by D. N. Hoxa
Before we had the chance to escape, the front door blew. Literally. I turned in time to see Mike fly with his hands in front of him on a crowd of people, already fighting. Soldiers dressed in all black with guns in one hand and swords in the other walked in and started shooting at the ceiling.
“Shit!” Jack, Aaron and me shouted at the same time.
“We need to leave, now!” Aaron called, his hands still busy with the Nephil.
“Guys, what’s the plan?” Naomi shouted. She and Carlos had teamed up to fight a crowd of three men and one woman, while Joshua threw ice shards at a half Unseelie fairy, and he kept melting them while they were halfway there.
“We fight till we can leave,” Aaron shouted, and so that’s what we all did.
The newcomer soldiers, all shifters judging from their vibes, came at us. The others started surrendering and going for the door, but strangely enough, the soldiers didn’t stop them. They let them go because they only had eyes for us.
“Something’s wrong, guys!” Mike said. Note to me
Good to know he was okay and fighting, but I didn’t turn to look. I was fighting two soldiers with my katana and Bob, since it was only fair. They weren’t using their guns on us for some reason.
A knife cut my left shoulder and blood red pain coursed through my veins. I grabbed the shifter’s wrist and turned it around to break it, and used my foot on his face to hopefully break his neck. When that didn’t do the deed, I had only a second to push my katana in his gut before I had to jump back a step to dodge a very large tip of a big sword. The hand that was holding it was cut from its body the next second and it fell in front of my feet.
I saw Aaron holding a katana of his own and he winked at me before he turned to some other poor bastard. Pride fueled me up as I turned around to catch a solder with his fist very close to my face. I leaned down and pushed my foot on his outer thigh with all my strength. I heard his bone break before he fell to his knee and I pushed Bob on the back of his neck. All I heard was metal clinging, people screaming and heavy breathing. Soon, everyone else was gone but the seven of us and about ten more soldiers. No Edison or his guards. Everyone was fighting with all they had and we had all reached the end of the room with our backs. I saw Jack neatly push his fangs on a soldier’s neck while he screamed and shook in his arm. Another soldier grabbed me by my undone bun and pulled my head toward him. I pushed my hands on his chest and pulled my knee up to hit him in his groin. He let go of my hair and I spun around, landed down on my knees and kicked his feet from under him. He fell on the floor and tried to get up again, but my foot was on his neck and my katana made a clean slice under his chin.
“Just a few more, guys!” I said to try and encourage them.
Unfortunately, I spoke too early. The second the words left my mouth, the soldiers that were fighting us backed off and another twenty—or more of them entered the room.
“Shit!” The spicy sense of fear made me nauseous. There were too many of them and the guys were already exhausted. They looked new incomers wide eyed but they were all ready, even thought they knew that the chances that we would make it out alive were very slim. I’d failed them.
“Star…” Aaron called my name and I turned to look at him.
“The whole building is surrounded,” Mike said, looking at the empty wall. He could see the outside. “Pleasure knowing you guys…” And despite the situation, I could hear the grin in his voice.
Goddamn it, I didn’t want to let them die! I didn’t care about me but I was ready to do just about anything to not let them die. The good that will of mine did me.
The soldiers filled the room and surrounded us, with their guns ready and aiming for each one of our heads. There was no way out but through them.
I turned my senses on to feel them. All of them shifters, and unfortunately, another fifteen were waiting by the door, just like Mike said.
My heart pounded inside my rib cage. I reached for the air around us and hoped I would be strong enough to blow them all away. I reached for Earth, too, to help us out.
“Put your weapons down and we will not harm you,” a soldier said. I wanted to laugh.
“Oh, really? So what do you want to do, take us to dinner?”
“Our boss just wants to talk to you,” the soldier said and I could see his finger shaking as he held the trigger, ready to fire.
“Who’s your boss?” He flinched but didn’t say anything. “Who the hell is your boss?” I asked again, but it didn’t matter to him.
“Put down your weapons and I promise you, you will not get hurt,” he repeated.
A shiver ran down my body. They really didn’t want us dead, or they could’ve fried us with their bullets minutes ago. They wanted to fucking talk.
My first impulse was to say screw you and jump them, but I had six other people with me, people I loved and I cared about. People I would indeed do anything to save. Every cell in my body protested against the train of thoughts that clouded my mind. They weren’t used to me giving up. The taste of failure brought bile to my throat and I felt dizzy. It was so fucking hard that I wanted to tear my eyes out.
But there was nothing else I could do and I had the feeling that even if we could bring them down, others would come. Many others, and I would get out alive thanks to my elemental powers but the others wouldn’t. And I couldn’t let that happen.
I inhaled deeply and swallowed the giant lump in my throat that was my pride. Their lives were more worth it.
I dropped Bob and my katana on the floor.
“Star!” Mike called, terrified.
“Drop them,” I said reluctantly and looked at Aaron. He was the only one who wasn’t surprised because he already knew how I felt. He dropped both his katanas in front of him and gave me a nod. Of course he agreed with me. He always did.
A few second later, and the ground before us was covered in knives and swords and guns and everything else we’d had with us. The soldiers took their time to make sure we weren’t hiding anything before they all approached us with their guns still ready. The second a soldier grabbed my shoulder, I wanted to break his whole body. But I bit my tongue until I could taste blood and held myself. They pushed us against the wall and turned us around to search us. They found a few more things in our pockets but thankfully, they left my two folded pieces of paper in my pocket, untouched.
“Clear. We’re coming out,” a soldier said, and then I felt ice cold cuffs wrap around my wrists. They handcuffed us all and grabbed us by our arms to lead us toward the door.
“I can walk by myself, you piece of shit! Get your hands off me!” Mike shouted at the soldier that was walking next to him. The others stood silent. I did, too. All I had to do was look at the soldier holding me by the arm, and then looked down at where he was holding me. The next second, he let me go. Having a reputation was good for times like those but what did it matter? I was still handcuffed with my crew and I was being sent to God knew where against my will. I felt like ripping everyone apart with my eyes.
We finally got out of the hotel’s back door. A fucking army was waiting for us there. They had at least seven trucks, black and big like fucking monsters, lined up behind twenty soldiers dressed in black with their automations ready and aiming.
“Let’s go,” a soldier shouted and the others started walking toward us. They grabbed us and practically threw us inside the trucks. Naomi and Carlos were with me while Aaron and Mike were in the truck behind us.
Wasting no time at all, like they were in a fucking military mission, the trucks roared to life and we were driving. I explored my possibilities while I searched for a way to grab the bobby pins on my head and not attract the attention of the guy who was driving, the other one sitting in the passenger seat with his head turned and his gun pointing at us, or from the guys on the truck outside, who no doubt had their barrels pointed at our bodies, just in case.
There was nothing I could do. I had a truck in front and another five behind me and there was
no fucking thing I could do. My mind worked and worked as I watched the road we were taking until we got to a highway with nothing but dead land on both sides.
“Keep your hands up,” the guy sitting on the passenger seat said.
“I’m scratching my leg, you idiot,” Naomi hissed at him. I raised my brow at the soldier and he swallowed hard.
“Just…stop moving your hands.” He mumbled and looked aside on the road to see where we were. I could smell his fear like it was a scent. I saw the many ways I could turn his gun against him and fire, but that would make the others behind me shoot and I didn’t want the others ending up dead. Not until I saw who their boss was and what the hell he wanted to talk about because these shifters, most of them werewolves, had no trace of the potion in them. They were completely clean and that made me wonder. That spiked my curiosity and helped me stay focused. I even hoped that I would be able to at least set the others free.
We were on the road for exactly half an hour.
And then, finally, the trucks stopped. I had no idea where we were and they wouldn’t let us out at first. All we could see from the windows was dry land, a few trees here and there, but nothing more. A few cars passed us by, but they were all humans. I could feel other vibes coming from ahead us, on the left. I tried to look but I couldn’t make out the place.
Four soldiers from the first truck started running to that direction. The others got out and surrounded the remaining trucks with their guns directed at all of us.
“What the hell are we going to do?” Naomi asked. I could hear the desperation in her voice even though she tried to hide it.
“We wait. We see who the guy is and what he wants,” I said as I tried to look past the barrier of soldiers to see where the others went.
“They’re going to kill us. We should just start fighting them now,” she said.
“Are you crazy? Do you see how many of them are there? We’d be dead before we could throw a single punch,” Carlos said, even more desperate.
“At least we would die fighting,” Naomi insisted.
“Nobody is going to die,” I said. “Not unless there’s no other choice whatsoever.”
My heart ached with each beat that I couldn’t see Aaron. He was probably feeling me, though. I let the love I had for him consume me because I knew he could feel it, when…
Goddamn you. What the hell are you doing?! someone yelled in my head. Stop feeling sorry for yourself and think about how you’re going to get out. This is not how you die, it said.
And it was right. This wasn’t the end because I wouldn’t let it be the end. I was so much better than this. I was the best assassin of my time, for God’s sake. I was getting out of it and with my head high, no matter the price I had to pay.
Cursing under my breath, I pretended to scratch my head until I grabbed a bobby pin from my hair. Just then, the soldier I’d spoken to in the conference room, broke the row of soldiers around our car, and cautiously opened the back door to our truck.
“You have to come with me.”
He didn’t wait for a reply. He grabbed my arm to pull me out. I didn’t move. I held his eyes for a couple of second.
“Get your hand off me, soldier. I will not say it twice,” I said as I gathered air and kept it on hold, ready to blow him the fuck away if he so much as blinked one more time before he let go of me.
Lucky for him, he could tell I wasn’t kidding. He let go of my arm and stepped back.
I turned to Naomi and Carlos. “I’ll be back soon. Stand down.” I looked down at my legs and they followed my eyes. The next second, they both saw the bobby pin under my thigh, the one I was going to leave there for them.
Then, I jumped out of the car.
There was no need to play pretend anymore so I took the unlocked iron cuffs and I handed them over to the soldier.
“Keep them,” I said and I started walking ahead.
But the others that had formed the wall around us moved away and I walked with my head high as the soldier put the cuffs in his pocket and led the way. Another two stood by my sides, a small step behind.
I finally could see where the vibes were coming from. A big ass tent was laid in the middle of the deserted land. Eleven soldiers stood all around it with guns in hand and with dark sunglasses on, even though there was no sun in the sky. Only one man was inside, judging from the vibes I felt. I couldn’t wait to see who it was.
Three minutes of walking and the soldier stopped me when we were four feet away. He stepped inside for just a few seconds and came back out to take his position in front of the black cover of the tent. With my hands ready in fists, I waited for the shifter boss to come out.
When he did, my jaw touched the floor. Everett Hapsburg’s face greeted me with a cold smile.
“Raven,” he said. “We finally meet in person.” He then waved a hand at one of the soldiers who disappeared inside the tent.
“Everett. I don’t even know why I’m surprised,” I said, my evil smile already playing on my lips. The soldier came out of the tent with two plastic chairs in his hands. He placed them one across the other and took his place again.
“You left rather suddenly after our last talk,” Everett said and then headed for the chairs. “Join me, please.”
He was taller than I expected him to be. Bigger. Definitely stronger. He sat with his back against the tent and I sat across from him reluctantly.
“Would you rather I had spoken in front of your…colleagues?” I said, raising my brow at him.
“Indeed, I wouldn’t. That is why I’ve arranged this little meeting.”
A meeting alone with me, away from the eyes of everyone of the Council, only his own men. I smiled brightly, a true smile this time. See? the voice in my head said. It looked like we weren’t going to die, after all.
“Little meeting, indeed. But just out of curiosity, how did you find me?” I asked.
“Are you kidding? The whole world already knows about what you did at that hotel today. But I have been tracking you for a while now.” But he obviously wasn’t about to tell me how.
“I’m counting on it,” I said. “I assume you heard everything?”
“I did. And I have to say it was quite impressive. You sure know how to put the pieces together and make an audience jump to their feet when you put on a show,” he said. The smile on his face confirmed what I’d already suspected.
“You would know. You are behind this with Samayan,” I stated.
“I have been, yes, but recent events have pushed me to have my doubts,” he said, trying to be vague. Like I was going to fall for that bullshit. I preferred straightforward.
“Are you saying that you are willing to switch sides?”
He grinned. “I never said that. The things you said at the conference were true but I was already aware of them. What you said to me the last time we saw each other, however, has brought dilemma to my mind but I have stood behind my Master for a long time—”
“You joined Samayan for the wrong reasons. You stood by him for the wrong reasons. We both know that it is time to put him down now, for the right reasons.” I cut him.
He watched me, rubbed his chin and struggled to find the right question to ask me. I would’ve saved him the time and the effort but I loved the game too much so I waited and acted like I was clueless until he spoke.
“What is it that you know about my reasons?” he finally whispered.
I leaned in and rested my elbows on my knees, all the while smiling. “Pretty much everything.”
“And how do you know everything?” He had reason to doubt.
“A friend of mine, a woman I am very fond of, told me the story in details,” I said, grinning. His face lost all blood in a second.
“Is she alive?” he whispered.
Suddenly, I was hit hard by the sadness that overtook his eyes. For only a second, anyway. I leaned back on my seat and I crossed my arms in front of me, all the while smiling.
“What do I get if I
tell you?” His knuckles were white from how tightly he held his fists but he rested back on his chair again, too.
“You get to live.” As expected.
“No, that’s not good enough. Let my crew go right now and I just might be able to give you something that will clear your mind about many things.”
“Is she alive?!” Everett hissed, lightly bumping his fists on the plastic arm holders of the chair. The legs of it trembled from the strength.
“Yes, she is alive, Everett. But that’s all I’m going to tell you until I have your word that I walk away unharmed with all of my crew. Otherwise, my lips are sealed.” I knew how desperately he wanted to know about Marie. I would’ve said yes to anything if it was about Aaron. Love is a powerful thing.
“How can I be sure that I can trust you?” he whispered.
“You can’t,” I said, shrugging. “Not a hundred percent. It’s a chance that you have to take if you want to know more about Marie and I assure you that I can give you that information.”
He sighed. I could tell he wasn’t happy about it but what did he expect?
He straightened in his seat and cleared his throat.
“I give you my word in front of my men that I will let you and your group go if you provide me with information about Marie,” he said, loud enough for all of this soldiers to hear.
I smiled brightly. “I accept,” I said, and I went for my pocket.
The letter was wrinkled and folded so many times that I had to work on it for a few seconds until it was readable again. A beautiful handwriting greeted me and I could almost picture Marie writing the words. I only read my dearest Everett before I looked away. This was none of my business.
I stood up, about to give him the letter and leave, or fight in case he decided to go against his word, when something else occurred to me. I reached for my other pocket and found the small piece of paper that Ned had given me.
Like I suspected, it was a time and an address. He wanted to meet in ten days in New York. I memorized the address and the time and looked at Everett again, who was staring intently at my hands. I folded Marie’s letter once and handed it to him.
