“Move it!” Kayn yelled at us and disappeared inside a shadowed corridor.
I heard his voice before I saw him. Deep. Angry.
“Willow! What have you done?”
Kayn moved like a ghost, his knife blade slicing the neck of the nearest Soldier. The second.
As a group, their backs were turned, all of them focused on something in front of them.
Until now.
Like watching a row of machines, they turned as one and faced us.
I looked past them.
Willow. She sat on the floor, her back to the wall. Her head was tilted back as the Nexus unit loomed over her.
She smiled at him.
“Get down!” Oberon shouted and I dropped into a roll as a long blade sliced through the air where my head had been.
I came up on my feet, shoved a blade between the Soldier’s ribs and lifted him off his feet. I lifted the blaster in my other hand to the soft space under his jaw and turned his head into liquid inside his helmet.
With a roar I barely recognized, I shoved the dead body off my blade and attacked the next. “Willow!”
“Zarren!”
I stabbed my blade into my opponent’s eye socket. Twisted. Tossed him aside like forgotten garbage.
Willow. Mate.
Mine.
* * *
Willow
Oh my god. Zarren? And Oberon? Kayn?
They were dead. They were supposed to be dead.
They’re going to be dead, if they don’t get out of here before this place blows.
Oh, shit.
“Get out of here! Run!” I tried to stand, to warn them.
Nexus 5’s hand gripped my throat. This time, when he held me by the neck, my shoulders slipupthe wall and my feet left the ground.
I kicked. Scratched. God damn it. His arm was twice the length of mine.
I twisted enough to see Zarren’s face. His gaze traveled the length of my body, stopped on the hand wrapped around my neck.
I closed my eyes. I couldn’t watch him suffer. Nexus 5’s thoughts were clear as day to me now. He was going to snap my neck and use Zarren’s rage against him. Exploit Zarren’s one weakness.
Me.
You better do something. Quick. This place is going to blow.
