“Some guy is peaking into my neighbor’s windows,” she lied, using her voice disguiser to turn herself into a man. “Kids live in this neighborhood. We can’t have someone peering into their rooms.”
“What’s your address?” the operator asked.
Sable rattled off Cash’s street, but when the operator asked for her name, she knocked the waiting pots and pans onto the floor. They clattered to the tile with an excessive bang, and Sable started yelling at an imaginary pair of kids and dogs for running in the kitchen as she hung up. She then pulled the battery out of the burner phone and threw it in the trash before climbing out her window and aiming for the roof. The only way she’d make it to Cash’s house before the thief was if she leaned into her Easter Bunny’s natural abilities, and even then, she might be too late. Hence the 911 call. Reports of a man lurking around homes with children would kick the police into gear, and while she doubted it would stop the stalker from killing Cash in the future, it mightsave his life tonight, and that was all she cared about at the moment. Save father and son, then make a long-term plan.
Inhaling a lungful of the night air, Sable prayed she’d make it in time astookoff running. High above the citizen’s heads, she sailed through the sky, each leap morepowerfulthan the next. She wasgraceandspeedandfearas Peter’s surveillance pinged the thief’s movements. He was gaining ground. He would arrive at Cash’s house before she did, and the exhaustion plaguing her lungs was the only thing stopping her scream from escaping her lungs. She had to make it in time. Cash didn’t die tonight. Clover wasn’t going to be an orphan.
With a curse, Sable picked up her pace, the multi-story buildings morphing into residential houses below her boots. Her agility carried her silently over the slanted roofs, and just as her breath threatened to burn to ash in her lungs, Cash’s street came into view. She almost signed in relief until she registered the silence. No police sirens disrupted the peace. The squad car hadn’t arrived yet.
“Shit!” she cursed as she pushed herself faster. “Please be alive. Please be alive. Please be alive.” Cash was ex-special forces. He wouldn’t let a threat enter his home without a fight. He could handle himself against a monster… right?
Sable leaped onto a neighbor’s roof and almost choked when she saw a figure slip through the shadows toward Cash’s back door. The house was dark save for the soft light glowing in the upstairs master bedroom, and she knew from their video chat that Cash was about to turn in for the night, which meant the thief had a clean entrance into the home. If he got inside, Cash and Clover’s chances of survival dropped significantly, and Sable pulled out her phone. That man wasn’t getting inside. She’d make sure of it.
Sable
Peter, check the surveillance I asked you to set up the other day. If something happens to me, warn the number I gave you. Tell him someone’s coming for him, and that I tried to stop him. Don’t let this thief kill the guard and his kid. Please, for me.
Peter’s answer was immediate.
Peter
Sable? What the hell are you talking about?
Promise me you won’t let the guard die. I don’t have time to explain. Just swear it.
Anything for you.
Thanks. You’re a good friend.
Sable shoved her phone in her pocket, slipped the brass knuckles onto one hand, and gripped a knife with the other. Just because she didn’t use violence to achieve success didn’t mean she couldn’t defend herself. She grew up with brothers. She knew how to fight, and while this was one she’d probably lose, she didn’t care. She didn’t have to win. She just had to buy Cash time.
And with that, she jumped.
Sable landed on the thief, her boots crushing his shoulder as he collapsed, and with agile grace, she jammed her knee into his neck.
“Don’t you fucking move!” She gripped the back of his ski-capped head and shoved his face into the pavement. “Put your hands behind your?—”
Sable grunted as the man reared backward and threw her off him. Her slight body flew over the driveway to collide with the neighbor’s minivan, and she stifled a scream as she collapsed to the asphalt. She’d hoped taking the thief by surprise would lend her the upper hand, but fear slipped between the cracks of her pain to poison her limbs. This was why he never hid his face. Why no one ever went toe to toe with thisman.She’d had him pinned to the ground and helpless, yet he’d thrown her as if she were a rag doll. Not every thief in this competition was supernatural, but as Cash’s stalker strode for her, she wondered what on earth he was. Humans didn’t hit that hard.
The thief took aim, but before he could deliver the blow, Sable swung her legs around and kicked him in the kneecap. He bucked forward, and she lunged to meet his face with her brass knuckles. Blood spurted from his mouth, and with a satisfied grunt, she rose to her feet. This man was finally getting a taste of his own medicine.
“The girl from the museum.” The thief spat crimson into the grass as shesettled intoa protective stance. “Does the security guard know his girlfriend is out here defending him? We should tell him to come outside so he can watch me kill you. Fear is my favorite, and he’ll be so much more fun to fight after he’s watched his pretty little thing get skinned alive.”
“I won’t let you have him,” Sable growled, spinning the knife on her palm. “I don’t plan on dying either.”
Before he could alert Cash, she lunged forward, but when he moved to block her blow, she jumped onto the wall and launched herself sideways. Her speed drove her into his side, her brass-guarded fist slamming into his ear.
“She isn’t human,” the thief said as he stumbled backward. “This should make killing her so much more satisfying.”
Sable glanced at the street as her attacker lunged for her. Where were the police? Why were they taking so long? Shewouldn’t last much longer in this fight. The thief’s fist aimed for her face, but she ducked just in time, spinning out of reach. Before she escaped his orbit, though, the man captured her hand and exerted unbearable pressure on her knuckles. With a stifled shriek, she dropped the knife, and he kicked it into the lawn before punching her in the gut.
Sable doubled over, coughing as she fought the urge to vomit. She vaguely registered his elbow raising, and she knew what he intended to do. He meant to slam it into the back of her skull. If he knocked her out, she was dead, and as she glanced forward at his legs, a wicked idea took root. The rules said there were no rules, after all.
Before his elbow could collide with her exposed head, Sable coiled her arm and punched the thief in the balls, brass knuckles and all. The man howled in pain as he stumbled backward, and with a flourished spinning jump she learned from her older brothers, Sable slammed her boot into the man’s chest. The thief grunted at the kick and tripped into the street... where he crashedrightinto the hood of the passing police car.
Sable ducked behind the neighbor’s minivan as the squad car skidded to a halt, and two officers jumped out of the vehicle a second later.
“Sir, are you okay?” the driver asked, but the thief shoved him aside.
