Page 18 of Ruin (Villains for Hire)

R uin's ears twitched, picking up the sound of multiple beings running toward them. “Incoming.”

He’d no sooner voiced the warning when a metallic sphere zipped around the corner. Recognition was instant and wholly un-fucking-welcome.

“Ah, fuck!” Hush cursed.

Throwing himself to the floor, Ruin rolled hard to the side just as blaster fire erupted from the drone. Plasma bolts sizzled past, singeing the air just above him.

Knowing damn well the only weapon he owned that was powerful enough to take out the heavily armored, and heavily armed, drone was the pistol Lira had, he reached for a shielding disk instead of a gun.

He quickly activated the shield, tucking his large frame into as small a target as possible so it’d cover him and Hush both.

“Hush!” he called, hoping his friend had something strong enough to take it out, or at least damage it enough to make it vulnerable.

This shield wasn’t gonna last long against the drone’s firepower, and as good as their armor was, it didn’t stand a fucking chance.

“Got it!”

Something sailed over his head and stuck to the ceiling directly above the drone. The sticky grenade immediately fired off a bright red streak of energy just as his shield started to flicker out. It sliced through the sphere in a burst of sparks and screaming metal.

The barrage of plasma bolts abruptly ceased, only to be replaced with an explosion of superheated shrapnel as the drone blew up.

Ruin sent a quick thanks to Hush’s luck moon that his shield hadn’t failed before that detonation, else he and his friend would’ve been pincushions.

The metal orb crumpled in on itself and dropped to the floor with a reverberating clang, but there was no time for a reprieve. The thundering of heavy boots was right around the corner.

“Aww! I think they’re comin’ to welcome us onto their ship.”

Ruin snorted. “Yeah, by tryin’ to shoot holes in us.”

Half a dozen Onyx Corp guards rounded the corner, with more on their heels. In an instant, Ruin catalogued weapons, armor, and weak points.

The first mercenary swung his weapon up, but Ruin was faster. He fired off a plasma bolt that sent the male stumbling backward into the being behind him, smoke curling from his scorched breastplate.

Fuck!

They had better armor than he’d anticipated.

Increasing the power on his rifle, he yelled at Hush to do the same. “Dial up!”

Ruin dove into the fray, shifting aim from one target to the next, each shot punctuated by the satisfying thud of impact. Projectiles and streaks of fiery orange whizzed past him. The air rapidly thickened with the scents of burnt ozone, overheated metal, and blood.

The rhythm of the fight drummed through him like a second heartbeat; a familiar, dangerous dance that got his blood pumping and sharpened his focus to a razor’s edge.

Close now, he fired off another shot and unsheathed a knife with his free hand. He threw it with a flick of his wrist, burying it in a guard’s throat. The male gurgled, clutching at his neck as he went down.

Ruin ducked under a swing from another, driving his fist into the human’s solar plexus. As the man doubled over, gasping, Ruin grabbed his head and twisted sharply. The crack of a broken neck was lost in the chaos of battle.

A flash of movement caught his eye.

Spinning, he narrowly avoided a vibroblade aimed at his gut. The merc wielding it snarled and pressed forward with a flurry of strikes. Ruin weaved and dodged, searching for an opening.

And there it was.

The male overextended on a thrust. Ruin seized his wrist and yanked him off balance. In the same fluid motion, he drove his knee up into the merc's face. Cartilage crunched beneath the impact.

Nearby, Hush was a blur of red and black, tail flicking out to trip one challenger before he put a round through their skull while simultaneously kicking another hard enough to shatter the male’s face shield.

As they battled their way through enemy forces, the corridor became a chaotic uproar of motion and violence. Shots were fired, fists met flesh, and bodies dropped.

But with every one that fell, the weight of the stakes pressed harder against him.

The longer this fight went on, the greater the danger his female was in. All it would take was one stray shot. Unable to help himself, he glanced up at the ceiling to make sure there were no new holes in it.

That brief moment of distraction cost him.

Sharp, white-hot agony exploded in his upper arm as an energy bolt seared straight through armor and flesh. He tasted blood as he bit down against the pain, his vision briefly whiting out at the edges. The smell of burned flesh filled his nose a heartbeat later.

Fucking hells!

He'd been shot more times than he could count, but it never failed to piss him off.

Zeroing in on the fuck who’d shot him, he roared, the primal sound echoing off the walls. The merc stumbled back, eyes wide with fear.

Dark satisfaction spread through him, intensifying tenfold when he shot the male between the eyes.

Ruin could physically feel Lira’s concern like a phantom pressure on the back of his head.

“Good?” Hush called out.

“Fabulous,” Ruin snarled. “Just fuckin' fabulous.”

The throbbing heat from the gunshot wound was a constant annoyance, but he pushed it to the back of his mind. He’d fought through much, much worse.

He and Hush moved in tandem down the corridor, carving a path through the Onyx Corp mercenaries. The sensory overload was intoxicating—the percussion of gunfire, the hiss of energy bolts, the grunts and roars.

Just as they drove the remaining hostiles around a bend, a lucky shot hit Hush in the calf, burning through his armor and into his leg. His knee buckled and his face twisted in pain. A second shot grazed his left forearm. It, too, burned through his armor, but didn’t leave a new hole, just a bloody streak.

Hush let out a pained grunt, but didn't falter.

Ruin knew his friend was tough as steel and then some, but his gut still clenched at seeing him injured.

“How bad?” he demanded.

Hush bared his teeth in a facsimile of a smile and fired off another shot. “I’m good. Just didn’t want you feelin’ embarrassed about lettin’ yourself get shot, s’all.”

Even in the midst of battle, the urge to roll his eyes was almost irresistible. Trust Hush to pop off with jokes while simultaneously shooting people in the face and bleeding all over the fucking floor.

A sharp crack suddenly echoed through the corridor. Ruin recognized the sound of Lira’s mag-coil pistol instantly.

Up ahead, a Voragon, kneeling and aiming a godsdamn plasma burst rifle at them, toppled over sideways with a neat hole burned through his chest.

That rifle would’ve spelled the end of him and Hush if that male had managed to fire it. Lira had just saved their lives. Again.

In a blink, half of the mercs left standing zeroed in on the ceiling.

Ruin’s blood turned to ice.

Feeling as though he was moving against the gravity of a collapsing star, he swung his gun toward the nearest and activated the trigger.

But he was too slow.

A streak of energy left the male’s gun and hit the ceiling a fraction of a second before Ruin could fire.

Terror unlike anything he’d ever felt coursed through him. Had Lira been hit? Was she hurt?

Pulse throbbing in his ears, he opened his mouth to bellow her name, but before he could, the ceiling exploded outward in a shower of debris.

Beep burst through the opening, wings a blur, optics glowing an ominous red.

It launched itself at the Onyx Corp mercenaries in a whirlwind of metallic limbs and razor-sharp appendages. Screams filled the hallway. Blood painted the walls, the expensive wooden floor, and the ceiling in a gruesome tableau. Limbs were severed, heads went flying, and bodies were eviscerated with a precision and brutality that was both awe-inspiring and horrifying.

“Bird!”

“I’m okay!” she yelled back. “It didn’t hit me.”

The relief he felt was so profound, his knees damn near buckled.

Around him, silence abruptly fell, save for the dripping of blood. His ears rang with the cessation of noise. Peering around, he took in the destruction. Pieces of bodies were… everywhere. Blood spray painted every surface.

And standing in the midst of it all stood Beep.

A grim kind of satisfaction settling in his chest. He didn’t give a fuck that these beings had just been doing their jobs. They’d shot at his female. His mate. And for that, they’d had to die.

“Beep, make sure there’re no more comin’,” he commanded.

The bot took off and was back in under a minute. “Ssssp tut!”

“That means it’s all clear,” Lira translated from above.

How the fuck she understood that was entirely beyond him, but he trusted her. Satisfied all the threats had been neutralized, he raised his arms.

“You can come down now, my love.”

Her pale face appeared above him briefly before being replaced by her feet. He caught her effortlessly when she jumped down, but made no move to set her on her feet. Instead, he hugged her tightly and buried his face in her hair.

She wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him back for a long moment, then pulled back just far enough to kiss him, quickly but fiercely.

“How badly are you hurt?” she demanded, twisting to try to see his arm.

“I’m fine. Are you hurt?”

“Not even a bruise. Beep kept me safe.”

“Good.” After stealing another kiss, he set her on her feet.

As soon as he did, she gasped, “Liar! You’ve been shot.”

“Mm?” He followed her wide-eyed gaze to the bleeding hole in his arm. He’d forgotten about it in the wake of thinking she’d been shot. “Eh. Only once. Hush got hit twice.”

She thoroughly checked his arm over, then circled him, alternating between sounds of sympathy and anger. Ruin stood still for her inspection, feeling an odd mix of amused, loved, and slightly ridiculous.

“Gods, Ruin. It goes straight through your arm! Do you have any bandages?”

He debated giving her the injector of hull sealant he usually used as a temporary fix on puncture wounds, but thought better of it. Instead, he bent and tore off a mostly clean strip of cloth from the nearest body, and handed it to her.

The look she gave him—a cross between appalled consternation and exasperation—had him swallowing down a laugh.

She took it with a huff and bandaged him up. Deciding he’d live, she turned her attention to Hush.

Much to his delight, the Drifter froze and stared down at the top of Lira’s head like she was a primed nanite grenade, expression wavering between pleasure at being fussed over, unnerved, and guilt when she tutted, as if he felt bad for getting shot solely because it was causing her distress.

“I suppose you don’t have bandages, either?”

“Uhh… ”

Bending, Ruin tore off two more strips and handed them to Hush with a smile. He, in turn, handed them to Lira wordlessly.

Finished with the Drifter, she looked around for the first time.

Ruin braced for her reaction. He knew she wasn't squeamish, but this… this was a level of carnage that’d turn even a seasoned warrior’s stomach.

Horror was plain to see in those expressive green eyes, but to his surprise, it was almost immediately overshadowed by relief when she caught sight of Beep. That made him wonder what awful shit she’d seen while Vargot’s slave.

“Aww, Beep!”

Ruin watched bemusedly as she tiptoed her way through the body parts to get to her pet.

“You did so good! Are you okay? Did you get hurt?” she cooed.

The bot seemed to soak up the praise—antennae twitching and wings fluttering in a way he could only describe as happy.

Hush limped over to his side, favoring his injured leg.

“Well, that was fun,” he quipped, his usual grin in place despite the pain evident in his eyes. “Your little bird saved our tails. Wouldn’t think it to look at ‘er, but she’s tough as fuck.”

Pride swelled in Ruin's chest, mingling with the lingering fear from seeing that plasma bolt strike so close to where she’d been hidden. He swallowed hard, pushing down the emotion.

“Mm, she is, indeed.”

From the corner of his eye, he caught Hush cocking his head, lips twitching as they both watched her check the robot over for injuries.

“And you say I’m weird.”

“You are weird,” Ruin huffed.

“Yeah, but not ‘fuss over a robot’ weird.”

“Quiet, you. She’s adorable.”

“I’m not arguin’ that. But she’s still weird as fuck.”

Ruin couldn’t dispute that, so he ignored it.

Hush chuckled at his lack of a response and bent to yank one of his blades out of a nearby body before straightening.

“Where you think I could get a bot like that?”

“Fuck if I know,” Ruin replied.

But damn, did he want one for himself. He wondered if that model in particular was uniquely capable of experiencing emotions and forming attachments, or if Lira had done something when she fixed it.

Question for another day.

For now, they had a target to kill and a mission to complete.