What a dumbass name.
I blocked some, but allowed others to hit me. Something about the impact of metal against metal satisfied something inside me almost as much as metal against flesh as my gauntleted fist made contact with Breena over and over again.
Though the most satisfying thing of all was the way Breena screeched in frustration every time the electricity bounced off my armor with a dull sizzle as the armor dispersed each hit.
Smart armor, people. Get you some.
All it takes is being kidnapped, contracting an alien plague, a near death experience, some minor DNA splicing, and badabing-badaboom, smart armor. Get one near you.
Ihadreceived some training in hand to hand combat. The Air Force taught its officers some basics, but I wasn’t proficient by any means. I flew airplanes. I didn’t punch people. Even with the extra training that Jack and Ohem had us do on theSolus, I was sure to a real fighter I looked inexperienced. But what I did have was strength behind every hit, my new speed, heightened reflexes… and rage.
I think I was having a mental break. Could you disassociate and have a manic episode at the same time? Was there a name for that?
I’d had some traumatic shit happen to me over the last year hadn’t I? Was this PTSD? Was uncontrollable anger a symptom of that? I didn’t know. But hitting Breena over and over again was kind of cathartic.
I must have blacked out for a second because Breena was on the ground trying valiantly to protect her face from my relentless fists. I was straddling her.
Why. Wouldn’t. She. Just. Die?
I wasn’t paying attention to my surroundings—probably wasn’t smart but I was well beyond that—which was why I didn’t hear him approach until I was being held in the air by the back of my neck like an angry cat while his deep mocking voice tsked me.
“My, my, my, darling. Such a nasty temper. And here I thought we were having fun. Breena, it was a good effort, child, but I have it from here.” He clicked his tongue at her as she struggled to her feet, her face a bloody mess. A feral grin stretched across my face.
“Just look at what you’ve done to your hair. That was unnecessary. I told you that you did not fail me. Go clean yourself up. I’ll take care of my prize.”
I blinked at my surroundings. My head felt full of cotton balls. The snake people including Horak, that rat bastard had made themselves scarce. Rathal had repositioned his hold so that his arm banded around my stomach, but you know, I don’t think he was holding onto me hard enough. I think he should be paying attention to the bomb in his hands instead of chit chatting with his subordinate.
“Yes, I remember what you said, butthat—”. I watched as Breena struggled to avoid calling me something nasty—her face twisting before she thought better of it and snapped her mouth shut, shot me a look that said, ‘I’ll kill you later’, and marched stiffly away, her arm held around her stomach where I vaguely remember kicking several times. Broken ribs I hoped.
“It's nice to see you making friends, my prize, but—”
I didn’t let him finish whatever stupid bullshit he was about to say. I twisted hard, shoving against him to break free of his grasp. I hit the ground hard before kicking out with both feet at his knee joint. I smiled through clenched teeth at the satisfying snap.
Rathal went down with a grunt, his head jerking up to my helmeted face with a droll look. He looked like he was about to say something witty so I did the only thing I could. I fucking kicked him in that smug, arrogant, goddamned face of his as hard as I could, hoping like hell my boot went right through his thick fucking skull and out the other side.
No dice though. His head snapped back but did not conveniently come off so I rolled to my feet and kicked him again. His body flew several feet backwards into a concrete wall and stopped.
I started towards him with heavy deliberate steps as he rolled to his hands and knees, shaking his head as if to clear it. He spat out blood and then started to laugh.
God, I hated him so fucking much.
“Foreplay it is, pet,” he mocked, slowly turning his head to the side to smile at me with bloody teeth. His eyes had gone dark and feral and any other time it would have made me nervous but we were well past common sense at this point.
He moved fast, turning to put his legs to the wall and pushing off it to fly across the space towards me, probably for a body tackle but I was so fucking mad it was like he was moving in slow motion. I could almost see his next move before he even thought about it, and turned to the side to watch him sail past me. To his credit, he was quick on his feet and rolled into a somersault and popped back up, already moving at me in about the same time it took to blink twice.
I met him with a hopped up haymaker right as his arms started to close around my thighs. My gauntleted fist connected to the side of his face with a crack of energy. It drove Rathal off me and into the ground again. I didn’t hesitate to kick his dumbass again. God, it felt good.
He didn’t stay down for more than half a breath before he was up and circling me like I didn’t just knock his brain loose in hisskull. He snarled at me, more humor than malice in the sound. “Well come on then, Callie. Is that all you’ve got?”
I wish I could say I didn’t rise to the bait. That I was more mature and level headed. That I used my hard won tactical brain to problem solve this fight… but no. I bared my teeth at him, a surge of deranged glee flooding my hindbrain as I remembered that I had fangs and my snarl was more impactful now—but then I also remembered that he couldn’t see me snarling at him with my helmet up and wow, didn’t that just piss me the rest of the way off—so I lunged at him like a goddamned moronic runaway freight train. I hit him low, hard enough to click my teeth together, and we crashed to the ground. A grunt escaped Rathal as he landed with me on top of him already throwing punches before he had a chance to close his arms around me.
He blocked his face, flashes of grinning teeth and wild eyes behind his raised forearms fueled my anger like wind to a forest fire. I screeched, bringing my fists together to smash them through his block and hopefully make him swallow a few of those laughing teeth. But Rathal had other plans. He laughed. A breathless kind of laugh like one would have if they were friendly wrestling. It pissed me off like nothing else ever had, but I couldn’t do much about it as he lunged upwards, wrapping his arms around me and tossed me over his shoulder like I didn’t weigh more than the air we were breathing.
I hit upside down—my thankfully helmeted head hitting the ground hard enough to daze me—and slid against a row of piping running horizontally along a wall and landed on my side with my ears ringing. I watched Rathal roll to his feet and dust off the silky black shirt he was wearing. It had come untucked from his leather pants. In my knocked around brain, I found it odd that his pants were practical instead of his usual flamboyant style. He was even wearing a kind of combat boots on his canid feet. Hadthis motherfucker changed midway through chasing me? Had he come expecting a fight? Was I that predictable?
“Remind me later to teach you to sword fight. All this rolling around on the dirty floor is terrible for my clothes.”
I pushed myself up to my hands and knees, gave my head a shake to clear it, and then slowly got to my feet. The world whirled around for a few seconds and I reached a hand out to brace against the wall until the dizziness faded. The pipe my hand landed on wiggled loosely under my grip. I spared it a glance before returning my gaze to Rathal. He truly embodied arrogance in every line. The way he regarded me with cool mockery and humor had my mental hackles rising. He stood about ten feet away, his hip cocked and his hands braced on them like a disappointed mother. It made the rage he’d knocked loose by throwing me flow back over me like a comforting blanket. I gripped the tattered edges of that blanket and pulled it snuggly around me, a mental shield against whatever came next.
