Page 19

S he’d killed them. Her people. Her men and women. She’d murdered them with her own hands.

Miranda Andrews was unsalvageable.

Ray coughed through the dust, her mind a whirlwind of emotions as she braced a hand atop something hard. A groan rumbled under her, the sound going through her as she blinked her eyes open. Her vision blurred for a second, a mix of brown and black and red flooding it as she registered a hand against the back of her head. Akash, she realized and widened her eyes in an attempt to see if he was alright or not. Her world tilted, a faint ringing in her ears as she pushed herself upwards to look down at him.

Her breath caught at the bruises and red blood marring the side of his face. No, no, no. He couldn’t be injured. Not like this. Not ever.

“Calm down,” she saw him rasp and leaned down with a sharp inhale to angle his head sideways. Akash followed her movement, not arguing but groaning nonetheless,

“You’re fine.” She whispered, her hands shaking as Akash’s eyes shot up, the black in them menacing. Ray’s brows contorted as he removed his hand from the back of her head,

“Of course I’m fine,” he said dryly as Ray moved to get off him, “Don’t pull that shit on me, Raylene Walker.”

Ray blinked.

“You shouldn’t have– ”

She didn’t know how she heard it.

With the dust still swirling around and with the few shouts of pain echoing in the wind. But the voice came like a tsunami,

“Ray.”

Her head snapped back, a wave of panic crashing over her. Angel, she thought as she got to her feet haphazardly, he’d been too close.

“No,” she whispered shakily and didn’t even turn to Akash before pointing down at him, “Don’t get up.”

She heard his scoff and turned her deathly glare upon him, “ Don’t.”

Akash’s jaw ticked. But he stayed down.

Ray’s gaze darted around in a daze and–

Just froze.

Her hands flew to her lips as she saw the havoc the bomb had created. She saw the faint touch of red all around it, people she didn’t recognize sticking out from underneath the pile of broken bricks. All dead. All red. A gasp left her throat, Miranda had done this. Had murdered in cold blood.

She was as bad as Maya Larsen, if not worse.

Ray forced herself to look past them, scanning the crowd for everyone. Scanning the crowd for him. That fear, that panic was climbing its way up her spine, threatening to choke her as her body swayed back. Ray’s heart was like a terrible beat of war in her chest when she righted herself. Took a breath. And began looking again. Immediately, she caught the pink highlights. Where Myra was, Ray thought with a brief step in their direction, Irene was as well.

She saw two heads move close to them and breathed out a sigh of relief as she saw the twins stir awake as well .

Her head snapped to the left, her gaze narrowing in an attempt to catch strands of blonde hair when… yes, there they were. Ray's chin dipped when she saw Neera’s body rise next to Cameron’s, her hands visibly shaking as she lifted her head to stare at her.

End this. Her eyes screamed, end this now.

Ray didn’t have to wait for long. Not when she heard the brief rustle behind her.

Her ears hollowed out, a dangerous calmness settling in her nerves as she looked sideways without turning her head. Her foot shifted back, her hands not moving from her sides in case she gave away the small advantage she did have.

Miranda Andrews was a soft reckoning behind her, probably in search of a gun through the bodies she’d murdered. A soft growl left her tongue,

“You killed them.” She snarled softly and didn’t have to look back to know Miranda was listening, “You murdered your own people.”

“Pity it didn’t do the necessary damage.” Came Miranda’s dry response.

The response brought bile up her throat, the mere idea of using people like that–

Ray rolled her shoulders back.

And caught a brief movement up ahead.

Ray had never turned this quickly in her life. But when she saw the dark chocolate locks and that crumpled shirt of his, she knew she’d done the right thing.

Stupid, she yelled at herself as she saw Angel’s amber eyes glow under the moonlight .

Saw the cuts on the side of his face. Replacing the first one she’d ever given him with the graze of a bullet. She saw his chin dip. Saw another shadow rise behind and strike the same pose Miranda did behind her.

They both stared at one another for a second.

She had one bullet left in her gun. A red knife and that was all.

She didn’t know what he had left but knew it was enough when a look of pain flickered on his face. Come here, he seemed to plead as Ray jerked forward, come to me. Maybe this was stupid. But it was something no one saw coming. Not Miranda. Not Martin.

And the underworld might not agree with many rules. But they believed in one.

Never, no matter who, no matter when– shoot someone in the fucking back.

She exploited that rule to her full degree. Suddenly, Ray was moving so fast that everything blurred around her. Away from the debris that separated up, both ran diagonally until they met at its very edge.

And when they collided, both of them almost fell over. But it didn’t matter. Not with Angel’s hand clasped around her waist and his head burrowed in the hollow of her neck. Not with her hands around his neck and her lips kissing his shoulders.

They were here. They were safe.

Angel used their momentum to maneuver them until they stood still, Ray with her back to Miranda and Angel with his to Martin.

It all happened so fast.

So quick that under the pounding of their thundering hearts, they felt nothing. Angel placed a hand against her waist and kept the other propelled ahead over her shoulder, his gun poised forward .

Everyone could do nothing but watch. Ray lifted her chin high enough to glare down at the man who had been standing behind Angel as she took up the same pose. She showed him every ounce of malice , of death written plain on her face as Angel lifted his own gaze to the woman that had been standing behind Ray.

They moved at the same time.

So fast that no one saw them move as both of them lifted their pistols in the air. Pointed it in the direction of their enemies.

And it all went bang!

Bang!

Suddenly all Ray could remember was that time when she’d entered the underworld for the first time, and everyone used to scream at her to run. To get away.

“Run, Raylene Walker.” They would say, “Get out of this place!”

But how after today, everyone would start screaming something else entirely.

“Run!” they would scream, Ray knew as she saw Martin De Santos’s body jerk back, and finally fall,

“ It’s Raylene Walker!”

* *

Maybe they’d been lucky.

Had gotten out of this alive in the worst possible way.

Because as he shot a bullet through Miranda’s skull and saw her body fall back like a sack, an odd sense of calm spread through him. She’d been a mother too, a part of him mourned, a wife. A daughter. Angel made sure to watch her fall, made sure to remember every haunting memory of her eyes wide in horror as she fell back and –

A warm body sidled close to his and a smaller hand snaked its way to the side of his neck. Angel hadn’t realized he was shaking until Ray pulled his forehead down to the side of her neck. Had barely registered them taking a step away from one another. A breath left his lungs as she shut out all sounds with a simple hand on his ear and whispered,

“Don’t,” she said, her own voice breaking, “Don’t do that to yourself.”

A sob threatened to rip his chest apart as Ray shuddered against him, “Close your eyes. And let it end.”

Angel didn’t argue. Didn’t want to. Not when he could shut it all out with her. He raised his head and tugged her closer. Ray moved until she fit into his arms, her back braced against his chest as he placed his chin atop her head and opened his eyes,

“It’s kind of anticlimactic now that none of us ended up shot or stabbed,” she said quietly and tipped her head upwards. Angel shook his head at the truth that shone in her words,

“Haven’t we done enough of that already?”

“Is everyone–” Ray’s voice broke. Angel tugged her closer, a pang echoing in his heart as he nodded,

“Luke and Jack are alright.” He whispered and looked outside, where he’d left Christina and Mia, “Christina should’ve been done by now though.”

Ray didn’t respond. Just slipped out of his hold smoothly. He saw the haunted look in her eyes and knew it reciprocated his own as she walked in Miranda’s direction.

Angel watched her go, his body swaying slightly with the wind. He didn’t notice Jack and Luke were near until his world tilted to one end, and a hand wrapped around his waist. Angel blinked as Luke tugged his arm behind his neck and hauled him upright ,

“You alright?” Jack asked, his voice a rasp. Angel’s eyes crinkled as he saw the bruises that marred their faces. Saw the cuts through their shirts and the blood that seeped everywhere. Knew he and everyone here looked the same as Angel turned his head to look out the doorway again,

“Chris,” he began and saw Jack’s body go still, “Did she get here?”

“What do you mean–”

“Get the fuck AWAY FROM HER!”

Angel’s eyes snapped away from the entrance, his body going rigid as he recognized the red hair and that devastated voice. He watched from the corner of his eyes as Jack jerked away from them,

“Christina–” he cried as Angel ripped away from Luke in a frenzy, his eyes flared wide in agony as he watched an injured Mia Andrews run in Ray and Miranda’s directions. Black tears streaked down her face as she wretched Ray’s hand off Miranda’s body and shoved her away. A dark sort of rage rose in him when he saw Ray fall back willingly, her eyes blank as she watched Mia fall to her knees.

“I’m sorry,” Christina’s wheeze brought him back, “She got away when she saw the ceiling fall.”

Angel didn’t want to, but still ripped his eyes away from the scene, “Are you alright?” he asked Christina as Jack wrapped a hand around her waist and hauled her up, “Are you hurt?”

Christina shook her head, nothing but dust and a single cut on her face. The bruises shone on her neck, on her fists, and her abdomen as she inhaled sharply, “I think she might’ve broken a rib though.”

“Fuck,” he heard Luke murmur as Angel shook his head,

“Get out of here–”

“I got her good though. ”

Christina continued as if she hadn’t heard him, “She’s stabbed in two different places and I’m pretty sure I broke her right arm.” She looked up at Angel then, something like regret shining in her eyes, She paused, her shoulders shaking, “I could’ve killed her.”

Angel gulped but nodded his understanding. He wouldn’t have been able to either.

“Your mother murdered a lot of people here.” Ray’s voice was sharp through the daze of his mind, “She was the one behind–”

A sob made her pause. Angel started walking in their direction, his gaze wary as he saw a crumpled Mia against her mother’s dead body. Saw her red hair curtain her face as she sobbed against Miranda’s chest. Her body shook as Ray continued,

“I’m sorry.”

Mia’s head snapped up then, her dark eyes looking downright evil as she glared through the rough strands of her hair, “You’re not sorry,” she spat, her uninjured hand curling into a tight fist,

“You weren’t sorry when you murdered my father. And you aren’t this time either.”

Ray’s eyes were cold, “Are you sorry?” she began. Goosebumps rose on Angel’s arm as Mia’s fingers crumpled Miranda’s white and red shirt, “Was she sorry? For killing my sister? For planting an agent in my house and then murdering them when she turned?”

Mia scoffed, “She–”

“Do you even know her name?”

Ray’s voice came out every bit pained as she stared at the girl. Angel didn’t take a step forward, remained a few inches away as Ray’s shoulders shook ,

“Did you know how old she was? What she loved? What she hated?”

Mia didn’t respond. She couldn’t.

Angel saw Ray inhale a deep breath and watched calmly as Ray got to her feet carefully. Brushed the dust off her pants and looked down at Mia Andrews, the pain disappearing from her voice,

“I won’t kill you now. But make a mistake again, and I won’t be just as kind.”

Mia’s shoulders curved inwards as Ray’s chin tipped upwards,

“And her name was Lia Walker.” She snarled, that rage never gone, “She was fourteen. And your mother killed her because she broke one rule.”

Mia’s eyes snapped up, dark and delirious.

“I hope that haunts you for life.”

Ray turned her back to Mia then, her entire posture screaming exhaustion as she looked at Angel.

He tilted his head and gave her a small nod. Ray all but stumbled in his direction after that, barely complaining as he wrapped a hand around her shoulders and weaved his hand through her hair.

“Let’s get out of here.” She whispered as he pressed a soft kiss on top of her head.

“ Not so fast, you bitch –”

“No, you don’t.” Neera’s voice was a calm violence behind her, and Angel looked over his shoulder to see Mia’s arm twisted behind her back. He heard the girl scream in surprise and drop her knife.

“You had one chance.” Came Myra’s soft voice behind them as Ray and Angel limped forward, “You really shouldn’t have squandered it like that. ”

“Fucking rat,” Ray murmured beside him, enticing a laugh from him as she tightened her hold against his waist. He pressed another kiss to her head,

“Let’s never come back here again.”

He whispered and she shook her head, a smile tilting her lips.

“Deal.”