Chapter 3 #2
“She is mine,” Charles snapped. “I’ve put too much money into her to let her go. She’s my greatest creation.”
“I am your greatest creation,” I agreed. “Your work allowed me to escape even your impenetrable facility. However, I’m not going back. You’ll never get another drop of my blood. Leave, or I will kill you.”
He rolled his eyes. “We both know you can’t kill me. I’m the Underlord of Porantine. If you kill me, you’ll cause chaos here.”
“If I don’t kill you, you’ll send mercenaries after me, again, and I don’t want to keep killing my former friends,” I said. “Besides, I’m not going to stay here, so I don’t care what chaos ensues.”
“You do care. That’s always been your problem, Xoe. You care about people, don’t like to see them hurt on your behalf, and it will be your downfall,” Charles said.
I didn’t know how he knew my real name, but at the moment I didn’t dwell on it. Also, he was right. Curse him to the seven hells, he was right that I cared too much.
“Well, I don’t care,” Zeke said from behind Charles.
Charles spun around with his mouth open and shock etched across his features.
Zeke stabbed Charles through the chest with his claw tipped hand, twisted, and jerked it out, leaving a gaping hole in Charle’s chest.
Charles’s body fell to the ground, a pool of blood immediately spreading out from beneath him.
Dead. Charles was dead.
Oh, no. Crap!
“We’ve got to leave!” I screamed and grabbed Gage’s hand. “Now!”
“What are you yelling for?” Zeke asked as he used Charles’s shirt to clean off some of the blood from his hand.
I grabbed his arm and yanked to make him come with us. Surprisingly, the giant Dragonkin allowed me to pull him along, though he wasn’t moving nearly as fast as I wanted him to. “You moron! They’re going to come after us. We have to get off planet as soon as possible.”
“Who is?” Gage asked.
Both at least followed me without hesitation, even if they didn’t understand the severity of what they’d just done.
“His minions,” I snapped. “He leaves them at the laboratory, but if he dies, they are released and come after whoever was near him at the time of his death.”
Scout chirped and placed red dots to indicate enemies approaching.
Shit, we already had company.
“Where are the others?” I asked.
“On the ship,” Zeke answered. “I came because I sensed … trouble.”
He’d sensed trouble? What the heck did that mean?
The ship came into view. Almost there.
The red dots moved closer, gaining on us.
“His minions are almost on us,” I said. “You two get on the ship. I’ll hold them off.”
“We aren’t leaving you to fight … whatever they are,” Zeke growled.
I drew out my recent purchase, still wrapped in a cloth, and said, “You’ll just get in my way. Get on the damn ship, Giant.”
“Zeke. My name is Zeke,” he grumbled.
Gage tapped his ear. “Start the ship. We need to leave.”
“Ear comms?” I asked Zeke.
He nodded.
Scout buzzed.
I spun and ran forward, away from the Dragonkin.
Two creatures each emerged from the mouths of the three alleyways, their twelve red eyes focused on me.
They were simple dogs at one point, but Charles had broken, molded, and modified them into efficient killing machines.
They still resembled dogs, but they were intelligent and deadly.
“Hello, Sisters,” I greeted with a smile. “Are you here to dance?”
They snarled, showing me metal, serrated teeth, clacking them together in irritation.
I slung the device around my back, raised my balled-up hands to my face, and said, “Let’s dance, girls.”
One minion from each alley ran at me, claws extended.
I rolled my eyes. They were so predictable. Even after being gone for this long, they hadn’t changed up their attack patterns.
All three leapt at me and I dropped onto my back. Instead of slamming into each other, they turned and pushed off each other’s feet, springing away.
Rolling to my knees, my smile grew. “Oh, you did learn a few new things while I was away. Wonderful. I’m glad this won’t be as boring as I’d anticipated.”
Two leapt at me, jaws opened wide. I ducked my shoulder and punched one in the throat while kicking the other in the stomach.
As much as I hated Charles for experimenting on me, the upgrades he’d done to my body did prove useful quite often.
I got to my feet and laughed.
The three in the alleyways yipped in anticipation.
“Oh, you three will get your turns,” I told them and pointed at each one in turn.
“Just be patient.” So far, my plan to make them think of this as a training exercise like old times instead of revenge for killing Charles was working.
If they got serious or angry, the fight would take a terrible turn.
“What is going on?” Gage asked. “I feel like we should help and yet I feel like we might get yelled at if we interfere with her fight.”
“Did she call those weird dogs her sisters?” Zeke asked.
The two came at me again. I swung my purchase around, a device that just looked like a cylinder metal pipe, and pressed the red button. It sent out a pulse that instantly deactivated the two minions’ chips, causing them to fall into lifeless piles on the ground.
The device made a weird sound and the lights on it went out. Great, it had to recharge. I rewrapped it and put it back in my bag. At least I knew it worked.
The third minion ran straight for me, murder in her eyes.
This one I recognized due to the jagged scar on her left ear. A scar I had created the day I fled.
With a quick sidestep, I avoided the snap of her jaws. I stomped my right heel and the blade hidden within the boot popped out. She turned towards me and I kicked her in the side of the head; the blade slid right into her temple and killed her instantly.
The ones still alive howled their fury at me for killing their leader and charged.
I dropped to my back, preparing to attack them once they were above me, but before I could do anything, a stream of fire sprayed over me, burning them all.
I rolled out of the way, so I wouldn’t catch fire, too, and Gage grabbed me from the ground and tossed me over his shoulder.
“What are you doing?” I demanded.
“We’re saving your life,” Zeke grumbled, his body shifting back to human before my eyes.
“I was doing just fine,” I argued.
“You failed to notice the other attention you were gathering,” Gage said and pointed up to the right.
I looked in the direction of his finger and my mouth went dry. Four black cloaked figures stood on a rooftop, rifles in their hands.
The Hunters. A group of unknown members of an organization that were worse than mercenaries and more deadly than any bounty hunter I’d ever met. I had never been on their bad side and since they weren’t attacking, they must have simply been observing, which was good for us.
“Scout,” I grumbled, “why didn’t you warn me?”
Scout beeped and showed me the thermal scans were blank. The Hunters gave off no thermal readings.
“Well, figure out a way to track them so they don’t sneak up on me again,” I ordered Scout.
Scout made a sorrowful little beep and slid back behind my ear.
“Great, now Scout’s sad. It won’t do anything for the rest of the day,” I whispered, my arms propped up on Gage’s back as we ran.
Zeke shook his head at me. “You are an interesting creature, Diamond.”
The ship had started to hover a few feet off the ground with the loading bay doors still open.
Gage and Zeke leapt up into the ship with ease, not even grunting from jumping so high.
Could I have made that jump?
“We’re on. Hit it!” Gage said into his communication device.
The doors slammed shut and the ship accelerated.
Gage set me down and both Dragonkin scowled at me.
“Well, that was fun, wasn’t it?” I asked with a wide smile.