“Kit Steele!” one of the breeders in the group roared. I could feel her pressing at the edges of my mind, but my volcano was flowing strongly and she wasn’t going to get in today. Damien covered me as I ran at the group. Only five more feet and I’d be upon them.
Ronnie was to my left and Maxine and Nox were bringing up the rear, ready to kick them in. I was praying the sentries would burn up when they hit our atmosphere, but part of me wondered if that would be too easy. I had a split second of fear that they wouldn’t, that instead they would walk the Earth and wreak havoc on the humans there.
With a giant kick to the back, Maxine launched the first sentry in; the second fell in right after him at Nox’s pushing. The third and fourth were forced by fire, while the Breeder proved stealthier, weaving out of Damien’s grasp. My gaze was behind me, on the sentries who’d landed on Earth, to look for signs of death, so I didn’t notice when the breeder swam into view and swiped out, grasping both sides of my face.
‘I will end you,’she said into my mind, mouth open like she was about to tear my face off with her teeth. In a panic, I threw myself backwards, into Earth, and the portal collapsed around me as she landed on top of me, fingernails injected into my cheeks.
“Fuck you, zombie bitch!”
I embraced my inner foul-mouthed Marine and wrapped my fingers around her throat. Fear and anger flashed in her blackening eyes in equal measure.
“Yeah, you can’t survive here, can you?” I taunted, even though my cheeks hurt where her fingers had dug in, even though I was scared to look over and see the sentries possibly getting up to attack me. “What is it? The air? The radio waves?” Her face was disintegrating, turning to ash in my hands, and with a final push I shoved her off me and popped onto my feet.
Please, God, have mercy on us, I prayed as I spun around to take in the… piles of ash and empty silver armor.
Holy shit.
The sentries were dead… just like her.
Oh, it was fucking on! We were going to bring the Dream War down, big time.
For the first time I noticed that I was standing in the middle of a large public park, not a farm. There was a swing set off to the right, but that’s not what caught my eye. The group of teenagers with their phones out filming me was.
Fuck.
Did they see everything? Like…everythingeverything? Damien and the team were probably freaking out that I’d disappeared with a breeder on top of me. I’d have to worry about this PR nightmare later. Right now I needed to get back in there and help my friends. I was tempted to ask or bribe the kids to put their phones down, but that would only make me look more suspicious. Like I was an alien or something. And I didn’t have time.
Taking in a deep breath, I opened the portal again, slowly, in case a bullet was going to shoot through it. Maxine and Nox were taking down a sentry, and Damien was screaming my name. Bursting the portal open wider, I stepped one foot inside.
“Holy hell!” a prepubescent, cracking, male voice screeched behind me.
Shit. My paparazzi.
Leaping the rest of the way into the Dream War, I spun around and came face to face with a zitty red-headed teen boy and his camera phone.
“What the hell are you doing?” he screeched.
I didn’t want him to think I was a terrorist, or a freaking breeder, so I shouted the first thing that came to mind.
“I’m going to save the world!”
Then I shut the portal, leaving his stunned face seared into my mind.
“Kit!”
I didn’t even have time to worry about the PR nightmare I’d just left behind on Earth. Damien was losing his shit.
“I’m over here! I’m okay!” I shouted from behind a pod tree.
Well, I was sort of okay. I was totally freaking out that the sentries also died when they hit our atmosphere, I’d just told all of social media that I was going to save the world, and a breeder had injected her venom into my face when she’d clawed me. I had no delusions that teen boy would be cool and not upload that video, or that the breeder hadn’t dug deep enough to hurt me.
Damien swam into view, eyes wide with shock as he pulled me flush against his chest. The air whooshed out of me as I slammed into him; he wrapped his arms around me in an iron grip. “I thought I lost you,” he mumbled into my hair. “The breeder had your face in her hands and I thought she’d tear your head right off.”
“I’m okay,” I repeated, as he pulled back to get a good look at me.
Something in his face changed when he looked over me; a softness pulled at his eyes.
I held his gaze. “How are the others?”
