. Trouble went flying backward, as did I, taking with me the guy who had his arm around my throat.
He landed hard on his back but didn’t loosen his arm around my throat, so I reached into my shoulder holster, grabbed my extra gun, and shoved the barrel against his ribs, pulling the trigger again and again.
The silver cored RIP rounds did their job as they shredded their way deep into his flesh, and he screamed out in pain as he let go of me.
I rolled onto my side and got up just in time to take on Trouble again. This time I didn’t play nice as I raised the gun and put two rounds in his head. Trouble fell like a sack of bricks, and I walked up to him, reached down, and snapped his neck for good measure. There were bits of skull and brain matter on the ground around him, and I knew it would take him a long while to heal from that.
Hearing two sets of feet running my direction, I hurriedly retrieved the other gun and my dagger and rounded the next corner of the wall toward the sound. Two more men wearing angry scowls met me, and I wasted no time putting two bullets in each of their heads before they ever got a chance to fire off a shot of their own.
Holstering my extra gun, I rounded the third corner and was surprised when I saw Hagan and Corvus engaged in their own battles. They were fighting three men, so I ran up to the one closest to me, jumped on his back, and snapped his neck with one smooth pull. I rode his lifeless body to the ground and rolled off as I brought my gun up and fired off a shot at the man Corvus was fighting. It caught him in the liver, and that gave Corvus all the time he needed to put a bullet in the man’s heart.
Hagan quickly dispatched the last of the men, and his eyes immediately found mine as soon as he was finished. “You good?” he asked, worry slightly creasing his brow.
“Peachy, sir,” I answered, coming up to stand next to him.
We all gave each other the once-over and were satisfied when we found no one injured.
“Why didn’t you kill him?” Corvus asked me, and I just shook my head. Now was not the time to explain my reasoning for keeping those men alive. Not satisfied with my non-answer, he raised his gun and put a bullet in the man’s heart.
“That was my kill to take!” I exclaimed, pissed off, my face furious.
“Then you should have taken the shot, not left it to me.”
“I decide what I do, not you, Corvus!”
“It’s kill or be killed out here, Miss Morrison, if you haven’t fucking noticed. Get your head out of your ass and do your damn job. Eliminate these bastards so we don’t have more trouble on our way out.”
He did have a point there, but I wasn’t going to tell him that. I was firmly against killing if I didn’t have to, and I hadn’t needed to kill the men I took down.
“Come on,” Hagan said, walking toward the now open iron perimeter gate. “We don’t have time for this crap right now. I hear more inside.”
I sighed and then nodded as Corvus and I shelved our discussion for later.
“Stay on my six,” Hagan growled over his shoulder a second before he ran in.
Doing as I was told, I stayed close to his back as he and Corvus opened fire at the fifteen or so guards who were barreling down on us. Where they had come from, I had no idea, but I hoped there weren’t many more. The more intense the fighting got, the harder it would be for me not to kill someone, by accident or otherwise.
Hagan’s gun clicked, and he reached back with his hand, quickly tapped my hip, and we spun around, switching positions.
I fired with my left hand as I reached into my shoulder holster to grab the spare gun. While I was doing that, I caught two bullets to the chest and growled when the pain of the silver registered. The guards were using silver-tipped bullets, and it pissed me off even more when I caught another bullet to the thigh.
My guns were soon empty, so I reached back, tapped Hagan’s hip and we changed positions again. Happy to be out of the line of fire, I hit the mag release button on the guns and dropped the empty magazines before slapping the butts down on the fresh mags in my dual hip reloader.
I chanced a look over Hagan’s shoulder and saw even more guards running in our direction.
“I think it’s safe to say we found Stanus!” I yelled out before sidestepping Hagan and joining in on the fight again.
“About fucking time,” Corvus growled right before he grabbed one guard and sank his fangs deep into his neck. Corvus had several bullet wounds, and I knew from experience that feeding helped heal the body faster, which was what he was doing now.
Knowing we only had minutes at most to make our way into the main house, I made a moral judgment call and started aiming for hearts instead of heads. There was no way in hell I was letting that bastard get away from me again, and if I had to kill to get him, well, it looked like I would. Nothing was going to stop me from delivering Stanus to Atticus and getting revenge for Nikki.
I slipped into speed mode and flitted toward the house, ducking, dodging, and shooting my way through the wall of guards descending upon us. With my mind focused solely on getting to Stanus, I barely felt the bullets and knife slashes I received to my body as I fought my way through.
Soon, my guns dry fired again, and I knew I was out of bullets. I reupped using the last two clips in my hip reloader and kept going.
“What part of ‘stay on my six’ did you not understand?” I heard Hagan yell out, and I chanced a look over my shoulder to find him barreling toward me, his lips pursed tight and his eyes pissed off.
I caught a bullet to the shoulder and screamed out momentarily in surprised pain as I turned my attention back toward the house. “Stop distracting me,” I growled as I raised my guns and fired back at the four men shooting at me. “And keep up, old man. I don’t want Stanus getting away.”
“Did you just call me old?” he asked, his voice suddenly beside me.
“Did you just treat me like I was fragile?” I asked rhetorically, rolling my eyes as I dropped two more guards.
“Fair enough,” he answered, shooting the man coming toward me twice in the chest and once in the head.
I turned my attention to the left as guards tried attacking us from the flank. Suddenly I felt Hagan’s back against mine, forming a defense as we circled our bodies around together, shooting anything in our way.
“I’d say you’re as good with those guns as you are your dagger,” Hagan commented over the deafening sound of our shots.
“Better,” I replied, smiling. I was a crack shot and glad for it because the guards were well trained and had damn good aim. I’d caught more bullets than I was proud to admit, but didn’t pay the pain much mind; it just fueled my anger and adrenalin.
Once t
he final two guards were dispatched, I took a deep breath as I surveyed the large grounds. Corvus seemed like he was having trouble walking, so I holstered my two guns and ran over to him.
“You okay?” I asked worriedly, taking in his bloody form. He’d been shot multiple times, and the hard grimace on his face told me of the pain he was in.
“No,” he growled. “I’ve got two bullets lodged in my left lung and another two in my abdomen.”
“Stay here and heal,” I ordered as I pulled the knife off his belt, handing it to him. “Extract the silver if you can. If not, I’ll come back and help you once Stanus is secured.”
“Go,” he said around a gasp for breath. “Go get that mother... fucker.”
After giving him a squeeze on his shoulder in solidarity, I turned around and ran back to Hagan. He hadn’t been waiting for me. I found him steady marching toward the main house.
“He going to make it?” he asked as I reached his side and redrew my two guns.
“Yeah, he’s fine. Nothing some blood and time won’t fix.”
“Dammit,” he growled, frowning over at me. “I was hoping it was fatal.”
“He’s part of our team,” I reminded him, shaking my head. “He’s growing on you and you know it.”
“Yeah,” he scoffed, “like a cancer.”
We reached the main house then, and Hagan shot through the first tall window we came to. I guess he wasn’t interested in trying the door first. Following him through the window, I took a good glance around the house, and my eyes widened in surprise. The house was grand and richly decorated in expensive furnishings. I knew immediately that Stanus must have had lots of money to spare if his house looked this good.
Shaking my head, I sighed as I heard more footsteps coming toward us from upstairs.
“I count six,” Hagan commented as he loaded a fresh magazine into his gun.
“There’s eight sets,” I corrected, tilting my head to the right so I could hear better. “Nine now. And two sets running toward the east wing. I’ve got twenty bucks that says one of those is Stanus.”
“I’d probably lose that bet.” He smirked, briefly gazing over at me with a look of pride in his eyes.
Gunfire sounded and plaster exploded from the wall right next to us, the bullet narrowly missing my head.
“Not my hair, asshole,” I growled, my brow furrowing hard in anger as I turned my attention toward the offender.
He was chuckling as he brought the gun up again and fired rapidly. Pissed off, I fired back, my bullet finding its way to his heart, and he dropped like a sack of potatoes.
My guns dry fired again, and I groaned as I shook my head and crossed my elbows, deploying the six extra mags I kept in the spine reloader. Ducking back behind the fireplace, I reloaded as quickly as I could while Hagan held them off. As soon as my guns were ready, I switched places with Hagan and returned fire. I noted that these guards were better trained than the ones we first came upon and knew instantly Stanus chose them for a reason. They were smarter too, too smart. My bullets were having trouble finding their mark.
Two, four, six magazines down, and I was starting to get frustrated as I pulled out my last two magazines from my shoulder holster and loaded them up.
“We’re running out of ammo,” I murmured to Hagan over my shoulder before taking aim again at the men hiding on the other side of the far wall. “We’ve got to do something.”
“I’m open to suggestions,” Hagan growled, and I could tell he was getting pissed off at the situation as well.
“Stay here,” I commanded as I ducked back behind the fireplace, drew energy around myself, and got ready to teleport.
“Don’t you fucking dare, Morrison!”
“I’ll only be gone a minute. It’s our best option right now and you damn well know it,” I said, trying to placate him.
Body vibrating, bright light flashed behind my closed eyes, and I landed softly on the balls of my feet, opening my eyes to find myself a few feet behind the nine guards.
“Hey, assholes,” I whispered at the same time one of the men noticed me standing there. Quick as lightening, I took aim at hearts and started firing, but they were fast too, and I only downed three before I ran out of ammo.
Throwing my guns to the side, I fisted the handle of my dagger and drew it fast, slicing and stabbing my way through the six men as they shot and attacked me mercilessly.
Suddenly, my hair was fisted from behind as a man jerked me up onto my tiptoes and began stabbing me repeatedly in the heart. I screamed out in pain as I tried unsuccessfully to fight him off.
“Why won’t you die, bitch?” he yelled, his cold spittle hitting my face as his blade rained down on my chest over and over again.
Gunfire exploded around me, and I heard Hagan call out my name from a few feet to my left. My eyes were surprised to find him engaged with the guards. He’d used my distraction to cross the house, and I used his to pull the Hellfire 3 out of my boot. Putting the gun to good use, I pulled back the hammer, managed to put the gun to my attackers head, and pulled the trigger.
Instantly, his body went limp, and we both fell to the floor. The knife was still embedded in my shredded heart, and I gasped for air a few times as I fisted the handle before jerking it out. My heart didn’t beat again for a solid twenty seconds, but I could tell by the tingle and itch that it was repairing itself. Soon it gave an earth-shuddering thump and began beating steady again. I lurched forward with the pain it brought and felt cold tears slide down my face as I tried to recover.
Hagan groaned then yelled out in his own pain, and it brought me back to reality. Glancing over, I saw the last guard roundhouse kick Hagan in the face, and he flew back from the impact, landing hard on the ground and skidding a few feet before coming to a stop against the wall. I watched as the guard drew his pistol and took aim at Hagan.
Not waiting a second longer, I pulled my rapidly healing body up off the ground and ran to the man, knocking the gun out of his hand with my left hand as jumped into the air, fisted my right hand, and punched him hard in the face, using gravity to help deliver an even harder blow.
He crumpled to the ground, and I dove on top of him, punching him again and again as my anger took hold and started to get the better of me. I was pissed off that I’d let that other guard almost best me, and I was taking my anger out on the current one.
“That’s enough,” Hagan called out, but I paid him no mind. Punch after punch rained down on the guard, and I felt my smile widen as blood flew from his face and my fist.
“I said that’s enough!”
Hands were suddenly on my shoulders as I was pulled off the guard and thrown to the side. I watched with massive disappointment as Hagan shook his head at me, got down on one knee, and stabbed the guard in the heart.
“That was my kill,” I growled, my voice somewhat startling me. It was deep, guttural, and not all mine.
“Put away your fangs,” he commanded rather gently as he looked over at me, his chest heaving as he tried catching his breath.
It was then I noticed my eyes had turned black and my fangs were fully down. I knew I’d looked like a monster, and only a fraction of me was sorry for it. The majority of me was pissed off and delighting in playing with my prey.
“Now, Morrison.”
Sighing unhappily, I rolled my pitch-black eyes in frustration as I withdrew my fangs. “There. Happy?”
“Your eyes,” he said, and I shook my head.
“No. Those stay. I’m mad now, and I want to show Stanus who he’s fucked with.”
Shaking his head, Hagan picked up his gun from the ground and started jogging toward the staircase. I followed suit, and soon we were on the second floor.
The house split into two wings here, and remembering the other two footsteps went east, I tipped my head to the right, and we started our slow assault. Room by room we checked and cleared, and soon there was only one room left.
Hagan I glanced over at each other with uncerta
inty then back at the closed doors.
“I’ll kick it down and dive to the left, drawing their fire. You come in behind me guns blazing,” he instructed silently.
“I only have three bullets in my boot gun, one extra clip for it, and my dagger,” I informed in the barest of whispers.
“I have ten rounds and my sword and dagger, that’s it.”
“Shit,” we both muttered in unison.
“Be smart with the ammo. If it comes down to it, we’ll make it a sword and dagger fight, okay?”
I nodded and took a deep breath as Hagan quietly backed up from the door before charging forward, foot first. The wooden door exploded from the force, and Hagan dove left as promised. Gunfire immediately erupted from the other side of the room, and I took a deep breath and charged in, guns at the ready.
I was shocked to find four guards but quickly shook off the surprise as I started retuning fire. Thirty seconds into the fight, I was out of ammo, and the four of them were still standing.
They were lightning fast and incredibly skilled, making them doubly hard to kill.
Shoving my Hellfire 3 back in my boot, I grabbed my dagger and ran toward the man closest to me. He switched his gun for a sword and ran forward as well, engaging me. We came together in a hard clash of metal, and I knew he would have the advantage as he was carrying a sword. I yelled out for Hagan to throw me his while I pushed the guard away from me and delivered a spinning elbow stroke to his temple.
“I’m going to kill you for that,” the guard sneered at me as he wiped fresh blood from his brow.
“I guess no one told you the good news.” I chuckled as I caught Hagan’s sword and pinwheeled it beside me. “I can’t die.”
“Everyone can die. I’m going to have fun torturing you until I find something that works.”
I threw my head back and laughed. “You have to best me first, old man, and I don’t see that happening any time soon.”
He charged me again, and I easily blocked his sword, parrying the attack, before front kicking his body back a few feet. I engaged him then, sword aimed strait for his throat, but one of the other guards, charged me from the left and tackled me to the ground.