Chapter Sixteen #2
“Goodbye, Roland.” I swung again.
The beast inside me forgot the purpose of a gun with a trigger and bullets and used it as a bludgeon instead.
I trembled with hate.
I snarled with fury.
And I beat that motherfucker to a pulp.
Swing after swing, crunch after crunch.
I was ruthless.
Merciless.
Reborn.
I lost track of time, turning Roland into something gelatinous and boneless. The partially healed fracture in my arm went pop, delivering another wash of burning pain.
I didn’t care.
All I cared about was death and murder and—
Someone clutched my lashed and stinging shoulder.
I whirled on whoever dared fucking touch me—
Ben ripped his fingers away and held up his hands. “Just me. It’s just me.” Cocking his chin at the gooey mess left of Roland’s face, he shrugged. “He’s, eh...he’s dead, Mercer. Perhaps save some of your hate for—”
A loud crack of gunfire.
“Guh.” I staggered backward as a blazing hot poker arrowed through my side.
My blood-streaked hand clamped over the tiny hole that appeared in my waist. The shock in my system. The morphine Dr Belford gave me. The adrenaline nature drenched me in all blocked the pain.
One second, agony, then...nothing.
Not a single damn thing.
Even as the bullet hole filled up with blood and oozed through my fingers.
“Ah, shit!” Ben gasped. Spinning on his heel, he looked for who’d shot me.
I followed his stare, stiffening as Larry stepped out of the night-shrouded gardens, aiming a guard’s Glock at me.
“I can’t believe I’m the one who has the honour of killing you.” He grinned. “Must be my lucky night.”
Memories of Peter warning me that Larry had bribed a guard to give him his gun when the time came tried to distract me.
I didn’t care how Larry ended up with a fucking gun.
Only that he didn’t fire it again.
Grinning, he pointed it at my heart.
I did the math on how quickly I could raise the brain-splattered machine gun. How quickly I could fire compared to him.
I didn’t like my odds.
“Any last words, prick?” Larry smirked. “Want to tell me you truly are a cop?”
Ice-cold prickles spread out from the hole in my side. I clutched it harder, grateful that it seemed as if the bullet had gone straight through.
I bared my teeth.
I braced myself—
A loud bang and Larry dropped to his knees.
The Glock fell out of his hands as he clutched his neck where a fountain of blood appeared. He gurgled and panicked, his eyes wide and welling with fear.
And that was the last time I saw the weedy, pot-belly Master alive as a flurry of gunfire let loose, slamming into him like darts.
He shuddered and jerked, falling backward as an entire clip of bullets ploughed into his chest, stomach, and legs. He twitched on the grass, animated only by gunshots, dead with his eyes wide open.
“Oh. Oh, wow.” Ben blinked and nudged me to look toward the blazing inferno of a castle. There, in the orange light of so many glowing fires, Rachel stood with blood on her cheek and a pregnant belly poking through her dressing gown.
The ricochet of firing the automatic weapon flung her backward. She landed with a thud but scrambled to her feet a second later.
Our eyes met.
I stepped toward her—
Another explosion detonated.
We all looked toward the Western corner just in time to see the tower that led to the dungeons topple and timber. It fell in an avalanche of stone. The ground shuddered beneath our feet as it vanished into the courtyard and kicked up a plume of dust and rubble.
“Fucking hell.” Ben grinned. “This is going better than we hoped!”
Rachel stumbled and clutched her belly.
I shifted to go to her, but a silver-red blur caught my gaze as smoke billowed and turned the entire island grey and hazy.
Black hair streaming behind her, long legs tripping and staggering, Ily bolted out of the gardens.
“Ily!”
She didn’t hear me.
The fire roared.
People screamed.
Too much distance and chaos.
She kept running. Swaying weakly, gasping strangely.
She shouldn’t be running.
Not with so much blood pouring from her neck.
Not after Victor cut her.
Victor.
My eyes narrowed as I scanned where she’d bolted from the hedgerows. My fingers fumbled for the gun’s trigger, ready to fire if he gave chase.
But nothing.
No one followed her.
She was on her own.
She was alive and breathing, and...a fresh surge of adrenaline bowled through me.
She’s alive.
I’m alive.
For the first time since I’d come to this fucking place, my single-minded focus of keeping her for myself merged into finally having a way to save her.
To deliver on all my broken promises.
To get her free.
My senses amplified, feeding me every piece of mayhem surrounding us.
Everything grew noisier, smokier, crazier.
Masters slaughtered jewels.
Jewels attacked Masters.
Guards fought guards.
Bullets fired, knives slashed, and the entire burning castle crawled with people fighting for their lives.
Some deserved to survive.
Some deserved to die.
I was ready to join this war to ensure Ily was safe, not just for tonight, but for the rest of her life.
I forgot about the pesky hole in my side.
I embraced the cold-heartedness of extermination.
And with a roar, I charged into battle.