Authors: Dean Murray
"Some
warning next time would be good so I don't accidentally put my knee
into your girlfriend's chest and start her bleeding again. It would
be a pity to have her die in the middle of your heroic escape
attempt."
"Yeah, but
not as much of a shame as having all of us die because we didn't make
it out of here before Onyx showed up with his goons. We're turning
now."
Ash hadn't
slowed down at all, but I was ready for the turn this time. I started
trying to change direction at the earliest possible second and then
checked myself with a hand against the wall a split second after my
feet slid into it. The extra leverage was enough for me to bring the
bed around despite the greater speed that Ash had carried into the
second turn.
"Nice
trick, but you would have looked kind of stupid if you'd put your
hand through the wall."
Ash had taken
off all the stops, we were practically flying down the hall as I
looked over at Celeste.
"I could
see the texture change where they'd put nails through the sheetrock
and hit the stud underneath. I hit the wall directly over the stud,
so I knew I'd be okay."
She muttered
something under her breath that sounded a bit like "speaking of
wannabe studs" and then a few seconds later Ash and I started
decelerating the bed to make sure that we wouldn't overshoot the door
to the stairwell.
"Elevator?"
Ash shook his
head at Celeste. "There isn't time. Jump off, we're taking the
stairs and we don't need any extra weight in the mix."
Celeste jumped
off of the bed with all of the lithe grace I would have expected from
that slender, toned body, and made it to the stairwell door before
us. She held it open so we didn't even have to slow down until we hit
the actual stairs.
The table was
heavier than I expected it to be. Between the steel frame, the
mattress, bedding, Kristin, and our bags it felt like it was pushing
five hundred pounds. Normally I would have said that I couldn't have
carried that much weight with my arms extended up above my head, but
I managed to take it down the entire flight of stairs without
jostling Kristin badly enough to make her fall off of the bed.
Maybe it wasn't
as heavy as I thought, or maybe the adrenaline floating through my
bloodstream made me stronger than normal. Either way, I was relieved
as we exited the stairwell and saw the entrance less than twenty
yards away.
We got a couple
of odd looks from people as we wheeled Kristin outside, but nobody
tried to stop us. Once we left the sidewalks the going got rougher, a
lot rougher. The wheels on the bed had been designed with smooth
hallways in mind and didn't function nearly as well on the asphalt
surface of the parking lot.
Celeste came up
to the other side of the bed from me and latched onto the frame.
"Just pick it up and carry it. I'm over here on the right."
A muted grunt
from Ash signaled that he'd picked up his end, and then things got
much smoother. I thought we had it made until I heard footsteps
behind us and looked back to see a tall blond guy chasing us.
Celeste saw him
too and nearly tripped. "Ash, that's Nicolas. He's Onyx's
right-hand man. We're screwed."
Ash's voice had
the calm, almost dead, overtones that he picked up when things were
at their worst.
"Don't
slow down. Get Kristin into the vehicle. I'll deal with this guy."
The back set of
wheels hit the ground with enough force to make Kristin's teeth
rattle and she groaned in pain despite all of the painkillers in her
system, but Celeste and I shifted backwards so that we were carrying
the bed from the middle without missing a step.
Ash opened fire
on Nicolas as Celeste steered the bed towards a white Pathfinder. The
shots were close together but still controlled as Ash slowly backed
towards us.
"Help
Ash!"
I shook my head
at Celeste. "You heard him, he'll handle that guy. We've got to
get Kristin and the bags into your car before more of them show up."
"You don't
understand, Isaac. You don't just
handle
Nicolas. He's like a
force of nature. Ash is in over his head, he just doesn't realize
it."
Ash went to
rapid fire and I looked back and saw that she was right. Opening fire
on someone in a public place, even with a silenced pistol, even at
six in the morning, was the kind of thing guaranteed to bring cops
swarming over the area, but Nicolas had escalated things faster than
I'd expected. He'd shifted into hybrid form and he was using the cars
in the parking lot for cover as he worked his way towards Ash.
Nicolas, as a
hybrid, was only an inch or two shorter than Jasmin was these days
and he was fast, faster than anyone I'd ever seen other than Brandon.
I shifted forms, in the middle of the parking lot, surrounded by who
knew how many witnesses, and charged back to help Ash.
As Nicolas
ducked behind another car I heard the slide on Ash's gun lock back
and he turned and sprinted towards me across the black pavement as he
reached for a fresh magazine. Ash made it exactly one step before
Nicolas stepped out from behind the red car he'd been sheltering
behind and chased after Ash with the ground-devouring run of a hybrid
moving at full speed.
It took Ash two
more steps to get a new magazine seated and spin back around so he
could bring his weapon to bear again. I wasn't going to make it in
time. I hadn't realized just how much ground Celeste and I had
covered after Ash had stopped to engage Nicolas.
Ash's first
round from the new magazine hit Nicolas in the chest. It was the
perfect shot, his placement was flawless. It should have bored in
between two ribs and taken Nicolas right in one of the chambers of
his heart.
It didn't. It
wasn't until Ash fired his next shot that it registered for me that
I'd seen the bullet ricochet off of Nicolas and then strike sparks
off of the ground a dozen yards away. I could see where the bullet
had ripped a long furrow in his flesh, but it hadn't penetrated—and
that shouldn't have been possible.
I'd hit people
in that exact same spot and I knew for a fact that hybrids didn't
come equipped with anything capable of turning a bullet in that part
of their anatomy, but there wasn't any arguing with my own eyes.
I suddenly
understood why Celeste had been so terrified.
Ash was still
moving backwards, trying to close the distance between the two of us
and buy me time to get there and help him. Working together was our
only hope—neither of us had a chance of beating a monster like
Nicolas was turning out to be.
Ash emptied the
rest of his magazine as I took two more steps towards him and then
turned back around. They were good shots, more than half of them hit.
Nicolas was bleeding from more than a dozen different holes, some of
them deep, but none of them were in vital spots.
Moving at a
full sprint, Ash was capable of covering a lot of distance, but it
was nothing compared to how fast Nicolas was moving. I was still
three steps away from Ash when Nicolas reached him and I had a split
second to realize that Ash's mistake had been slowing down to fire
that last magazine.
Nicolas put his
claws into Ash's back and ripped the entire right side of Ash's back
and chest open. Ash went down in a spray of blood and then it was my
turn.
I was moving at
full tilt, but so was Nicolas so the advantage went to the biggest,
heaviest guy, which wasn't me. We hit hard enough that I felt a
couple of ribs crack with bright jolts of pain that I knew would turn
into a special kind of stabbing agony once I shifted back to human
form and didn't have the special benefits of a hybrid's nervous
system muting the pain.
I managed to
get a set of claws into his stomach before the impact sent me flying
backwards. The feel of his flesh tearing underneath my claws was
satisfying after what he'd done to Ash, but I knew it wasn't the kind
of thing that was going to stop Nicolas.
We both rolled
to our feet, but his blinding speed meant that I was only just able
to get set before he was on me. I tried to circle to the right, but
he just charged in, moving too quick for me to land anything other
than glancing blows.
He buried his
right hand into my gut all the way to his wrist and I realized that
he was playing with me. He'd just marked me with the exact same wound
that I'd inflicted on him only deeper and wider.
"I've been
hoping I'd get a chance to go up against the best the Sanctuary pack
had to offer ever since Graves sent our people home to us in cages. I
didn't think I'd get the chance to realize that dream quite so
quickly."
"Sorry to
disappoint you, but I'm far from the best Sanctuary has to offer."
Before he could
respond I did the absolute last thing he expected. It was something
that Carson had showed me before he'd been killed fighting a werewolf
the night of the assault on the estate.
Most hybrids
would do everything they could to keep an opponent from getting
around behind them. It was analogous to fighter pilots back in World
War II. Once someone got behind you, your options were limited and if
they got a good grip on you then you were as good as dead.
Carson had
known a counter for that rule, a single instance when it was okay to
turn your back on someone who was trying to kill you.
I locked my
left hand around Nicolas' right wrist and then spun around, bringing
my right arm back around behind him so that it pressed against his
back as I pulled him across my hip. It bore a lot of resemblance to a
classic judo takedown, just with the added risk that your enemy would
rip you to shreds if you were too slow or didn't execute that
technique just right.
The move went
against every instinct I'd inherited from my beast. It required the
kind of total commitment to the attack that I'd marveled at every
time I saw Jasmin fight. All good techniques required a degree of
commitment, a willingness to risk being hurt in return for hurting
your opponent, but I'd always preferred stuff that involved less risk
even though it often meant a longer, more drawn-out fight.
This technique
was nothing at all like that. It was in-your-face dangerous for only
moderate benefits, but I already knew I couldn't match Nicolas'
speed, so fighting using my normal style wasn't going to work.
Unlike the last
time I'd tried to use something that Carson had shown me, the throw
worked. Nicolas' feet shot straight up into the air as I flipped him
over my hip and threw him into the ground with as much force as I
could muster.
I'd been hoping
to break his neck, but rather than tightening up, he relaxed into the
throw and controlled his descent enough that he was able to spread
the impact out over one whole side of his body.
I kept hold of
his wrist with the intention of throwing a joint lock on it, but he
spun around before I could even begin to apply the arm bar. I should
have let go of his arm and jumped backwards. I wasn't good enough
with Carson's style of fighting to go up against someone who knew
what they were doing, but I made the classic beginner's mistake and
fixated on what I wanted to do to Nicolas rather than just responding
to the fight as it developed.
A split second
later I slammed into the ground with enough force to knock the wind
out of me. I hadn't even seen his takedown coming.
"Isaac
Nazir, second-in-command of the Sanctuary pack. Said to be Alec's
strong right hand, a dependable if uninspired fighter who has more
experience than you'd expect out of someone who's only seventeen,
because he's spent the last several years in a constant series of
low-level skirmishes against the other Sanctuary pack."
Nicolas had me
in some kind of grappling hold. I tried to muscle my way free, but he
manhandled me like I was a child. He had me stretched out with my
arms at full extension, talons digging into my right arm and his
claws locked on my left arm. His strength was incredible, but it
hardly mattered. I'd been there before with Wyatt.
Wyatt, Carson
and Grayson had been the only hybrids that I'd ever seen use the odd,
grappling style of fighting that Nicolas was using against me now
with such devastating results. I'd seen them in action and I knew
that once an experienced grappler got hold of someone they were in
trouble.
I didn't have
the skills to get away from Nicolas now and Ash wasn't in any
condition to come save me.
"You don't
give yourself enough credit, Nazir. Admittedly, your showing has been
pretty pathetic so far, but you're definitely the best the Sanctuary
pack has to offer me. I can't fight Graves—not now that he's
got a get-out-of-jail-free card—but at least I'll be able to
say that I took down his second in command without breaking a sweat.
"I do have
to say that you caught me by surprise with that hip throw. When
exactly did Carson teach that to you? I never thought that old bag of
bones would leave his precious haven."
The pressure on
my arms was excruciating. I had to strain against him to stop from
having my arms broken, but that was exactly what he wanted me to do.
He had all of the leverage and he was just tiring me out so I
wouldn't have any chance of breaking free when he finally went for a
new hold.
My breath was
coming in deep gasps now, but I still managed to respond to him.
"Seriously, you need better intelligence. I wish I could be
there when you finally go up against Jasmin. She's going to wipe the
floor with you."
"The wolf?
She's less than nothing."
"Funny,
that's exactly what I was thinking of you."
He shifted his
grip, flipping me over onto my stomach as he repositioned so he had a
clear shot at my neck. I fought him with everything I had left, and
it was almost enough. I could feel his arms starting to shake from
the effort of containing me, but he was just too strong.