“Screw it!” Anthony shot out the back window, nearly blowing my eardrums, but giving us an easier target. Even when my hands and arms shook or swung wide with the car’s movement, I was able to at least hit the car behind us, though I had no control over exactly where.
Two clips later, our trunk was pushed nearly into the seat with us, our car was smoking, and the vehicle behind us finally started to sputter. Anthony managed to get off a good shot to the driver’s side, and they veered off the road, then slammed into a tree.
“Get us the hell out of here, Elias!” My voice was thin in my ringing ears. Adrenaline coursed through my body, and I wanted to jump out and run—like I could run faster than the car.
A second car lay in wait ahead of us. The damaged car wasn’t even out of sight yet when we were t-boned in the passenger side.
It was one of those weird, out of time moments where everything happens in slow motion. I looked at Anthony in time to see the shadow of movement beside him that was another large vehicle ramming us. My body jerked and moved backward, bouncing off of my door, but after riding that adrenaline high, I felt no pain.
“Anthony! Duck, get down!” I’d managed to hang on to my gun, so I slid in a fresh clip and fired off several rounds into the front window of the black SUV that was pushing us sideways into a ditch. I didn’t think I hit anyone at first, but they stopped pushing our car. We scrambled out of the driver’s side and used our ruined car to take shelter as we fired more rounds at the unknown inhabitants of the SUV.
“Freeze!” a deep voice shouted from behind us. “We outnumber you, we're stronger than you. We have no desire to injure you any further. We want Riley.”
“Come get me, jerks. I’d like to see you try.” I whirled around to face three men who must've walked from the crash site of the first car.Yeah, great. Piss off the superpowered villains that want tobreedyou to death.
“You’ll have to kill us.” Michael stood in front of me while Elias and Anthony flanked me again, keeping an eye out for more danger out of the second car.
I dropped to a crouch and took careful aim between Elias and Michael. The moon provided plenty of light. With a crack, I nailed thug number one between the eyes, and he dropped. I was a great shot when not in a speeding car. I had a fleeting thought before pulling the trigger about taking a life, but really, it was kill or be bred. That helped ease my conscience.
Before I could aim again, they moved with a preternatural speed that rivaled Anthony on the day we met. I wasn’t able to follow his movements that day, but these creatures were just a bit slower, so I could see them coming, but I couldn’t move fast enough to do anything about it.
My men, on the other hand, could. Michael jumped higher than any human could and landed behind the shortest of the goons. He kicked him in the side with enough force to break a human’s spine but didn’t even phase the guy.
Elias and Anthony fought back-to-back, kicking, and hitting the last two thugs from the first car. I became distracted by their fight and let my guard down. Strong arms grabbed me from behind.
I used the old tried and true. I relaxed in his arms. He was squeezing me hard enough to make it difficult to breathe. I slipped my hand behind me and found his penis. Squeezing as hard as I could, I also gave a sharp pull. He dropped like I’d knocked him out. Twirling around to make sure there weren’t any more people coming from the other side of our car, I turned in time to drop under another set of large arms attempting to grab me. Given how easily I dodged him, I figured he had to be human.Finally! Someone’s but I can kick.
While crouched, I gave a quick punch to his groin. When he doubled over in pain, I brought my elbow down as hard as I could on his neck, then brought my arm up around his windpipe to squeeze with as much strength as I could muster. I heard a nasty crunch, and the man collapsed, wheezing.
It happened so fast, the first man to grab me was barely getting up off of the ground. Elias, Anthony, and Michael still fought their higher-powered enemies. I ran around to put them between me and my pursuers, trying to give myself time to breathe and calm down before the remaining human came after me.
He stalked around the bigger fight, ignoring them. His attention was on me. I was a little more cautious this time; I kept my wits and frequently glanced around me. I didn’t want to be caught unaware by yet another attacker. The closer he got, the more obvious it became that he was an enormous hulk of a man.
“Geez, man, how tall are you?”
“I've no desire to hurt you, girl. Come quietly. They’ve promised you won’t be injured.” He spread his arms out, as if trying to placate me, or show me he wasn’t dangerous.
“What do they want from me?” I allowed a note of fear to enter my voice. I’d gotten lucky before, with him leaving me an opening to squeeze his crown jewels. He wouldn’t make that mistake again. I needed to make him think I was considering giving in.
“They want to take you to safety. You are one of the Unseen but an unknown creature.” He started toward me again. “Once they figure out what you are, you can be introduced to your own kind, and your children returned to you.”
My head cocked to the side, and I furrowed my brow. “If all they want is to keep me safe, why are you fighting my friends?”
“They aren't your friends, girl.” He inched closer. “They want to keep you to themselves. You’ll never see your children again. I’m sure they’ve got a big plan to take you to a third world country then kill you where no questions will be asked.”
“Do you promise you won’t hurt me if I don’t fight you?”
“I promise.” He closed the last few feet to me.
My hands went up.See? I’m a little girl. I’m no threat.I widened my eyes more and looked up at him with the most innocent look I could manage with rage boiling inside me.
He smiled down at me. “Turn around and walk toward my SUV. I’ll put you in the back—” His words stopped short as I rammed my palm upward into his nose. Blood squirted everywhere. If my self-defense training was to be believed, his eyes would be watering, obstructing his vision.
I took advantage of his temporary blindness and kicked him on the side of his knee. When I heard his kneecap slide out of place, I turned away and tried not to vomit at the sound of ligaments tearing.
Two down.I returned to the fight in time to see Elias twist the head off of the remaining thug. We were alive, albeit bruised and exhausted. Michael was pulling a sword out of another man, and Anthony came from around the side of our car, covered in blood. I wondered why it bothered me to hear a kneecap get jacked up, but watching Elias rip a dude’s head off didn’t even make me flinch?Whatever, add it to my ‘I’m going-to-hell’ list.
My mouth opened to ask if there were any more when the three of them practically flew over to me to assess my injuries.
