I peeked around the bush to see an Unbounded man waiting. Not just any Unbounded, but the gray-haired man from the restaurant. He chuckled when he saw me. “Well, look who’s here. You’ve saved us the trouble of finding you. Come out slowly, and I won’t hurt you.”
I didn’t believe him for a minute. My finger tightened on the trigger. A soft thud came as he jerked back.
I kept firing. Bullet after bullet went into his body. I knew I couldn’t kill him with this gun, but I might be able to damage him enough that he wouldn’t be able to follow me. One of my bullets hit the middle of his chest. He staggered, squeezing his own trigger belatedly. To my relief, his shot went wild. Then he was down.
Swiftly, I retrieved my spare key from the frog in the flowerbed and went downstairs to my apartment, but the door was unlocked. Inside, the curtains were drawn shut, the room only dimly illuminated by the light that managed to bend around the edges of the material. Sensing movement at the end of the room near the stairs, I dove behind my couch.
There was a soft whimper, and I looked to see Max lying next to me, blood glistening on his golden coat. He put his nose into my hand and licked me weakly. I could feel his hurt and puzzlement at being shot, and the rage that boiled under the surface of his happy-go-lucky self. Or maybe the rage came from my heart. I wasn’t a dog person, but I didn’t like anyone making any animal suffer, much less one that so foolishly loved me.
“Von? That you? I tell you, there’s no one outside. Would you stop being so paranoid? No one knows we’re here. We got them cornered in the bedroom. Julio is sweet-talking them out now.”
I sat up and fired. My shot missed, but I caught a glimpse of a Nordic-looking man, sliding toward me with that familiar Unbounded confidence. He jumped for cover as I let off another shot. He didn’t make a sound, but I knew I’d hit him.
He was still coming, though, so I had to act. I crawled to the end of the couch and lifted my head to gauge where he was.
A body slammed into me, knocking me to the soft carpet. I pulled the trigger again, and my attacker grunted as the bullet sank into his chest. He brought his own weapon to my heart but stopped abruptly. “You,” he muttered. “You weren’t supposed to be here.”
He knew me? But I’d never seen him before. “Tough luck for you.” I fired again. Nothing. I was out of bullets.
Chuckling, the man switched his gun to his other hand, balling his fist. I knew what was coming. Now I’d be the one out of commission while he took care of my family, after Julio or whoever got them out of the bedroom. Where was Ritter?
Gathering my strength, I twisted at the last moment, and he hit me off-center. Even so, I reeled with the pain that spread through my jaw. This man wasn’t nearly as fast as Ritter, but he was experienced and strong. I had only seconds to decide what to do. He was on top of me, easily half again my weight. I wouldn’t be able to beat him in hand-to-hand combat, even if I were properly trained. But like the man outside, his orders didn’t seem to be to kill or to even seriously wound me. If I could get to my knives, they might give me an upper hand.
I started reaching, but his leg was in the way. His fist came up again.
A low growl was the only warning before a golden shape sailed into the blond man. A scream burst from him as Max’s heavy body knocked him to the side, freeing me. I grabbed a knife as Max snapped at his throat. The Unbounded hit Max’s jaws away with his gun, bringing the weapon into position to fire at the dog’s head.
“No!” I swung the knife, missing Max by inches but successfully embedding it into the man’s gun shoulder. He winced and dropped the gun. By then I was slapping the new magazine into my gun. I fired once, twice.
That was enough. He lay still. I didn’t know how long it would take him to revive, but I didn’t worry about tying him up. Instead, I pulled off Ritter’s shirt, used my teeth to rip it, and tied the cloth around the bloody wound in Max’s body. “You stay here, buddy. I’ll be back for you.”
Yelling from upstairs spurred me to action. I had to be in time to help my family. Fighting the urge to vomit, I pulled my knife from the man’s shoulder and gingerly wiped the blade on his shirt before replacing it in my sheath. I hurried up to the kitchen and around to the front entryway stairs. I took them two at a time.
Ritter was in my parents’ sitting room behind the sofa, shooting into the short hallway that led to my parents’ bedroom. Return fire came, the rapid shots so muffled as to seem surreal. I couldn’t see the Emporium men from the top of the stairs, and they couldn’t see me, but Ritter could.
He scowled and motioned me away. At that moment, a bullet slammed into his exposed shoulder and he fell. At once three men pounced on him. Shaking, I lifted my gun to do something, anything to help, but Ritter threw off the men and was up and moving like the wind, unheeding of the blood streaming down his arm. He knocked down one opponent, then another. The first man got up again as Ritter faced the third, who didn’t move with the Unbounded confidence his companions possessed. Ritter sent an uppercut to the man’s chin, felling him heavily, before whipping around to land a powerful kick in the midsection of the first, slamming the man into the wall with a sickening thump. I could only watch in horrified amazement. Then the second man was coming at Ritter again.
Something was behind me. I whirled, barely catching a glimpse of the gray-haired man as a hot, slicing pain bit into my thigh. He was halfway up the staircase, blood spattered over his chest. His gun pointed at my chest. I fired and he fell, tumbling backwards down the stairs. Once at the bottom, he didn’t move. I turned back to the other fight.
All Ritter’s opponents were down. Ritter stood over one of them, aiming his gun at his heart. He fired. He moved to the next and did the same thing. When he reached the third, I called out, “He’s not Unbounded.”
Ritter’s hand wavered, though his face was like granite. He didn’t ask me how I knew, and I couldn’t tell him. “Fine.” He hit the man in the head with the gun instead before striding to my side. “You okay?”
The gentleness in his voice was more unnerving than my gunshot wound, but I was determined not to turn all weepy now. Never mind the blood dripping down my leg. “Yeah. Mostly. You?”
He flashed me a grin before glancing at his shoulder. “Perfect.” A moment later the mirth left his face as he stared down at the man I’d shot, noting the many bullets holes in his chest. “He’ll have already called others so we don’t have much time to get your family out of here. At this point it’s a guess who will come first, the police or more Emporium Unbounded. Depends on how many strings the Emporium can pull to delay law enforcement. So go talk to your family. We need them to open the door.”
My hurt leg screamed in agony as I forced myself into the sitting room where the attackers lay sprawled, but the pain had already subsided from the initial impact, as though my body had rushed natural painkillers to the spot in order to allow me to keep functioning. I’d have to ask about that. I didn’t remember it from before, so maybe my body was getting the hang of this Unbounded thing.
On my way to the short, bullet-riddled hallway to my parents’ bedroom, I passed the mortal Ritter had almost killed. His face was deathly pale, and I saw that at some point he had been shot in the calf, but the bleeding didn’t look serious. He had straight, chin-length brown hair and a nice face. Young and handsome. About my age. What was he doing with Unbounded?
“Jace?” I called. “Mom, Dad? It’s me, Erin.” The bedroom door was splattered with bullet holes and several jagged fist-sized openings. The barrel of a rifle poked from one of these.
“Erin?” It was my mother.
“Mom, you can open the door now.”
“Are they threatening to hurt you if I don’t?”
“No, we’ve taken care of the guys who attacked you, but they could be sending more. Or the police will come. Either way, we have to get out of here. It’s safe to unlock the door—I promise.”
My mother’s eye appeared briefly in one of the larger holes
. The door flung open, and she ran into my arms, sobbing loudly. “They shot your father! In the chest. We could barely get him up here, and Jace, he’s been shot, too. So much blood! I didn’t know what I was going to do if they started shooting again.”
I wanted to rush to my dad and Jace, but my mother clung to me as though she were drowning. I held her tightly for a moment, my tears flowing into hers. “It’s okay, Mom. Help is coming.”
She stiffened, and I looked behind me to see Ritter. The bleeding of his wound had slowed, but the bloodstains down his arm made him look gruesome. “He’s with me,” I said. “Come, let’s get to Dad and Jace. See what we can do.” I kept my arm around her. All my life, she’d been the rock of the family, the source of all organization and determination, and I’d mostly resented her strength because of how weak and directionless it made me feel. But in an instant our roles had been reversed. Everything was different now. I couldn’t give in to my urge to scream and weep. I had to be strong for her as she’d always been for me.
As I passed through the door to the bedroom, I heard Ava calling to Ritter from the main floor. “Up here,” he directed.
My father and Jace were sprawled several feet from the door. My father lay with his arms askew, his chest covered in blood. Jace was also unconscious, his hands clutched over his stomach, blood welling between his fingers. More blood pooled beneath his head. Beyond them the pristine expanse of tan carpet and the untouched bed made a startling contrast to the blood and gore. A sound escaped me that was a mixture of horror and despair. Releasing my mother, I fell to my knees between the still forms of Jace and my father. In one hand I still carried my gun, which seemed to gleam at me accusingly.
Ava hurried into the room, followed by Stella and Dimitri and two mortal men I didn’t recognize. One was stocky, with olive skin and dark hair; the other was a very dark black man with a wiry body and corded muscles. Both Unbounded and mortals alike were armed with silenced handguns and rifles that weren’t much smaller than Ritter’s machine gun. Dimitri went at once to check the wounded.
“What can we do to help?” I asked through my tears.
“Get towels,” Dimitri ordered. “Press them over the wounds.”
I hurried to my parents’ bathroom. When I returned, my mother was kneeling near my father and brother, alternately stroking their cheeks while her own ran with tears and blood. Horror washed over me anew, followed by a tremendous load of guilt.
This is my fault, I thought. If I hadn’t been so impatient to see them, they would all still be safe.
I gave Dimitri the towels. “Are they going to be okay?” I asked in a trembling voice I didn’t recognize as my own.
“Your brother should make it if we can stop the bleeding, but your father’s chest wound is bad. If I don’t operate within the hour, he’ll die. Even with the operation . . .” Dimitri shook his head. As he spoke, he had me press a towel over Jace’s head wound. My brother looked so pale. My father was worse, though, his face now a grayish color. Without machines or a thorough examination, I didn’t know how Dimitri could be so certain about their diagnoses, but I believed him completely. He’d had a thousand years to develop his skill in medicine.
“Oh, Grant, please don’t leave me,” my mother moaned, grabbing my father’s hand.
“Go then,” Ava told Dimitri. “Take Grant to the clinic. You’ll have to come up with an explanation, but you’ve saved enough lives there this past year that they ought to cut you some slack. I’ll work on Jace and bring him as soon as he’s stable. I know enough. Go.”
I hadn’t realized Dimitri was working regularly as a doctor, but it made sense. Like Ava, he’d want to be useful during their down time. And he’d somehow been able to get me out of the burn center.
Dimitri gave a short nod and motioned to the men I didn’t know. “Marco, Gaven, help me get him to the van. And I’ll need you, too, Stella,” he added. “You’ll have to call ahead, let them know we’re coming and make up some excuse for the emergency surgery, something that doesn’t include bullets. Meanwhile, I’ll try to slow the bleeding with what I’ve got in the car. Ritter, come down to the van with me. I have supplies Ava will need for Jace.” His voice became gentle. “Annie,” he said to my mother, using her name though to my knowledge they had never officially met, “you can come with us.”
Everyone jumped into motion. After Ava took over with Jace, my mother hugged me and gave a last pat to my brother’s still face. “He protected us,” she murmured. “Without him, we would all be dead.”
I nodded, guilt now the only feeling coming through the hazy numbness that had settled in my heart. My family was being ripped apart—and it was all my fault. “Go with Dad. We’ll take care of Jace.”
She nodded blindly. As she left, I wondered if she would ever forgive me for what I’d done.
Ritter returned with the medical supplies, and Ava deftly wrapped the wounds on Jace’s stomach and head, and the smaller flesh wound on his upper arm. Afterward, she gave him a shot of antibiotic and morphine. “This’ll hold him until Dimitri or Laurence can look at him.”
“What about Chris?” I looked up from where Ritter was tying my still-bleeding leg, his fingers so gentle I felt almost no pain. Or maybe that was because of the painkiller he’d injected into my flesh.
“We sent Cort and Laurence and the others there,” Ava said. “They’ll check in soon.”
Relief came through the numbness. “And my grandmother?”
Ava shook her head. “Our people got her out. At any rate, no one came for her. Probably because there’s no chance of her having more children. I’m sure they came here primarily for Jace.”
“We need to get these guys out of here before their backup arrives,” Ritter said. “But there are four of them—”
“Five,” I interrupted. “There’s another one in the basement. Four Unbounded, one mortal, altogether.” Apparently, they didn’t plan to leave any of the Emporium operatives behind, unlike the Hunters who’d attacked us. That alone told me how much more dangerous they viewed the Emporium.
“Five, then, plus Jace, but Dimitri took his van.” Ritter shoved a wad of gauze under his shirt to mop up his own wound. Apparently, real men didn’t have time for bandages.
“We’ll have to use my mom’s car,” I said. “It’s got a big trunk and a backseat we can put down. Might be big enough. We can recline the front seat for Jace.”
“Get the keys.” Ava had prepared two more needles, handing one to Ritter. “Enough for two. Give half to each Unbounded.”
“What is it?” I asked.
“Something to keep them out for a few days until we can transfer them.”
“Transfer them?”
Ava’s voice was ice-cold. “To Mexico. We have our own courts there and enact our own justice. If they can’t be made to understand the wrong they’re doing, they will be executed for their crimes.”
I understood the reasoning, and even welcomed such a sentence after what they’d done to my family, but after seeing her compassion for the Hunters, I hadn’t expected this detached brutality.
“Good. I want them to pay.” I stumbled out to the bloodstained sitting room to help move the men, noticing immediately that something was wrong. The two Unbounded were still unconscious, but the mortal I’d stopped Ritter from killing was missing.
Ritter swore under his breath. “I’ll find him.”
He checked the house, while Ava and I hurried to move the unconscious men to the car. They were heavy, but Ava was strong, and I surprised myself by being able to support the load. Muscles always at the peak of performance, despite my wound. Being Unbounded definitely had its perks.
The trunk and backseat of the car were smaller than I remembered, and several of the blood-drenched men ended up on their sides, but we managed to fit them in. I felt sick by the time we’d finished and heaved several times in the main floor bathroom. Nothing came up but bile.
We carried Jace last, and much more carefully. “I
’ll drive him to the clinic first,” Ava said. “You and Ritter can meet me there, and then we’ll deal with the others.”
I put blankets around Jace to make the ride more comfortable. “I’m so sorry,” I whispered to him. He didn’t seem to hear me.
Ritter joined us in the garage carrying Max, who tried to greet me with his tongue. “The mortal is long gone, but look what I found downstairs behind the couch. He’s going to need attention.”
I’d completely forgotten Max, though Ava and I had gone to the apartment below for the last body. Worry about Jace and my father had crowded everything else out. “He saved me,” I said. “I hope he’ll be all right.”
“Dogs are tough.” A shadow of pain touched Ritter’s face. Or was that a trick of the light? I wished I knew. Our eyes locked. Emotions roiled inside me, so many I couldn’t differentiate them.
“Go,” Ava told Ritter. “I’ll meet you two at the clinic.”
“I want to stay with Jace.” My leg was throbbing again painfully, and I suspected my body was quickly ridding itself of the painkiller as it would any drug.
Ava shook her head. “As long as we have these men with us we are exposed to both the Emporium and local authorities. I don’t want to risk you. Go on out the back. I’ll meet you at the clinic. Move!”
My second magazine was half empty, but I picked up my gun from the floor of the car near Jace’s feet where I’d stashed it. I stared at it for several seconds. I’d shot two men with this weapon today, and though they weren’t dead, it had been the most horrible thing I’d ever had to do. How many more would I have to shoot?
Ritter carried Max as we went outside, this time using the gate between our yard and the neighbor’s. Wordlessly we slipped into the bushes, which we planned to use for cover until we got as close as we could to the Land Cruiser. We hadn’t gone far when I realized my neighbors were out in their front drive, talking to others and pointing in the general direction of my house. “We’ll never make it to the car without being seen,” Ritter said. “We’ll have to make a run for it.”
The Change (Unbounded) Page 14
