I was thankful for once that I was tiny. I managed not to slam onto anyone until I made it to the left side of the deck. Three of those men dressed in black were coming, but I had guns in my hands, and I shot them as easily as breathing. All three of them ended up on the deck before they could get to me. Jumping over their bodies was easy—I was back to my full strength again. I didn’t miss my magic. To be honest, I didn’t feel any different at all, but it could have just been the adrenaline. I ran and ran without stopping, shooting anything that moved ahead of me until I reached the other side of the deck.
“Get down!” someone called, and I thought I recognized Hunter’s voice, so I did as he said right away. Ducking down, I wrapped my arms around my head and kneeled on the deck.
Strong wind almost threw me against it face first, but I gritted my teeth and pushed back with all my strength.
“You’re welcome, Pink,” said Hunter when I raised my head to see that the three men who’d been about to climb the two ladders on the back of the containers were on the other side, holding onto the railing, almost falling off into the water.
Hunter’s wind was strong, but it wasn’t going to cause much damage. As soon as I stood up, I started shooting my guns at the men who were already running for us again. They moved away fast before they pulled out their own weapons. Panic grabbed me by the throat—I had no magic for a shield right now, and we were too far away from the containers to hide behind them.
“Move!” I shouted at Hunter anyway, and the second we took a step to the side, three gunshots echoed in the air, and all three of those men coming for us hit the deck on their faces.
That’s when we saw the shadows of the ODP soldiers who were climbing up the railings from the water on either side. The ten men the Chief had insisted remain in the water.
“Thank God,” I breathed, and the moment I saw that all of them were already on the deck, clothes dripping water, I turned to the stairs on the back of the containers.
“You sure that’s a good idea?” Hunter said, but he followed me anyway.
“Nope.”
Climbing with two guns in your hands wasn’t fun, but it wasn’t a long climb, and I reached the top in no time. My body reacted at the sight of the two men with their hands raised at us, waiting for us right at the edge of the container.
Watch out!I wanted to shout, but it was too late. Their magic hit both me and Hunter in the face and sent us to the deck again. The pain was so intense, I hardly felt it when my body hit the floor. My lungs refused to expand, and I couldn’t see anything no matter how many times I blinked.
“Teddy,” Hunter whispered, breathing heavily, and I turned my head to where I’d heard his voice only to find him lying on his back, an empty syringe sticking from his chest.
Shit.
“You’ll be fine,” I said, urging my body to get up now that the effect of the magic those men had hit me with was fading. It still hurt. God, it hurteverywhere,but at least it hadn’t paralyzed me. I made it to my feet just in time to see the soldiers who had come out of the river already on the containers, fighting.
“Wait!” Hunter called after me, but I didn’t. He was going to need a couple minutes to get back to himself, but he would be okay. So, I shot for the wooden stairs again and landed on the metal of the containers right behind the ODP soldiers.
Shooting my gun wasn’t an issue—my aim was always true—but aiming while I tried to move away from the warm magic being thrown my way every second was very problematic. Soldiers and the men fell off the containers all the time. Their screams no longer startled me, not when that machine gun was still shooting syringes. Was itevergoing to stop? What kind of a shield had they put around them? Because no bullets could reach them while they could shoot without trouble.
Someone needed to sneak up behind them and take them out right now. And that someone wasme.
I ran forward, even though there were at least five men protecting the ones behind the machine gun. I had no magic, and one of my guns had already run out of bullets, but I had the other. So I began shooting as I ran. They threw magic at me, and bullets, too, but I kept on moving from one edge of the containers to the other. Plenty of space, and my speed was my best asset, so I used it to my full advantage.
Three of those men were down, but I ran all out of bullets for the last two. They grinned at me, arms spread wide at their sides when I stopped moving, knowing there was no way I could best them in hand-to-hand combat. Not to mention they still had guns.
Shit.
The two guys shooting the machine gun were barely ten feet away, right behind them. How was I going to get to them?
A gunshot right next to my ear made me go deaf momentarily, but a soldier, with his wet clothes and boots squishing as he went, ran past me and basically threw himself at the men. I followed him, more out of surprise than anything, and soon, another soldier joined us. A fist to my jaw had me spinning in place, but I didn’t lose balance, and as soon as I straightened up again, I could actually see the backs of the two men operating the machine gun, while the others wrestled with the two ODP soldiers.
Finally, my chance. I took off running with only two empty guns in my hands, the plan not very clear in my head.
But they had their backs turned to me, and they wouldn’t see me coming until it was too late. The butts of my guns were going to do enough damage when I slammed them on the backs of their heads.
Except, when I was barely two feet away from them, the one on the right let go of the machine gun and turned to me with a terrifying growl. His wide eyes were golden, and his fingers elongated, nails turning to claws right in front of my eyes, while the legs of his friend were already completely engulfed by shadows. A werewolf and a wraith. How nice.
I moved back when the werewolf aimed his claws at my face, missing me by barely an inch. I threw one gun at his face, and I was going to slam the other straight up his nose, if he would only give me the chance.
He didn’t.
He came at me too fast, and the back of my foot caught on something—a dead body of an ODP soldier. I lost my balance, but before I fell on my back, the werewolf’s claws dug into my jacket and pulled me up again.
His face was right in front of mine. A scream wanted to tear from me, but I was too stunned at seeing his face transform from man to beast to let out a single sound. He opened his jaws that kept getting bigger and bigger, his teeth sharper, and I was sure he was going to eat my entire head off with one bite.