by Daniel Gage
“Fuck you,” Cam said, but the words came out slurred.
Dealer X released a small laugh.
“Fuck me?” the dealer asked. “No, I think it will be the other way around.”
Dealer X turned to his companion and nodded. “He’s all yours, Zeke.”
Zeke grinned maliciously as his flames grew even higher, and he lowered his shoulder to charge.
CHAPTER 36
Emma ran, and didn’t think twice. Cam pulled a fast one on her, and also the dealers.
And, strangely, it worked.
However, she realized it wasn’t the time to dwell on it. Emma shoved those thoughts deep in the back of her mind, no matter how badly she wanted to give Cam an earful, or slap him repeatedly.
Assuming they lived, of course.
The climb was long, but the freezing air helped keep her from getting too warm or exhausted. As she ran up the stairs, she peeled off her combat gear, from the vest to anything else tactical she wouldn’t immediately need. By the time she was done, all she held was her sidearm.
On the second landing, as her legs and lungs burned, she took the elevator, which carried her swiftly to the top. Emma prayed it didn’t take too long.
And once the doors opened, she silently stepped out, and immediately heard voices.
“The hole is big enough,” an irritated voice said. “Just climb through! Damn, Leonard.”
“This will work?” Leonard asked, his voice several octaves higher than seemed natural.
“Yes!” the other voice said. “Your harness is on, see it glowing? It’s ready!”
Cam did it. He bought her the opportunity to stop the deal. And now, that final task was on her.
But she didn’t have much time. Her only advantage was that they hadn’t seemed to notice her, yet.
Emma aimed and fired, trying to keep her shots low.
She wasn’t close to her targets as the landing was rather long, but she took her time with each shot, forcing her training to overtake her excitement and adrenaline.
And on the fourth pull of the trigger, Leonard screamed and fell, a mist of blood spraying from his leg.
The dealer spun away and drew a gun. He quickly took aim and fired, holding the firearm in one hand. His shots were faster paced and flying wide, but Emma still dove for the ground.
She rolled and fired while prone until the slide locked. And as far as she could tell, no more of her shots hit their marks.
Thankfully, none of the dealer’s bullets hit their target either, and seconds after her magazine was empty, so was his.
Emma stood and reached for her third and final magazine, but the dealer had other plans.
He was fast. Not as fast as Cam, but still faster than she was prepared to deal with. She had just finished the act of reloading before he was on her, and he was too close and too quick for her to line up another shot.
He struck her in the abdomen, and it was all Emma could do to not get her wind knocked out of her lungs. She rolled with the strike, but something had to give, and her gun fell from her hands.
She lashed out, kicking at the dealer’s knee. It connected, but did little to stop his assault. She followed up with a rising elbow to his jaw. It struck with the clang of teeth, and forced her attacker to take a step back.
Emma took advantage of the momentum shift and kicked again, this time the heel of her foot connecting with the man’s stomach. He was already exposed, and the kick almost drove him to his knees.
But she knew she couldn’t win a physical fight with him, so Emma quickly scanned the area and saw where her gun had fallen. Yet it was too far for her to reach, especially as the dealer was recovering quickly. Instead, she reached into her pocket for something else that could continue to shift the struggle in her favor.
The look in the dealer’s eyes showed he had underestimated her, and that he had sinister intentions of making her suffer for splitting his lip.
The dealer feinted high, and Emma fell for the ruse. And the dealer was still fast, and with her midsection exposed, it would be a simple task to eviscerate her.
But instead of a knife to her gut, a strike to the face, or a hand squeezing her neck, something completely unexpected happened.
He dashed in and snaked an arm around her waist and pulled her close into an embrace that was more intimate than violent, and the dealer’s other hand reached up to caress Emma’s face.
“You must be Emma Jennings,” he whispered, his voice firm yet tender. “It’s a pleasure to finally meet you.”
Any other time, she would have instantly been disgusted and on the defensive, especially when in a fight for her survival. And she fought back, if only for a second.
But a warm scent filled the air that overwhelmed her senses, making her forget about the cold, the violence, and everything else but this man holding her in his strong arms.
“No, I …” Emma said. “I can’t …”
“Of course you can,” he said. “You can stay here with me.”
Emma struggled against the urges, the emotions she was feeling that had long been dormant. But, for the life of her, she couldn’t remember why she was fighting.
“But I … I have to …” she said, her voice trembling.
“No, there’s nothing you have to do,” the dealer whispered, his lips teasing the nape of her neck. “Just one simple task I have to ask of you. I need you to throw yourself off the cliff with our friend Leonard.”
She couldn’t find it. All that existed were his words.
Something stirred, but she couldn’t figure out what. One of her hands went and gently wrapped around his, while the other proceeded to finish the movement she started before the dealer touched her.
All Emma knew was that she wanted to. That she had to.
She finished pulling the stunner from her pocket and pressed the button before dropping it to the ground, and after three seconds, the device did what it was built to do.
The explosion robbed her of her hearing, and the flash was blinding. The dealer released his grip on Emma as he fell back.
Emma collapsed, stunned. But as the ringing started to become bearable, she became acutely aware of what the dealer had tried to do. He must have had an ability like Dealer X or Cam, but his was different. Somehow, his touch and smell overrode his target’s senses with affection, and until the stunner went off, Emma had been at the dealer’s mercy.
She didn’t understand why he didn’t just kill her, but he likely had his reasons.
But whatever those motivations were, she didn’t care. She just continued to feel around on the ground until her hands found the grip of her gun. Once it was firmly in her hand, she pushed herself away from where she hoped the dealer was, still too disoriented to stand.
Slowly, the ringing faded, and her vision started to come back into focus, but the dealer was recovering faster than she was. He was already on his feet, even though his balance was questionable. He staggered, but his attention never turned from Emma.
“You bitch,” he snarled, or at least she thought that was what he said. “No one—”
Emma cut him off with a gunshot. It was barely audible, but the bullet was no less deadly than before.
A new hole appeared in the man’s forehead as he crumpled back to the ground, lifeless.
She took her time standing, her head still swimming with sound and light.
Until her vision focused enough to see Leonard had dragged his useless legs to the balcony and had almost reached the ledge.
Emma dashed forward, almost tripping after her third drunken step.
“Leonard!” she shouted. “Stop! Don’t do it!”
He looked back, fear and panic painfully present in his eyes, painted on his face, and held in his posture. He struggled with his good arm to pull himself up, and at the pace he was moving compared to hers, Leonard was going to win.
The distance to the ground was roughly two and a half stories, but the solid pavement below would be more than enough
to end his life and force the Shift into his next
“No!” he cried as he dragged his weight onto the ledge. “I need this! I gave everything for this!”
With a final push, he shoved himself over the balcony as Emma dove to stop him.
Emma would have missed him if Leonard hadn’t slipped, and her fingers locked around his ankle. He wasn’t a large man, and she wondered if he weighed about as much as she did. But, hanging on to someone who didn’t want to be held was a challenge, especially with only one hand.
Her arm strained against the metal edge, and Emma fought to grab him with her other hand.
But what happened next completely sapped her fatigue, and almost her focus.
A green vortex opened a couple dozen feet below Leonard’s dangling body, and it promptly grew into a wormhole. It swirled with the violence of a tornado, but it had no air, no current; it simply seemed to exist in its own space and time. Leonard’s harness glowed with the same color and intensity, and the light grew with the vortex.
It was beautiful and terrifying. Mesmerizing and hypnotic.
Until the face appeared, and it scared Emma back to reality. It almost filled the vortex, and its mouth opened in a silent scream that grew and grew, as if it was waiting for Leonard to fall inside like a meal.
Emma screamed and fought with everything she had.
CHAPTER 37
Before the fire-wielder charged, a loud explosion came from up on the tower, causing both dealers to turn.
“Think they’re okay?” Zeke asked, but he never got a chance to hear the answer.
Cam charged. His head was swimming and his feet wobbly, but the impact of the tackle still took down the dealer. The fire-wielder let out an audible oomph as the two tumbled to the ground. Cam pushed himself up so he was straddling the dealer, and reached back for a heavy punch.
He connected his first one across the dealer’s jaw, but the sudden motion made his vision blur, and for a second, Cam couldn’t tell which way was up.
But that was enough for the fire-wielder to recover.
A burning fist collided with his chest. The cinders from the impact caused his shirt to smolder, and Cam tried to roll backwards to gain some space.
However, Zeke had other plans. He snagged Cam’s wrist with a hand engulfed in flames, and Cam cried out. But the sudden rush of pain gave him focus, despite the smell of burning hair and skin.
The dealer reached back with his free hand for another punch, but Cam was ready.
He deflected Zeke’s strike and tangled up his arms, cutting off the fire-wielder’s weapons. He even released Cam’s wrist as he struggled, which allowed Cam to pin him with a single arm.
Knowing he wouldn’t be able to contain the dealer for long, Cam connected with two rapid punches to the man’s face.
Anyone else would have been done with the fight, but as Cam had learned, dealers who were Unborns weren’t just anyone else.
Zeke screamed with rage, and his eyes burned red with fire. The air around him grew in intensity as the flames condensed in his palms, forming individual orbs until his hands met, and the orbs merged into one.
Cam’s eyes opened wide in terror, and he utilized every muscle he could to throw himself away from this man before things went all to hell.
He wasn’t fast enough.
The fiery ball had grown to about the size of a basketball before it exploded. The sudden impact threw Cam wide, the flames scorching his entire left side. He slid along the floor for about fifteen feet after flying for ten, and his ears rang from the concussive blast.
A pillar of flames burned where the dealer once was, and looking back, Cam could even see Dealer X up the grand staircase, watching the action.
“Holy shit,” Cam swore as he batted away the flames and cinders. His skin was scorched, but he was alive. That was all that mattered at the moment.
Two down, he thought. One to—
A loud roar from inside the flames cut off his thought, and Zeke stepped out of the inferno. His clothes and hair had been singed off, but otherwise, he looked unscathed, with only his fire-creating apparatus still strapped to his back.
“You’ve got to be shitting me,” Cam muttered.
He could hear Dealer X laughing from his viewpoint on the staircase.
“I see you about have this wrapped up,” Dealer X said. “I’m going to go check on our client.”
“Fight me!” Cam shouted as Dealer X turned away. “Come on! Fight me!”
“Why?” Dealer X said, his voice calm. “You’re burned up, and in more ways than one. You’re nothing special now, Cameron. My friend here will reduce you to cinders. Finish him and join me on the balcony, Zeke.”
“Gladly,” Zeke said, a malicious grin on his face.
Cam was only vaguely aware of the naked man with burning hands approaching him.
He had come too far for this to be it. Been through too much. This realization, this knowledge made everything in his life make sense. He wasn’t going to die today. Not against a group of thieves.
Emma was up there, counting on him. She might have handled a single dealer, but there was no way she would survive against Dealer X and Zeke. If he didn’t fight, if he didn’t live long enough for her to finish their job, he would have gone through this ordeal and died for nothing.
Cam didn’t understand what it was to be an Unborn, at least not completely. His increased speed and strength were nice, but he didn’t know how far they could be pushed, or how quickly he could recover. Nor did he comprehend the limits of his ability, how it worked, what triggered it, or how far it could take him.
But right now, he needed it. It hadn’t emerged since he took down the invisible dealer, and some part of him feared it was lost.
He dug deep inside, reaching for his core, that special area where he found the strength to dive off of buildings, to fight five men in a hover station.
To save the life of a woman he barely knew who had lied to him repeatedly, then save her life again.
For his mother, who gave everything she had so that Cam could live, and his father, who died saving his Unborn child.
For everyone else who’d had their birthright stolen. Who felt lost in their own lives, who kept having karma crap on them for no other reason other than someone else had paid to be reborn.
Cam realized that no one else had probably stood up to the dealers like this before. They had a network so vast he couldn’t comprehend it, and it even took Emma by surprise.
And if he fell here today, no one else may ever have the chance to fight these monsters again.
As Zeke was almost on him, his burning hand reached back for a finishing blow, and Cam found it.
He could see everything in his mind’s eye. Every potential path an action could take long before it began, where every flicker of fire could go, and where it would be extinguished. Even color seemed to fade as Zeke’s arm traveled through the air, small flames flickering from his fist.
But Cam had all the time in the world.
He ducked the punch with ease and kicked his foot out, striking Zeke’s ankle. It buckled, and Zeke started to fall, but Cam was faster. He aided his opponent’s descent to the ground by sweeping the same leg he’d struck, and Zeke crashed to the floor flat on his back.
Cam pinned the leg to his body and twisted it within the socket, and it released with a wet, sickening pop. Zeke screamed, but Cam used the limb as leverage and rolled him onto his stomach. His target prone, Cam finished destroying Zeke’s ability to walk by pulling his body, along with Zeke’s leg, back as far as it would go.
Tendons and sinew snapped, and Zeke’s cry of pain turned silent as he slipped from consciousness.
His vision and mind suddenly and violently returned to normal, and Cam nearly passed out as a wave of dizziness and nausea overcame him. He fell to his hands and knees, and threw up what food he had left in his stomach.
“My God,” Dealer X muttered, and it was the only thing Cam was aware of. “I’
ve never … I cannot allow you to live, Cameron. You’re simply … you’re something else.”
“Fight me,” Cam tried to say, but it came out as gibberish.
Dealer X strode down the stairs as Cam repeatedly attempted to stand. On this third try, he succeeded, only to almost fall back to his knees. His vision was nearly shot, but he scanned the ground anyway, hoping to see some indication of where he had dropped his weapon.
Something seemed out of place, and Cam threw himself in that direction. After a few steps, he stumbled and fell, but was too far. He crawled, and finally, his hand wrapped around the familiar feeling of a handgun grip.
But by the time he got his attention back around, Dealer X was nearly on him. Cam brought up his gun and fired without aiming.
It was impossible to tell if any of the shots hit, but Dealer X seemed to stagger mid-stride. It only seemed to cause a momentary stumble, and when the dealer was within a handful of steps from Cam, he charged.
Cam didn’t count on his ability to save him, as he was convinced it was exhausted like the rest of him. Instead, he threw himself backward as Dealer X slashed, the tip of his blade narrowly missing Cam’s throat.
There was no way Cam could match his speed and strength now. And though his vision became less blurry, and his focus was coming back, he knew he couldn’t take down Dealer X before his own life was forfeited.
So he had to make that sacrifice.
Dealer X’s strikes got closer and closer each time, and Cam waited for the right opportunity to present itself. After a quick jab that barely nicked Cam’s chest, Dealer X swung wide in another attempt to slice Cam’s neck open.
Instead of dodging back, Cam raised his elbow and stepped into the attack. Dealer X’s knife buried itself into Cam’s shoulder, and the force lodged it into the muscle fibers.
It hurt like hell, especially when Dealer X tried to pull the blade free.
But the weapon was trapped, and Cam had an opening.
Cam wrapped his arm around Dealer X’s and emptied the rest of the gun’s bullets into the dealer’s chest.
