Inamorato

by Keira Michelle Telford

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  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Priority Extraction

  Alex fumbles for his cell phone on the bedside table.

  Until just a few moments ago, he was dead to the world. His apartment is quiet, except for the sound of running water that’s softly murmuring from the shower in the adjoining bathroom. Rubbing sleep away from his eyes, he checks his phone and opens the message.

  His eyes open wide.

  “Fuck!”

  Stark naked, he leaps out of bed and scrambles for his clothes. Pulling on a Hunter Division combat uniform as fast as he can, he places a call to the Hunter General and bolts out of the front door.

  Agonizing minutes later, in the DDH loading bay, he stands at the head of two Hunter Division units that are about to be deployed into the Belt. In front of them all, Maydevine paces anxiously.

  “Your priority is the safe extraction of the children, and any other civilians who might be out there. Once they’ve all been returned to the city, you will seek out and destroy everything that moves and breathes out there. Now go!”

  As the units prepare to board their trucks, Maydevine holds Alex back.

  “Your priority is the extraction of my daughter, Commander. I know she’s out there, and I want you to find her.”

  “My other men are equally capable—”

  “I’ve made myself clear,” Maydevine cuts him off. “She has no respect for the other men. If they try and take her out of the Belt, she’ll defy them.”

  “And what makes you think she’ll treat me any different?”

  “She likes you. She’ll listen to you.” Maydevine points a finger at him. “You find her, and you bring her back here to me.”

  Alex nods. “Very well, sir.”

  Maydevine lets him go, and by the time he reaches his truck, he’s received another text message:

  MAKE THAT 6 ;-)

  Atta girl, he smiles.

  *************************

  Ella tosses aside the bloody rock she just used to beat a Chimera to death. Its skull crushed and deformed, it’s barely recognizable.

  “Serves you right, asshole,” she mutters.

  Down the street, a group of her peers have stopped to watch the violent display, and are both frightened and awed by her. Not far away from all of this, the Hunter Division sirens begin to blare as the trucks enter the Belt, heralding safety.

  “What are you waiting for?” Ella calls out to the kids. “Head for the bridge!”

  Not needing to be told twice, they sprint away as fast as they can toward the promise of protection—and they’re not alone. The sound of the sirens has many of the other kids in a panic. They begin appearing from the nooks and crannies of the Belt, and the first of the trucks to arrive in the Belt soon finds itself overwhelmed with a mob of shrieking, wailing teenagers.

  Alex jumps out, trying to navigate through the swarm, directing the kids toward the other trucks and away from the path of harm. Satisfied that his men will soon have the situation under control, herding the children onto the bridge as best they can, he turns his attention to his own quest.

  “Ella!”

  Nothing.

  “Ella Cross!”

  Still nothing.

  Another group of screaming kids floods out from a nearby alleyway, and the reason for the screaming soon becomes apparent.

  A Chimera appears to be charging after them.

  It knocks over a trash can as it slips and slides around a corner, quickly regaining its footing and darting away down another street. Oddly, though, this Chimera chases nothing. Instead, it has become the pursued.

  Alex looks on in amazement as Ella bounds after it, spring boarding herself off the edge of a building to avoid the rolling trash can. The obstacle barely slows her down at all.

  Following the animal into a building, she skids to an abrupt halt in the foyer and looks around. She can’t see it.

  Standing still to listen, she hears a noise behind her and spins around.

  Crap.

  Alex barges in through the open door and crashes straight into her. A split second behind him, another Chimera runs into the building and leaps at his back.

  The creature takes them both down, and Ella hits the floor first. Above her, Alex braces himself on his arms, trying his best to keep his weight off her so that he doesn’t hurt her, knowing that the combined weight of himself and the Chimera would be more than enough to shatter her ribs.

  The Chimera digs its talons into his back, all two hundred pounds of it snarling down above his shoulders. Winded, Alex struggles to shake the Chimera off his back before he collapses.

  Thinking fast, Ella reaches for Alex’s belt and gropes for his hunting knife. She pulls it out of its sheath and leans into Alex, reaching behind his back and stabbing the monster in the side.

  It works.

  The Chimera squeals and topples sideways, finally giving Alex some relief. He rolls off Ella and tries to get his breath back.

  No such luck.

  Ella rolls onto his chest and pulls a handgun from his belt. The pressure of her weight over him worsens the battle for air, but he’s in no position to stop her. Her chest pressed against him—her left breast brushing awkwardly against his cheek—she aims at the Chimera.

  One shot.

  Two.

  Three.

  Four.

  The animal twitches and dies.

  Alex tries to angle his head away from Ella, but finds all attempts to reposition himself futile.

  “It’s a little claustrophobic down here,” he rasps.

  Suddenly realizing how close they are to one another, Ella sits up. “Sorry.”

  Now Alex can breathe easier, but the new position they’re in is worse in a different way: she’s straddling him.

  She looks around for the other Chimera. “Did you see where it went?”

  “I can’t see much from down here.” He adjusts his position slightly, hoping that she can’t feel anything shift below his beltline.

  While they both pause to catch their breath, Alex becomes distracted. Looking up at her from the floor, her shirt catches his eye. Taking her quite by surprise, he reaches up and unzips her hoodie, pulling it back to reveal the tight-fitting t-shirt.

  Up close, and without a Hunter Division Kevlar vest or jacket to obscure them, her breasts are surprisingly round and full. Under the guise of reading the caption on her t-shirt, he lets his gaze linger.

  ‘Fuck Everything’ has been altered. A red cross has been drawn through ‘Everything’ and ‘Chimera’ has been scrawled above it.

  Fuck Chimera.

  “That’s more appropriate,” Alex approves.

  “I thought so.”

  He releases her hoodie and rests his hands lightly on her thighs.

  Suddenly, there’s a rumble.

  The other Chimera is posturing at them from the far end of the room.

  “Found it!” Ella grins.

  She raises the HK USP on it, but Alex has other ideas.

  “My turn.”

  He flips her over onto her back—sending the gun clattering out of her hand—and kneeling between her legs, he retrieves his hunting knife off the floor. He hurls it at the Chimera, and hits the creature right between the eyes.

  “That was pretty good,” Ella concedes.

  “Pretty good? Really? Could you do that? I don’t think so.”

  “Ask me again in a couple of years.”

  A moment passes.

  Before either of them has a chance to feel self-conscious about the fact that her legs are spread and he’s still kneeling between them, there’s a sneeze.

  A human sneeze.

  They both know what that means: civilians.

  Alex leaps to his feet, hauling Ella up with him. While he retrieves his weapons, Ella pushes open the door into another room and finds a group of stoned teenagers who’re completely oblivious to the mini war that’s going on
around them.

  The room is filled with smoke and it reeks of cannabis. The windows are all boarded up, and it’s almost completely dark inside.

  “Get the fuck out!” Ella yells, heaving one of them up off a chair.”Did you not hear the sirens?!”

  She pushes one boy out of the room and encourages his friends to follow.

  “Go! Get lost!”

  Alex rejoins Ella and helps her to clear the room. Once the last of the teenagers has picked up and left, he turns his attention back to her.

  “I have to get you back into the city.”

  She ignores that.

  “Why don’t I hear any weapons?” she asks.

  “Huh?”

  “Outside. Why are your men not pursuing targets?”

  “Our orders are to extract all the civilians first—including you. We’re not to seek out targets until then.”

  Ella rushes back outside. Two Hunter Division trucks are pulling away back into the Sentinel District, with several dozen hysterical civilians loaded aboard them. The other kids—the teenagers rousted from their drug den—are heading for a third vehicle that’s about to gear up.

  “I’d say you were in the clear, Commander.” She turns back to face Alex. “The civilians are safe, and we have four more targets to acquire.”

  Alex grabs her by the arm and prevents her from getting away from him.

  “Oh, no. I’m taking you back with me, as per the Hunter General’s most explicit instructions.”

  Ella shakes her arm free. “I know the Belt like the back of my hand. Do you?”

  He doesn’t.

  “And you did tell me to prove myself to my papa, didn’t you?”

  “This isn’t quite what I had in mind.”

  “Really? Then why did you let them loose?”

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Simple Works

  Ella uses her speed and agility to herd a fresh target into an old warehouse, with Alex sticking close behind her.

  “You think I did this?!” he barks at her.

  “Yeah. Why? You deny it?”

  Alex fires a shot at the Chimera, wounding it. “No shit. You think I’d deliberately risk your life like this?”

  Ella takes advantage of the injured animal’s weakness and kicks it in the side of the head, breaking its neck and killing it instantly.

  “The internship program only accepts a handful of Cadets each year—you said so yourself. And you want me in the program, right? What other reason would there be for this?”

  Alex follows her lead, sprinting with her down an empty street toward the remains of her second kill of the day.

  “That’s precisely why I thought you were responsible for this: to get into the program. When I said you should make your papa proud, I didn’t expect that you’d go to such an extreme.”

  “I didn’t,” she assures him. “This wasn’t me.”

  “You expect me to believe that?”

  Ella grabs a piece of rope from a fallen piece of signage, and begins tying it to the Chimera’s cold, dead hind legs. “I don’t give a shit what you believe.”

  “What’re you doing?”

  “Where’s your truck?”

  Alex’s truck is the only one left in the Belt.

  He catches onto her idea. “You want to lure them out?”

  “Unless you can think of something better?”

  “Lure them where?”

  “South. There’s a park. We can draw them out into the open and pick them off one by one.”

  “You make it sound so simple.”

  “Simple works.”

  “Sometimes.”

  *************************

  Back in the city, Maydevine eagerly awaits the return of the Hunter Division trucks. Watching them pass back through into the city, he twirls a cigarette between his fingers, almost holding his breath as the civilian children begin to disembark.

  No sign of Ella.

  He grabs one of his Hunters by the collar of his Kevlar vest and pulls him close.

  “Where’s my daughter?” he growls.

  The Hunter hesitates, unsure of the right thing to say.

  Finally, “She’s with Commander King, sir.”

  “Where?”

  The Hunter gulps, his mouth dry. “They’re still in the Belt, sir.”

  Outraged, Maydevine pushes the Hunter away from him.

  “Kiiiing!” he yells into the empty air, punching the side of a Hunter Division truck and denting it.

  *************************

  Alex is at the wheel with Ella riding shotgun, and together they drag the bloody corpse of the Chimera through the Belt streets. Ella having slit the beast from neck to groin, its innards are spilling out all over the dry, cracked earth.

  Her hands are soaked in blood, and so are Alex’s. Neither of them seems to care. Reaching across him, Ella steals a cigarette from the chest pocket of his Kevlar vest.

  “Good luck.” He sighs. “I lost my lighter back there somewhere.”

  “Lighters are for pussies.”

  As Alex pulls the truck up in the middle of the park, Ella jumps out and pops the hood. Leaning in over the gubbins of it, she lights the cigarette from the heat of the engine. Alex appears beside her and grabs back her ponytail before she sets fire to that as well.

  “Be careful,” he cautions her.

  “Thanks.” She smiles. “It’s nice to know that someone’s got my back.”

  With the cigarette pinched between her lips, she clambers up onto the roof of the truck. Alex is right behind her, and he gives her rump a helpful shove on the way. Sitting beside her, he steals the cigarette from her lips.

  “It’s the last one.” He takes a quick puff. “You’ll have to share.”

  “You wouldn’t give a girl your last cigarette?”

  “I might, if I was with one.”

  She shoves him, stealing back the cigarette. “You really didn’t let them loose?”

  Alex shakes his head. “You?”

  She shakes, letting him take the cigarette from her again.

  “Then who’s responsible for it?” he presses. “You’re sure it was deliberate?”

  Ella nods. “The chains on the holding cells were all cut.”

  “The holding cells?”

  “The place where we held the fights is an old military building. Deep in the bowels of it there are some kind of prison cells, and that’s where we were keeping the beasts between fights. After I unexpectedly got up close and personal with a Chimera this morning, I went to check on the rest and … well, they were all gone.”

  Silence.

  “Whose idea was it?” Alex asks at last. “The Belt fights. Who started it?”

  “Why does that matter?”

  “I want you to tell me that it wasn’t you.”

  “Why?”

  “So that I don’t have to question my faith in your sanity, or your judgment.”

  Ella doesn’t say anything.

  Alex puts on his sternest voice. “Ella …”

  “It was never meant to be a regular thing, okay?” she confesses. “It was something we did once, and it just sort of snowballed. Believe me, I never intended for it to carry on like this.”

  Alex pinches the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger. “Why do you feel the need to be so goddamn reckless all the time?”

  Ella rolls her eyes. “You sound just like my papa.”

  “What do you expect? It’s not good for you to behave this way.”

  “What difference does it make to you?” Ella begins to get uppity. “I could die tomorrow and—”

  “It would make a difference.” He locks eyes with her. “It would make a big difference.”

  More silence.

  “Would it make you feel any better if I told you I didn’t come up with the idea for the first Belt fight?” Ella sighs. “I just revived it.”

  “Maybe.”

  “Good, because that’s the truth.” She thieves the cig
arette back from him. “Do you remember that time, years ago, when a bunch of Chimera broke out from the V-and-V building?”

  “I was just a kid, but yeah. Why?”

  “A bunch of Hunters and Cadets captured one of the escapees and dragged it out to the Belt. They chained it up and tortured it, and they were going to kill it.”

  “Something went wrong?”

  “They did something stupid.”

  “Someone got hurt?”

  “No. I wasn’t hurt, I—”

  Oops.

  She glances at Alex sideways, wondering if he caught her slip.

  He did.

  “You?!”

  “Before you get all up in my face about it, I wasn’t exactly a willing participant.”

  “How old were you?!”

  “Five.”

  Alex buries his face in his palm, not really sure if he wants to hear the details of it. “What happened?”

  “Short version: they threw me in with the Chimera and told me to kill it.”

  Alex’s eyes couldn’t get any wider if he held them open with toothpicks. “And did you?”

  “I wish. I had to be rescued, and I’m not proud of it.”

  “Rescued by whom? Your papa?”

  “No. Some lady. Anyway, the point is, a few months ago, I decided to try out my own version of a Belt fight.”

  “You’re such an idiot.”

  “Think what you like, just don’t tell my papa.”

  Alex sighs. “They’ll shut down the Belt for good now. You know that, right?”

  Ella nods, passing him back the cigarette. “No more Belt fights.”

  At the edge of the park, a Chimera appears, focused on following the trail of blood.

  “See, simple works.” She nudges Alex proudly.

  Behind it, there’s another.

  And another.

  Forming a nose-to-tail train, the three remaining Chimera breach the boundary of the park. The one in front raises its nose and sniffs the air, catching the scent of humans. Swaggering its massive body from side to side, it attempts to make itself look bigger and more threatening. Becoming excited, the other two join in and they form a line, all huffing and shrilling.

  Alex hands Ella one of his guns and the last of the cigarette. In unison, they raise their weapons and wait for the Chimera to charge. As soon as they do, the Hunter-Cadet duo fire shots at them until all of them hit the dirt.