29
Mercy
More bullets careenedthrough the broken restaurant window. We fired back, trying to pick off anyone who showed a vulnerable area, but the best I managed was a hit to one guy’s arm. There were too many of them, moving too quickly in the dark.
And the banging on the back door was getting louder. I thought I heard the wood of the frame starting to splinter.
“Careful with your shots,” Gideon said, his voice low but urgent. “We don’t want to run out of ammo too soon.”
Oh, shit, I hadn’t even thought of that. I only had one spare clip on me. The other guys might have been carrying a few more, but I’d already seen each of them reload at least once. Did we have enough between us to take out every one of our enemies out there even if they’d lined up for clear shots?
My stomach sank, dread filling me despite Wylder’s determined words. We were going to go at them guns blazing, sure, but it was becoming more and more obvious that we’d just be mowing down as many of them as we could before they took us out.
I just hoped I could put Colt in a lot of pain before I kicked the bucket. That wasn’t too much to ask, was it?
As that question passed through my mind, someone flung an object like a large can through the window. It hit the floor a few feet inside with a clatter, and thick smoke burst out of it.
Oh, no. “Smoke bomb!” I yelled, scrambling farther backward.
The smoke followed us toward the kitchen, forming a giant impenetrable haze. It moved faster than we could. In seconds, the guys disappeared somewhere within the blanket of smog. My eyes watered. I ducked low, coughing as I tried to squint through the worst of it.
Footsteps thundered toward us. The Steel Knights had used the cover of the smoke to storm the building through the window. I fired at the blurred figures that came into view through the gray fog, praying that the guys were still beside and behind me, not out there in that mess.
The shots blaring on either side of me seemed to confirm that. Several of the figures dropped. But more kept coming. I pulled the trigger on my gun and realized I’d emptied my second clip. The gun was useless now.
The smoke was clearing now, revealing dozens of men barging toward us amid the toppled furniture, using it for cover just like we had minutes before. I dropped my gun just as three Steel Knights converged on me. Throwing myself backward, I banged my ass against the wall. I’d been cornered.
One of the guys leered, brandishing a gun in one hand and an axe in the other. “Colt wants to be the one to kill her, but that doesn’t mean we can’t carve her up a little first.”
Adrenaline blared through my veins. They expected me to cringe in the corner while they descended on me. Yet another bunch of assholes assuming I was a pussy just because I had one.
“You can try,” I retorted, and launched myself at them, whipping out my knife at the same time.
Shoving between two of the men, I jabbed the blade into one’s side. As he screamed in pain, I yanked it out and swung it in the other direction. It sliced across another attacker’s chest just as he snatched at me. I kicked him hard, sending him stumbling backward into the third guy. A searing pain spread from my wounded shoulder, but I focused on the thudding of my heartbeat instead.
More men were crowding in on us. Kaige shot one point blank in the head and then ducked down next to me. He yanked me toward the kitchen, and I dashed there with him, staying low.
He got off a couple more shots at guys who came too close, but one managed to slam a baseball bat across his back. He staggered, groaning, but swung his powerful fist to clock the prick in the temple. As the other guy reeled backward, Kaige shot him too.
We were seconds from the kitchen door when I heard the back door finally give out with a crackling of broken wood. Kaige jerked me in another direction. I spotted the other three guys crouched behind a long banquet table that’d once stood at the back of the room. Our last bit of shelter in the chaos.
As we ran toward it, a man lunged at me and hauled on my knife hand. Another two guys tackled Kaige. At the twist of my wrist, my fingers spasmed and the knife fell from my grasp.
Wylder let out a shout, and both he and Rowan threw themselves toward me to help. Rowan’s shot caught my attacker in the throat. The guy sagged with a gush of blood, but more shots rattled my eardrums from farther away.
Wylder stumbled as a bullet clipped his thigh. Another caught Rowan in the side of his chest. He staggered into me, a red blotch spreading across his shirt just below his armpit.
“No!” The word burst from my lips, and I was dropping with him, trying to cushion his fall. He twisted with a grimace of pain and pointed his gun at the men closing in on us, but nothing happened when he pulled the trigger. He’d used his last bullet defending me.
Wylder got off two more shots, and then there was nothing but a hollow clicking sound from his pistol too. He sank down next to us, his other hand pressed to the bleeding wound on his thigh.
Gideon stared at us from behind the table, his jaw tight, his hands empty. Either he’d run out of ammo earlier or he’d given his to the other guys who were more practiced fighters.
Kaige was now flailing under the combined weight of three guys trying to wrestle his gun away from him. When he shot one, another leapt in to take that guy’s place, stomping on Kaige’s elbow. A groan reverberated past Kaige’s clenched teeth.
“Hold them for Colt,” someone said, and understanding hit me like a punch to the gut. We were done. It was over.
But as the men loomed on us, yells rose up from farther away. Gunfire blasted outside, which didn’t make much sense considering the Steel Knights had no one to shoot at but us, and we were way back here.