I bent down and toggled the little switch that turned on the data dump. She flinched for a moment, but stood there and took it. She was just standing there, staring at me as the invisible data lashed into her, seemingly causing pain, yet she was somehow resistingit.
A thump sounded on the roof, and I had my gun pointing overhead just in time to see a male sentry peeking down over top ofme.
Terror gripped me. I was all alone. I was in the Dream Wars all alone. This had never happened before. Master Aki’s training came to mind and I took a deep breath, calming my mind. I was a badass, ghoul-killing machine. I could find a way out ofthis.
Another thump on the roof. I looked up to see another sentry standing next to the first one. I knew females took multiple male partners in their lifetime, so these were probably members of her harem. Come to slay me and make her happy, so they could get laid orsomething.
‘Roger needs to be careful. There are at least two sentries and one female,’I toldDawn.
There was a pause.‘Okay, Roger will bring friends. Will take longer. Is Kitokay?’
The sentry above me started to jump and pound the top of the cave. Bits of dust and rock shards fell down, and the very real fear that it might crumble on me and hitme.
‘Yeah… just hurry.’I didn’t want to lead Roger to his death. But if he could bring friends and get there quickly, it might end upokay.
Why isn’t Damien waking me up?It occurred to me then that Damien might not know where my body was. This female bitch might have somehow moved it, or woken Damien and the group up in Papua, New Guinea, while my body was still in Vancouver. That was one of the most terrifying feelings I’d everhad.
The female walked closer to the plasma shield, pinning me with a sharp-toothed grin. “Kit Steele will die,” she said in her foreign, deep-throated voice. It was raspy and not feminine at all. If not for her breasts, I wouldn’t know she wasfemale.
Screw this freaking flesheater.
‘Pain,’I thought and reached out with my senses, brushing against her dark and ferocious energy. This woman was evil. When I felt her signature, I pushed the pain at her as I channeled the feeling of a thousand pins pricking myskin.
Her eyes widened and she hissed, stumblingbackward.
Oh hell yeah. Kit is a weapon. Bring iton.
Some crazy shit happened then. It was like slow motion. The female peeled her lips back and roared, like an honest-to-God battle cry, and then clapped her hands together. A wave of power flew from her hands and knocked my plasma shield out. Just like that, she’d brought all of my protectionsdown.
Why did I poke thebear?
I pulled up my guns, one in each hand, and started shooting. That’s when I realized I’d underestimated the females. We all had. We had noideawhat they were capable of. She went allMatrixon me, moving ten times faster than the sentries, dodging most of the bullets I fired. She weaved in and out of the space at a blistering pace, and the two sentries on top of the bolder dropped down in front ofme.
Fuckity fuck. If I don’t wake up in the next ten seconds, I’mdead.
Reaching behind me, I pulled one of my samurai blades and kept my gun in the other hand. I didn’t even have time to search the ground for an RPG launcher, not daring to take my eyes off the two sentries beforeme.
The sentry to the left lunged forward and at the same time, a burst of fire exploded behind him. I heard the female hiss, but I couldn’t see her or focus on anything but the threat before me. The sentry was already on top of me, mouth open. My one knife hand was pinned between us, but I was able to pop off a shot into his mouth, that forced him to move back a few inches. Then I brought my sword down and then up into his crotch, slicing the meatthere.
He roared, lunging forward undeterred with his razor-sharp teeth, and tried to take a chunk out of my shoulder. Doing an awkward pivot, I was able to move just out of his grasp. My samurai sword was trapped between our bodies, so I dropped it and reached into my thigh holster, ripping out my smaller blade. Just as he was coming for my head, I brought my knife up hard and fast, slamming it into the lower part of hisjaw.
The knife went in all the way to the hilt, and black oily blood spurted over the top of my hand. The sentry reeled back in pain, and that’s when he was doused withfire.
Roger hadarrived.
I backed deeper into the cave until I hit the back wall. Fire rained down at the opening, but I kept my head down, tucking into my elbows for protection. Heat danced across my skin but didn’tburn.
When the brightness of the fire died down, I looked up, gun still in hand. The two dead sentries were on the ground, but the female wasgone.
‘Hi, Roger. Is it safe to come out?’Iasked.
‘Hi, Kit. Yes, tall ones are dead. Breeder ran off,’heconfirmed.
I sighed. That female was still alive.Breeder. The Galadrias’ term for her made meshiver.
Before any more of them could come out of hiding, I ran out to the entrance of the cave and nearly tripped over the plasma bricks. Jumping over them, I spun and saw that Roger and two friends were on the ground, heads craned towardme.
I waved awkwardly, and Roger lowered his head ingreeting.
