Stillbringer

by Zile Elliven

  “How did I . . . what? Do you really think now is the time for that conversation?”

  “Just shut up and answer the question.” She knew she was triggering his conditioning with her commands and hated it, but they didn’t have time for her fluffy-bunny feelings right now. The sound of feet thundering in the stairs made her feel justified.

  He gave her a look but complied immediately. “I felt like I needed a shower.”

  She gave him a glare.

  “I felt normal.” He paused. “I felt completely normal until I got to the stairs. Then I felt cold again. Like now.”

  “When you came back in the room?”

  “I felt good.”

  “And then you put the armor on.”

  Comprehension flashed on his face as the door slammed open, revealing a cowled man surrounded by green fire. In a fluid motion, Fourteen grabbed her by the back of the shirt and jerked her behind him while swinging his gun up to bear on the intruder. The air rippled around them as a spell broke over his shield, and he opened fire.

  It took seconds to tear through the man’s shield, telling Aeyli he was more proficient at offensive magic. Her aunt Stella was an exception in the magic community and had become skilled in more than one form of magic. She could shield as well as she could strike and was a terrifying opponent.

  Aeyli smiled to herself. Not against Fourteen, though.

  “Follow me.” Fourteen stepped over the lifeless body of the man who had tried to kill them and made a waving motion to Aeyli with his free hand. She saw him pulling a smaller gun out of his bag as he went through the door.

  Gingerly she tiptoed around the dead man and tried not to think about what she was doing. She definitely didn’t think about the fact her soldier had ended this man’s life without a thought. Once around the corpse, she had to run to catch up to Fourteen as he barreled down the stairs. She knew her best hope was to stay inside his shielding until he could get them out. When she caught up to him, she twined her fingers in the leather of his jacket and hung on.

  It didn’t take long before their assailants began attacking the stairs they were descending instead of them. Someone here had been taking notes from Stella. A horrific shriek of metal pealed behind them, and Aeyli looked back to see that the landing above had been crushed against the wall as if a giant’s hand had punched it. Then, with a loud crunch, the steps under them tilted and threw Aeyli against Fourteen.

  She clutched desperately at his jacket as he fought to gain a handhold on the wall next to them before the stairs disintegrated completely. Only one of his hands managed to gain purchase before the stairs dropped out from under them, but it was enough to halt their progress, leaving thirty-five feet of air between them and the ground.

  Something black and tar-like splattered inches from her face, and she let out a small squeak. She tried to pull herself closer to Fourteen and the protection of his shield, but the gun he’d slung over one shoulder hit her in the face, causing her to yelp and slip down his back. Her overly abused head throbbed in time with her racing heart.

  Even with the sudden pain, it wouldn’t have been as difficult for her to hang on if they both hadn’t been doing their best to avoid skin-on-skin contact—the last thing they needed was that kind of distraction. It seemed everywhere she looked was exposed skin—his and hers. Her tank top hadn’t seemed skimpy when she first put it on, but now, when she least wanted exposed skin, it seemed like a glorified bra. Compounded with that, Fourteen hadn’t had time to pull on a shirt or buckle his jacket all the way closed, and it had gotten rucked up during the fall, now displaying an impressive set of highly sculpted abs and his equally toned lower back.

  His jacket slid through her fingers, sending her farther down his back. She fought to keep her face from rubbing against his exposed hip. If the situation had been different, Aeyli would have delighted in the view. The gods were kind of dicks.

  Another spell went off, and pain shot through her foot, surprising a yip out of her. Scratch that, the gods were one great, big, heaving bag of dicks. She scrunched her legs up as high as she could, but continued to slide down.

  She was considering wrapping her arms around his waistband and hoping for the continued structural integrity of his pants when a gloved hand grabbed her arm and pulled her up. Fourteen held her out from his body at arms-length while holding on to a broken bit of rebar with his other hand, one foot jammed into a small dent in the wall. She saw that one of his pockets had a glove hanging out precariously and realized he must have found a glove in of one of the nine hundred pockets he had on his jacket and managed to put it on while saving their butts. How was this man real? The only problem was that with her porn-tastic tank top and his mostly open jacket, there was no way for her to hang on to him and stay within the protection of his shield without touching some skin.

  She felt Fourteen heave a deep sigh, then he pulled her in to his body. “Put your arms around my neck.” She felt his breath on her neck and shivered.

  A spell struck the wall a few feet over their heads, raining down bits of brick into their hair as she wrapped her body around him monkey-style. She tried to limit the exposure, but her arm brushed his neck, and her chest pressed against his. Fourteen turned so his body was between her and their attackers, pressing her against the wall.

  He closed his eyes and took in a shaky breath. A bullet struck the wall inches from his face, and his eyes flew open again, his pupils so wide his eyes had turned black. “Hold on,” he said through gritted teeth and pushed off from the wall.

  There was only enough time for her to make a short squawking sound in protest before they landed on a pile of unfolded boxes. He rolled as they landed, making a cage with his arms to protect her. They came to a collective stop as they hit a wall behind a collection of crates. Every part of her body was yelling obscenities at her.

  “Stay down,” he hissed in her ear and was on his feet before her eyes could track the movement. It was as if he hadn’t just taken the full brunt of a fall that could have killed a normal person.

  Like hell she was staying down. “You may be trained for this, but this is my family we are dealing with,” she shouted back angrily. Aeyli tried to sit up, regardless of what her aching flesh was telling her, but she was hampered by the foot he planted on her rear end. This situation was completely out of hand. “They aren’t just using magic anymore—they’ve got guns now too! Just because they are grossly incompetent with that sort of thing, doesn’t mean they aren’t dangerous.”

  “We can hear you, you know.” A male voice came from around the other side of the crate. “We also have feelings.”

  Fourteen lobbed a grenade in the direction of the voice. “Which is why you should stay down. And whatever happens, don’t tell me to do anything. The outcome would be questionable at best.” His voice was painfully calm.

  Her face went white, and ice water filled her veins. Somewhere between the loft and the adventure down the stairs, she had forgotten the crux of their relationship. “Okay, no giving orders. Got it.”

  “Your toy didn’t do anything. Was it supposed to—” The voice was cut off by a loud explosion.

  “He wasn’t near our ride, was he?” She tried to wiggle free but stopped when the pressure on her posterior intensified enough to become painful.

  “Negative.” He began shooting at targets she couldn’t see. From her perspective, it was impossible to tell if he was getting through anyone’s shields, but there was a break in the spells that had been pelting them. “We’re not leaving that way anyway.”

  Another bullet twanged against a ventilation shaft high overhead, telling her the idiot with the gun was still on the loose.

  “Do you mind filling me in on your plan?” she asked in a sickeningly sweet voice. If Fourteen knew her better—or had better social skills—he would be wary right now. If he wasn’t a vital part of getting out of here alive, she would seriously consider hitting him somewhere tender. There was a broken bit of pallet she coul
d just reach that would do the trick. She should have known when he locked her in his monstrosity of a vehicle he was going to be hard to work with.

  A fresh volley of spell-fire caused what was left of the stairs to come crashing down. Most of it fell harmlessly to the floor, but a mangled piece of metal struck Fourteen on the shoulder, driving him to the ground.

  His gun hit Aeyli on its journey to the floor, and it hurt. She was lucky her back had taken most of the impact, but it hit her poor abused head hard enough to make her see stars. She shook it off and forced herself to her feet. If she didn’t do something right away, they would be toast. All her family needed was an opening to rush in for the kill, and they’d just gotten one. Fourteen’s shield wouldn’t do them any good if someone put a gun to her head and pulled the trigger.

  Now that she was up, she could see over the crate and saw three witches lying motionless on the ground and several faces peeking around their respective hiding spots. Stella was edging around the corner of a forklift, and few yards away she saw her cousin Helen covered in bruises and spellpatches and looking murderous. Relief swept through Aeyli. She had been afraid she had killed her cousin whether she deserved it or not.

  “I’m going to burn your stupid champion alive while you watch, Girl!” Helen’s face was a twisted mask of rage.

  It was possible Helen would have been better off at the bottom of that hole after all. Aeyli would just have to find a way to live with it. She spied a grenade that had fallen from Fourteen’s pack and was reasonably confident she could use one now that she’d seen Fourteen do it. Right now she had nothing to lose.

  Everyone turned their heads when they heard a clunk followed by a faint tinkling sound. A dozen set of eyes followed the progress of the grenade rolling merrily toward the forklift. Aeyli ducked back behind the crates and crawled over to Fourteen where he was stoically digging through his bag, tucking various items into pockets and refilling the gun he’d dropped on her. He was dirty and one arm looked like it wasn’t obeying his commands as well the other one was, but he was alive.

  The warehouse shook on its foundations, and Aeyli winced as mingled screams filled the air.

  “That was very close to my SUV,” Fourteen commented.

  “And that thing is really heavy,” she remarked, pointing at the gun.

  He studied her with unreadable eyes. “Sorry. Are you okay?” He had the clip in and placed the gun within easy reach. He then pulled out a smaller gun that was still bigger than it had any right to be.

  “Yes. Mostly.” Her eyes burned and filled with tears, which she rapidly blinked away. They didn’t have time for it right now, but sometime soon she was going to have a nice little meltdown, complete with screaming and hyperventilating. “Can we go now?”

  He turned around to look at the wall behind them. “I think one more hit will do the job. Right over . . . there, I think.”

  “One more hit?” she echoed.

  “Here.” He shoved the smaller gun at her.

  She shoved it back. “Yeah, no.”

  He popped around the corner and fired a few more shots with it, then offered it again, this time wrapping her fingers around it. “Keep your hands like this, and you should be able to control it. The safety is off so keep it low when you aren’t firing. Don’t point it at me, don’t shoot if you don’t know what’s behind your target.” He looked at her bare arms and frowned. “If a casing hits your skin it’s going to hurt, just power through it. It won’t burn you badly enough to cause serious damage.”

  The impact of his words hit her. He wouldn’t be arming her if he wasn’t afraid. “Are we going to make it?”

  “Yes.” He reached for her, his bare hand slipping around the base of her neck. Aeyli felt his thumb caress her skin, and she shivered. She blinked slowly and stared into his eyes, entranced by the blatant need and hunger she saw there. His gaze made her feel like he would set the world ablaze if it meant keeping her safe. “I’ll get you out of this, I swear it.”

  Fierce desire pierced her to the core. Somewhere in the past twenty-four hours, Aeyli had gone from wanting to get as far away from the man as possible to never letting him go. If only she could be certain what Fourteen felt was real. The possibility he was only echoing her own feelings back at her was too strong to be denied.

  Fourteen glanced at the witch-filled warehouse through a crack in the crates, freeing her from his spell. “When I say now, we’re both going to come out and do the best we can to piss them off. Stay close to me and take cover if I tell you to. Got it?” He took his hand away from her neck. His eyes went cold, and all traces of personality melted from his face.

  Before her eyes, he had transformed from a concerned potential lover to an emotionless killing machine. It was all she could do not to reach out to him.

  Instead, she suppressed her reaction and nodded. Pissing off her family was something she excelled at. “I’m going to trust that at some point I’ll understand what’s going on?”

  The corners of his mouth tilted up ever so slightly. Her Fourteen was still kicking around inside. “I believe in your deductive abilities.” He peered between the crates again and said, “Okay, now.”

  When they stood up, she noticed Fourteen was moving slower than before. Apparently even he had limits on how much abuse his body could take. As soon as she could see over the crates, she searched the room for her cousin. The moment her eyes locked on to Helen, she took aim and proceeded to unload the entire clip at her. That should piss her off.

  As she shot, her arms and chest stung as spent casings bounced off, and she prayed none ended up inside her bra. Aeyli forgot about her sensitive areas as Helen’s shield flashed brightly and evaporated. Her gun chose that moment to run out of bullets. Now Aeyli would never know if she had it in her to kill her own cousin, though she did feel a dark satisfaction when one of Fourteen’s shots tore through Helen’s leg as she dove for cover.

  Fourteen had been more generous with his attack and had spread it out among their opponents. He took out three more shields and dropped the casters inside them. When he ran out of bullets, he just pulled out another gun and kept going. She noticed Fourteen focused slightly more attention on the idiot with the gun. Unlike the others, he wasn’t ducking madly when bullets flew his way. His shield must have been as strong as Stella’s, which wasn’t a surprise. If he had been more proficient at offensive magic, he wouldn’t have needed the gun.

  She laughed to herself when Gun Guy ran out of ammunition. He shook his gun, looked at it, and then shook it again. After yelling something Aeyli couldn’t hear, he turned and ran out of the warehouse.

  “That should do it. Take cover!” He shoved her head down—unnecessarily—and they both hit the dusty floor with Fourteen’s body covering hers.

  The wall behind them shook with the force of the myriad of spells it received, and she noticed Fourteen, still hunched over her body, was busy pulling out a small arsenal of grenades. A few of the grenades looked funny to her, making her think of tin cans with rings attached.

  “Get ready to run,” Fourteen announced.

  “Run where?” She shouted to be heard over the din of splats, hisses, crunches, and small explosions that heralded the sound of various spells doing what they were designed to do.

  When the noise died down, he pointed to the massive hole in the wall three yards to their right. “There. Now go!” He hauled her off the floor and pushed her toward the hole. “I’ll be right behind you.”

  She crawled over the rubble as fast as she could and turned halfway through the hole to make sure Fourteen was right behind her. She saw him lob a half-dozen grenades—including at least two of the ones that looked like tin cans.

  When he turned to follow and saw her standing there like an idiot, he shouted, “Move!” And ran toward the hole, bounding easily up the rubble—making her clumsy effort look sad and pathetic.

  She blamed her sore feet and throbbing head, but she also silently vowed to start working out once
things died down a bit. Maybe Fourteen could give her some tips. If this was what her life was going to be like, she needed to step up her game. “What were the not-grenade things?”

  “Tear gas. In a second or two it should be very unpleasant in there for anyone left, and it makes it hard to see where we went. Remind me to teach you how to use one someday.” He made it to the top of the rubble, nudged past her, and jumped off the four-foot wall, landing lightly on his feet. He reached his gloved hand toward her and helped her down.

  Several explosions shook the ground, and caustic smoke drifted out of the hole they’d climbed out of. When the wind shifted, it brought a tendril of it past her face causing her throat to try and strangle itself. “Some of them . . . might have shields that . . . ack . . . keep that stuff out.” she managed to choke out as Fourteen led her away, tucking her under his arm.

  “Noted.” He kept her between him and the wall as they crept toward what looked like a trash heap. “I have a bike under that tarp if we can just—”

  It sounded to Aeyli as if every firearm in the world was being cocked as men wearing body armor and carrying guns surrounded them.

  “Friends of yours?” She was trying for glib, but she broke into a fit of coughing caused by the tear gas.

  “No.” He nudged her against the wall—his large form completely obstructing her view of the situation. “Stay behind me.”

  Her face went numb as adrenaline spiked, and her fingers felt fuzzy and tingly. Before Fourteen had shoved her behind him, she had seen over a dozen men with the impassive faces of soldiers. Had her family hired norms to do their dirty work in the event magic had failed them? Fourteen’s armor could shield them both from magic, but norm weaponry and combat? Surely even Fourteen couldn’t protect them from that many soldiers.

  “Sunny dear, I think it’s time to admit defeat.” Stella’s voice came from around the wall of men separating them. “I don’t know what the fuss is all about, we’re just trying to bring you home where you belong. No one needs to get hurt over this.”