“He’s up here!” one screamed.
“Goddamn it.” Lucas launched his only throwing knife at the man’s throat. “Shut the fuck up!”
Breathing hard, bleeding, Lucas struggled to fight off the horde that closed in on him. Red stained his skin, and rage built in me like an inferno. I stabbed one of his attackers in the liver. Another, the kidney.
Defiants fought behind me. Beside me. Up and down the stairs. I staggered over debris and bodies, trying to keep up with the stronger fighters surrounding me.
Adam slammed into the wall next to me. A large grenade bounced off the wall near the stairs and landed beside us.
Shit!
Adam jerked my shoulder. My fingers barely clasped Lucas’s shirt, pulling him with me as Adam shoved us through a door into a bathroom.
The room burst apart. Debris showered us at lethal speeds, embedding in my skin like razor blades. I lost my footing and crashed onto the tile floor. My leg spasmed and cramped. I clawed my fingers into the muscles to release them, eyes frozen on a dead Defiant beside me, impaled by pieces of wood.
Blue eyes, open and sightless.
As I struggled to stand, Adam snatched me behind a stall door. The world spun for several moments.
“What are you doing!” I hissed over my ringing ears.
He pointed through the crack left in the door. Lucas stabbed a knife into a Hunter’s throat and used him as a human shield when another in the doorway unloaded a pistol.
“Traitor!”
Stinging pricks came to life across my body, and I extracted pieces of shrapnel from my hands without looking. Adam kept an arm around my waist.
Pistol empty, the Hunter raised a knife.
Lucas dropped the body and lifted his own weapon. “You really want to do this?”
The man spat and advanced. “I’ve got my orders.”
Adam withdrew a pistol but found no clear shot. Lucas cornered his foe against a sink. He raised his knife. The man ducked, feinting to one side. His blade rammed into Luke’s calf, and Lucas threw his knife, catching the man in the stomach, before falling to his hands and knees.
Adam dropped his gun to the floor and slid it to Lucas. It skittered to a stop next to Luke’s hand.
The Hunter ripped out the knife and swung toward Lucas. Raising the gun, Luke shot once. A thump followed as the man dropped to the floor, a bullet in his head.
Adam released me, and I skidded to Lucas’s side. “You okay?”
He fell to his side. “Give me a sec.” He tossed the gun back to Adam, who kept cover.
Teeth gritted, Luke flinched as I unsheathed the knife from his leg. He had pieces of glass and metal buried everywhere.
“We’ve got to get out, guys,” Adam said. “Smell that?”
I sniffed.
Fire.
Lucas stood and shook himself, exchanging a glance with Adam. The grenade had destroyed the stairs and landing. Bodies littered the area, and blood stained every surface. I lost my balance as I stepped out, slipping on the mess.
Lucas squeezed my elbow. “Come on.”
We had to find another way downstairs. We tiptoed into the main hall. A shrieking explosion shook the ground beneath our feet. Fire burned far at the end of the hall.
Adam glanced up and down the empty space. “We need to get outside.”
