by Palladian
“Yeah,” said Jan Lindberg, raising one long, pale arm, his jaggedly cut black hair falling over one dark eye. His tone sounded angry and he glared at his future opponents. “For the team that wins the fight, what do they get?”
Captain Shapiro raised an eyebrow, but didn’t otherwise acknowledge Jan’s mood. “The reward of a job well done.”
“How about dinner on the losing team?” Jan asked, his tone still aggressive.
The captain gave him a thin smile. “That’s not in the budget, Jan. If everyone in the team wants to agree that it’ll come out of their own pockets, though…” he replied, not finishing his sentence but turning to the team instead.
Lex turned to look at Rolf, who shrugged and then nodded. Miranda MacAllister, usually on the graveyard shift with Jan, tilted her head to the side as she considered the question, her long grey hair sweeping gracefully out in contrast with her smooth, pale skin and icy blue eyes. She finally nodded as well, then looked over at Tamara De Luca and Marguerite Lambert. Tamara moved her head from side to side as she considered the question, then swung her dark hair with fiery red highlights over her shoulder. “Sure,” she said, then looked to Meg at her right. Meg smiled, showing off beautiful teeth, curly dark hair, and mischievous green eyes. “Yes, let’s do it,” she replied in heavily French-accented English.
The captain nodded and then turned to where the new members of the team stood. “Well, what do you think?” he asked.
Lex couldn’t help but smile as everyone turned to Riss, who gave them a hard look in return. After a moment, Casey asked, “Would that be a problem?”
“Not at all,” Riss replied with a shrug, her small smile in evidence.
“All right, then,” Captain Shapiro continued, “the losers will buy dinner for the winners. This fight means one more thing, which I expect all of you to agree on with no complaining and no exceptions. Once this fight is done, we are all friends and we are all one team. Is that understood?”
He looked all the way around the group then, meeting each person’s eyes in turn. Lex nodded as he turned to her, but she heard grumbling from some other people, and Jan even turned his head away in disgust, but after a couple of long minutes, most everyone had voiced or indicated agreement. When the captain seemed satisfied, he moved back one step.
“Since we’re all in agreement, then, unless there are any other questions, let’s begin. Everyone, pick your opponents.”
No one else had questions, Lex guessed, since everyone seemed to choose that moment to step back and size up the other team. She and her teammates first moved into their favorite beginning fighting stance—the one they’d come to call the deadly flower. Lex and Kate moved nearer to Lou and Casey, and the four of them ended up back to back in pairs with plenty of space in between the four of them for Riss and Victor to stand. She and her friends had originally conceived of this formation as a way to fight and to protect their members who were not as used to hand to hand, but it seemed that Victor and Riss had become adept at protecting themselves nonetheless. Today, Lex noted that Riss had a thin laptop with her and a bluetooth piece in her ear and Victor had brought a couple of strange-looking sidearms with him along with what looked like a newer version of the goggles and gloves he’d tried out in Seattle.
A few seconds of calm descended on both groups, and Lex took a moment to assess the Brussels’ team battle formation. They stood spread-out, facing the former Americans, with the captain in the back. Rolf and Jan flanked Miranda, both appearing smaller as they stood next to her. Tall and graceful, Miranda stood somewhere around six feet, while Rolf stood nearer to Lex’s height and Jan a few inches taller than that. Rolf and Miranda both appeared to be calm, but Jan seemed angrier than he had earlier. Tamara and Meg stood nearer to one another, and Meg’s slim, petite figure contrasted slightly with Tamara’s stronger-looking limbs. As a matter of fact, Lex had met Tamara in the gym several times and knew that the woman lifted weights as well.
After the breathless moment of waiting, both teams seemed to begin moving at the same time.
“I want Rolf,” Kate said, stepping forward in his direction.
“Leave Shapiro to me,” Riss said, her voice low and menacing.
The other team seemed to be picking targets, as well. Miranda and Tamara stepped away from their group and walked together, seeming to home in on Casey and Lou. Meg moved forward as well, but her movement seemed to propel her into the air, and Lex had a breathless moment as she watched the other woman hover then start to move upwards. As Lex glanced to the side, she saw Victor looking at Meg’s progress as well, smiling gently.
“I’ll deal with her,” he said softly as he walked past Lex.
Lex took a step back in order to give Victor and Meg more room, and frowned when she noticed herself standing alone. She tried to take inventory of everyone, but her eyes stuck on Riss and Captain Shapiro, who’d moved into opposite corners of the room, both seeming to be deep in concentration. She raised an eyebrow as she noted what looked like tiny cars rolling along the floor and small flying drones all heading in Riss’ direction. To her surprise, the coordinated groups of drones split, some of them breaking off into different directions or crashing into one another.
A moment later, she felt surprised again as she saw a bright light out of the corner of her eye and turned quickly to see Tamara bent forward, breathing fire out of her mouth. It came out in a small stream, but something seemed to be happening afterwards, something Miranda looked to be doing, because the tall, grey-haired woman stood near the fire with her hands spread out, and after her, the flow of flames had grown and was directly aimed at Lou and Casey.
Movement in the other corner of the room caused Lex to turn her head again, and as she watched, Rolf, now completely transformed into a wolf much larger than any she’d ever seen, all black with stunning deep gold eyes, stood facing off with Kate. They seemed to be focused on each other to the exclusion of all else, moving quickly enough that Lex had to concentrate to follow with her eyes.
Turning her head slightly brought Meg and Victor into view. It seemed that Meg could fly or hover at her discretion, and she’d used that ability to hover at a level with Victor. Lex hadn’t known that Victor had created some boots for himself like the ones he’d made for her, but she smiled to see her friend clinging to the wall as Meg floated, making some kind of signals with her hands.
Lex turned to look at the rest of the room, trying to find her opponent, closely scanning the crowd as she looked for anyone free. She couldn’t even think of who she’d forgotten until she felt someone materialize behind her. The next thing Lex knew, she felt a knife at her throat and a snarling voice in her ear…
Table of Contents
Copyright
Dedication
Contents
Chapter 21: Darkness
Chapter 22: Aftermath
Chapter 23: Flight
Chapter 24: Arrival
Chapter 25: Preparations
Chapter 26: Reconnaissance
Chapter 27: Reunion
Chapter 28: Novel
Chapter 29: Vision
Chapter 30: Musical
Chapter 31: Breakout
Chapter 32: Best Laid Plans
Chapter 33: Departure
Chapter 34: Arrival
Chapter 35: New Beginnings
Chapter 36: Plans
Chapter 37: Battle Royale
