Page 14

14

MAX

" S tay alive," Kyra said in Max's earpieces. "And leave some scum for me to finish. I'll be back as soon as my family is safe in the vans."

Max calculated the odds of finishing the job before Kyra managed to come back. It was a twenty-minute trek at a human walking pace to where they'd left the vans, then a few minutes to settle her family, and an additional few minutes for Kyra to run back. It wasn't enough time to clean up the compound before her return.

"Stay with them," he said. "We can handle this."

"Not a chance. You can't take the entire compound down with five people. Dima and Anton will keep my family safe."

"Stay in the van, Kyra," Yamanu's voice sounded on the comm. "That's an order."

There was a long moment of silence and then a terse, "Yes, sir. "

Max had a feeling that Kyra wasn't going to obey Yamanu's order. She wasn't a Guardian, and although she'd agreed to Yamanu leading the extraction, she was not duty-bound to do that, and she was a rebel.

Max let out a breath.

It was time to finish the job and ensure not only their safe escape, but also the rescue of Kyra's other sisters. That meant killing everyone in this installation and, most importantly, all the Doomers.

It seemed ludicrous to attempt that with the limited resources at their disposal, but with Yamanu's thralling and the incredible power of Jade's female crew, it might be possible. He wished Dima and Anton could fight as well, but it was more important for them to safeguard Kyra and her family.

Backtracking, Max placed explosives at key structural points throughout the building, not enough to bring it down but sufficient to create a distraction. After all, there might be more prisoners behind the closed doors who didn't deserve to die tonight.

A Doomer appeared at the end of the corridor, his inhuman speed marking him an immortal. He wasn't pointing a gun, but his fangs were fully elongated, and the half-crazed, determined look in his eyes was one that Max had seen in countless others over the centuries. The fanatical devotion of these brainwashed monsters and their religious fervor for their twisted ideology made them dangerous beyond their immortal physical capabilities .

Capture was not an option for Doomers. They fought to the death.

Max was happy to oblige, and as the thirst for Doomer blood clouded his senses, he charged instead of first aiming at the Doomer's head, which was one of the few ways of killing an immortal. The problem was that it was a nearly impossible shot to make at a moving target, and hitting him anywhere else on the body would only slow the Doomer down but not kill him.

The immortal's body would fix the damage in minutes, and he would be back to hunt them and Kyra's family. Besides, if he managed to subdue the Doomer, he could get him to reveal how many other members of the Brotherhood were in the compound and what their plans were for Kyra's other sisters.

As Max collided with the Doomer, the force of that collision would have shattered human bones. They grappled, a brutal dance of strength against strength. The Doomer's fully extended fangs sought vulnerable flesh, but so did Max's, and long decades of superior combat training gave him an edge over the enemy.

With a move that combined leverage and raw power, Max forced the Doomer against the wall, pinning him with one arm while placing his free hand over the immortal's heart.

"How many of you bastards are in this compound?" he commanded an answer .

The Doomer struggled and kept his mouth shut, his eyes blazing with hatred rather than fear.

Max punched through his chest and wrapped his hand around the Doomer's heart. A normal human would already be dead from such an assault, but immortals were much harder to kill.

"How many?" he repeated his question.

Instead of answering, the Doomer spat in his face in defiance.

"Wrong answer." Max closed his hand around the beating heart and ripped it out.

The body crumpled to the ground.

He wiped his bloody hand on the Doomer's shirt and moved to his next position.

Max pressed the trigger on the detonator, and a heartbeat later, the night split open with a thunderous boom. The ground shook beneath his feet as a section of the building's outer wall collapsed in a cloud of dust and debris.

With the wall out of the way, Max caught glimpses of the battle unfolding across the compound. Jade and the two Kra-ell females had engaged a group of Doomers near the main gate, the confrontation having evolved from a mere distraction into a full-fledged assault.

The Kra-ell were magnificent in combat, their physiology giving them advantages even against immortals. Rishba and Asuka moved with a lethal grace that was almost hypnotic, their slender bodies belying their incredible strength .

Jade fought with a ferocity that bordered on artistry, her movements so fast they blurred even to Max's enhanced vision. She had already downed three Doomers, their bodies lying in unnatural postures around her as she engaged a fourth.

Yamanu's blanket thralling had taken care of all the human guards, paralyzing them on the spot, so the only ones still resisting were the Doomers and perhaps the odd human or two who were immune to thralling.

Two Doomers rushed from the neighboring building with automatic weapons in hand, and Max took cover behind the fallen wall debris as they opened fire, their bullets chewing into the concrete barrier.

Max drew his own weapon and returned fire.

One of the Doomers staggered as Max's shots found their mark, giving Max the split second he needed. He vaulted over the barrier, closing the distance between them. The second Doomer swung his weapon around, but he was too slow. Max was already inside his guard, one hand seizing the rifle and wrenching it away while the other delivered a blow to the Doomer's throat that would have decapitated a human.

The Doomer fell back, temporarily disabled but far from defeated. His companion had recovered enough to re-enter the fight, and Max found himself engaged with both simultaneously in a deadly ballet of strikes, blocks, and countermoves .

In his earpiece, Kyra's voice cut through the din of battle. "I'm coming back?—"

"Negative," Max barked, ducking under a Doomer's swing and delivering a devastating counter that shattered the immortal's knee. "Stay put. We are almost done here."

That was a big-ass exaggeration.

He dispatched the first Doomer with a blade through the heart that should keep him down long enough for Max to finish his comrade. The second proved more resilient, landing a blow that sent Max crashing into a wall with enough force to crack the concrete.

Max shook off the impact, a savage grin spreading across his face. A part of him reveled in the pure, unfiltered violence of immortal against immortal. The Guardian Force had given him a purpose and a moral code, but it had also given him a sanctioned outlet for the predatory instincts that were inherent in all immortals.

Killing monstrous Doomers was the most satisfying channel for those instincts, and Max had no compunctions about indulging them to their fullest.

He re-engaged the enemy, their impact sending them crashing through the wall into a room that must have served as a clinic or laboratory. Max pinned his opponent against a steel table, one hand crushing the Doomer's throat while the other drove his blade through the immortal's chest with enough force to pierce the metal surface beneath .

The next part was gruesome but necessary. He removed the beating hearts from both Doomers.

More explosives sounded from the other buildings, the work of Yamanu, Jade, Asuka and Rishba.

Max made one more run through the building to verify that there were no more Doomers left and then went to locate the security hub of the compound. They needed to eliminate all recorded evidence of what took place here. The existence of the Kra-ell must remain hidden from the Doomers, and the existence of vampire-like immortals must remain a secret from humans.

Finding a thralled soldier, it was easy to find the information he needed. With his remaining explosives set, Max withdrew from the structure and detonated, eliminating all possible evidence of tonight's battle.

Max then rushed to see if his team needed his help.

He made his way through the compound, encountering no further resistance. The battle had shifted to the administrative building, where Jade and her team were still engaged with what remained of the Doomer force.

The Kra-ell warriors had the upper hand, dispatching their opponents with savage efficiency.

Outside, the night was only illuminated by the fires burning throughout the compound and the harsh beams of searchlights sweeping across the grounds. Max kept to the shadows, making his way toward the breached section of the perimeter wall.

He found Kyra waiting just beyond the breach, her weapon ready, her posture betraying her tension despite her outward calm.

"I told you to stay with the hostages," Max said, checking over his shoulder for pursuit.

"And I decided that was a stupid order," she replied with a ghost of a smile. "Dima and Anton can handle securing the vans."

Max opened his mouth to argue further, then closed it with a shake of his head. He would have done the same in her position.

"Status on the rest of the team?" she asked. "Should we go help them?"

"Still engaged at the administrative building," he reported. "Jade's crew are almost done, and we will only be in the way." He grimaced. "You don't want to see the carnage they leave behind. It's gruesome."

They were making sure there would be no survivors to report what had happened and no one to alert other Brotherhood cells about the rescue operation.

She lowered her gaze to where blood was splattered all over his clothing. "You've been busy."

He cracked a smile. "The only way to ensure a Doomer is dead is by tearing his heart out or aiming a special bullet through his eye to shred his brain."

Kyra didn't even wince, and he loved her even more for that .

If he weren't so dirty and covered in enemy blood, he would have pulled her into his arms and kissed her senseless.

"They need to kill them all," she said. "If any escape, they'll go after my sisters immediately. The moment they realize we've taken Yasmin, they'll accelerate their timetable for abducting the others."

He nodded. "We need a complete sanitization of the site. No survivors to report back. Everyone on our team understands that."

"Max," Yamanu's voice sounded in his earpieces. "I sent Dima and Anton with Kyra's family to the safe house. And, Kyra, we will need to talk about your insubordination."

"Yes, sir." Kyra didn't sound or look remorseful in the slightest.

"You two move out. I'll follow with Jade and her crew."