Page 54

CHAPTER 53

F loor by floor, we work our way down the building.

I follow my mistress happily, my shadows obscuring the halls and stairs.

The top five floors are pretty much empty, bar a few lingering assailants. All the doors are open, and we see signs of a struggle, but no other hunters—not until we reach level twenty-five. The door is open and screams and shouts come from the corridor leading to the living quarters. Bloodied hand and footprints are on the walls and floor as we follow my mistress. We pass one room with a dead hunter lying in his bed where he had obviously been sleeping.

“Our hunters must have heard the call and joined,” Shamus murmurs. “They will be slaughtered.”

“Not all,” Tate responds. “Some will survive. Listen.”

We do, hearing gunfire, and when we turn the corner, we see hunters in various states of dress, taking up arms against those whom they once fought with. Bodies litter the floor, more attackers than hunters, and when they spy us, they let out a shout of determination and respect before their war cries fill the hall.

“Help them,” Tate orders, and Addeus and Jarek surge into the mass of bodies. Within minutes, the fight is over.

Hunters stand before us. “We are with you.”

“Get dressed and find your weapons. The armoury will be open when you approach, I promise. We will meet at the ground floor. There is safety in numbers. You know what to do,” Shamus orders.

“Yes, commander!” they roar and hurry off to do his bidding.

We keep moving down the stairs to the next floor. There are no hunters here, only attackers.

One at the back of their masses turns, hearing us. He’s dressed in all black with a blood-red cross through his hunting patch.

He raises a shotgun and aims at Tate.

The gun goes off, and faster than most eyes could track, she darts left then right, making the barrel swing each way as he tries to track her, all while firing wildly. She doesn’t stop until she’s before him, and her fist smacks into the gun so the next shot hits the ceiling. She catches it midair before knocking it from the hunter’s hands and turning it on him. She fires right into his face. “If you don’t know how to use a gun, don’t try,” she growls as she tosses it behind her and steps over his body.

The rest of the attackers turn, and she grins. “Hello! I believe you’re here for me.” She sprints forward, giving them no warning, and pops up behind their defensive line. One falls instantly, a dagger in his neck, and when the others turn to fire at her, she runs at the wall, kicking off it and flipping over them. Once she’s behind them, she grabs a man and uses him as a shield, all while firing his gun, spraying the others. They fall with screams, their blood filling the hall, making me hungry, but I hold it back since my mistress has not released me yet.

When they are all dead, she flips the man she was using, lifts his gun, and kills him with it. Dropping it to his body, she dusts off her hands and carries on, making us follow after her.

“You know, I’m really glad she’s on our side,” Fang murmurs to me. “She’s hot as fuck when she’s fighting, but also slightly terrifying.”

“She’s magnificent,” I murmur. “Look at how easily she took their lives. I shall keep count for her, and we can celebrate each one later.”

“Sure, sure, or do something normal like take a bath,” Fang scoffs as she picks up a gun and checks its chamber like Tate taught her. “Come on, lover boy, let’s keep our girl safe so she can save the world.”

The next floor is filled with hunters, and when we arrive, they nod at Shamus and my mistress. “This floor is clear. We will keep working down as well. We heard they are gathering in the gym. Meet us there, commander.”

Shamus looks to Tate, waiting for her opinion. “Of course. We will clear a path as well.” She looks at us. “To the gym. Addeus, can you confirm?”

“Large gathering in the gym. They are smart. They are disabling the cameras, suspecting we are using them against them,” he replies.

“Not smart enough,” she scoffs and nods at the hunters, then she continues descending the stairs. Most floors are now filled with hunters holding weapons, and when they see us pass, they join us.

The farther we travel down the building, the more hunters join us. They nod in respect to Shamus and Tate before joining our numbers. She worried she ruined this place and everything Shamus built, but seeing their faith and loyalty has her standing taller.

She’s not alone, she has all of us, and no matter what will happen, she will face it with her people.

The last few floors are empty, eerily so, and when we head down to the gym, we see why. They are gathered there, waiting. She peeks through the glass door to the dark interior, where they move about and plot. Other hunters surge inside from a different entrance, attacking them from behind. Tate swears as the difference between them becomes hard to determine. Hunters versus hunters, a tangled crowd that would take forever to pick apart.

They need our help, but the threat from outside grows closer. “More vehicles are congregating outside. The hillside is now filled with enemies,” Addeus offers helpfully as if reading my thoughts.

The gym is filled with assailants and hunters—friend and foe.

“Tem.” She looks at me. “We do not have time to pick them off one by one. You can do this, yes? Just those who would harm us. No friends.”

“Yes, mistress, I can do anything you ask,” I reply.

“Then do it.” She looks back at the gym with a sinister smile. “I’m ordering you to kill anyone who would harm us.”

Finally, my mistress sets me free. She’s using me like so many have in the past, but this time, I’m happy to obey.

Stepping inside the gym, I close the door behind me to keep my mistress from being covered in blood as I release my tight control.

There is a reason so many tried to become my master.

There is a reason I was locked away.

It was not for my safety, but theirs.

My shadows eclipse the room, obscuring everything as I turn it into my dungeon and show them the true power of a tempest. My whispers funnel into the ears of our friends, and I wrap myself around them tightly to protect them from what will happen.

I wander through the shadows, transforming as I do, growing bigger and taller. My skin turns red with the blood of my enemies and horns sprout from my skull, burning with hellfire. When I faced Tate, I held back in case she was the one I was searching for. My soul told me she was not an enemy, but these are enemies, and they would hurt my mistress if given the chance.

The first attacker I come across is blindly swinging around in the dark, his gun raised. I see the hair on his arms rise as I slide through the shadows and breathe along his neck. He gasps as he turns. “Who’s there?”

“A tempest,” I whisper. “And your blood smells tainted.”

I carve his neck open, spraying his blood everywhere as he screams and chokes, falling to his knees. Sliding through the shadows, I slay any enemies I come across. My shadows rip into them, tearing them apart until their cries of agony fill the air. Their pleas for mercy go unheard until they scream her name.

“Tate! Please! We’re sorry! Tate!”

I despise hearing her beautiful name on their lips, so I silence them.

Standing in the middle of my shadows, I send one thought out—silence. They choke on their pleas, on her name, and my shadows flow into their mouths and down into their bodies. I stand in the midst of it all, wearing a hungry grin as I feed on their tainted blood. It fills me, making me stronger. My shadows grow, expanding inside them.

The floor is covered with their blood.

They keep feeding me, and I keep expanding, until their bodies cannot hold any more. They explode, and I feast on their flesh and bones, pulling it into me until there is nothing left of them. Where enemies once stood, only a memory remains.

I pull my shadows back into me, bigger than before due to the mass feeding, and when the lights flicker back on, the hunters are left looking around, but all that is left of the attackers are their clothes.

The door opens, and Tate looks them over before meeting my gaze. “Good job, Tem. Let’s go. They are outside.”

“Yes, mistress.” I smile and skip over to her. I follow her out and up until we stand in the entryway of Stalkers’ Rest. It’s filled with hunters waiting for orders, and I see why. Grey metal shutters cover the doors and windows. The security checkpoint is empty, with weapons spread across the table.

“What now?” a hunter asks Shamus, who looks over their numbers.

“Rogue units as well as hunters who were on field work are gathered outside,” Shamus calls, but I follow my mistress as she stops before the doors. Her eyes seem far away for a moment. I feel her mind then, pushing and moving.

She is using her gift.

“This doesn’t end until they are gone. We make a stand here. Don’t you . . . Angel?” Shamus hurries over, placing his hand on her shoulder, but when he sees she’s concentrating, he silences himself.

She blinks a moment later and glances at us, her face closed down. Something in her eyes makes me narrow my own. She saw something that has made her more determined than ever. She looks at us as if she’s deciding something. Does she not realise we would march into hell for her?

Some well-meaning tech no doubt hit the button to drop the shutters and activate the security measures, but now all it does is buy the others time to regroup. “Open them.” She looks to Addeus, her decision made. “Open the shutters.” She turns to the group behind us.

“We do not hide, not like those who wait in the shadows. We are hunters! We are warriors. We fight or die trying. Never before has a fight been more important. This time it is not just to protect our world, but it is also to protect our legacy. This is what it means to be a hunter. We will spill blood, but we do not kill innocents. Those people out there do, and they were scared we would turn on them when we found out, so they attacked first. If they had their way, we would all be dead, and the hunters would be destroyed within days, relegated to nothing but serial killers with patches. I will not let that happen. I ask you to stand with me today and face your brothers. It will haunt you, but they stopped being our brothers the moment they used their weapons against us. We’ll end this tonight. We’ll burn away the rotted, infected flesh tainting our name and be reborn. Tonight, we’ll show them what it means to be hunters. Who is with me?”

A cheer goes up, the hunters calling their agreement, and Shamus nods at her. “I’m with you, angel, until the end. This will be over before dawn.”

She turns back to the shutters and waits. There’s a click before a whirring sound fills the air. The shutters slowly start to rise, exposing the night sky beyond and the filled courtyard of Stalkers’ Rest.

The shutters continue to rise, and when they peel back from the rest of the building, she opens the front doors and steps out. Headlights flood the courtyard, aimed at her.

She stands at the head of our people, her chin tilted back, waiting as the horde of rogue hunters heads towards her.

They want to kill her to cover their own sins.

As she faces her own people, she smiles.