The immediate problem with the room, we quickly discovered, was the floor-to-ceiling glass panels on the front and back walls.
“Check the back door,” Bryce told me and Nichols, while he and my master checked that the front door was locked. We did so, aware of the risk of being shot, straight through the glass panels, by assailants that we wouldn’t be able to see out in the darkness. Thankfully, no one had attacked us by the time we’d completed the task.
Conducting a further sweep of the room, we discovered a terrified receptionist huddled behind the desk, having been catching up on some paperwork, so we sent him upstairs to join the rest of the guests. Then we all reconvened at the front door, taking what cover there was behind sofas and support pillars.
Bryce and my master exchanged a glance. “Don’t look at me,” my master said. “You’re the fucking commander here.”
“I’m not leaving civilians to the Geshtoch,” Bryce decided. “You don’t have to come-”
“I’m not sitting on my ass while you have all the fun,” my master said, already moving towards the door. “And no, I’m not going to blame you for this. For the sake of official records, I’m acting of my own accord. If Henderson wants to tear a couple of strips off me, he’s welcome to.”
“This is going to put your promotion back another six months,” Bryce said, as he and my master sidled over to the door, taking cover behind the thick wooden panels right beside it.
“Kade, Nichols, stay here and guard the stairs,” Bryce instructed us. “With all this glass around, this place could turn into a shitshow real fast.”
“Yes, sir,” Nichols said… and damn my attentive master, he noticed my deliberate silence on the matter.
“Kade,” he snapped, shooting me a slight glare. “You will stay here. I don’t need you getting in trouble as well.”
“Yes, sir,” I replied, not bothering to hide the reluctance in my voice. He knew as well as I did that I considered my place to be by his side.
He gave Bryce a nod, then after a silent countdown, they yanked the front door open and disappeared through the gap. The instant they were gone, I closed the door and locked it again. I plastered myself to a nearby pillar and watched their figures moving silently towards the barn, determined to keep an eye on them, and on anything else that was moving out there.
Nichols was stationed behind a sofa, peering restlessly over the top of it, and since I was temporarily at a loss for anything useful to do, I asked him, “The Geshtoch are stealing wine?”
He snorted. “Yeah. They got a taste for it a couple of years ago, and every few months, they try to break into one of the wineries on the outskirts of the city. There are barriers and electric fences up to keep them out, but they’re smart little fuckers. They keep finding ways through.”
“Why would they attack a winery that’s full of guests? It seems a bit reckless, even for them.”
Nichols shrugged. “To be fair, it’s a Wednesday. This place would normally be dead quiet. Thursday through Sunday are their busy days. Maybe they just expected there would be fewer people around.”
Out in the garden, a small explosion lit up an area of shrubbery, and I glimpsed a Nwandu man fighting with a Geshtoch. Okay, so they weren’tallin the barn after all. “They need more help out there,” I said, to no one in particular.
“Then we should go and help them,” Nichols said, looking at me pleadingly. Technically, I ranked above him, so perhaps he thought I could give him permission to go? “Henderson said to stay here,” I said, not sounding at all happy about it.
“Yeah, and Aiden told you to stay put as well. You can’t, like, disobey him, can you?”
“No,” I said, though the temptation was running fierce through my veins.
“Yeah. Us plebs never get to have any fun.”
Funwas hardly the way I would have described a battle with the Geshtoch, but I took his point. I edged closer to the glass doors, peering out into the garden. My master was out there, fending off the stars only knew how many Geshtoch, and the Nwandu security team seemed to be focusing all their attention on the Geshtoch roaming the gardens, not the ones inside the barn. I heard a scream from the direction of the barn. My hand was on the door handle before I’d thought about it. “He needs help,” I said, and this time, perhaps it was me hoping that Nichols would tell me to go outside. But he couldn’t, though, could he? At this point, not even Henderson could give me that order. My master had told me to stay here. And there had been no wiggle room in the order, either. He wanted me to stay put.
“Dude, you need to take a deep breath and calm down,” Nichols said, tugging at my arm. “You’re breathing, like, super fast.”
I was, but a few rudimentary attempts to calm down proved entirely ineffective. My master needed me. I was supposed to protect him.
I stiffened – if that was even possible, given how tense I was – as I heard a deep voice shouting from the direction of the barn. It wasn’t my master… but then I heard my master’s voice. “Put it down!” he yelled, loud and clear. “Put your gun down!”
My grip on the doorhandle was making my knuckles white. “We should go and help them,” Nichols said, sounding none too certain about it. By all the stars in the galaxy, I wanted to.
A gunshot sounded from the barn, and the sharp crack broke the final tendrils of control I had over myself. I wrenched open the door and sprinted towards the barn, the idea of protecting Aiden the only thought in my mind. I skidded to a halt beside the still-open barn door, peering around the corner to find Aiden and Bryce holed up behind a huge wine barrel, red liquid spilling onto the floor from a bullet hole in the side. On the other side of the room, there were three Geshtoch, crouching behind a long bench that had been pushed onto its side. In between them, five civilians huddled in a corner, the front-most man holding a chair in front of him like a shield. The poor sods must be terrified, if that was the best weapon they’d been able to come up with.
From where I stood, I had a clear shot of two of the Geshtoch, but the third one was protected too well by the bench. “Nichols?” I murmured. He’d followed me along the path, albeit at a slower pace. “I’m going to take out the two nearest Geshtoch. Watch the third one. If he makes a move towards the civilians, shoot him, butdo notshoot the civilians. If you can’t get a clear shot, leave him for Bryce and Aiden.”
“Yes, sir,” Nichols whispered. He hunkered down, taking a position below me against the edge of the door.
I sized up my targets. Bullets? Or knives? Or why not one of each, I decided. That would buy me an extra half a second, which was all I needed to get the job done. I pulled a throwing knife out of the sheath on my leg, lined it up, and hurled it across the room. I fired the gun, and the bullet hit the second Geshtoch at the same instant as the knife hit the first one. Then I put a bullet in the first one as well, just to be sure.
