Before we could process it, Damien was running at the sentry, arm cuff out before him as if it was ashield.
My new client was certifiably insane, and I’d already used my lucky grenade! I quickly slammed a magazine of heat-seeking rounds into my gun and started spraying bullets coded to seek a certain heat level only given off by the ghouls. They ran hotter than we did by about ten degrees, and the glowing blue bullets whizzed and curved past Damien, searching for the open soft spots of the sentry. Problem was those alien bastards were fast, and he moved at the sight of the flying blue bullets, so they missed their intended target. Damien had reached him by that point, and I couldn’t even process how stupid this manwas.
“Step stool!” I screamed to Nox, who groaned but followed myorder.
I couldn’t let my freaking hottie billionaire client get killed on the first night, so I was going to have to be a dumbass as well and follow his move. You were supposed to runawayfrom sentries, not at them! Nox dropped into a ball and I started running, pulling one of my samurai swords as I did. At full speed, I stepped onto Nox’s back and he sprang up, launching me into the air. At the same time, Damien raised his cuff into the sentry’s face. A light flickered on it, and then a little popping sound came. Suddenly, Damien was blown backward by a semitransparent shield that formed and flickered out, while the sentry staggered in a drunkenmotion.
Changing my trajectory midair wasn’t easy, but I managed to twist my body to align with the new space the sentry had taken up. These things were freakishly fast, and if my little plan didn’t work, he would rip off my head in an instant. I crashed into the giant alien’s chest plate, knocking him backward, and taking him off guard for probably the first time in my life. Whatever that cuff did, it had stunned him momentarily. As he fell backward, I held onto the top of his chest plate with one hand and brought up my sword hand in a blindingly quick motion. I cut into the inch of open space under his neck, gouging the bluish translucent flesh. Hot black blood spurted out of the wound and covered me from neck to navel.Great, that’s going to leave a nicerash.
The sentry had gathered his wits by that point and realized this was a fight for his life. Although my sword would have sliced off the head of a human like butter, Sentries bodies were tougher to penetrate so it barely cut him. Still, an injured sentry was better than nothing. His right arm whipped out with the speed and force of a bullet but was blocked byNox.
The pyromaniac was holding the sentry’s arm down with his boot, his new flamethrower in hand. He brought it down on the ghoul’s arm, letting the flames lick across his bicep, heating the metal armor there. At the same time, I slid down the beast’s body and brought my sword up to hack into the meat of his groin. The sentry’s arm snapped out, knocking Nox a few feet back, then grabbed my sword arm in a viselike grip. His helmet clattered to the floor and with a terrifying curiosity, I looked up. Their eyes were like gray glass tennis balls, they had no nose, and their mouths… oh God. The six-inch circular orifice of teeth and tongue were what swallowed humans whole. His mouth was stretching, widening to take in my form in one biggulp.
Shit.
He’d pinned my sword arm but the other one was free. I reached up, digging my fingers into the gash I’d made in his neck, and pulled. His mouth snapped shut with a hiss and he bucked his pelvis, flinging me off. I wasairborne.
“I gotcha,” Brisk called out somewhere below me, and then I landed into the Marine’s strongarms.
“Thanks,” I muttered, glad he was alive. I could always count on him to swoop in and save theday.
Jumping off him, I pulled my handgun out and snapped in a magazine of good old-fashioned copper and leadbullets.
The sentry I’d gored was bleeding out. They healed, but not that fast, and not from that deep of a wound. If they could throw him in a bath of that green shit, they might be able to save him, but there was none around. Lucky forus.
To my dismay, there were two Galadrias dead on the ground and two more that had just landed with two more sentries ridingthem.
I looked to my right and saw Damien wincing, lying on the ground moaning.Uselessmoron.
“Get over here, you idiot!” I called tohim.
He must’ve been knocked out when he landed. He shook himself like he was clearing away cobwebs, eyes flicking to the oncoming threat before he popped up onto his feet. He made quick side strides over to me as Nox did thesame.
“Where’s my brother?” Damienasked.
I peered behind me for a split second to see Josephine had blindfolded Jeremy, and was pinning his arms down so he wouldn’t run. Mr. Hansen was by their side, gun drawn. Ronnie and Maxine had themcovered.
“He’s fine,” Imumbled.
The sentries were highly intelligent, and they didn’t get emotional, so I knew there would be no weeping, no fury or revenge. He simply saw that his comrade had died before being able to eat his food, and now that food was still alive and he could have it. That’s all they cared about. They didn’t torture us, didn’t experiment on us, just did what we did—walked into the barn, picked a cow and slaughtered it. They had zero emotional attachment to us. There was no such thing as a vegan ghoul, unfortunately. The Galadrias were the only thing that came close tothat.
“The cuff worked. Kind of,” Damien said, positioning himself in front ofme.
I rolled my eyes. “It barely stunned him, and it knocked you out. I’m not sure I consider thatworking.”
The sentry moved then, popping his helmet off and opening his mouth. He raced across the crusted surface of the planet, tearing after Damien and me. My breath hitched. I had zero plans. Out of 365 nights in the Dream Wars, I maybe saw a sentry every thirty days. Seeing four of them tonight was extremely uncommon, and I was illprepared.
Damien wasn’t. He had a plan. In two swipes, he yanked the weaponized cuff off his arm and chucked it into the sentry’s open mouth. When it got within range, the light flashed and it made that popping noise. It went straight to the back of his throat, and he closed his mouth around it just as it thrust him backward into the sentry behindhim.
The realization hit me then. “You attract the sentries, don’t you?” I asked without taking my eyes off the beasts that lay beforeme.
Brisk was already shredding into the other sentry, as Nox torched thisone.
Damien sighed. “I didn’t always. But recently,yeah.”
Well, shit. Protecting this guy might just get mekilled.
I took one last look at the dead Galadrias. Dawn knew. She said Damien smelled of the death of her kind, and she wasright.
