“Darlia, she’s fine. But we need to go. Marcus will carry her. I need you by my side, okay? We need to clear the way for them.”
I watch the exact moment something snaps in Darlia, and she nods, her eyes losing the warmth only I’ve seen. I take her trembling hands in mine, seeing the tears running down Darlia’s cheeks and kiss them away. “She’s okay,” I promise.
Without blinking, Darlia stands, cocking her gun and grabbing a spare ammo mag. Her hand’s on her knife, walking to the one guard who isn’t dead yet, but dying slowly.
“Darlia.”
She doesn’t listen. Instead, Darlia unsheathes the knife, the metal glinting in the room as she plunges it through the guard’s throat. The sound of him choking on his own blood fills the room before silence.
“Your girl is terrifying.” Caleb laughs nervously, but Darlia is already taking off down the hall, all The Academy training kicking in.
Darlia uses the stair railing to her advantage, jumping onto the thin metal beam before wrapping her arm around a guard’s throat, throwing both her and the guard down the stairs, taking the two below with her before stabbing all three.
I don’t know whether to be turned on or terrified.
“Right, well that’s going to give me nightmares for weeks. Try not to piss off your girl, yeah? She’s fucking nightmare fuel.” Luke smirks as he loads his gun and walks down the stairs after Darlia, who’s already taken out two more guards while he was talking. This girl is too much.
“Marcus, carry Bella. The rest of you, follow Darlia.”
We make it down three more flights of stairs before Darlia steps back onto the railing and jumps down two flights of stairs, centring herself from the ground shock before taking off again.
“Jesus, your girl is a monster.”
“Say that again, and I’ll let her at you.”
Coming up behind Darlia are two guards she doesn’t notice. Immediately, I jump down behind her, shooting them both.
“Careful, baby.”
“Thanks, Cayden.” Darlia smiles sweetly, as if she’s not the most terrifying thing in this building.
My girl.
“No problem. How about we leave the rest to the others, yeah?” I need a break from seeing her be so…her. I know she’s been forced to be this way, it’s The Academy training not her, but I hate seeing this being so second nature to her.
“Okay. Did I do something wrong? I was just trying to help Bella and Marcus.” There’s an insecurity to Darlia’s voice I’ve never heard before, like she’s afraid of scaring me.
“No, baby, you were perfect. I just don’t want any more blood on your hands, okay? You’ve done enough, you can let us protect you now.”
Like I predicted, there’s a second wave of guards. I push Darlia behind me and wave Weston, Luke, and Caleb in front while Marcus walks down with Bella on his back, looking out of breath.
Serves him right for laughing at me when I was out of breath after carrying Darlia.
Weston takes down the guard coming up the stairs next while Luke focuses on the ones below, leaning over the railing. We still have around seventeen flights left to go before we can even get out.
This is going to be one long morning.
A flash grenade is thrown up onto the stairs and I barely get time to grab Darlia, running up the stairs as fast as I can and pushing Darlia’s head into the crook of my neck before it explodes. The blinding light fills the staircase and the bang so loud I stumble falling to the ground with just enough time to turn Darlia on top of me instead of underneath.
My ears are ringing so badly that I can’t hear or see anything. Fuck.
I can hear muffled screams, but they sound so far away. I can’t fucking see anything. Everything is so fucking far away, disoriented.
“Cayden!” Darlia’s voice.
“Ah fuck!” Caleb.
“Is everyone okay?” Weston.
