Chaos broke out. The massive ceiling allowed the vorpyr the advantage of maneuvering over and around the crates and towering shelving systems easily, but the booming sound of gunfire and the zings of laser rifles ricocheted through the room.
“Stay here. Do not move.” Luuciyn, who was crouched next to me, vanished around the crates.
I forced my breathing to remain even as I peeked out around the crates. It was utter pandemonium. Vorpyr zipped around while bullets flew everywhere. I didn’t know how to help. Should I continue through and try to find the vorpyr captive? No, Luuciyn told me to stay put. He’d have a heart attack if he came back to find me gone. As I was gazing at the door in contemplation, it burst open.
I gaped at the sight and ran forward, staying low and being careful to move quickly between stacks of crates until I was close to the door.
Chapter 38
Now that I was behind the crates closest to the door, the subject of my attention ran to join me.
“Jac? What the hell is happening?” Jaron crouched with me behind the stack of crates and I threw my arms around his neck.
“I missed you so much.”
“I’m glad you’re ok. We thought you were right behind us.”
“What are you doing here?”
“I—” he glanced up. “We need to get somewhere safer.”
“I can’t leave.” I looked behind me, but Luuciyn hadn’t returned to the spot. It was then I caught sight of a man sneaking up to a shelving system behind Arrazyl. I swung the rifle around and settled it on my shoulder.Breath in, steady.When he raised his own rifle, I pulled the trigger.
Trying to blink away the vision of the man dropping, I turned back to Jaron. He was looking behind me. I spun around in my crouch to see what he was looking at and fell back as Luuciyn barreled toward us. Aiming for Jaron.
I threw myself in front of Jaron and Luuciyn pulled his claws in just in time before he had us both flattened on the floor and pinned.
“Stop, this is my brother.” I gasped out as he wrapped his arm around me and hauled me away from Jaron.
“Your brother?”
“You have a lot to catch up on, clearly.”
“Get down.” He pushed me down before tossing a plas grenade over the top of the crates.
“Are you looking for the vorpyr they have here?” Jaron asked, wincing at the boom of the explosion.
“Yes.” I handed the rifle to Luuciyn, who made better use of it than I did.
“She’s up on what I’ve dubbed the viewing deck. Her entire room is made of plexiglass like she’s a lab rat.”
“We need to get to her.” I pivoted to Luuciyn and told him what Jaron had said.
“Where exactly is that?”
Jaron described and Luuciyn tapped his earpiece when he was done, letting the others know what we were doing. He turned to us. “We must get her. Reinforcements are no doubt coming and they’ll know we’re here for her so they might try to move her.”
“What about them?” I waved in the direction I thought the others might be.
“They’ll deal with this and catch up.”
I hesitated. What if reinforcements came with more firepower and heavily outnumber them in this restricted space?
“The faster we get her, the faster we can get out of here.” Luuciyn gave me the gun and pushed me with a wing.
Jaron and I waited for a pause in the gunfire to sprint over to the door, Luuciyn on our heels. Just as we got through the door, Luuciyn grunted and snarled. The door slammed shut.
I spun around, immediately assessing him. “You’re bleeding.” I reached for the emergency kit on my belt.
