by Dean Murray
I'd been hoping to catch someone still inside the vehicle, even though that would tend to mean that there were more hybrids in each vehicle rather than fewer. The claws on my left hand came up empty, but my right hand tore through a frail human body. I closed my fist around the enforcer I'd just wounded and tried to pull him out towards me. The angle wasn't as good as it had been with the semi driver.
The crunch of broken bones and crumpled metal told me all I needed to know. I let go and spun around to block an attack as one of the other hybrids finally made it around the SUV and tried to engage me.
I could see another hybrid out of the corner of my eye. He was headed towards me from the other direction. I was about to be surrounded and outnumbered. I jumped up and backwards, landing on the top of the SUV as the first hybrid who'd engaged me sheared through the side of the vehicle with one swipe of his claws.
With the structural integrity of the SUV now having been compromised, the roof I was standing on started to give way. I threw myself off of it, but the roof wasn't sturdy enough anymore to give me a very stable launch platform.
I hit the ground, tucked my shoulder, and rolled. I came to my feet after the first full revolution, and spun around just in time to intercept another attack that would have probably severed my spine. I'd bought myself a second or two, but I couldn't turn and run again and two more hybrids were nearly within arm's reach of me.
I backpedaled furiously, trying to buy myself enough room to flee, and then suddenly Carson was at my side. He blocked another slash, but he didn't just block it, he blocked with enough force and the perfect angle to open up the entire left side of the other hybrid. Reflex took over for me and I stepped in and drove my claws into the enforcer's side.
It wasn't a clean blow. My claws penetrated, but they grated on ribs that were nearly as strong as steel and the angle wasn't quite right. I could feel his heart pulsing just out of reach, but he'd already recoiled from me. He reeled away, injured but not dead, and then it was Carson and I against two more of our kind.
At that moment I wished I'd argued with Carson and kept hold of my sword. There was a decent chance we could defeat two enforcers, but the third one would be back in just a couple of seconds. I hadn't killed him and that was going to cost us.
The enforcer on the right charged forward, juking at the last second to avoid my attack, and hit me with his shoulder at the better part of thirty miles per hour. It should have leveled me, but luckily I'd already been turning slightly to the left.
I felt muted stabs of pain as two of my ribs broke, and he sent me spinning away wildly out of control, but he hadn't managed his objective. I dropped down on all fours, claws and talons digging into the rocky ground in an effort to stop myself, and then it happened.
More than half of the enforcers suddenly seized up. I was positioned perfectly to see it. I'd been knocked over to one side of the battle and I'd come to a stop looking over at everyone else. We were outnumbered by a greater margin than I'd expected even in my worst-case scenarios.
They hadn't just packed five hybrids into every vehicle, they'd put another five hybrids in the trailer with Agony. We'd been up against twenty-five hybrids and they were some of the best the Coun'hij had access to. The wolves had made it to James and Jack in time to save them from being killed out of hand, but it had been a close thing. Even with the additional help, they'd been losing, but Grayson's gift leveled almost every hybrid from the battle that had been raging at the back of the convoy.
James and Jack each stumbled over to an enemy hybrid so that they could deliver a coup de grâce, but it was the wolves who really mopped up the enforcers back there. Carson's opponent hadn't been incapacitated, but both the hybrid opposite me and the one I'd nearly killed a second ago were down.
As I darted over to finish off one of the two downed hybrids I saw that our hybrids from the front of the caravan were dealing quite handily with the enforcers up there. Grayson's power hadn't knocked as many of them down, but Carson's people had been less heavily outnumbered to start with and the wolves he'd brought were gleefully pouncing on the incapacitated enforcers while the rest of our people held their own against the unaffected hybrids.
I ended the closest hybrid with a single clean blow to his neck, and then started towards the one I'd stabbed in the chest a few seconds previously. I wanted to go help Carson, but it would have been foolish to pass up the chance to kill two hybrids in exchange for entering what could still end up being an extended fight. I was just going to have to hope that Carson could hold out for long enough for me to make it over to him after the second hybrid was dead.
It turned out that I shouldn't have worried, about the larger battle or Carson either one. Something as massive as a hybrid takes several seconds to bleed out even from a lethal wound, but by now some of the enforcers who'd been injured first were dead, which apparently freed up some of Grayson's capacity.
As I killed the second hybrid, a scattering of additional hybrids at the front of the convoy were dropped to the ground by Grayson's ability. Carson had indicated that once Grayson's power was working that the biggest concern was that he'd lose his focus and the seizures would stop, but even if that happened right now the battle was ours. The Coun'hij forces had simply lost too many people to have any possible hope of winning.
I turned towards Carson and found that he'd wrapped his opponent up in some kind of complicated hold. I'd never seen anything like it, and apparently the enforcer hadn't either. It was like someone had modified human-style grappling and turned it into something that worked with a hybrid's unique joints and musculature. The enforcer was still struggling, but his efforts were more and more ineffectual with each passing second.
Before I could make it over to Carson he casually released his enemy and repositioned again. This time the hold left Carson's right hand free. Less than a second later Carson was rolling away from the other hybrid, but not before opening up several key arteries in the Coun'hij's enforcer. There wasn't any need to worry about that particular hybrid ever again. He might manage to struggle to his feet, but he'd be dead before he took two steps.
Carson took off towards the rest of his people, but there wasn't any need to hurry. As I watched, the last enforcer was dispatched and then it was only Grayson who was still thrashing about in the throes of the seizures that his power inflicted on him.
I hurried to the back of the trailer and as bad as things were back there I knew they could have been so much worse. James and Jack were both bleeding from dozens of wounds, some shallow, others not. Two of Jack's wolves had shifted back to human form and were doing their best to staunch the bleeding while their surviving fellows ran back into the trees to grab the first-aid kits that we'd left there.
Unfortunately two of Jack's wolves hadn't lasted long enough for first aid to be applied. Jess, Alison and Jasmin were all hurt too. They weren't bleeding as badly as Jack and James, but they'd all shifted back to human form already in an attempt to kick-start the healing process.
"Carson, we need some help back here if you've got anyone you can spare!"
I probably hadn't needed to yell, not considering how acute shape shifter hearing was, but it was gratifying to hear Carson instantly detach two of his people to come back and help with our wounded. Under other circumstances I would have simply stayed in hybrid form. I'd already shifted twice today, but I dropped down next to Jasmin, shifting back to human form so that I could help apply pressure to the nasty gash in her arm that was dripping an alarming amount of blood.
Jack's wolves made it back only a few seconds later and Carson's people weren't far behind them. A slender brunette whose name I couldn't remember shouldered me aside once she had a tourniquet on Jasmin's arm.
"It's only temporary until I can get her sewn up."
I stood, looking around to see where I was needed, but the medics seemed to have everything well in hand. One of Jack's people had grabbed the radio on their way back. I accepted it with a nod of thanks and then depressed the tra
nsmit button.
"The operation was a success, but we've got wounded, get up here as quickly as you can."
"We're on our way!"
I let the hand holding the radio drop to my side as I started towards the back of the trailer. I only made it two steps before Jack swore.
He was white as a sheet and it was obviously painful for him to raise his hand, but he was pointing off to the west. I turned to see what he was pointing at and my blood ran cold.
The plane that I'd noticed from before the attack had gotten closer, but that wasn't the worst part. The plane had loosed a thin trail of tiny black shapes, shapes that were descending with the blinding speed of an unchecked fall.
They were moving our direction as they fell and there were nearly thirty of them. It had to be the Coun'hij. Nobody else would have been sending in people this late into the fight. Shawn would have just stayed in the plane once it was clear that we'd carried the battle. It was ironic that they'd hit on the same delivery mechanism that Jack had been counting on using to get us out if things went bad. Ironic, but terribly inconvenient.
I did some quick calculations in my head. We were a hundred yards from the edge of the canyon and we had wounded. It was going to take time to get our people to the extraction point, but by the same measure, Rachel and the others were still a ways from the road. They had at least two or three minutes of driving cross-country across some nasty terrain before they'd even be able to start up the gigantic hill that separated us from them. We just didn't have very much time left.
I lifted the radio back up to where I could talk into it. "Belay that order. Go with the original plan, we've got company, we'll be coming to you."
Carson and his people must have overheard Jack's oath. They all arrived a couple of seconds later. Carson was supporting Grayson, who seemed uninjured but strangely disconnected from everything.
As Carson set Grayson down his people started picking up the wounded. I knelt down in front of Grayson. "Can you stop them, Grayson? We need your help or we're in trouble."
Carson shook his head at me. "Don't waste your time. Either he'll help or he won't. Either way our course is the same. We've got to get the wounded to the extraction point."
Our people were already moving. The uninjured wolves, who were all back in human shape by now, were lifting the worst of the injured up onto the shoulders of a few of the less injured hybrids. It was the quickest way to move everyone, but it was going to be close.
I looked over at the falling black-clothed figures and saw the first of the parachutes deploy. They'd waited until the last possible second in order to make sure that they would have the minimum flight time possible.
I threw myself into the back of the semi and sprinted towards the gigantic cage secured to the very front of the trailer by massive nylon straps. The tired-looking man who looked up at me had been beaten at least half a dozen times. The collection of mottled bruises across his arms had to all be fairly recent to not have already faded. Apparently the average Coun'hij enforcer was every bit as sadistic as Brandon or Vincent.
The cover that made it impossible for someone on the inside of the cage to open it up was incredibly complex, but the actual locking mechanism was dead simple. It took me all of two seconds to throw open the door to his cage and half support, half drag him out of it.
I could feel the clock ticking in the back of my head as we made our way to the back of the trailer. "Agony, I presume?"
"Yes, who are you?"
"Alec Graves. You may not have heard that I ran away from home a few weeks ago."
Agony stumbled and would have fallen down if I hadn't been supporting him. "When you say it like that you sound like a rebellious teenager."
By the time we reached the end of the trailer he was walking better and he actually just threw himself off the back, shifting to hybrid form a split second before he landed. I followed suit with an equivalent surge of power.
Carson was waiting for us just behind the trailer. All of our seriously wounded people were already back at the edge of the canyon and everyone else was spread out between us and the enforcers, most of whom had already landed.
I was just in time to see the last of the new arrivals undo their parachute from a height of about ten feet up. They too shifted shapes as they hit the ground, landing in a spray of dust and rock shards.
I turned on Carson to demand an explanation for the scattered formation, but he preempted my question.
"They needed to be close enough to quickly dispatch anyone Grayson manages to drop. I told them to keep enough distance that they can make it back to the extraction point ahead of the enforcers if it comes to that."
I opened my mouth to approve his decision and then it happened. Our people had done exactly as he'd ordered. They had plenty of separation between themselves and the Coun'hij's people. There was enough room that no normal hybrid could have hoped to run any of them down, except that they weren't up against a normal hybrid.
One of the figures in the front of the enforcer ranks suddenly exploded into motion so fast that even in my hybrid form I couldn't fully follow what had happened. One second our people were calmly falling back towards our wounded teammates and then in the next one of our hybrids had fallen, hamstrung by the one hybrid I'd been most worried about running into.
Brandon didn't even bother finishing off the hybrid he'd maimed. He left Carson's man lying in the dirt and sprang at another of Jack's wolves. She was fast, but even her preternatural speed wasn't enough to save her. In two seconds Brandon had dispatched two of our people and everyone we had was in full flight back towards us.
"Jump!"
Both of the individuals Brandon had attacked had fallen without any sound louder than his claws rending their flesh. It was an eerie kind of near silence for such wanton slaughter. My voice shattered that silence, cutting through the air with all of the urgency I felt.
I didn't do any fancy estimates this time because I'd already done them. From the second I'd arrived at the ambush site I'd been worrying about what would happen if Brandon arrived. I'd already seen that the wounded hadn't started putting on their parachutes. They'd probably been worried about giving away the fact that we had an exit strategy in place.
Under other circumstances it wouldn't have been the wrong call. Brandon and his people would have moved towards us even more quickly if not for the fact that they thought they had the bulk of our forces trapped between them and a sheer drop of more than six hundred feet. That time had bought me the breathing room to get Agony out of his cage, but it was going to get a lot of people killed now.
Some of our people were hurt badly enough that they would need help putting on their parachutes and others were going to have to team-jump off because they wouldn't be able to jump far enough out to avoid the cliff on their way down. We needed time, time for people to get their parachutes on, time for the less injured to get back and help throw their fellows far enough out that they could clear the cliff face.
I was already in motion as I yelled the order for my people to get out in whatever way they could. The spot where Carson and I had left our swords was far enough away that there was a chance I could have made it there a second or two faster if I'd shifted to wolf form, but I couldn't risk it. I was already risking muscle cramps based on how many forms I'd worn in such a short time.
I couldn't court the risk of seizing up in the middle of what was headed my way, so instead I dug deep for every ounce of speed that my hybrid body was capable of mustering. I went from stationary to full speed within the first three steps and was still clawing for every bit of traction that I could muster.
Even for a hybrid, with our enhanced endurance, it still wasn't possible to sustain a full-out sprint for forever. By the time I'd covered half the distance towards the sword, my breath was already coming in big gulps. I wasn't out of gas yet, but my body was telling me that I couldn't keep up this ruinous pace for much longer.
The temptation to slow down, even j
ust the little bit that would be required to make it so that I could keep the pace up for hours, was intense. It wasn't nearly as intense though as the desire to yell and tell Brandon who he was up against.
We hadn't spent much time around each other in hybrid form so there was a good chance that he hadn't recognized my single yell ordering everyone to flee. I heard him kill another one of my people in the time it took me to cross the halfway point. I'd expected the butcher's bill to be even higher than that, but apparently our wolves and hybrids were spread out enough now that it was taking him longer to run them down.
The sound of footsteps dogged me. I was almost certain that it was Carson, or maybe Agony behind me, but I didn't know that was the case. I'd whited out mentally from the exertion of getting so far so quickly. It was possible that the two of them had done the smart thing and headed for the wounded like I'd ordered. If it wasn't them I was probably okay, unless it was Brandon behind me. Nobody else should be able to run me down, not in the amount of time it would take me to reach the swords, but Brandon could.
I took another impossibly long step and decided the risk to my people was too great to wait any longer.
"Brandon, come fight someone who can give you a challenge. I beat you once, I can do it again."
Two more long seconds passed. I didn't hear anyone else die which meant that my ploy had worked. Brandon had stopped chasing my people and was after me instead.
I wasn't going to survive, but I'd known that going into this battle. I'd beaten Brandon because fighting on the roof of a moving train favored me in almost every respect. Even with those advantages I'd still almost died and it had been little more than sheer luck that had saved me.
Brandon would more than likely make quick work of me, but the simple fact that he'd detoured away to dispatch me would give my people the extra few seconds they would need to get away.
I started to lose my balance, but I used that to my advantage and converted my fall into a long roll that started almost directly above my sword. I came up winded but with a sword in my hand. I spun around to find that Carson had just finished grabbing his own weapon and Agony was only half a step behind him.
