When Vince’s side is torn open though, I bite my lip, making a judgment call. Sealing the door to the library, it gives them an opportunity to take out the ones left inside without having to watch that spot too, though it means the few men trying to bust in right now will figure out they’ve lost control of the security room.
Buzzing goes off across the room and I close my eyes for a moment, trying to block out the dead man’s cell phone ringing in the corner. Focusing on my task again, an alert flashes across one screen, showing Cinjin’s motorcycle crossing the sensor at the gates.
“Everything alright?” Slade asks, voice a faraway whisper as I watch him turn into a new hallway.
Locking the gate at the end of the driveway, I admit, “Spur of the moment, potentially bad decision.” I rattle off what I did, and I get the joy of seeing him smile, even if it’s through a screen.
“Call Cin, bring him up to speed, then call me right back, alright? I’ll head towards the library since they’ll be bottlenecked with the dead end.”
Cinjin answers on the first ring. “Where the hell are you?” he demands, and I hastily update him as he strides in through the west patio entrance. “Good, keep your ass in there and don’t move.”
“On your left!” I shout, watching someone appear in his blindspot.
He’s dead before I can even finish my sentence, Cinjin never breaking stride as he storms into the house with sure steps and lowering his arm like he didn’t just fucking shoot someone in the face without looking. “Rest are near the library, you said?”
“Three on the second floor near Emmy’s room, but they’re headed your way now.”
“I’ve got this, you keep in touch with Slade; old man’s nearly as rusty as Reid. And Sabrina?” I pause with my finger over the end call button. “Thanks for watching over them, angel. See you soon.”
Refusing to acknowledge the sudden burning in the back of my eyes, I call Slade back, who’s currently got a hand pressed to his side. “You said you weren’t going to get shot.”
He stands amongst seven dead bodies, waiting for me to unlock the door to the library. “See what happens when I don’t have you?” he counters instantly, not looking repentant in the slightest.
“Cin has the stragglers, you good for me to open?”
He scoffs. “Born ready. How many?”
Waiting twenty seconds, I grin at the screen before unlocking the door. “None. Sorry, bossman, you were too slow; Bo got the last one.”
“Stay on guard, we’ll come get you when we’re sure it’s clear and we have a plan about what our next move is.” His shoulders lose a bit of tension as he pushes open the door. Two guns train on him in an instant before backing down, looking equally relieved.
They scan the room, navigating the sea of bodies littering the floor, human and wolf alike. Whistling, Cin kicks one of his kills that’s sprawled out on the stairs the rest of the way down like this is all a game that he gets a sick thrill out of playing, while Reid tilts his head towards the heavens, taking a deep breath and closing his eyes for a moment.
A lurching in my chest has me frantically scanning the screen for whoever we missed. “Slade.”
He picks up on my sharp tone immediately. “What’s wrong?”
“I can’t explain it, but I think we mis-” A scream tears from my throat as a hand wraps around my ankle.
“Sabrina!” he shouts as I’m yanked from my chair.
Despite the hole in his chest, the man manages a weak growl, stubbornly clinging to life. Slade must have missed his heart by millimeters, and I watch in horror as he begins to slowly shift in front of me, the motion nothing like the smooth gracefulness Emmy made it out to be.
Kicking violently to break his hold, already slippery with blood, I finally manage to break free, scrambling back. As I put some distance between us, I watch in horror as his shirt strains before shredding across his chest. Managing a half form, his hands morph into claws, fur covering his still too-human body, and face elongating enough to accommodate the wolfish teeth.
Gripping the edge of the desk, I haul myself up as its claws dig into the carpet, dragging his dying body closer with a guttural snarl. As my fingers brush against smooth metal, pain erupts down my leg as deep grooves are carved into it, and a shot goes wide, shattering a screen as I’m yanked down, slamming into the ground. The carpet doesn’t do shit to soften the blow to my head, black spots alighting my peripherals as nausea roils through my body, but I manage to hold onto the gun. Against Slade’s advice, I squeeze my eyes tightly shut to combat my wavering vision, and unload every last remaining bullet into the twisted monster at my feet.
When it’s clear that I’m not dead, I force my eyes open, the world swimming around me for a few seconds before it settles back into place. The grotesque thing with its claws still embedded in my leg lies slack jawed on the floor, glassy-eyed and unseeing. Fighting a sob, I grip its furry wrist, yanking the claws out of my flesh one at a time. Pounding erupts behind me and I flinch before the sound of roaring shouts breaks through my shock.
Pushing myself up on trembling legs, I whimper as the first step threatens to make me collapse. Tears blurring my vision, I step around the fresh corpse, entranced and horrified as it shrinks in on itself until it’s nothing more than a bullet-riddled man again. Sending frequent looks at the other, I’m convinced he’ll come to life the moment I take my eyes off of him too, and it makes my progress at the computer slow going. My hands shake, accidentally hitting wrong key after wrong key, risking getting booted from the system as a hacking safeguard, so I’m forced to give the corpses my back before I’m trapped with them forever. What was briefly a safe haven becomes a prison as my fingers slip on the blood coating the keys for the fifth time, the voices in the hallway blending together into a dull roar.
The lock finally disengages, Boden and Cin shoving the door in, and I jump as it slams against the wall. Cinjin puts an additional bullet through their skulls as Bo lifts me off of my feet with a sound that’s barely more human than the monster I just killed. Burying my face in the crook of his neck, his familiar scent staves off a complete mental breakdown.
It’s okay, I’m okay. I’m not alone.
“You did so good, sweet girl,” Cin whispers, stroking his knuckles over my cheek.
Bo starts walking and I keep my eyes shut tight until I know that I can handle seeing all of the carnage littering the halls without losing my tenuous hold on my sanity. A few minutes, that’s all I’m going to allow myself. A few minutes to be scared and hurt, to acknowledge that this horrible thing happened, and then I’m going to push it down into the recesses of my mind for a future therapist to deal with.
