“Holy baby batter! We did it!” Moni shouts out, spinning in the air. A few of the guys join in her celebration, but it’s Zeke who answers the question I’m secretly asking myself.
“Wait, where’s Ryker?” Zeke asks, sobering the group.
Instead of answering him and giving away my position, I focus on the rogue enemy. I break his hold of the knife as I grab his wrist and step around, slicing his throat in one motion. His blood sprays out and cascades like a waterfall down his chest, exposing his body to everyone.
“Another one bites the dust,” Lynx sings, shifting back to his human form.
“I agree, but where the hell did he come from?” JP asks.
I glance around once more to make sure there’s no one else sneaking around the area and let out a long sigh when I see the all clear.
The buzzing adrenaline slowly drops down to a drizzle, leaving a cold chill behind as it drains from my body.
“There you are!” Zeke calls out, running over to me and grabbing my shoulder. “Where did you go?”
“I was right here,” I confess.
“You might have been, but you weren’t to our naked eye,” Knots agrees. “What happened out there? I felt like I got hit with a bolt of lightning right before our enemies faltered.”
I don’t know how to explain how they couldn’t see me, but I can tell them about the confidence they felt.
‘Oh, did I forget to tell you that one of my powers is that you can turn invisible, especially while manipulating adrenaline?’Conquest’s cocky voice filters to me.
That would have been nice to know before all of this.Conquest’s laughter trickles off as I shake my head.
“It turns out it’s a new development, and I’ll explain more in detail when we have fewer eyes and ears to deal with,” I laugh nervously, trying to figure out how to explain this to make sense. “Let’s just say, it’s something that will help us all.
“Ohhhh.” Moni’s eyes go wide as her bark goes dark green. “It sounds fancy. Especially since we just took on all those guys and won! That’s even more than what we did in Hell. Eek!” She squeaks and does a spin, and suddenly stops and looks at us with bright eyes before she crashes to the ground.
“Shit!” Chester yells, diving to catch her.
“Damnit, who changed her coffee?” JP yells the accusation.
“Well, that’s one!” Lynx rocks back on his heels while he looks on.
“It was you, wasn’t it, Hairball?” Knots growls.
“Eazy there, Queen LaTreefa. The queen of chaos doesn’t need my help for anything.” Lynx looks Knots up and down and throws him a bored look. “Did it ever occur to you that she might have just gone through all of her coffee or picked the wrong cup?”
Knots’s jaw opens to respond, but immediately closes when Moni wakes up and looks up at everyone.
“Did I just faint?” she asks, pulling on her tail. “Dang it. I grabbed the wrong cup.”
Turning to look at Lynx, a slow and deliberate smile appears on his face as he stares down Knots. I have to hand it to him, this time… the cat really did piss on the door.
CHAPTER 31
All Hail Hell
Ryker
During the next thirty minutes, while we gather the dead, I run through everything that happened and how we were about to turn that ambush into a win. The fact that Conquest was freezing time was definitely our wild card.
“I can’t wait to hear the story,” Knox whispers as he helps me drag the last warrior over to the pile. “Because whatever you did, I’m grateful, you were the real MVP today,” Knox admits. “Thanks.”
I nod back and wipe the sweat from my forehead.
“Which one do you think would be better?” Zeke asks, eyeing the massacre that’s before us.
