He didn’t wait for confirmation. Summoning the full velocity of his Breed genetics, he flashed across the distance in a matter of seconds.
Just as Nathan described, the scene outside the jewelry store was going from bad to worse. The big window in front was smashed, jagged glass framing an opening that looked barely large enough to fit any of the five kids cowered and screaming inside, never mind the trio of hulking Rogues looking for a way to get in.
To the human youths’ credit, they’d been quick-thinking enough to create a barricade between themselves and the broken window. The toppled jewelry display case they had lit on fire near the open glass was keeping a pack of three Rogues outside the shop. It was a small deterrent, though, one that wouldn’t hold the Rogues back for long.
Not even another second, in fact.
One of the big males lowered his shoulder and slammed into the makeshift barricade. The display case exploded inward from the impact, splintered wood and twisted metal flying in all directions inside the small store.
The Rogue pushed forward, his two companions crowding behind him.
“Fuck.” Darion rushed across the darkened street, his long blade gripped in one hand and ready for combat, his other hand moving for the pistol holstered on his weapons belt.
He wasted no time.
With the humans shrieking and stumbling over one another in their haste to get out of the first Rogue’s swinging reach, Darion rammed his blade between the shoulders of the other one currently blocking a clear path inside. The male dropped to his knees on a howl. Darion stopped the third with a titanium hollowpoint up-close-and-personal to the side of the Rogue’s skull.
Both large males went down, convulsing on the pavement as the titanium began its work.
Darion shoved inside the opening in the smashed window. The five humans were hysterical, scrambling in all directions. The Rogue grabbed for one of them, latching on to the loose jacket of a lanky preteen whose torn sleeve was sticky and dark with blood. The kid who’d injured himself breaking into the store.
The coppery tang of fresh human red cells made Darion’s own gaze ignite with amber sparks. His fangs sliced out of his gums, an instinctual response he shook off with a low snarl.
The kid spotted him behind the attacking Rogue, Darion’s face wild with combat rage and his bloodied blade gleaming. The human let out an even higher-pitched scream.
The Rogue paused, his big head swiveling toward his shoulder to see who might be coming after his prey.
Darion struck, shoving his blade under the Rogue’s jaw. The fist holding on to the hollering human went lax. The kid just stood there, gaping as his attacker dropped to the floor in a heap of melting flesh and bone.
Darion scowled at the group of shell-shocked young humans. “I need to get you out of here. Now.”
But it was already too late for that.
All of the ruckus--not to mention the pungent scent of the skinny kid’s bleeding wound--was drawing more interest from other predators in the area.
Darion wheeled around, the group of humans behind him. Outside the wrecked storefront, low, animalistic grunts and growls drew closer. Several pairs of glowing eyes pierced the darkness as a new pack of Rogues seemed to materialize out of the darkness.
Five of them, fangs bared, gazes wild with the madness of Bloodlust.
In addition to the long blade Darion held in his right hand, he also had his semiautomatic full of titanium rounds in the other. He held his fire. A blast of gun shots would likely only bring reinforcements for the group of Rogues surrounding the open storefront. No doubt the single shot he’d fired a few moments ago had helped to alert these males to the area.
Stowing the pistol behind his back, he skewered the first Rogue that charged at him. The big male stopped short, but his four other companions surged forward as one.
Darion’s blade was a blur of motion. Slicing and stabbing, he hacked down two of the Rogues but a third raked thick, jagged nails into his shoulder. Enormous fangs snapped in his face, blood and foul-smelling drool dripping off the Rogue’s chin.
Darion avoided the bite and drove his blade deep, kicking the deadweight to the floor as still another Rogue tried to go through him to get to the defenseless human prey at his back.
He brought his blade up for another strike, only to see the remaining Rogue in front of him freeze in mid-lunge. The huge body tipped forward, blood oozing like acid from its nostrils and gaping mouth.
The dying Rogue fell away and there was Rafe, grinning as he cleaned off his curved dagger and sheathed it on his weapons belt. The handsome face that turned heads everywhere the warrior went was smudged with ash and grime and drying blood.
“I was in the neighborhood. Thought I’d stop by.”
Darion smirked at his friend and comrade. “I had everything under control.”
“Yeah, I can see that. Guess I shouldn’t have wondered if you might need backup.” Rafe glanced at the seven mounds of sizzling remains Darion had created before his wry gaze swung back. “Showoff.”
Darion let the brotherly jab go unanswered. He was still in combat mode, all too aware that they likely had only moments before more Rogues came sniffing around. “We need to get the humans somewhere safe. The bleeder’s going to need a ride to a hospital if the Rogues don’t get him first.”
