Page 8 of The Clash of the Damned (The Titan Syndicate Saga #2)

Sebastian

T he salt from the Atlantic wafting in the breeze does little to hide the smell of trash coming from the shipping district.

“Remind me again, why do we wear this uniform ?” Amelia whines.

Tearing my eyes from the warehouse we’ve been staking out for hours, I turn to find her reaching for one of her daggers and using the handle to scratch a phantom itch.

Trying my hardest not to laugh, I thank the Rogue’s that no one can see us from here.

We’re forces of nature, but my little sister is being taken down by something as small as an itch.

Lighting a cigarette, I take a deep inhale of nicotine before exhaling a cloud of smoke.

“We can’t have our clothes weighing or slowing us down.

We also need to blend into the shadows, and the hard shell gives us an added layer of protection from injury.

All things you know already.” She mumbles about stupid uniforms before she flicks out her mini telescope in search of our target again.

With Dom away, business being slow, and the girls ignoring me, there hasn’t been much I could do other than train Amelia.

She missed out on a lot of core Rogue moments, and I know behind her bravado is someone that worries she doesn’t fit into our world.

It’s my job to love her, even if I want to throttle her in moments like this. We are all the family we have left now.

“You see that?” Amelia points to a lone man exiting a warehouse with a box in his hands.

He struggles to keep it from falling, but then catches it before he puts it on a forklift and goes back inside.

Humans normally avoid the shipping container district at night; I know I would.

Not only does it scream, “Here! mug me!” but with the dimly lit areas and its reputation for crime, it’s not a place one wants to be caught off guard.

“Is business usually this slow? I thought we were these big bad assassins involved in world events, turning them in our favor.” Amelia purses her lips, like she still doesn’t believe what we were like at the height of our power.

“Well, it’s not exactly like we’re popular after the sitdown.

I’m sure word has spread about our involvement.

Don’t worry about it though. I’m sure it won’t be long before the next scandalous thing happens and everyone forgets about it,” I reply, killing my cigarette, and adding it to the debris laying at my feet.

“Aren’t you worried about leaving your DNA here?” Amelia quips. She has always been fascinated by my desire to smoke, one she doesn’t share.

Shaking my head, I explain, “This is where crime comes to flourish, look around. It’s like a glaring, neon sign of how the police are failing.”

“Let’s go over the plan one more time.” Amelia chews at her nails.

I’ve told her so many times during our training that she is top of the food chain, and there are very few things that should make her nervous.

But, she doesn’t seem to realize this yet, and I remind myself I’ve had my whole life to come to terms with what I am.

She has only had a few weeks of not having to hide who she truly is.

“Hold on,” I tell her. Taking an elastic from my pocket, I gather her dark hair into a ponytail. “You want to make sure that’s secured so no one can use it against you in a fight.”

Turning back to the warehouse, I track another human moving in and out, repeating the same process with the boxes.

This time, a woman. “Gabe needs our help cleaning out this district. While I would have sent someone else to do it, this case intrigued me, and it felt like a good training opportunity for you.” A sound echoes across the otherwise empty shipping district, and I pause as I watch two different humans interact.

The first sign of socializing since we’ve been here.

“I checked with Dom, and these aren’t his people.

At first glance, it looks like another gang is trying to move in on his turf.

I don’t think it’s that though. Humans come to this area, but they never seem to leave.

That’s what made me suspicious. If we take it a step further, I would bet my Rogue abilities that some of the recent missing people are here. ”

It’s hard to get a read on Amelia. In some cases, she does so well with all things Supernatural. But in others, she seems like she needs protection. I never know which version of her I’m going to get.

“The police could try to get a warrant to search the businesses here, but that would take too long as they need evidence for a judge to sign off and keep it legal. After repeatedly re-assuring Gabe that we are not behind this–”

“I didn’t do this! After my revenge with Alyssa, I’m done. I just want to live with my family now. ”

“–I agreed we would help him. Now, if we’re done with the questions, it’s time to get going.

” Taking a step off the warehouse wall, I feel the wind fly at my face as gravity takes over, and for a moment, I feel like I’m flying.

Spreading my weight evenly, I land on all fours in a crouch before I straighten up to find Amelia somersaulting and landing next to me in a similar position. Fucking show off.

“You never told me the attack strategy!” she hisses.

“Well, I don’t think they’re going to leave if we ask them politely,” I respond as we creep around the shadows of the shipping containers. “We’re going to go with stealth, but I don’t think we can avoid bloodshed.”

We continue running amongst the shadows towards the main warehouse, and I remain on alert for any surprises . We are the things that go bump in the night, but danger always approaches when it’s least expected. Like now, and the fact that it’s quiet. Too quiet.

The squeak of a door hinge rings across the shipyard, and I hold out my hand in a stop motion. We both freeze, waiting to see what will happen next. A gasp echoes shortly thereafter, and I turn to see a beefy, tattooed man with his hands around Amelia’s neck, and she is struggling.

“You’re fighting like a human,” I prompt her. Realization dawns across her face as she uses her momentum to run up the shipping container next to her, using her body weight to flip the man over, and stabs him through the heart. He bleeds out before he can call for backup.

“Nice recovery. You didn’t want to question him for leads?”

Wiping the blade off on her pants, she seems to finally understand why we lean into black as our color when on assignment.

“I thought you said we’re going with stealth?

” A smirk spreads across my face at her answer.

Finally, she starts to get it. No one seems wiser for our little detour, so this time, Amelia leads towards the warehouse.

She points to the side door, and we enter, searching for our targets.

“Uhhhh, Sebastian…we have a slight problem.” I walk into Amelia’s back.

She stopped in the middle of the warehouse with no cover.

She knows better, but before I have the chance to berate her, I spot the issue.

Gray walls, boxes, and dim lighting extends as far as the eye can see, but more importantly, in front of the boxes are rows and rows of humans.

Their only similarity is they’re human, otherwise it’s a mix of men and women of different races, and they seem to be waiting for something.

In all my years of being an active Rogue, I’ve never seen anything like this. Amelia looks to me for guidance.

“What do we do here? Is this normal?” Well normal is relative for us. I try to weigh up our options. Even I have an issue with executing defenseless, seemingly innocent humans. While I deliberate, Amelia walks around the bodies, poking them.

“Stop that!” I hiss. It doesn’t matter though; even with Amelia bugging them, they still don’t move. A click echoes throughout the warehouse, followed by a high pitched, piercing sound. We both cover our ears as if that would protect them from the shrillness.

“Was that a tripwire?” I shout.

Amelia doesn’t answer as she points towards something over my shoulder.

The humans are starting to move. The woman closest to me attacks me with her hands–an odd choice for a human, and I take a step back, unsure of what the end game is here.

“Shoot them! No human just stands there randomly. This has to be Supernatural!”

Needing no further prompting, I grab a gun in each of my hands and shoot at the hordes of humans trying to attack me.

I lose sight of Amelia as she disappears under a pile of humans trying to get to her.

Panic courses through my veins as I keep shooting and reloading clips, trying to get to her. “Amelia!”

While the piercing sound has stopped, the deep thuds of gunshots echoing throughout the warehouse have replaced it.

I increase the frequency of my shooting, trying to find a way through the onslaught of people to get to her, but just as I’ve made good progress, the bodies on the pile of humans start jumping like they’re being electrocuted.

As I realize what’s happening, relief courses through me as my dear sister finally remembers she is a fucking Rogue with guns as she shoots her way out of the human body pile.

When she surfaces, her tied up hair is now tangled in mats, and she is covered in blood and some other questionable substances.

“I’m going to fucking murder someone!” Amelia points over my shoulder again and asks, “I swear you just shot them?” Turning, I see she is right as some of the humans I thought I killed get up again.

Knowing every shot I make is a kill, this shouldn’t be possible.

From what I can see, everyone here is human.

“Is it just me, or should humans that are dying and reanimating make a bit more noise than what we’re hearing?

” She is right. During our entire attack, there has been complete silence from the humans.

No shouts of pain, exertion, nothing. We start shooting again to try to stem the tide of the humans that keep coming and won’t fucking die, until Amelia clips me in the neck with one of her shots.

I holster one gun, and my free hand flies to my neck, trying to stem the flow of blood until my healing kicks in.

“You fucking shot me!”

“My bad. You’ll heal. ”

She keeps reloading and shooting like me, but the humans are a never ending wave. “There’s too many! I’m also out of ammo.”

“Well do you have a better idea, sis?”

“Are you healing yet?” She peers at my neck, trying to get a better view of my injury. The tingling healing magic of the Rogue’s works on my neck, and I feel the blood loss slow.

“Almost as good as new.”

“Get ready to run when I say.”

She grabs what looks like an explosive from her hip–I have no idea where she got that from–and stops shooting to throw it at the center of the warehouse. Then, she shoots at the explosive, causing it to ignite.

“Run!”

Needing no further urging, I sprint the fastest I’ve ever pushed in my life.

When we’re clear of the warehouse, an explosion rocks through it–a Rogue couldn’t survive it, so freaky human things shouldn’t be able to either.

Amelia and I keep sprinting, wanting to get away from this failed clean up as we race to the car.

But in between breaths, Amelia can’t help getting the last word.

“Well we helped Gabe alright. He just didn’t specify that anything should be left afterwards. ”