by Dean Murray
Pulling a weapon out was always tricky business. There was always a real risk that despite the damage it had done on the way in, that it was partially obstructing an artery, and pulling it out would just result in bleeding to death quickly rather than slowly.
Still, Adam wasn't going to be able to walk out of the club with the weapon sticking out of his chest, and there wasn't enough rounds left to blow a nice clean hole through Tanners chest. If he was going to die he may as well make sure Tanner went with him.
The decapitation was messy and took the last of his strength. The last thing he remembered was collapsing to the floor.
Sometime later, the blond shook Adam awake. Judging by the way he was breathing, he had a collapsed lung; but given that he hadn’t expected to wake up, Adam supposed he shouldn't complain. He turned to the blond who still hadn't said anything and feebly shook her.
"Are you ok?"
"I'm not sure. I feel numb inside."
"Welcome to combat, that will go away after a while. Help me get up, we need to get out of here before someone comes and checks on Victoria or Tanner."
The pair half supported each other enough that they were able to walk out to the main VIP floor. Their real blood blended in nicely with the fake blood, and apparently it wasn't uncommon for someone to leave the alcoves a little unsteady on their feet.
Several minutes later they'd successfully navigated the tides of humanity and made it outside. Adam looked around, unsure of his next move until James flashed the lights.
"I see you picked up a companion. What happened in there?"
The blond opened her mouth as if to respond, but remained mute.
"Cat got your tongue, sweetie? You have a name at least?"
"Yeah…Kami. I can speak fine, just not apparently about what happened in there or what they did to me."
James made as if to ask more questions, but Adam shook his head. Twenty minutes later they'd dropped off Kami, and Adam noticed he was breathing more easily.
"Looks like a hell of a fight."
"Yeah, Victoria was surprisingly easy; guy named Tanner got a blade into me."
"I noticed. Looked like he collapsed a lung; I'm surprised he didn't nick the heart."
Adam sighed, he wasn't completely comfortable sharing with James, but he needed answers.
"It felt like he did nick my heart. By all rights, I should be dead a couple of times over."
"Welcome to the club. Usually it takes more time for Alec's ability to start working on someone."
"You mean he did this to me? Made them unable to mess with my mind, kept me from dying?"
"Unless you brought those abilities in on your own, but you're just plain old human, so that's doubtful. Stick with Alec long enough, stay loyal long enough and there's no telling what you'll become."
"Victoria was bad, just like you said. It felt good to kill her."
James paused for a second and then sighed. "Look kid. I don't particularly like you, but it's only fair to make sure you don’t get the wrong idea. Alec does the best he can, but at the levels he's playing the game sometimes it's not about right and wrong, it's about what's needful. If you have an issue with that, then you'd best just leave now rather than hanging around for months and then leaving."
"I can't do that. He saved me when he didn’t have to. As long as he doesn't send me in to do something wrong, I'm his man."
"Yeah, kid. That's what has me worried."
--THE END--
Author's note: As always, I hope you've enjoyed True Believer. I'm incredibly excited to see more of my 'Dark Reflections' stories go live. I think for most authors, there isn't anything else we love quite as much as getting another chance to play with our characters. Dark Reflections represents a way for me to take all of my favorite characters from Alec and Adri's world and put them in a whole new set of circumstances. If you have enjoyed Handoff, please let others know that you've made a new find.
Reviews, blogs, even just a call to that old high school friend that always liked to read the same kind of stories that you did-it all adds up. I don't have a big marketing budget to get the word out, so the question of just how many of the stories currently rattling around inside of my head make it out for the rest of the world to enjoy depends almost entirely on you and others like you.
Don't forget to check out some of my other work. If you liked True Believer, I very much think you'll like Beginnings, Backlash, and Handoff.
Just for fun, I've included an excerpt from my novel, Torn. Ultimately Broken and Torn were where all of this started, and I hope you enjoy the excerpt enough to go out and buy Torn right away.
About the Author:
Dean started reading seriously in the second grade due to a competition and has spent most of the subsequent three decades lost in other people's worlds. After reading several local libraries more or less dry of sci-fi and fantasy, he started spending more time wandering around worlds of his own creation to avoid the boredom of the 'real' world.
Things worsened, or improved depending on your point of view, when he first started experimenting with writing while finishing up his accounting degree. These days Dean has a wonderful wife and daughter to keep him rather more grounded, but the idea of bringing others along with him as he meets interesting new people in universes nobody else has ever seen tends to drag him back to his computer on a fairly regular basis.
Keep up to speed on my latest projects at http://www.deansonlinefiction.com/ or follow me on Twitter @Writer_Dean
Torn Excerpt
The silvery light of a nearly-full moon should have been comforting. For most people it would've been peaceful even, but it pulled at my anger with surprising strength as I bounded across the arid Southern-Utah terrain.
Darkly-furred, four-legged shapes ghosted through the darkness on either side of me as we slid between the softly-glowing pillars of trees. Jasmin, arguably the closest thing I had to a best friend, dove through a latticework of light and then it was my turn to feel the undergrowth grasping at my fur in an effort to slow my progress.
The warm evening breeze carried a host of aromas too subtle for mere human noses to identify. In our four-footed forms each molecule was unconsciously sorted and cataloged, leaving us free to concentrate on the elusive scent of our prey.
The other pack, a portion at least, was less than a mile away, far enough into our territory for it to be a killable offense if they were caught. They'd become increasingly arrogant over the last few months, but coming in close enough to threaten our families was a whole new level of provocation. Even their leader, Brandon, wasn't usually so bold.
A stray eddy of wind played across my muzzle, and I knew they'd made their first mistake. I pressed into my second in command for a moment, conveying an order through posture and motion, and then nipped at Jasmin's heels, the two of us stretching out in a full sprint.
Free from the others, Jasmin and I streaked through the night with a speed the rest of our pack couldn't have matched. Jasmin pressed at my flank, curious at my decision until she caught the scent, and then an answering growl made its way past her fangs.
The trap was clever, but the other wolves didn't know the terrain well enough. I let my beast bubble up from the corner of my being where I usually kept it chained. Between one moment and the next, I went from running on four legs to two. As my transformation ended, a six-foot tower of muscle and claws sprang from the shadows. I ducked Vincent's first blow and retaliated with a gash that opened one side of his chest nearly down to the bone.
A dark-furred form leaped at Jasmin, but the other wolf mistimed the spring. Most of the other pack didn't appreciate just how nimble she was. Jasmin dodged to one side and then the two of them were circling, looking for an opening.
Vincent, the other hybrid, attacked with the strength and fury that'd earned him the position of second in his pack, but he hadn't been expecting to face me in this form. As a wolf I weighed in at a solid two hundred pounds, but would've still given up mo
re than a hundred pounds to him.
Now I had at least six inches and seventy-five pounds on my side of the equation, and he was the one pressed onto the defensive as the fight progressed.
I caught flashes of action from the other fight as we circled each other. Jasmin sprang at her opponent, catching her behind the shoulders as Vincent reeled away from me in a shower of blood. I'd finally managed a deeper strike on his arm.
The high-pitched scream of pain as Jasmin began trying to crush her opponent's spine was answered by rapidly-approaching howls. Vincent attacked with renewed strength at the promise of reinforcements.
I was bleeding in a dozen places now, but the rage insulated me from pain and weakness. Both sides of my nature were united in hating Vincent. If I ever did manage to kill him, my questionable humanity wouldn't grieve. The world would be better for his absence.
I could hear the other pack now, panting with exertion, our friends hot on their heels. Vincent overreached in his effort to claim the kill, and I sunk my teeth into the muscled flesh of his shoulder as I finally made it around behind him.
My claws sank into his arms and legs as I repositioned to snap his neck, and then a hammer blow of weight struck me across the shoulders. Knocked loose from Vincent, I spun around in time to tear Simon from the air as he leaped at me again. It was the perfect opportunity to end a life nearly as evil as Vincent's, but one of the recent arrivals had bowled Jasmin over.
Leveraging a frame that was more than capable of picking up a small car, I threw Simon into the whirling ball of flesh and fangs. He didn't hit hard enough to snap his neck, but he knocked the other wolf off of Jasmin, and then Vincent was back on his feet.
The rest of the rival pack, save for Brandon their leader, came streaming past, but they didn't help their fellows swarm Jasmin and I over. None of them even slowed. Vincent took an angry swipe at the last, a small female, and then our pack burst from the trees. A second later, our enemies were in full rout.
Table of Contents
Cover
True Believer
Excerpt from Torn
