Chapter 48

Loki.

I was pretty sure I could get the bastard away from Asire. Someone had to try. Ella wasn’t moving, because she didn’t want Asire to die, but I could see in her eyes a complete lack of give. She wasn’t putting her daughter down or handing her over to the legion approaching her. Not for anything.

The others were backing away from me and Regory. There was a relieved glint to their eyes as they moved. The fight was over, they had won. They were idiots. I could hear the sounds of heavy fighting from above us and had little doubt that Reggie was kicking their asses.

“Si?” the little girl asked, looking frightened. She was safely in her mother’s arms, but at the same time wasn’t safe at all. Not until we killed this Family for all that they had done. She wasn’t safe until she was out of here.

Regory caught my eye and nodded toward the legions that were retreating from us. Then he deliberately moved his eyes over to the legion holding Asire. Our eyes met in a silent agreement. I’d get Asire away from the man holding a knife to her throat and I’d kill the man. Slowly.

I could smell the blood leaking out of her neck. It was staining the front of her shirt and the sight of it made my anger grow. It had been a long day at the end of a long week, but I knew that wasn’t what had my anger getting so intense. Getting so hot. Even with the decision I had made, every part of me wanted to hurt that bastard because he was hurting Asire. Even if it was the most minor cut, it was still her skin that was being sliced open. Still her blood staining the front of her shirt.

Ella gripped her daughter harder and pushed her forehead against the baby’s. Her eyes met mine and I could see her choice. She would let Asire die for her daughter. I couldn’t blame the woman, but it made that ball of anger burn even hotter in my stomach and chest.

Movement caught my eye and I glanced back at the tableau in front of me. Asire leaned forward, pushing the knife further into her neck. Her eyes were dancing with dark humor and her lips upturned and her teeth flashed in a vicious looking smiling that made her even more beautiful than she had been a second before. Her voice was full of confidence and power when she said, “Who the fuck do you think you’re talking to?”

Then my heart stopped in my chest.

She was fast, deadly fast, but Nigel was fast too. We were all moving, but I still saw what happened. Asire slipped lithely to the side, ducking her body as Nigel pressed forward with the knife. She was quick enough to save herself from death, but not from injury. The knife missed her throat and skittered up her skin, slicing it open and spilling blood down her front. Nigel moved to stab her again, but she was already out of the way.

“Get upstairs!” I yelled at Ella, who had ducked over her child. She didn’t waste time once my command was out, though. She snatched the baby and rushed up the stairs. Asire was beating Nigel back and as much as I wanted to rip him to shreds, one of the others was fighting their way through the room, trying to get at Ella and Millie.

I hauled ass across the basement and grabbed the man by the back of his shirt and lifted him over my head before throwing him down onto the hard concrete again. He grunted in surprise, but immediately started scrambling to his feet. Getting the air knocked out of you can be disorienting, but when it happens enough, you learn to think through it.

He was almost up when I reached him again. My anger propelled me to keep him on the ground. I lifted my foot and smashed it into his face. His nose flattened against my heel and I saw blood cascade down the front of his shirt. The flow was enough to ease some of my anger, but not enough to make it go away.

The man tried to roll away from me, but I pressed down suddenly, making his head smack into the floor. He grunted from the dual pains, so I did it again to hear the noise. After the second hit, he was down for the count.

The fight was raging around me, but no one was paying attention, giving me time to finish this off. I knelt down and grabbed his head with both hands. I lifted it a foot off the concrete and then slammed it back down with all the force I have in my shoulders and arms. The skull cracked loudly and I felt the vibration run through his head and tingle my fingers. The man had his eyes closed, but I watched as his breathing stopped and dropped him back to the ground.

Regory had managed to kill one of the others, leaving him fighting two. They worked well together. One would go in for the hit while the other was distracting him. However, Billy and Asire weren’t the only ones trained by a madman. Regory moved like he anticipated each of their hits and suddenly wasn’t there when they thought he would be. Out of every five hits, they got one in and it was always less effectual than it was intended to be.

Asire fought Nigel. They had both lost their knives in the scuffle. Blood was soaked into the front of her shirt, but it clearly wasn’t affecting her. She was smoother than Regory and faster than Billy. She beat the holy hell out of the man. His nose was broken, and both his eyes were red like she’d hit him. One of his arms was dangling uselessly from a broken bone. A leg was dragging. She hadn’t had the chance to kill him yet, but it was coming. Soon.

I knew she could handle it, so I went to help Regory. One of the legions, a woman, went in for the hit and the other, a man, stepped aside to give her room. I grabbed him and snapped his neck like opening a bottle. One easy twist. He went down in a heap and Regory took the opportunity to finish off the woman. He grabbed her by the arm and hauled her against his chest. One arm went around her throat and he pressed down.

The woman’s eyes bugged out of her head when her air was cut off and she started struggling. Her arms and legs pin wheeled, but he had a tight grip on her and continue to hold on. I saw the muscles in his forearm flex and then the woman made a choking sound. He dropped her to the ground and she started gasping for air without getting any in. He’d crushed her throat. She’d be dead before we left this building.

I turned back to Asire’s fight. Nigel was lagging dangerously. The only thing keeping Asire from him was the knife he had reacquired. He had backed himself up into a wall so that no one could sneak up on him and was slashing madly at the air just in front of the girl. She was just an inch out of range and watching him with those dark eyes. Her face was serious and calm.

Because he was flagging and she didn’t need to put much effort into the end of this fight.

He grunted and made a last ditch effort. He shoved off the wall and straight at Asire. She slipped out of his way, grabbed his knife hand and bent it savagely. There was a crack and the knife clattered to the ground. Nigel hollered in pain and fell to his knees.

Almost casually, Asire bent and retrieved the knife. She wasn’t one to play with her prey, so she made it quick. A slash across his throat that had blood spewing from him and across the room. Regory and I were out of range and Asire only got some of his life on her clothing.

She dropped the knife and glanced at us. Regory immediately strode over and snatched her chin, turning her face up so that he could see the injury. She tried to yank her face away, but Regory was adept at handling her. He held fast. The cut was nasty and would need stitches, but it was also fairly harmless. There was a scratch leading up from the slice in her neck, from when Nigel had been holding the blade on her, and then it got deeper on the underside of her chin and curved up and almost to her lip.

It was nasty, but it’d heal quickly.

Asire patiently waited for Regory to let go of her face and then started toward the stairs. “There’s more people in this building, you know?” she asked.

Regory shrugged. “I know Billy’s fine.”

She rolled her eyes and started up the stairs.

We followed. Part of me, a really big part, wanted to repeat what Regory had just done. Snatch her face and examine her. After that I would…not push her against a wall. Because our relationship wasn’t like that. And it never would be like that. Neither of us knew how to be with the other.

The ground floor of the apartment building was littered. Just littered with blood and bodies. I looked around and saw all of my Family. Something tight in my chest relaxed as I took in each of them.

There was only one person left. A man who had barricaded himself behind the door to the stairwell, which had somehow gotten ripped off. He used it to keep the others away. However, by doing so, he couldn’t do much damage himself. I was still blocking his power, whatever it happened to be. His best option was to run at people and they could step aside before he got close.

I ignored him for the time being to assess the rest of the building. And jeez… Reggie had destroyed it. I knew it was her because there were spider webs of cracks everywhere. The floor, the walls, the doors and the elevator. Some of the dead bodies looked broken, so I guessed she used it on those as well.

“Anyone get away?” Asire asked.

Reggie glanced over and her eyes tightened at all the blood on Asire. “Two. I’ve called in the troops and they’re searching the city for them as we speak. The only one left is this guy.”

“Any ideas?” Asire asked.

Before the words were out of her mouth, there was a thud. Billy had somehow snuck around the guy and jumped on his back. He struggled for two seconds before she put a blade through his neck. Then it was all quiet. She hopped up and brushed off her shorts and huffed. “That’s all of them.” Her eyes flipped up and saw Asire. She frowned. “The chin?”

Asire shrugged. “Shit went down.”

“Henrik?” Reggie said.

“On it,” the man replied. He knelt down and put his palm flat on the floor—or as flat as the broken and cracked surface allowed him to put it. I had been careful not to block the powers of those in my Family or any of the Orphans and I felt his sweep through the building now. It felt clean on my senses, kind of like a forest after a quick rainstorm. The bodies and blood, both on us and on the ground, collapsed into dust.

Asire’s shirt, which had originally been blue, was now coated healthily in a layer of ash. She brushed it off, mostly to keep it away from her wound I think. Since she was still bleeding it turned into a messy kind of mud.

“What are we gonna do about the vampires?” Henrik asked, rising back to his feet and clapping his hands together to clean them. He had a bruise along his jaw and it looked like someone had attempted to stab him in the shoulder. Reggie’s hair was a tangled mess and there were scratch marks across her cheek. Bruises were starting to form on her arms and shoulders.

Asire’s cut chin was the worst of the injuries, it looked like. Everyone was covered in cuts and bruises, but nothing too severe. Sunbeam’s wrist was swelling and she was leaning on Shade’s shoulder. It looked like her ankle was sprained, as well as the wrist. Her tire iron was held loosely in the wrong hand.

Reggie sighed, looking throughout the empty building. “They’re a problem for another day,” she decided. “For now, I want to get Ella and Millie home.”

As if on cue, another wave of shock hit the woman. It was the first one today and possibly the last, but that didn’t mean it was any less alarming. She managed to angle her body as she fell so that she didn’t land on her daughter. Her back hit the floor in a plume of dust and Millie started to cry as Ella’s eyes rolled into the back of her head.

Asire snatched the toddler up and started talking while Reggie and Henrik performed CPR on the mother, just so no permanent damage would be done.

“Hey, Tiny Heartbreaker,” Asire said. “You wanna go home? See all your books and toys?”

Millie’s screaming stopped, but tears were still sliding down her face. She looked up at Asire like Asire could make everything better. The girl sniffled and said, “Mommy ‘kay?”

“She’ll be fine,” Asire assured her. “I promise.”