She turned just as the door burst open to reveal a six-foot-eight Kurjan soldier with blood on his face, smiling, his fangs yellow and sharp.
He let them retract. “If it isn’t the Lock,” he rasped.
She casually turned and pulled her weapon from her right boot without seeming to move. It was a gift she’d had since she was young, although she’d worked for years to perfect it. Unfortunately, the Kurjan blade was in her other boot, and he’d see her go for it. This would have to do. “You’re missing the fight,” she said.
His smile was cruel. “Perhaps, but there are several of us who are scouting farther out just in case. We had a bet against you being here, but our leader thought you’d be part of this.”
“Drake or Ulric?”
“Does it matter?” the Kurjan asked. “Either way, my future is set. I’m bringing the queen home.” He moved toward her, so tall she had to tilt her head to see his eyes.
With a battle cry, she rushed forward and stabbed him in the stomach.
He grabbed her hair and threw her across the room as blood arced behind him. Swearing, he pulled the knife out, brandishing it. “Queens don’t stab.”
“I’m not a queen,” she said, ducking and rolling. She came up firing with her gun, hitting him several times in the chest, neck, and square between the eyes. She aimed for the brain. He went down sputtering and yet still moving. She’d shot him in the brain, for Pete’s sake.
He let out a furious roar and leaped for her, hitting her center mass, lifting her up and throwing her against the wall. Pain crashed down her spine. Her head fell back, and stars flashed behind her eyes.
Shrieking, he threw her down on the floor and kicked her hard in the ribs. Several shattered. She rolled, gasping in a pain so great it shocked the air from her lungs. The earth stopped moving. Wincing, crying, trying to remain conscious, she managed to roll over and sit up.
He glared down at her, bullets popping out of his skin. “I can’t wait till you’re in my territory. You’ll learn how to behave,” he said, blood dribbling out of his mouth.
“I know how to behave now,” she hissed despite the pain filling her entire body. In one jerky motion, she reached into her other boot and lifted out the special knife, the one created by the Kurjans, then threw it with unerring accuracy toward his neck. It lodged in his throat, and in a whisper of sound, flicked open, its many blades slicing in every direction. His eyes, purple and swirling with red, widened in shock, and he took a step back. Then his head rolled right off his body.
Holding her damaged ribs with her damaged arm, she crawled back to the computer and pressed the button. “Headquarters needs backup now.”
She barely got the words out before darkness ripped through her head, and her chin dropped to the desk with a painful thud before she slid to the floor.
Chapter Sixteen
Buzzing filled Hope’s head, made her ears tingle, and shot through her veins. She was cold and a chugging sound echoed all around her. Slowly, she opened her eyes to find herself in one of the Realm’s attack helicopters, secured against the side while sitting on a wide bench. She was flanked by Paxton and Zane. Residual pain echoed through her body, but she didn’t feel nearly as bad as she should.
“Who gave me blood?” she asked, trying to focus.
“I did,” her father said, as the sound of healing cells popped around him. “There wasn’t any choice. I hope the other drug is out of your system, but you had ribs crushing your lungs.” He kept his eyes closed as he spoke, but tension emanated from him almost as strongly as the waves streaming off Pax.
She looked around to make sure the rest of her team was in one piece. Libby and Derrick sat across from her, while Liam and Collin took up the rear bench of the small copter. Everybody was bruised and bleeding, but alert. Healing cells filled the cabin, and she wished once again that she had the ability to summon them. Everybody in the copter was as young as she was except for Zane, and they all had the skill. She really did fear she was human.
“Status?” she croaked out.
“We got them all out,” Paxton said wearily.
She focused more closely on him. Their legs were touching, but it was because his were slightly spread as he repaired what looked like a broken knee. It was twisted the wrong way. Her stomach lurched. His shoulders were so wide they also touched hers, and she wanted to lean into him but refrained. Pain poured off him, sharper than the others and with an odd signature she didn’t recognize. The Kurjans had inflicted some serious damage on him—or that drug in his system was still working to harm him.
“How bad are you hurt?” she asked.
“Same as everybody,” he said, his knee twisting around to where it should be.
She sucked in air, making more sound than he did. God, that had to have hurt. “What about the other teams?”
“We didn’t lose any,” Zane said quietly. “We’ve got the Seven and their mates safely on the way to Realm headquarters. We’ve decided to put them there instead of demon headquarters for now. It’s more central, and we can keep a better eye on them. Plus, the guesthouses are nicer.”
“Any injuries?” Hope asked, gingerly stretching her arm out. The healing cells from the borrowed blood had healed the fracture. Her wrist felt shaky but not nearly as bad as when the bone was broken. “Hey, you guys took off my cast.”
“You didn’t need it,” Pax muttered.
She glanced over to see the remnants of the plaster still on his fingertips. He must have torn the thing right off her while she was out.
Libby rubbed at a bruise above her right eye that was more of a goose egg. “Word came in that two of the Seven’s mates were injured, but they’re taking blood and should be okay.”
Hope chewed on her lip. “I like the idea that they’ll relocate to headquarters and not remain out by themselves.” She was now more convinced than ever that they needed to perform this ritual. “We need battle plans in place to take Ulric.”
The tension in the craft rose while the temperature dropped. She shivered. It was suddenly freezing.
When nobody answered her, she said, “Well?”
“No ritual,” Paxton said tersely.
“I think I agree,” her father said.
Hope looked at the rest of her team.
Libby shrugged, blood matting her golden-brown hair. “I don’t know what to say. They’ll keep coming until we end this, but we don’t really know how to end it. In addition, we’re losing enhanced females left and right.”
Hope let the vibrations of the helicopter settle and organize the energy flowing through her. “I don’t see that we have a choice. We need to kill Ulric.” She knew it in her heart. “Whatever’s going on, the enhanced females are being taken because of him. He is behind all of this.” She wasn’t one to advocate killing if there was a peaceful solution. “Our other alternative is to reach out and negotiate peace.”
“The Kurjans aren’t going to negotiate peace,” Paxton said as even more pain wafted from him. She was in tune to him and always had been, so she tried to take some of his agony away. It was a skill she had been working on, one she’d never quite mastered, but they were close enough that she felt she could take some of his pain away and ease his suffering.