Seconds pass when I press the palms of my hand against the floor and push myself up onto my feet. I don’t get a minute to assess the situation before a fist is flying into my face. I dodge by whacking it with the back of my arm. As his body falls to the side, I grab him by the back of the neck and slam his face against my knee before pushing him away and kicking him again in the chest with a scream. He falls to the ground slowly, his head tilting to the side. With his face completely covered in a tactical mask, he raises to his feet when another secret door opens behind me and the lights turn off.
“Ah, I just love this part.” Kennedy is having fun with this, like usual.
“I hate you!” I’m feeling for the way any type of breeze brushes over my exposed skin, of any sound or movement. The song replays and I hate her even more for that.
“Now, we know that’s not true. Remember? You’re Lilith Patience. You don’t feel anything.” This room back in Patience was used to heighten our other senses when one was cut. One is the air of surprise, the other sight, last hearing. Bear would sail through this because if she has the skill of telepathy or any of the other skills Killian and The Brothers have, she could easily manipulate her way out. “Tell me, Little Devil, where are your boyfriends, hmmm?”
A handle slides into the palm of my hand before I’m being shoved forward into the nothingness of the room and a fist flies into my face. I’m falling backward again. It’s not until I recognize the weight of what I’m holding that I know it’s a sword. I wave it around my body, flicking it over my arms before closing my eyes and breathing out slowly. I fling my arm out in front of myself until I feel the sharp edge of the sword connect with someone. The lights flick on and I open my eyes, kicking the body off the end of the sword and watching as the soldier falls to the ground. I lean down, tearing the mask from his face and breathe a sigh of relief when I see it’s not someone I know.
“Nice,” Kennedy says, and I feel the clock inside my head turning, ticking, counting down the minutes until I get to have my hand around her throat. I turn around to face whoever it was that came through and gave me the sword, licking blood from between my fingers when I see it’s Bear.
She smiles at me, but it doesn’t reach her eyes. “We at war?”
“Ah, our little Grizzly Bear. Who let you in here?” Bear flicks her sword around her arm, dancing and clicking her neck.
“Me, bitch. I let me in here.”
“What happened to your vow of no murder?” I whisper to her, waiting for Kennedy’s next move.
Bear shrugs. “You’re in trouble, I come running.”
“Traitor too, Bear?” Kennedy mutters. “Hmm. Can’t say I’m surprised. You two were always too close. Silly me to think it was platonic.” Bear has two long fishtail braids down each side of her head, trailing over her shoulder. She’s dressed in all black—leather shorts, leather crop, and her signature onyx crucifix on her neck.
“Shut the fuck up, Ken. Send them all in.” I flick my tongue over my teeth, gripping the sword in my hand. A door opens and Deftones “My Own Summer” starts playing loudly. Sound. More men dressed in what the other one was in come running through the door, their faces all covered.
“Bear! This could be a trap.”
“How!” she yells back. We have around three seconds before they kill us.
“What if they’re The Kings or Brothers?”
Bear shrugs. “You’re losing your edge, Little Devil.” She flicks her sword out, slicing someone across the throat. I watch as his head rolls off the top of his shoulders and falls to the ground. “Then they deserve to die.”
She’s right. I land my sword into another, while someone comes up behind, kicking me in the back. I twist around, the edge of the sword flying across the room. Blood sprays across my face as I cut through flesh. Leaving the sword sticking out of my last victim, I pull him in front of me to use as a shield as another fires a round of bullets into his corpse.
I toss him to the side and flip forward, swinging my leg up and kicking the other soldier beneath the jaw, his head twisting to the back with a snap. He falls to the ground and I move to help Bear, who has two against one. Jumping up onto a pair of shoulders, I squeeze my thighs tightly around his neck while reaching up above my head to swing off a metal bar, twisting my hips to the side until I feel the vibration of his neck snapping against my inner thigh.