Inspecting the weapon in my hands, I frowned. I knew the basics about handguns—Destiny had made us at least go to the firing range with her a few times—but this wasn’t a weapon like anything I’d ever seen before. Shit.
The bedroom door opened and I pushed Faith. Hard.
“Trin!”
“Move!”
The mask had been ripped from my attacker’s head and I could see his face. His hair was dark, his eyes a brilliant green I’d never seen before. His forehead was bleeding from a deep cut—one point to Cassander—but I wished he was still covered up because now I could see his eyes, the grim turn of his curled lips, and all I saw on his face was death. If I saw his face, that meant he had no intention of keeping us alive to identify him. I’d seen enough crime scene shows on TV to know that.
I lifted the gun and pointed it at the assassin. His eyes narrowed, but he kept walking. I squeezed the trigger, or whatever it was. Nothing. Crap. How did this thing work?
“Shoot him!” That was Destiny. How the hell she knew I was facing down a killer, I had no idea. She was a freak with eyes in the back of her head.
“I can’t get the gun to work!”
Destiny took a punch to the gut, distracted by my situation. She punched back, hard, swinging and connecting with her opponent’s jaw. “Safety on top, not the side. Orange light.”
I followed her swift instructions, or tried to, pressing on the orange glowing area. The light turned a pale, pale green. I lifted the gun again, but it was too late. He was on top of us, pulling a very big, very long knife free from the sheath strapped to his thigh. I screamed.
“Shoot him!” Faith yelled, kicking the nearest chair into him to buy us some time.
I fired. A blast of light, or laser, or whatever, shot from the gun. Direct hit in the chest. He just smiled.
I fired again. Again.
He looked amused now. Either there was some weird setting on the gun or he was wearing an alien version of Kevlar.
Shit.
The door exploded inward with a boom that made my ears scream in pain. I squeezed my eyes shut, but knew the bad guy was right in front of me. I couldn’t avoid him. Faith dropped to her knees, covering her head.
The assassin looked away from me, toward the door, and all amusement faded from his eyes. I might not be a threat to him, but whomever destroyed the suite’s entry door sure was.
5
r /> Leo
“Shoot him!” A woman shouted on the other side of the door, followed by the sound of repeated blaster fire.
I didn’t wait, setting a charge on the locked door for three seconds. Moving to the side, I closed my eyes, weapon drawn, and counted.
Three. Two. One. Long fucking seconds.
The explosion rocked the hallway, the lights above me flickering off then back on as I burst into the room.
I took it all in with a sweeping glance.
A female—with strangely colored hair—was fighting one of the assassins.
A second assassin was dead on the ground, surrounded by four dead guards. The difference between good and bad was easy to distinguish; the guards wore identical, and familiar, uniforms, the assassins all black. Their faces were covered.
Another guard, the lone surviving one it seemed, was crumpled on the ground, trying to reach for his blaster, the blood under his head meant he’d most likely black out before he got it.
The other two females were on the far side of the room from him, crouched behind a chair, one firing a weapon on a third assassin.
He whipped his head around toward me at the sound of the blast and my entry, clearly confident the female’s blaster shots would do him no arm. Our eyes locked.
I knew that face. I narrowed my eyes at him, and he all but dared me to attack. Bastard. Prime Nial had been right to call me. I doubted either of us expected danger to come upon the females so swiftly after their arrival, nor from this band of evil. It hadn’t been more than an hour since their transport. These females held some kind of power, something very powerful people were willing to kill to contain.