I wanted to be so fucking mad at him for lying and leaving me behind, but instead all I felt was the shattering of my heart.
Every gunshot could be the one to kill my love. The popping was certainly getting louder—closer—coming and going in bursts. Would I feel it in my chest if Theo died? Our pulses had been beating together since we reunited. If his stopped, wouldn't I know?
Nurghle was finally disturbed by the noise. His fur stood on end as he scurried past me, sprinting behind the bathroom door to hide.
I stood at the window and watched between the cruel planks of wood. A line of heads disrupted the natural scenery.The gunfire slowed to a stop. There was nothing for them to shoot now, except for us.
I didn’t fucking care if they shot atme. Where was Theo?! My eyes swept left and right across the approaching crowd, hoping he may be disguised amongst them. He wasn’t.
Oh my god. He must be dead.
My bloodied, shaking hands stilled as I watched the intruders enter my field. My home.
It was over.
Theo
Thirty Minutes Before Intruders Breached Vivian’s Field
We had anagreementthat she wouldn’t kill again.Why did she make me do that?Focusing on that betrayal was my only defense against my own gut-wrenching guilt.
It was my only choice. I couldn’t have exactly told her “yeah, darling, take on a horde of people twice your size with no battle experience, a dull axe, and PTSD”?! She wouldn’t survive. Neither would I; I’d be too distracted trying to keep her alive. Even if we both miraculously made it through this, she’d have lost another piece of herself. A piece that I promised her she’d never have to sacrifice again.
Ihadto lie.
Of coursethe axe wasn’t in the cabin—it stayed out of sight, tucked in the alcove. But I needed her hidden—safe—while I handled this. And Iwouldhandle it. How? No fucking clue.
I ripped through the trees, alternating between running on two legs and toppling onto my hands for brief sprints. My feral form couldn’t decide which was better. Both felt unnatural to me in different ways.
Distance mattered. Seconds mattered. The element of surprise mattered. If I couldn’t live long enough to stop all of them, I could give Vivian her best shot at survival. She was strong. She may be able to save herself with enough factors working in her favor.
The popping of gunssoundedclose, but that'd been the case for a while. A loud barrage of gunfire was a loud barrage of gunfire. Hell, it surrounded me from all sides. Echoing. Vibrating. Warning. I’d never heard so many weapons firing at once; I had no clue how to read the explosive onslaught.
And then it all fell silent.
Someone with a heavy south-western accent shouted, “Nasty things keep comin’! ‘Ow the fuck a goddess livun’ out here?!”
Fuck, they were close. They’d be filtering through the columns of trees at any moment—costing me the advantage of surprise.
I ducked behind a large root system. The tangle of nature should camouflage me from however many eyes would be passing by shortly.
Time to listen and start planning how I’d stop an army.
Despite my violent history, I’d neverseenan army. Because they didn’t exist. It was an archaic form of war, only described in textbooks. Swords, shields, and piles of bodies drawn in charcoal. Practically fictional as far as I was concerned. I was out of my element.
But that wasn’t the only way this differed from every hitjob I’d ever worked. Those had always been cold, unfeeling, mechanical. No anger. No sadness. No pain. No fear. Now these emotions crashed into me so thoroughly it was all I could doto not scream and run headfirst into a downpour of bullets. I needed Vivian to live, to have her home. I wasn’t a tool being used. I was a desperate male, willing to do whatever had to be done to see my female live to laugh another day.
Every part of my being fuckingachedas I listened closely for any hints of how I could protect her. Now wasn’t the time to let my emotions take over. They needed to be a motivator, not a distraction.
“The field doesn’t let the beasts inside of it,” another voice replied flatly. “You’re lucky we have the crystals. The other guys had to fight those things off the entire way. One nearly killed Cassius.”
“Doesn’t make ‘et any easiah. They’re fooking all over tha place.”
“Doesn’t make it any easier?” the second voice laughed. “Then how’s about you toss your crystal and lead the charge?! See how far you make it without that thing.”
“Maybe if you guys keptwalking,instead of stopping to shoot the damn things, we’d be there already,” a third voice—quiet but powerful—bit. “They can’t hurt us and you’re wasting ammo.”
“They was twounty of ‘em!”
