Mo-Jo was at the door now, silent, nearly quivering.
She tumed the doorknob carefully, cracking it slowly as Mo-Jo began to force the opening wider to allow his broad body freedom.
Megan was more cautious. She peeked around the doorframe, lowering the gun and flipping off the safety as she surveyed the silent hallway. Mo Jo stood at the stairs, crouched and ready as he waited on her.
She was moving silently toward him when he suddenly tumed, a look of canine calculation on his face as he stared back at her. She couldn't hear anything, not the squeak of a floorboard or a whisper of sound. But she felt it.
Malice. Evil. Just as it had been at the gully. As though the destructive energy of the Coyotes drifted on the air itself.
It wasn't emotions. No fear, hopes or dreams. Just cold, deadly intent instead of dead space. It wrapped around her, tightening at her throat and her chest until she was forced to regulate her breathing and stamp back the fear. They were closer, in her home, moving in for the kill. She felt it, just as she had felt it in the gully.
She backed up, watching as the dog followed her. If Mo-Jo didn't want to tackle whatever was downstairs then she would be damned if she was going to.
She flicked her fingers to the bedroom door, commanding the animal to follow her. They moved quickly back to the room. Locking the door silently, she raced to the window, threw it wide and slipped over the windowsill to the porch roof.
Mo-Jo followed as she closed the window and moved back from it an instant before gunfire blasted through her bedroom door and the sound of shattering wood sent Mo-Jo jumping from the porch roof to the thickly padded sandbox she kept for him.
Megan quickly followed, landing hard and cursing silently at the impact of the ground on her bruised body.
"I'm going to kill them," she muttered as she came to her feet and raced to the front of the house, following her furious canine as he ran to the open front door. There were no vehicles in the drive; the lock had been
lasered. Whoever was in there knew what the hell they were doing.
She slid into the kitchen as Mo-Jo moved to position himself at the entrance of the short hallway that led to the staircase. When he moved, she moved, until they were beneath the stairs, silent and waiting.
"The bitch was here. Water is still hot. She went out the window. "
She crouched close to Mo-Jo.
"All I smell is that stinking dog," another voice growled. "People should learn to bathe their fucking animals. "
They were at the top of the stairs. Megan narrowed her eyes, her fingers clenching Mo-Jo's ruff as she waited.
Yeah, so getting the mutt smell off him wasn't always easy, but he was about to show these bastards exactly why she put up with it.
They were coming down. Her fingers tightened. Wait. All she had to do was wait. Mo-Jo would surprise them and she would take them out. Simple. Easy.
"Outside. " The animalistic growl had the hairs at the nape of her neck rising in alarm. "She's on foot. We'll catch her. "
They ran down the stairs, nearly silent in their pursuit of her. She released Mo-Jo's ruff and waited on him to make the first move.
When he did, he went out snarling as they made the landing, while Megan rolled across the floor, lying flat and firing. She took out the first intruder with a deadly blow to the chest while Mo-Jo took the other man down. Rushing to her feet, she raced to the confrontation to kick the assailant's gun across the floor.
"Jo. Move!" she yelled as she watched the flash of a knife heading for the dog's exposed belly. She couldn't get a clear shot, but she didn't have to. She turned her head as wicked, sharp canines tore into the Coyote's throat no more than a breath before the knife touched vulnerable flesh.
Mo-Jo wasn't a neat animal. Blood splattered around her as he shook the neck of the assailant viciously before letting it go and jumping protectively to her.
She went down in a surprised heap, rolling to her stomach and coming up with her gun aimed at the door. The dog set off a round of snarling. furious barks as Lance and Braden skidded to a shocked stop at the doorway.
"Fuck!" Lance stared at the scene, his expression blank as he blinked at
the sight.
"Where did you come from?' she snapped, blinking back at him in surprise.
"We drove up as the shots were being fired. " Lance shook his head as Mo-Jo snarled in warning.
"Down, Mo-Jo. " Megan pulled herself to her feet, all most groaning in pain as her body suddenly began to protest the additional abuse. "Down. "