“Or you’ll find out,” Jax growled.
Tess and I shot through a stretch of fraught silence. Light steps. Pounding breath.The gate!
“Eight hundred, and I forget I just heard that threat,” the captain snarled.
“Extortion!” Fiona fumed.
“Big word, bitch. We charge extra for those.” The captain and his goons all grunted and snorted like animals. The Dark Watch really was the devolution of humankind. “That’s a thousand now, or we drag you both off.”
“Try.” The word rumbled from Jax like a landslide.
“Five of us. Two of you—and she obviously doesn’t count for much.” The captain paused. “You wanna say that again?”
Jax didn’t bother. A crack I’d recognize anywhere snapped over the audio, the bone-crunching sound of fist to face.
A quick and angry uproar followed. The hum of shock wands sent a buzz of electricity into my ear. Shock wands hurt like a bitch and could incapacitate. Having them probably meant this group wasn’t carrying guns.
Tess and I whipped through the gate and sprinted into the park together. Five goons surrounded Fiona and Jax.
Two turned, sensing new prey. They started toward us. One had the gall to smile, all teeth and confidence. A blue-white current sizzled at the top of his two-and-a-half-foot-long club. The second soldier widened his stance and lit up his stick also.
They had a lesson coming if they thought being armed meant victory. Jax was a solid wall of muscle, Tess was comet-fast and ferocious, even if she lacked fighting finesse, and I was willing to water this nice grass with Dark Watch blood if it meant getting all of us to safety and away from this parody of peace the Overseer had created.
I smiled back, all teeth and disgust.Thiswas Novalight’s grand galactic gift? The calm we should all be so grateful for? The last ten years of my life suddenly made me so sick that I wanted to kick the shit out of these goons and make them pay for my regrets.
Tess didn’t slow down at all. She rocketed toward the closest soldier like a missile with coordinates locked in. He raised his shock wand, either to attack or defend. It didn’t matter. She went low, sliding in underneath it to knock him down. He hit the ground with a harsh grunt of surprise. Tess wrenched the shock wand from his hand, tossed it to me, and pounced like she was going to eat that goon alive.
Who’s the animal now, asshole?
Narrowing my eyes, I lit up the stick and slashed it at the other goon who’d come at us. He parried with his own, and for a second, we stayed locked in place, weapons crossed, both of us pushing hard. Hot light crackled in my face. The searing energy made my hair vibrate. He was strong, and I was done with this. I spun out of the deadlock, shifted my weight, and kicked him in the gut. He doubled over, exhaling.
I glanced at Tess. She was still on the ground, behind the goon now with her arm in a tight V around his neck. Her other arm pushed his head down as she increased the pressure on his arteries. He flopped but couldn’t shake her. In seconds, her sleeper hold knocked him out without even touching his windpipe.
“Cuff him!” I shouted. He’d wake up almost as fast as she’d put him under.
Tess dug zip ties from a pouch on the goon’s belt while my guy lunged at me. I weaved, avoiding his fist. He blocked my jab and I spun into a kick, knocking him back a step. I pressed my advantage just as Jax roared like a monster. I looked over to see him taking a jolt in the chest to protect Fiona.
In the second I turned my head, the goon got me in the hip with his stick. The zap of electricity numbed my right leg to the ankle. Leaning into my left side, I threw a punch that split my knuckles and cracked his lip. He reeled backward.
Tess trussed her goon up, hands first and then feet when he came back to himself and tried to kick her.
Jax fought like a madman to keep the other three away from Fiona, all fists and growls until the Dark Watch captain sent him to one knee with another violent thump of volts. Jax’s shirt smoldered. He’d have burns on his chest. I needed to reach him.
The patrolman I was fighting popped up in front of me again, his face bleeding.Good. Let’s end this.I sidestepped his attack, grabbed him, and rammed my knee into his groin. He folded in half, and I brought my elbow down hard between his shoulder blades. He fell flat and coughed into the grass. Crouching, I struck the vulnerable spot in his neck that would knock him out. He didn’t move again. I found his own restraints and cuffed him.
With Tess beside me, I sprang toward the trio still trying to get the best of Jax and Fiona. From his knees, Jax threw up a thick arm to shield the scientist. In the big man’s shadow, Fiona didn’t even pretend to fight; she was fishing something from her vest pocket. The female goon suddenly hauled off and cracked Jax over the head with her stick. Already shocked into a stupor, Jax swayed and almost toppled. His lips pulled back in a grimace.
Pure rage ignited in Fiona’s face. Tess grabbed my sleeve and jerked me to a halt just when I would’ve jumped in to defend Jax. Before I could wonder why she stopped me, Fiona shot her hand out over Jax’s head and squirted something into the woman’s face.
The woman shrieked, a bloodcurdling scream that cut through the heat of battle. Pain. Fury.Fear. She stumbled back, swiping at her skin. Her fingers smoked. She dropped her hands, still screaming. Blistering face. Bubbling eyes. Fiona yelled like a banshee and whipped a thin branch across the woman’s burning face, taking off a chunk of her disintegrating nose with it. Fiona didn’t miss a beat, bringing her arm back around to slash the branch at the two men. They scrambled back, trying to avoid the thorny weapon.
Jax groaned, and Fiona stood protectively over him. In a flash, she squirted a second dose of acid and melted Drake’s face. He screamed like a baby.
“Tetrafumicfullerbehrenheim acid.” Fiona leaped in front of Jax and kicked the yowling man away from him. “There’s another big word—bitch.” Her ponytail flew as she twisted and clocked the last man over the head with her berry branch. She wouldn’t grow anything with that one. It was fucking magnificent.
The final goon yelped and started running. Jax lunged and grabbed the shithead’s ankle. He held on tight and I moved in. My kick might’ve cracked the guy’s skull. His eyes rolled back, and he hit the ground with a thud that echoed through me.
A hush descended. Breathing hard, I looked around me.Holy shit. That was the most savage fight I’d ever been in. No rules. At least two people dead. And here I’d thought my former colleagues Solan and Raquel fought dirty.
