It all seemed to happen at once. With a guttural sound, she burst forward, throwing her over-sized sword at the man, her shield held high. Surprised, their assailant ducked to the side, firing off a couple of rounds.
“Ahri,” Rafe cried, his gut clenching with fear. He leapt toward them, his toy rifle over his head. Unlike the champions in his game, if they died, they wouldn’t regenerate to fight again.
She slammed into the man with her shield. He fell against the hallway wall but kicked out his foot. It caught her in the side. With a cry of pain, she crashed against a display case and crumpled to the floor. The man lifted his gun to fire again.
“No!” Powered by adrenaline, Rafe brought his rifle down on the man’s arm.
He grunted, and the revolver flew across the floor. Rafe tried to hit him in the face. The man dodged, clutching his injured arm to his chest. He threw an uppercut with his other hand. It grazed Rafe’s jaw, making his teeth snap together. With a roar, he leaped on the man, and they went to the ground. On top of him, Rafe used his elbows and hands to punch anything he could reach.
The man arched his back, using his feet again to reverse them. Rafe smacked his head on the floor and saw stars for a second. Their assailant skittered on his hands and knees across the floor toward the gun. Rafe was staggering to his feet when Ahri got there again, holding her sword but by the blade end. She swung and struck the guy’s head with the pommel. He collapsed.
Rafe lumbered to the gun and picked it up. Swaying a little, he pointed it at the man, but he wasn’t moving.
Heaving out a breath, Rafe reached out to Ahri. She stumbled into his arms.
“What were youthinkingto run at him like that?” he asked against her hair. “I thought I was going to lose you there.”
“He didn’t wantmedead,” She looked up at him, “and I had my armor and my shield.”
“But it isn’t real armor, my love.”
“It’s metal.”
Shaking his head, Rafe pointed to where her shield lay on the floor. She gasped at the two bullet holes in it.
“He could havekilledyou,” he said weakly.
“He was going to kill both of us anyway,” Ahri said, her voice flat. He was glad she’d recognized that. She tried to move her left arm and let out a groan of pain. Before he could ask her about it, an unfamiliar voice called out from Kayn’s partially open suite door.
“Drop the gun.”
Not again.Rafe ground his teeth as he whipped up his gun arm and pointed it at the Hispanic man’s face. Ahri let out a little sob but didn’t move.
“I think you’d better drop yours instead,” Bill said from behind the man, who tensed. For a second Rafe thought the guy was going to fire anyway. “Don’t make me shoot you.” Bill had never sounded so cold.
The man heaved out a breath and let the revolver drop. He lifted his hands and placed them on top of his head, a position he seemed to know well. One of Bill’s men patted him down while another one retrieved the pistol. In the distance came the sound of sirens.
Rafe handed his weapon to a third security guard and put his arms around Ahri.
“Ahri, you’rebleeding,” Kayn cried, his breaths heaving as he ran to them.
“Where?” Rafe pushed her back from him, searching her body.
“Her arm.” Her brother gently pulled the wet fabric from her skin on her left arm.
“Youare.” Rafe’s stomach knotted as he helped Kayn tear away the material.
“Ow.” Ahri tried to pull away and moaned. “Stop poking at it.”
“It looks like it’s just a graze,” Bill said, making her stand still. “You’re lucky.”
“What about Rafe?” She reached up and wiped something from his chin. “He hit you.”
“You too.” He ran a knuckle over the imprint of her helmet on her cheek. “You’re going to have a nice bruise there.”
“We need to get you two to the hospital.” Kayn’s face was pale.
“I’m fine,” Rafe said. “I can’t let those people at the banquet down. We can send Ahri?—”
