“I’m Torrent,” he repeated. “I don’t know what signal you think you tracked but you’re wrong. Shadow is at another location.”
“Bullshit.” The same human responded, probably the one in charge, and it was coming straight ahead from behind a large rock. “Stop wasting time and send out Mud. Her owner wants her back.”
His fangs flashed as he fought the urge to howl. No one owns Beauty.
The human spoke again. “It’s your coin, jackass. Every team member has them and carries them at all times. Stop stalling and send her out. We haven’t opened fire because she’s worth a lot of money alive but that’s all our orders were.” He paused. “Alive. It doesn’t mean we can’t return her injured. We have a medic to patch her up. It’s your choice. Either way we’ll come in there to get her or you live by having her walk out of that cabin to us. Those are the only options you have.”
Shadow turned his head and caught Breeze gawking at him. “Coin?” She gave him a baffled look.
“Task force,” he rasped. “Someone on the team betrayed me.” He glanced up at the ceiling, then back at her. “It’s still inside my bag. We all keep them, usually on us, in case a member is taken. Only Tim and three other members know the codes to activate the trackers inside them.”
Her eyes narrowed. “I understand.”
That narrowed down the leak. Shadow silently swore revenge on the team member who’d betrayed him. “I have some of Shadow’s things but he’s not here.” He decided to keep bluffing. Every second could count. It might stall the mercenaries.
“We’re coming in. I know what you’re hoping for and it isn’t going to work. We have at least half an hour before our location is compromised. I have snipers in the trees surrounding the area. Any Species spotted coming this way are being shot. No help is going to reach you.”
Fuck! Shadow calmed his rage enough to aim his rifle, watching the location of the human who’d come the closest. He’d shoot the second the male moved. Maybe a few dead bodies would persuade them to rethink rushing the cabin. He doubted it though. Mercenaries were known to be single-minded and vicious. They probably calculated some losses amongst their ranks before agreeing to the mission.
“Kill anyone who enters the open area,” he ordered Breeze softly.
“Understood.”
Beauty tiptoed away from the hallway, having heard most of what Shadow and Breeze had said. Eight humans were out there willing to kill to take her back to Master. Shadow had shown her how to really live. Breeze had given her friendship. Neither of them deserved to die for those wonderful things.
The thought of Shadow dying left a gaping wound in her soul. She wasn’t about to allow that happen. She’d fight too. Three against eight were better odds. The bag inside Shadow’s room was heavy when she lifted it and carried it to her bedroom. They’d target him since he stood in their way. Her bedroom was on the back of the cabin, above where Shadow stood.
She pulled out weapons the way he had, laying them out on the carpet so they were at the ready. It took a few minutes to figure out where to put her fingers on each weapon. Point and shoot. How hard can it be? She might not hit much but the extra firepower could surprise those men out there enough to give the two Species downstairs a better chance at survival.
She was careful not to make noise as she dragged a heavy chest in front of the window. She opened the lid, staring inside at the spare bedding. She turned, her gaze sweeping the room. The hardback books lining the shelves by the door caught her attention. They would help prevent bullets from tearing all the way through the wood chest to strike her if those men returned fire. Every step was taken carefully in case she alerted Shadow that she wasn’t in the tub as she packed the chest.
She knelt and shifted the curtain enough to peek out the window, watching for any sign of movement. It took a few sweeps but she saw one man right on the edge of the woods. Another was two trees behind him to the right. She didn’t spot any more of them but she had targets at least.
It was too risky to crack the window open. She’d have to move the curtain out of the way and be seen if she lifted it up. It would be stupid to give her location away. She could just fire through the glass. Beauty took a few calming breaths trying to slow her rapidly beating heart. I can do this. She repeated that a few times. For Shadow.
The first bullet fired wasn’t loud. It was a dull sound that reminded her of a firecracker coming from a distance but glass shattered somewhere on the first floor.
“Get down,” Shadow yelled. “Incoming!”
“Oh God.” It’s begun. Shadow was alive though. She’d heard his voice.
The man closest to the house suddenly lunged from behind the tree into the open, something fisted in his hand. His arm arced back as if to toss a ball but the sound of bullets exploded from the first floor. Beauty watched in horrified fascination as the guy jerked while his clothes seemed to tear open in places. Blood bloomed across his arms, then legs, before he fell back.
BOOM! The sound registered about the same instant the fallen man seemed to blow apart near his head. Blood and gore flew in all directions, mostly splattering across the tree trunk. Bile rose in her throat but Beauty fought it down. The son of a bitch had been about to chuck a grenade at Shadow. It could have been him in pieces below if he hadn’t shot the man before he was able to throw it into the cabin.
The second man she’d seen lifted a long gun and opened fire. It was rapid and glass shattered—a muted sound over the noisy weapon. Beauty’s hands shook but she pointed at him. Her finger pulled the trigger. The glass broke, a ragged hole appearing, and she kept firing. She missed the first three times and the guy seemed unaware of it until he jerked back. He stopped firing and looked down. She did too, pausing to watch him. He lifted his boot, frowning. She spotted a small defect along the edge.
“Shit,” she cursed. She seemed to have hit him but not drawn blood. She aimed and fired again.
This time she hit him in the leg just under his knee. He threw himself back out of sight and she ducked behind the chest, waiting for return fire as she grabbed a bigger gun. The handgun didn’t fire fast enough.
“Beauty!” Shadow roared her name.
She winced. He’d just realized she wasn’t cowering in the bathtub but she at least knew he was still alive. He yelled something else but she couldn’t make it out as more gunfire erupted below. It came from the front of the cabin. Breeze must have engaged the men too.
Beauty wrapped her hands around the largest weapon. It looked like one she’d seen in a video game the women played at the dorm. It was chunky with a metal clip inserted in the bottom and was heavy. She was sure it was some kind of assault rifle. She cradled it, found the trigger and rose to her knees. She rested the weapon on the chest and peered through the broken glass at the bottom of the window.
Two men rushed forward while she aimed and squeezed the trigger. Rapid shots blasted out of it. The thing knocked her back and bullets tore up the window to the ceiling before she could ease up on the trigger. She gaped at the damage from flat on her back where she’d landed. The glass in the window was totally gone now and holes were ugly scars on the wall and ceiling where bullets had ripped through them. She struggled to her knees again.
Now that she knew what to expect, she braced her knees apart, tensed her arms and aimed again. Her finger hesitated this time, hoping the kick of the weapon wouldn’t send her to the floor once more. The men had taken refuge behind a tree but one darted out to rush the cabin. Someone fired from below, probably Shadow. The guy didn’t make it six feet into the cleared area before he went down. He stayed that way, not moving. Blood leaked onto the dirt.