1
My eyes sting with the smoke that swirls around my face, my lungs screaming for fresh air. Each breath burns as I inhale, my throat raw, a metallic coppery taste coating my tongue.
I can feel how weak I am, my limbs heavy with fatigue, body broken and bruised. Blood drips from my chin, my fingers, sliding over my ash covered skin like crimson snakes, mingling in with the dirt, rubble and dust beneath my palms. Fire crackles wildly to my left, the flames devouring everything they touch and it’s only a matter of time until they reach me. I can feel the heat searing my flesh, making my blood boil and clothes cling to my skin, drenched in both my blood and sweat.
Bodies litter the ground, bloodied, burned, broken, eyes staring lifelessly at the ceiling where the disco lights continue to pulse green, red and blue across the club. Somewhere close by sirens wail and horns blast, people talk and scream.
I push up though my legs are too weak to hold me, and I smash back down, grunting as the pain floods through my limbs, but I try again and again, one thought pushing me. One thought that erases all else.
Get to Wren.
Wren.
Wren.
“Over here!” I recognize the voice though it’s muffled, like it’s being spoken from behind a pillow. My vision blurs with my fight to get up, my head swimming but then hands grasp my arms and I’m hauled to my feet.
“Lex!” Ryker’s voice shatters the fog inside my head, like the blast of a horn, it cuts through the mist until I can finally think clearly. His face swims before mine, forehead crinkled with a frown, a deep crease between his brows as he studies me, picking out every injury.
“Wren.” Her name is a rasp from my throat, voice wrecked by the smoke and pain, a plea directed at no one and everyone all the same. My little bird.My sweet little bird.
“I know, boss,” Ryker continues, dragging me towards the door. His feet kick at the bodies on the floor, people who were once dressed in their finest now bloodied and dead, some no longer whole and only vaguely resemble a human body, mangled and torn up, limbs missing, burns that have eaten away at their skin and muscle, exposing organs and bones beneath.
Death. So much death.
My chest constricts, my lungs squeezing and I hack, my body trying to rid itself of the toxins filling my lungs. I taste the coppery tang of blood on my tongue, mixed with smoke and ash. The stench of the dead and burning flesh assaults my nose but it isn’t that that makes my stomach churn, it’s the lingering scent of her on my skin, her blood now mixed with mine coating my hands. That’s what makes my stomach roll. She’s gone.
I will kill him for this.
I will Kill Marcus Valentine even if it’s the last thing I do.
This is more than the city. This is more than my life. I will level this entire place to the ground.
They always talk about the monster who runs this city, they tell ghost stories to scare children into staying in their beds and stop teenagers from wandering the streets at night, and if it’s the monster they want, then it’s the monster they’ll get.
I will tear them all limb from limb, I’ll let their blood coat my skin, wearing it like a cloak and I won’t stop until I have my little bird back in my arms.
When we finally make it through the exit I suck in my first breath of clean air, coughing onto the sidewalk with each inhale. The street is lit up and bathed in red and blue light, fire trucks and cop cars skewed in the road as paramedics tend to those who were lucky enough to escape the carnage whilst firefighters tackle the raging inferno that has already burned through half of the building and is now spreading to the buildings on either side. Even out here, I smell the potent stench of burning skin, and hair. My eyes sweep over the chaos, noting the panic, the fear that pales the emergency responders faces, the sheer terror in their eyes as they realize they can’t save everyone and the people still trapped within those burning walls are going to be consumed by the raging flames.
It was carnage. Destruction.
A paramedic rushes to where we stand, takes one look at me and widens his eyes before he grabs a hold of my arm and begins to steer me towards an ambulance waiting in the middle of the road whilst he shouts orders that I don’t listen to.
“Get the fuck off me,” I growl, voice raspy.
“You’re bleeding a hell of a lot man,” the guy says, “You need to be checked out.”
“I’ll give you two seconds,” I warn, “Before I blow your fucking brains out.”
I had no idea if I even still had a gun on me, the blast knocked the shit out of me but even if I didn’t, I’d find one and I’d make good on my promise. The paramedic lets go of me quickly, too quickly and in the weakened state that I am, I stumble, almost losing my footing until I catch myself on the side of a cop car.
“You need to get checked out, boss,” Ryker comes up beside me, looking in a much better state than me. He’s bloody and dirty, but he walks like he didn’t just get blown the fuck up. Motherfucker is built like a steel giant.
“I need to get to Wren,” I tell him, vision blurring as I limp at his side towards the underground garage where I know my guys parked the SUV.
Ryker doesn’t argue, instead he helps me like the fucking broken boy I am and shoves me into the passenger seat when we finally get to the car.
I pull my cell from my pocket,“Fuck!” I growl, slamming a bloodied hand against the dashboard as the thing practically falls apart in my grip, the screen shattered, shards of glass falling away and landing in my lap.