Chapter 15 #2
There was the sound of many tiny feet as they ran past him, heading towards the door they’d been going for. His relief was almost instant as he spotted Zenny carrying a bawling Skya away, the Cupid somehow managing to carry her despite being so small himself.
Zenny ran, holding tight to the squirming, screaming toddler trying to break free from his hold, as he struggled to shove back his own rising panic at leaving behind someone who in a short time had become everything to him.
Seemingly on their own, lines started to fill his vision, his eyes going wide in shock when instead of a single line spouting from his chest there were now two. The new line was red and as light as the one between him and Killian had been when he’d first spotted it.
Zenny’s heart sped up in hope, on realizing that the new line was going off down the hall he was running in.
Knowing for it to have appeared at all meant that whoever it connected to had to be close by, he sped up weaving through the rest of the children with the hope that whoever it was would stop the line connecting him to the Siren from being severed.
Killian met Riker’s gaze as soon as the door shut behind the last child, and he smiled. He found it rather hilarious that the collar, now pressing uncomfortably on his neck, suppressed him, yet stopped the man from silencing him completely.
“You tried to quiet my voice, Riker. But you failed. Let go!” He chuckled in delight when the man did in fact release him, even if only briefly before the pressure returned.
It turned out, him constantly pushing against his bindings since waking up in them had made the collar less effective.
“THIS IS ALL YOU AND THAT brAT’S FAULT!” Riker roared.
Killian scoffed, and just dug his claws into the wrist in his hold, drawing blood, while at the same time, trying to gouge deeper into the man’s neck. He didn’t get much further as Skinwalker’s had notoriously thick skin.
Riker fought against his hold. The man’s hand pressed harder on the collar, and began to restrict his air flow, yet it failed to cut it off completely due to Killian’s usually hidden gills.
The longer they stood locked together, the more Killian felt the strain.
His arms soon started to shake with the effort it took just to hold on, let alone do further damage.
Unfortunately, as a species, Skinwalkers were generally considered to be stronger than Sirens.
At least, this particular Skinwalker certainly was, compared to a Siren who had been seriously lax on training in the last ten…twenty or so years. Yeah, Killian was having some major regrets at the moment.
“Losing strength already, Siren? Pity for you. But for fun, why don’t I tell you my plan for those children, hmm?” Riker sneered. “You see, after I put a bullet in your brain, one by one, I’m going to hunt them down, starting with that Water Nymph brat. Until I just have a pile of little bodies.”
Killian cocked his head, his brow slowly rising.
“I watched my kind, my very own brothers and father, breed those like me to death. I watched them heartlessly discard the bodies, adult and stillborn alike, as if they were nothing more than trash. So they could be eaten by the other creatures in the ocean, because they didn’t view them as worthy of a proper burial.
Did you really think the mere mention of a non-existent pile of dead children would make me react? ”
Riker jerked slightly in his hold, the man blinking rapidly.
While the Skinwalker was still shocked, Killian took his chance.
He shoved the Cryptid back as hard as he could, and flinging himself away when Riker lost his balance, he booked it.
Killian ran away, bursting more pipes as he went, trying to obscure the path behind him.
Because the fact was, he wasn’t strong enough to fight Riker, at least not while he was collared.
Killian flinched at not only Riker shouting out, but the sound of a gun going off, surprised that it had been an actual gun instead of a laser. He would have kept running when it missed him, but the smell of new blood, and a voice, had him spinning back around.
“Ah shit, Toddles is going to be so pissed.”
Killian’s eyes widened at the person he now saw grappling with Riker. Standing taller than both him and Riker at six foot one, with a slim, muscular build, the Cryptid looked out of place in his white T-shirt, blue jeans, brown cowboy hat, and matching boots.
His white hair had been pulled into a ponytail, and the man’s yellow-amber eyes were shining with the bright wide smile on his face.
The newly-arrived Cryptid had the Skinwalker immobilized, holding his right wrist, while tightly gripping Riker’s left hand, likely to stop him from firing—well, firing again.
The muzzle of the Skinwalker’s weapon was pressed into the man’s broad shoulder, and the new Cryptid was sporting a gunshot wound. Blood was rapidly spreading over his white T-shirt. Though based on Riker’s wailing, and the odd angle, it appeared as if the Skinwalker’s left wrist was broken.
As Killian stared at a face he’d only ever seen on a computer screen, he stuttered, “E-Ender?”
Ender glanced back at Killian from underneath his Stetson, not loosening his grip on Riker in the least. “Hello there, Pretty Siren. Fancy meeting you here.”
The man didn’t have time to respond as the horde of children who had directed him here, and who he had told to stay put, chose to enter then and surround the Siren. Little Skya, who had grown so much since he’d last seen her, launched herself at Killian, while she continued to wail loudly.
As heartless as Ender had become in the many years that had passed, the sound of terrified and traumatized children always made his heart ache a bit. Not to mention it pissed him the fuck off.
Ender looked back towards Riker, who was still struggling, glaring at him. “Bit mad about the wrist, ain’t ya? Have to say, I'm a bit pissed off myself,” he finished saying with a hiss, letting his Gorgon side come out to play, as his hair thickened and coiled together into snakes.
Apparently, not having heard Killian call his name earlier, Riker jerked back in horror, barking, “Ah, fuck, not you too!”
Ender roared when the Skinwalker suddenly shoved the gun hard into the bullet wound. Agony seared through his shoulder, and his grip loosened just enough for the bastard to manage to break free and make a run for the far right hallway.
“Get back here!” he yelled, taking off after the Cryptid, just as Cyrus, Severo, and Soren loudly entered through the door next to the hall that Riker had fled down, the two Bureau agents yelling for their loved ones.
What followed quickly after was Soren, his brother’s accent out in full, bellowing, “WHAT IN THE ACTUAL FUCK, ENDER?!”
Ender hesitated for just a moment, before snapping, “I don’t have time for your dramatics!”
“DRAMATICS?! You have a FUCKING HOLE in you!”
“Hasn’t stopped me yet!” he shouted back, even as he entered the hall.
Tracking down Riker, Ender found himself running past his own men and Cyrus’.
But then, the hall had likely looped him back to where the trio had probably come from.
With the fighting pretty much over, Ender didn’t stop when others called out to him.
He just used his own senses, and the dumb, creepy fate urges, to track the man who had turned invisible only a few feet down the hall.
Ender found himself running down a set of stairs into the ship’s port of entry. Which apparently had been where the Bureau had decided to breach the ship. He was just in time to see Riker messing with what Ender would describe as exploding death.
“Ah, shit,” Ender cursed, spinning back around in an instant. He screamed as he ran, “EXPLOSIVES IN THE brEACH POINT!”
He heard people starting to scatter before he saw them, but Ender only managed to repeat his warning three times before the bomb went off. A wave of searing, burning heat hit his back, and Ender screamed as he was sent flying, everything swiftly going dark.