75. Chapter 75
75
Graysen
T he thunder of my bike was as loud as the wind whistling past my ears and tearing at my hair. The Wayfarers shielded my eyes from the streaming headwind as I pushed the Ducati as hard as I could along a pitted road rising up a mountain. Water splashed beneath the bike’s tires as I leaned low to race around corners, kicking through the gears to hurtle up short straights. My blades shivered against my back from the bike’s vibrations on the uneven asphalt. Strapped alongside my spine was a second sword, a bastard twin to the wyrmblade, forged from pure adamere.
Two thoughts had occurred to me as I’d traveled through the fuck-knows-where back roads of America. The first I’d discarded as soon as I’d thought it. Sure, my bike had a locator, and my brothers would eventually find me. But there wasn’t much I could do about not having my phone on me—incinerated by Nelle in the woodland—and with no way to contact my brothers, I couldn’t let them know what I might discover.
The second thought had occupied my mind almost the entire ride.
I’d ridden for a few hours now, following the threads that bound Nelle to me, the whispering caress of her becoming stronger with every mile I chewed through.
I’d crossed the line. I knew that. Deep down I’d lost myself to her, given in to whatever this thing was between us. I could lie through my teeth and say I was following her, hunting down whoever had her for my family, because we needed her.
But…
It was more than that. This feeling inside me wasn’t foreign, but I’d hidden it away for so long that its intensity nearly overwhelmed my senses as it was dredged up from the darkness I’d shoved it in. And though right now wasn’t the time to unravel what the hells I was going to do about it, I’d had plenty of time on my bike to do so. I knew I was on the edge of something so powerful and intrinsic my entire world would be rocked. Deny it? I couldn’t. I’d fallen for her. More than fallen for her. I’d fallen into her. Just as I’d feared, and exactly as the Uzrek had teased out as he’d sifted through my memories. Its ancient cruel laughter echoed through my mind— Such a strange fear to have .
As if it had been inevitable.
I’d held her in my arms as she died. I knew it wasn’t her , but hells, that had broken me.
I had to find her.
I had to free her from whoever had stolen her.
It was early morning, the sunlight strong and beating upon the worn wet road that twisted around the edges of the mountain. It had been raining recently and water cascaded in thin streams down the mountainside to spread across the road as it coursed downward.
Bloodlust for whoever had stolen Nelle burst through my veins, tightening my fists on the bike’s handlebars. Weaving through a series of sharply cut corners, I leaned the bike over so low my knee was barely an inch from the puddled road, righting the machine to punch into a short straight. West. We were still traveling west.
If I had to guess, they were heading to the Carpellean Mountains.
Danne Pellan.
I was going to fucking shred him. I’d tear him apart with my own hands.
I was close. I could feel Nelle. Her panicked heartbeat was a ball ricocheting against a wall, faster and faster and faster. Her fear raked my skin, my bones, my heart…
Where is she, where is she, where is she—
But I could see nothing. Only the empty roadway ahead. As I traveled, one side of me was lined with gnarled oak and wild pine growing up the mountain slope, while the other side featured a carpet of muddy greens that rolled downward and plunged into a gorge. From the chasm came the distant sound of a fast-churning river.
Nelle had to be close. Really close.
Yet, I couldn’t understand why I hadn’t reached her, or at the very least, glimpsed the convoy.
I blinked, sharpening with awareness. For some strange reason, I had drifted to the other side of the road as if I’d intended to pass a vehicle.
What the…?
I was alone on the road and there was no reason to use the other lane.
No reason…
Just as the answer teased the edge of my mind…
…sunlight glinted, then fractured and reflected off a point mid-air.
Magic.
Godsdammit!
Whoever possessed Nelle had erected a magical shield to keep themselves hidden.
And if I was anybody else, a mortal, or even someone from one of the other Houses, I wouldn’t have spotted it. The dark magic would have kept softly urging me to unconsciously turn my bike aside and skirt around them, without me realizing what I’d done. I’d have bypassed my little bird and lost her forever.
If I’d been anyone else.
But I wasn’t.
Nelle and I were bound together, and I could feel her.
Feel the heart-crushing terror and black despair that was tearing her apart.
If she was hurt… if Danne …and I couldn’t voice the foulness, couldn’t bear to think it…
My breath caught in my throat. Blistering rage slashed through my blood. There would be no mercy for Danne Pellan. Not this time. No one was going to beg me to spare his life.
Easing back on the throttle, I dropped speed and realigned the bike to coast along the center of the lane. In a swift, smooth motion, I swiped a small knife from my bandoleer, palming it. Leaning back, I hurled it right at the shield.
The adamere dagger sliced through the air, fast, deadly—
Struck the shield—
And held.
A loud crack resounded, and sparks flew. A ripple washed across the invisible sphere, making it shiver and shudder like a mirage. For a moment I glimpsed the magic fizz like forks of lightning skittering all over the dome.
But—
The force field punched back and shunted the dagger’s blade free.
As the knife fell, striking and bouncing off the asphalt, disappearing behind me as I sped onwards, the magical defense encircling the convoy smoothed over once again. In my range of vision, all I saw was the illusion of the road ahead and the slight glint of reflected sunlight.
Ah, fuck this!
A furious snarl rumbled deep within my chest. I let go of the bike’s handlebars and sat upright, my hand moving in a blur of flesh as I palmed blade after blade. Yanking my arm back to sling it forward. Whiplashing knife after knife through the air, burying the blades into the force field—
Hard—
Fast—
Puncturing the same area in the shield over and over again—
It was a ripple effect. A stone thrown into a still pond. White light crackled and fizzed, and a hole formed at the impact site, at first small but it grew bigger and bigger—
A CRACK!
A deafening BOOM!
The shield collapsed entirely, and what it had hidden was ripe for plunder.
In front of me was a limousine protected by a three-deep convoy of sleek black SUVs.
I’d arrived upon them so fast, I’d hoped to catch them unprepared.
As usual, I was fucking wrong.
The rear convoy’s formation shifted. The second SUV drifted across the road to the other side. It, along with the third SUV, slowed down to block the road and ultimately blocked me. The two vehicles carried soldiers for House Pellan. Soldiers hung out of windows with handguns, while another rose from the sunroof with a machine gun.
Hellsgate!
Shots rattled, screaming through the air—
I ducked and swerved, leaning the bike low to dodge the hail of bullets. They ricocheted off the asphalt on either side of me, spraying chunks of rock wide.
The hatch popped open in the first SUV and in the rear, a soldier aimed a crossbow with a heavy bolt-head loaded with cursed lightning. Aimed and fired—
Shit, shit, shit —
I jerked to the side. The bolt whizzed past, scoring the side of my face with aether and electric fire, blistering skin and charring hair.
A thunderous KABOOM! exploded behind me. Rubble erupted skyward, scattering burnt melted chunks of the obliterated road to rain down like a volcano spewing its wrath.
Sweeping a hand to my thigh, I snatched a long dagger from its sheath and hurled it directly at the back tire of the SUV.
The blade struck.
But instead of its sharp point turning the rubber to shreds and blowing the tire, the blade simply bounded off.
“HELLS!” The Pellans had some serious armory built into their vehicles.
A heartbeat later, a fucking war zone erupted around me. Bullets rained like sleet and crossbow bolts fired with the speed of a machine gun—
The world was lit up with blinding white light and plumes of smoke as asphalt and trees were hit with lightning strikes, exploding into rubble and bursting into flames.
As I ducked low and thrust the throttle down, my bike streaked forward as I hugged the narrow verge where part of the mountain was cut away and a sheer drop greeted me. Bullets struck my body and the Ducati, bouncing harmlessly off my adamere-reinforced armor and the bike’s armored fairing in shards of white sparks.
The SUV swerved, trying to ram me aside and over the sharp edge—
Hellsgate!
I jammed on the brakes. The bike’s rear tire skidded on gravel, spraying stones over the side of the cliff. The smell of burning rubber filled the air as I wobbled and righted, my foot kicking free of the footpeg and dangling over the cliff face.
My heart slammed into my throat as I glanced at the dizzying drop below, the way the rear tire of my bike was positioned, half on and half off the cliff’s edge, and how perilously close I was to tipping over.
Engaging the throttle, shifting through the gears, I maneuvered off.
Going around the SUV’s rear guard wasn’t going to work.
Anger thrashed against my ribcage as I watched the SUVs disappear around a corner.
Nelle’s terror beat beneath my skin like a fluttering moth, its delicate wings torn and shredded. Her utter fear scrambled my senses and sent a flood of ice through my veins. An ancient strain, wild and wicked, whispered inside my mind— protect, protect, protect —as phantom fangs sank into my bones— Save her, save her, save her! I yielded to that ancient strumming power as something untamed thrummed through my blood, so ferocious and savage it sharpened my bloodthirst into the honed edge of a blade.
Leaning the bike into the corner, I swooped around the bend—
Faster, faster, faster —
The SUV was there, right there—
Opening up the bike’s throttle, I punched forward, and in a smooth motion, rose to stand on my bike’s seat, placing a boot on the handlebars, and leaped—
Soaring through the air, the wind buffeting my body. I twisted at the apex, falling to land on top of the SUV’s roof, right behind the sunroof gunner. The metal buckled beneath my weight.
In my periphery, I glimpsed my Ducati pitching forward, cartwheeling over and over and over as it crashed across the road, skidding in a spray of sparks off the asphalt and down the slope to slam into a gnarled oak. Gasoline and krekenn blood ignited, and the mangled bike erupted into a raging fireball—
Throwing heat and fuel wide to set grass and tree on fire.
The sunroof gunner turned, his machine gun swinging with him.
Everything emptied from my head apart from that ancient strain. It strummed a melody of wickedness, a song so bittersweet I fell into a haze of bloodlust. But I was more than instinct and reflexes and savagery.
I was shadow and darkness.
A derecho wind. A straight-lined squall. And my destruction was going to be widespread.
It was as easy as slamming an elbow into his temple, taking hold of the gun to swing him around, sliding my forefinger on top of his trigger finger—
Blowing the brains out of the soldier clambering out of the vehicle’s window—
Gore sprayed in a thick coating of red and her corpse swayed, then toppled from the SUV in a heavy thunk to roll behind us.
Spinning around to fire a barrage of shots at the SUV ahead—
Ending the lives of the soldiers hanging out of windows and their machine gunner, too.
Twisting back, I rose to slam my boot into the fragile skull of the guy I’d held, shoving him down the sunroof. My fingers were a blur of speed—snatching a cursed grenade from my bandoleer. Loosening the pin, I hurled it through the open window.
Swooping down to free the daggers from my calves right as the device exploded, jolting me bodily with the mighty explosion heaving through the car. Its interior bloomed with a cloud of inky darkness cursed with tiny flesh-eating critters. Screams competed with the whirring sound of the otherworldly creatures chewing through the dead and undead alike.
Something wrenched the SUV to the side. I jerked with the movement, staggering with the unbalance, and shifted quickly to brace my stance. The lethal darkness of those creepy critters had consumed the driver, and the accelerator popped free—
The speed of the car dramatically reduced and fell away—
But I was moving, never stopping, flowing like the derecho that gave birth to hurricane-force winds.
One step—
Two, three more—
Muscles bunched—
I launched, throwing myself at the second SUV traveling ahead, landing with a crunch on top of the roof. Soldiers already half-hanging out of the windows pumped bullets—
A whirl of my daggers sliced them aside.
A shower of sparks scattering wide.
I had to get to Nelle. Her heartbeat was a flurry of panicked beats hammering against my ribcage. Her terror was a heavy pounding at a drum to the wild and wicked strain singing inside my head.
There was no time to take out Danne’s men.
I was a tornado. A swirling wind of rage and mist and shadow. My blades slashed and hacked—
An arm. A hand. A head.
The reverberation of adamere and steel on bone rattling against my wrists.
Blood sprayed. Limbs fell. Screams followed.
I darted a furtive glance over my shoulder—
The third SUV guarding the limousine pulled ahead, disappearing around a bend.
Too far to jump!
Hellsgate!
In a rush of motion, I reached over my shoulder to unsheath my adamere sword.
Dazzling sunlight glanced off the razor-sharp blade as I raised the sword high—
To punch down hard.
The blade sliced cleanly through the roof of the SUV. Beads of sweat trickled down my spine as I sawed feverishly like I was opening up a can of sardines and those inside were flapping fish caught in a net, meeting their deaths at the keen edge of my blade .
Skewering—
Spearing—
Stabbing—
Their screams and death throes deafened the roar of the car’s engine.
Yanking my sword free, droplets of blood scattered wide as I twisted around.
And then I was pushing forward, moving fast—
Leaping to slam on top of the car’s hood, rotating and arching my spine, both hands wrapped tightly about the hilt—
I drove the sword right through the reinforced windshield.
Cracks spider webbed across the glass—
And the car veered as the driver lost control—
I pitched sideways. As the car shuddered and shifted beneath me, I swiftly braced myself and slipped the blade back into its sheath. It gave a sound like a humming sigh as it slid back into the leather. Then I was snatching up my daggers once more. In a violent burst of movement, I kicked in the windshield. Glass shattered and scattered—
The front passenger aimed his gun directly at my forehead—
A crossing of my twin daggers at his wrist and I cleaved through flesh and bone.
He screamed in agony. The severed hand holding the gun fell on the dashboard, bounced up and down with the vibration of the road, before sliding onto his lap. His ruddy features contorted in pain as he clutched the stump of his arm with the other hand. Blood poured freely, turning his uniform stickily wet. A look of utter disbelief flashed across his expression just as my dagger plunged through his forehead, giving a moist, sucking pop as it withdrew.
There was no time. I had to keep moving for Nelle. I had to catch up to the next SUV.
Reaching forward, I snatched hold of the driver by the back of his head and smashed his face down on the steering wheel. Once, twice—
Once more—
Disoriented, he blinked, woozily swaying, and I punched him with the hilt of my dagger. The impact smashed fragile bones—caving his face in, splitting skin, and fracturing bone that pierced his brain in fatal slivers. His bloodied, mangled head flopped forward as his corpse slumped against the steering wheel.
But his foot still rested upon the accelerator. And with his deadweight, it slammed down, effectively flooring the SUV.
The car surged forward with a menacing roar—
I rocked off-balance, jostled by the sudden speed.
Lurching for the steering wheel, I frantically grabbed hold, before half-kneeling and twisting my upper body to face forward.
Shit, shit, shit !
The incline was getting steeper and the twists of the road weren’t exactly ideal for the furious speed we were traveling at. Water from a previous storm deluge cascaded down the mountain, slicking across the road to run in a spread of water down the slope and into the forest. Tires splashed through puddles. Leaning myself into the sharp corner, the car skidded, rocking and fishtailing as I navigated around a hairpin bend.
There, right fucking there , exactly where I needed it was the third SUV playing rear guard to the limousine.
The wild blustery headwind shoved with force against my body, trying to shunt me off the car. The SUV shuddered and bounced beneath me, shivering against my bones. Its engine was a ferocious roar as I aimed the car right for the third SUV. I minutely adjusted the direction with the blood-coated steering wheel, my other hand whipping around to slice aside bullets.
I pushed up out of my kneeling position and launched into a run—
My blades spun furiously—
Bullets sparked and shot aside harmlessly—
And I hurled myself off the hood of the car, my legs kicking through the air, to land squarely on top of the third SUV.
No time, no time —no time to take them down.
But as I ran across the roof as swift as a black-tipped wind, heavy footfall buckling metal, I slashed and cleaved men and women—
Limbs spinning free—
Bodies falling—
I slammed onto the hood, surging forward, always moving onwards, my gaze fixed with precision on the limousine as it pulled away.
Just as I’d landed my last step, pushing off—
The SUV I’d used to get to this one rammed up the ass of the car. The force of the impact knocked me off-balance—
Uncontrolled—
Spinning faster and lower through the air than I’d intended—
I struck the edge of the limousine’s roof. Pain exploded down my shoulder, bending my mind inward and darkening my vision.
Ah, hellsgate!
I bounced up…
…to slam back down onto the roof, crunching the air from my lungs.
And my hurtling momentum carried me into a mess of out-of-control tumbles, right across the length of the roof —
Crashing down the windshield—
I skidded sideways along the hood of the limousine and fell—
Hellsgate!
Ditching the daggers to one hand, I scrambled to latch onto the radiator grille with the other. My feet bounced on the rough, uneven road, the skidding sensation jarring my ankles and vibrating hot pain up my legs. Melting the soles of my boots.
Holy hells!
Gritting my teeth against the fiery sting coursing along my bones, I hauled myself upwards, breathing hard as I lifted a leg over the hood to scramble up and over.
The remaining SUVs directly behind the limousine crashed into each other. The impact shunted the third vehicle off the road before it tipped over, rolling with a grinding clash of metal on stone into the forest. The second SUV swerved out of control. Tires and metal screamed. Gravel and dirt sprayed as the car spun sideways down the slope and slammed into a pine tree, crushing its furrowed trunk as it collided.
I heard the trigger before I saw the first wayward shot scuffing paint, and then burning heat erupted in my neck. The grazing bullet tore across the skin. My mother’s legacy took effect—blood vessels and flesh mending—pain slowly easing.
A soldier sitting in the front passenger seat of the limousine was leaning out of the open window, firing rapid shots.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Whipping my hand forward, the dagger flew fast and straight, slicing cleanly through the knuckle of her trigger finger.
Her shrill scream tore apart the morning air. The gun slipped from her bloodied severed fingers.
Rising, my shadow fell across her as I rushed up the hood of the jostling limousine. I didn’t give a shit that the SUV traveling ahead unleashed war upon me. Stray bullets hit the car’s hood and cracked off the back of my armor. I snarled and kicked—
The tip of my boot caught her chin. The force employed snapped her neck.
Quickly sheathing my dagger, I leaned down and grabbed hold of her hair to drag her dead body through the window and out of the limousine. The wild streaming headwind fought me as I strained to yank the door open. Swinging up and over, I clambered inside as the wide-eyed, terrified driver fumbled with her pistol.
I jammed a blade into her temple—a wet schlicking sound as I popped it free. Reaching over her corpse to open the driver’s door, I shoved her body out and slipped behind the steering wheel, punching the control for the privacy window.
My fingers wrapped around the handbrake, forearm muscles clenching as I readied to haul it up. But when the privacy window slid down and a scent filtered from the back of the limousine, horror twisted my gut. Arousal permeated the air like a rank, dirty sheet. As I tasted the vile, eager tang on my tongue—the same taste I’d encountered when I’d stumbled across my sister pinned beneath Danne—my blood froze and fear swept through me.
I glanced in the rear vision mirror—
Twin boys, others, and—
Danne was there with his back to me, on his knees, his pants hanging halfway down his ass.
Roaring silence filled my head.
I felt numb…I couldn’t even feel the steering wheel beneath my white-knuckled grip.
Danne shirked aside, pressing a hand to his ear. “You bitch!”
Between his fingers, blood matted his hair and poured in thin red lines down his neck, and I could see ragged, bloodied scratch marks across his freckled cheeks.
He pinned Nelle to the floor of the car. Purple bruises, like bracelets, circled her wrists, and he had bruised her thighs where he shoved her skirt up—
Her panties were torn and discarded beside her.
No, no, no, no…NO!
GODS NO!
An anguished sound of rage ripped from me.
Nelle had never looked so wild and regal.
Never tasted so terrified.
She snarled. Blood smeared her pretty pink lips and trickled down her chin. She spat something out of her mouth at him—something soft and fleshy.
His earlobe—
She’d bitten his earlobe off.
She screamed, the sound feral and panicked.
I didn’t understand why she hadn’t incinerated him to ash. How had he caged whatever lurked beneath her skin?
She thrashed and bucked, clawed at his face with blood-coated fingers .
He pulled his arm back and slapped her—the force whiplashing her head to the side. She cried out in pain, momentarily stunned and dazed. Danne took advantage. His hands grasped hers, forcing them down. Her cheek swelled with a red handprint, and her wide, terrified eyes focused on Danne as he leaned over her.
Gusts of white-hot wrath, like a dry desert wind, burned through me. It filled my insides, my head, as that ancient strain sang its song— End him, end him, end him!
I was going to obliterate the motherfucker!
I roared my fury—ripped the handbrake up, spun hard, and flipped the bitch. The heavy-assed limousine swung round, tires smoking—
And the car surged forward, barreling back down the mountain.
The Pellan convoy continued onward, not seeing the maneuver coming. I kept my slitted gaze on the rear-view mirror. The violent motion of spinning the vehicle had knocked Danne off Nelle. Flying sideways, his temple smacked against the walnut console holding the wet bar, and he groaned in pain.
Nelle scrambled, righting herself in a flurry of limbs, and pressed into the rear seating like a wild animal, finding herself cornered.
But there was no way I was leaving her back there alone.
I’d been so desperate to find her, I’d gone straight for the limousine, knowing this was where he had her trapped. I thanked Zrenyth I hadn’t taken out his entourage first.
That spirit of hers had diminished. She looked like she was going to kill him, but something had guttered inside her. And her heart, her godsdamned heart, was breaking. He’d stolen something from her—her fearlessness. She was frightened and didn’t know what to do, didn’t know if she was going to make it out of the limousine with her life.
Her eyes sliced to meet mine in the rearview mirror, flaring wide in shock, chased by such intense relief it scrambled my senses. A sob choked from her. “Gray—”
“Hold on to something!” I yelled back.
She hesitated.
“Now! Hold on to something now!”
She jolted at my bellow. But she spread her hands over the roof and the curve of the window, pushing herself back as deep as she could go into the plush corner seating to brace herself.
I slammed on the brake. The steering wheel vibrated in protest beneath my grip. Plumes of white smoke billowed from the tires as the limousine screeched, sliding off course to skid sideways along the road, spraying sheets of dirty water. Dirt and gravel arced as its fat ass drifted and dipped over the roadside verge. The sudden movement flung Danne sideways, and his back hit the car door handle with a satisfying crack.
Those others , whatever the hells those things were, tumbled like skittles.
We’d ended up half on the gravel and dirt with the rest of the car’s ass on the road, rocking back and forth until it settled.
Danne fell backward, dazed. Shaking his head, coming right, he lurched forward, scrambling for Nelle. She struck out with her feet, kicking him in the face with a shriek of rage—
Sending him sprawling.
I didn’t even bother getting out of the car. I threw myself through the space dividing the front and the back of the limousine and—
Jerked backward—
The godsdamned hilt of my sword had caught on the headrest.
FUUUCK!
Danne, his features twisted in fury, lunged for Nelle—
Missed—
She’d moved faster—shoved the door open and fell out in a tangle of limbs and a pained cry.
I watched through the partition as she scrambled to her feet, backing away wide-eyed, her cheeks wet with tears and sticky with Danne’s blood. “Graysen!” she yelled. The flash of desperate need for me sweeping through her eyes and across that pretty face sliced through my heart, right to my soul.
She stepped toward me.
“Run, Nelle, RUN!” I bellowed at her.
Fuck! Run, Nelle, now!
My bite of fury snapped her out of her indecision. She kicked off her high heels, spun around, and ran.
Danne tumbled from the limousine, his hands fumbling to zip up his pants as he ran. I was outside of the car a heartbeat later, throwing myself onto the hood, sliding over to slam to my feet, surging forward, following in a streak of speed.
Nelle hurtled straight for the forest.
Danne was after her. He was so obsessed with her, he didn’t care that I was chasing him down. His shitty, shiny shoes slapped against asphalt, then made a soft dull thudding sound as he crossed gravel onto uneven, sodden earth .
Pounding across the road, I reached for Danne. My fingers were an inch from tearing into his freckly neck—
White-hot pain burst through my body as lightning tore through me, chattering my teeth and fizzing through my brain. The force of the cursed crossbow bolt punched through my armor and spun me sideways.
Searing agony sliced through my shoulder, setting my nerves aflame as the bolt shattered flesh, cartilage and bone.
I staggered, grunting in pain.
Danne swiveled around, backing away. His surprise to see me there faded, replaced with a sly superior expression that looked so much like Corné it had the blood in my veins turning to ice.
Nelle was halfway down the slippery grassy slope to the tree line. The shadows of the thick, gnarled forest cast her in gloom.
She’d whirled around as soon as she’d heard me.
“GRAY!” she screamed. Her heart raced so fast I thought mine might burst inside my chest.
She started running toward me.
“ GET OUT OF HERE! ” I roared back at her.
She slammed to a halt, her hands balled at her sides as indecision wrapped itself about her. She darted quick furious glances between the remaining SUVs pulling up, the Pellan soldiers pouring out, before returning to me and taking another step my way. “NO!”
“ RUN! ”
The feeling of her heartache reverberated right through my chest. “I can’t!” she wailed, her eyebrows slashing upward and bottom lip trembling.
“ NOW! ”
Her features tightened, warring against me, but she spun, her torn, bloodied dress flaring wide and her pale hair sweeping like a sheen of moonlight as she took off toward the forest.
Danne’s men formed a distant half-circle around me, and Danne backed away to stand flush between two of his soldiers. He reached over and plucked a Glock out of one of their hands. His eyes gleamed in eagerness as he pointed the gun at me. “Not so infallible after all, Crowther.”
I took in Danne’s men, their guns and crossbows aimed right at me.
The bolt had gone straight through my body, the crackling head poking a little way out of my upper chest. I reached over my shoulder and snapped the bolt in half, dropping the fletching end with a clatter to the ground. Gritting my teeth, I gripped the head, still sparking with energy, and pulled the fucking thing right through my chest, keeping my eyes locked on Danne Pellan, watching that smugness drip from his face like melting ice. I flung the bloodied bolt aside.
I was going to take great pleasure in dicing Danne into tiny slivers.
This was going to be fast and so godsdamned satisfying.