Page 4

CHAPTER 4 - ASTRA

O ne moment, I was crouched on my knees beside my wolf, a gun at his forehead, begging for my life to any deity within hearing range. The next, Styx hissed and snapped back, clutching his wrist, which was bent at an odd angle. The cold metal vanished from my wolf’s skull. Blood leaked from a wound in the vampire’s stomach.

Furious red eyes landed on a dark blur suddenly between us. The vampire lashed out and caught an assailant in a black suit, lifting them off the ground by the throat. Boots dangled in the air, kicking at anything they could strike to get released. Hands clawed at the vampire’s wrist, scratching wounds into the waxy gantii flesh. A bright orange ponytail swished from the frantic motions.

What the fuck was happening?

Commotion rang out all around me. Crashing benches, computers, chairs, smashing glass, all from some sort of struggle. Grunting humans. Hissing vampires. Weapons discharging. Someone screaming my name.

Shock from potentially meeting my maker slowed my mind almost to a halt, and it took me a good ten seconds to comprehend what the hell erupted around Raze and me.

My wolf groaned beside me, his sedative wearing off, body twitching, his brain spurred into action, his muscles prevented him from moving.

“Sunset!” the man kicking in front of me croaked.

Pieces snapped together with striking clarity. The who and what. Knoxe somehow found his way into the lab. By the smashing equipment, weapons firing, and grunting going off behind me, a war raged with the rest of my team. Tor, Loco, and Serena came to rescue me.

Oh, God.

Where was Pascal? Was he alive? The last time I saw him, he was bleeding out badly, and I didn’t know if they got to him on time. My heart shuddered at the thought of him not making it and never seeing him again.

“Knoxe?” I didn’t know how he ended up here and why Styx bled all over the floor.

“I got you, bossman!” Tor shouted, releasing laser blasts that hit Styx’s arm, burning a deep hole in his flesh.

Knoxe dropped from the vamp’s grasp and hit the floor, coughing and clutching his throat. My palms came up to brace the back of his legs as he wobbled on his feet.

A vampire soldier came out of nowhere and battered Tor aside, protecting his leader. My man slammed into the cages and went down, groaning.

“Tor!” I tried to scramble to his side when Knoxe caught the back of my uniform, holding me in place.

More vampires burst into the room, and my brain went haywire. If I didn’t do something, they were dead.

Styx’s savage hiss peeled the flesh from my bones. Bloodied fingers snatched up his prize, choking Knoxe, his face and neck red and bruised.

“No!” I crawled forward, stripping a knife from the back of my man’s belt.

Letting out a war cry, I stabbed the bastard between the legs, right where his reproductive organs were located. He let out an agonized wail and dropped my lover. A gasping Knoxe dragged me back and punched the vampire in the knee, making a bone crack. Styx bent over and hissed.

Tor crawled along the floor, his exoskeleton bent and broken. “Get out of the way, Supergal.”

I backed away a few steps as Tor applied his magick, bringing a soldier coming to his leader’s rescue and Styx to their knees.

Raze groaned and reached for me.

“We’ll get you out of here, my wolf,” I reassured him.

I just had to get out of those cuffs first and lift him from the floor.

Knoxe cashed in on the distraction and fixed cuffs to the two vampires’ wrists. “Much as I want to, I’m not going to kill you.” He shoved Styx’s head aside, and the leader snarled, weakened by his wounds and the cuffs.

Wow. Knoxe desired his enemy dead for two years yet found mercy in the end. What a changed man.

“Love you and so proud of you,” I told him, and snatched the key from Styx’s weapon belt, fumbling to unlock my cuffs. “Dammit. They made it look so easy in the movies!”

Tor dragged himself over to me. “Give it here, Supergal.” He took the key and twisted it for me, unlocking my restraints.

Soldiers rushed to their leader, two tugging at the cuffs to free him, others draining the life from Tor, Knoxe, and Raze. I retreated three paces, raising my palms, ready to unleash hell on these bastards for what they did to Raze and me.

Magick flittered through my cells, crackling in my nerves, my fingertips, hell, even flickering in my eyes. All my rage for the past year and a half of hell. Being sent to the Guardians. Threatened, assaulted, almost raped, barely avoiding death. Bruised. Battered. Kidnapped. Tormented by my wolf’s torture. No fucking more.

Equations burst to life. New chemical symbols. Gene sequences. DNA codes. The power to create and destroy all wrapped in one. Magick flooded my system, and I let it out in a heated, furious tempest of orange. Styx and his soldier screamed as the force enveloped them, their waxy skin marked with orange veins, throbbing with a destructive force.

The same power that caught Knoxe, Raze, and Tor in a blinding fury.

Oh, fuck. What did I do?

I reached for Knoxe, catching his wrist, his hand radiating the power he absorbed. Lightning flickered between his fingers as he twisted his hands back and forth, eyes wild with amazement.

Raze’s eyes glowed orange like my magick. His lips peeled back, exposing his lengthened teeth. Finally, his muscles sprang to action, and he launched to his feet, impaling Styx’s shoulders with his claws, driving him back into a wall.

“Raze, no!” Knoxe attempted to stop him, and I grabbed his wrist.

“Don’t,” I warned, tugging him to a stop. “Not when he’s like this. He’s out of his mind and might hurt you.”

Knoxe and I watched as Styx pitifully fought back, useless in the battle with multiple wounds. Feral with protective instinct for the harm done to his mate, my wolf didn’t let the vampire live, ending him in a vicious slice.

“Fuck!” Knoxe swiped his forehead. “We needed intel.”

“What’s happening?” Bands of sunset wound around Tor’s arms, neck, over his chest, in a grid over his body.

Smiling, he stood without the assistance of his exoskeleton. A wave of his energy rippled throughout the room, crippling the vampires. Every. Single. One. Previously, Tor only managed two or three at a time. Those draining my father and Serena fell to their knees, faces drawn in misery.

I dove into my magick to determine what I’d done. New chemical equations floated in my mind, showing me I’d performed the impossible. Changed their DNA and activated new genes. Repaired Tor’s broken back. Unlocked some dormant power in Knoxe that wasn’t previously known. Enhanced Raze’s strength, speed, and evaporated the sedative in his bloodstream. Sharpened them into greater superheroes.

A vampire captured my father with his draining power reach, preventing him from backing up Serena. Knoxe broke away from me and wrapped his fingers around the neck of my dad’s assailant. Electricity sparked from Knoxe into the vampire, and the soldier’s eyes widened, his armpit crackling with current. His control over my father waned, and he slumped into Knoxe’s electrified palms.

My magick registered the release of autolysis chemicals, activated when the vamp’s heart stopped at the point of death. Whatever gene I awoke in Knoxe gave him the power to stop a heart from beating.

“Ah, bud.” Tor pointed to the marvel. “You’ve got a little lightning show going on there.”

“I can feel the raw power.” Knoxe closed his eyes.

Raze thumped over to a second vampire soldier, ending his life on a hopeless gurgle.

“Stop,” Knoxe ordered. “We have to take them in and question them, to hopefully earn what we can on the Styx contract.”

Raze thundered and snarled at him, then abandoned his mission, falling back, obeying the chain of command.

Whimpers behind us called us all to spin around. Serena clutched a bloodied wound in her side. Her deathly pale face spelled danger.

“Goddamn, Hades,” Tor muttered, sending out another pulse of magick to torment the gantii.

Loco scrambled off the floor to grab our leader by the shoulders. “She’s losing a lot of blood, I have to get her back.”

Knoxe assumed command. “Go. I’ll take care of this.”

I limped over to Serena, examining the millions of potential chemical equations I might use to help her. Worth a try to save her life. I found one for hemostasis, pressing my hand to her abdomen, calling on the proteins in her body to clot and seal the blood vessel.

“I don’t know what you did, but thank you, Astra.” She clutched my hand and gave a weak smile.

Raze growled at me, stomped over to me, breaking us apart by lifting me off my feet, stroking me head, nuzzling my neck.

“What will you tell the warden?” Serena looked to Knoxe for answers for once, and my heart widened, appreciating their mutual respect and willingness to work together, not against each other.

“Nobody say a word about Hades.” Knoxe stared down every team member until they gave their nod of commitment. “Get her back to the prison,” he told Loco.

My father glanced at me, smiling that crazy grin, all teeth and wild eyes. “Good to see you again, kiddo. You good?”

“Yeah, I’m good, Dad.” The last word slipped out.

Although he hadn’t been a father to me in years, through no fault of his own, I couldn’t find it in my heart in the moment to hold it against him. All my anger and hurt drifted to the back of my mind, a topic for another day.

“See you back at the prison, kiddo.” Loco winked his crazy eye and slashed open a portal, carting Serena through it.

“We’re so fucked, but in a good way.” Tor rubbed his chin, then his forehead.

Raze growled in response, squeezing me tighter, and I wriggled to breathe against the pain in my chest. He rumbled in my ear and dragged his Lycan snout along my neck to apologize and soothe me.

“Not yet, we aren’t,” Knoxe countered, eyeing off Raze like he assessed the danger to me. “We’ve hit the jackpot with the Styx contract and that ought to count for something.”

“Hope the warden sees it that way.” Tor patted him on the shoulder. “I know I’ll be his favorite person. Again.”

The beat in Raze’s chest escalated with pleasure as if he welcomed our freedom and us joining his pack outside of the Guardians.

Except they forgot to mention one key ingredient—the warden was low on Guardian soldiers and wouldn’t release us until we corralled all the fugitive prisoners that escaped, Styx contract complete or not. We belonged to the Guardians for the indefinite future, and that soured the pit of my stomach.

Knoxe’s hard gaze went to Tor. “Are there any more vamps?”

“Just these five,” I replied.

Five on the ground, writhing in pain. Tor usually needed to focus to hold them under his spell. His heightened magick didn’t wear off as easily.

“Cuff them and take them back to the prison,” Knoxe ordered, and he and Tor went around shooting each vamp with stun bolts from their guns and cuffing them to the benches.

“Where’s Pascal?” I asked when they were done. “Did he make it?”

“He’s fine, Sunset,” Knoxe’s reply never felt as sweet. “He’s back in the hospital, and the docs are taking good care of him. And so are we.”

I rubbed at the ache in my chest. “That’s good to hear.”

“Clear out,” Knoxe ordered, hauling one vamp to his feet. “You too, Sunset. Say your goodbyes to Raze.”

Raze snarled and backed away, taking me with him.

“Not yet, Knoxe.” Tor lifted his palms and cautiously approached Raze. “Hey, buddy. We missed you.” He tried to reason with Raze’s animal to let me go.

I stretched out my hand. “Please, stay back for your safety. He’s been electrocuted and won’t listen to reason when he’s in beast mode.”

Raze groaned as if agreeing with me.

Tor’s cobalt eyes lifting to mine, sprouting tears. “We just got you back.”

“I don’t want to leave you.” I wrapped my arm over Raze’s massive one, holding onto his paw. “But I have to. Just for a little while. Let me get him back to his pack and healed.”

“Are you sure about this, Sunset?” Knoxe let go of the vamp he cuffed to a bench.

“Please, don’t argue with me. Not now, Knoxe. I don’t have the strength.” I rubbed my sweaty forehead.

I expelled a large amount of magick on Styx, his soldiers, and my three men. I was lightheaded and weak, in need of a decent meal after the vampires fed me stale bread and water.

“All right, Sunset.” He didn’t dare approach me and kept his eyes on Raze in case he needed to use his weapon or power to diffuse a situation. That was Knoxe for you, always keeping my and the team’s safety forefront.

“You better come back.” Tor ignored my warning and Raze’s threat, inching forward, eyes on me, reaching for me.

My wolf jerked me back and growled a warning that said he wouldn’t let me go back. We’d talk later, when he wasn’t dangerous and animalistic.

“Let him say goodbye,” I urged him, and he grumbled what I assumed was him relenting.

Tor closed the distance between us, clasping my face, kissing me on the lips, a sweet, soft brush of lips that spelled his absolute devotion to me. “Are you hurt, Supergal?”

“Just bruised, tired, and hangry.” I cupped his jaw.

Tor dipped his head to kiss between my thumb and forefinger.

Knoxe slowly reached for me, staring at Raze, seeking permission. My wolf granted it, and Knoxe stepped forward next, nudging Tor aside. Knoxe stroked my cheek, then leaned in to kiss me, fleeting and nowhere near long enough when it was all I needed.

He withdrew, and Tor snuck back for a second turn, all traces of his wobble and broken spine gone.

“You healed me, Supergal.” He took my lips without any fear of being reprimanded from Raze. “You’re my hero.”

I was, wasn’t I? I performed a damn miracle. One I wanted to investigate further. Scan Tor’s spine with my magick. Explore the limits of my power. Now within the Guardians’ walls though. Not after my father’s warning of being locked up for his level of power.

I snorted and leaned back. “You’ve always been mine, Superguy. And I didn’t heal you, I superfied you.”

He grinned, holding a palm to his heart, raising a finger to quiet my rumbling wolf.

“My magick changed the vampire’s DNA,” I told my two men. “Rewrote the genetic code and healed their defect affecting their breeding. What I suspect it did to heal you, Tor, unlock Knoxe’s dormant powers, and boost Raze’s strength. Get me a few blood samples if you can, for me to test when I come back.”

Raze objected with a thunderous sound that rattled test tubes. I stroked his scratched arm to quiet him. We had to leave soon, but not before I set a ground rule to ensure my freedom.

“That’s my Supernerd,” Tor joked, his eyes glossing over with a sheen at our impending separation that staked me in the heart.

I wanted to say more, but I didn’t want to risk the arrival of more vamp soldiers or any of the cuffed ones escaping.

“Promise me you won’t tell the warden about what I did to superfy you both,” I said to my two beautiful men. “I don’t want him locking me up in maximum security like my father.”

Tor crushed his hands into fists. “We won’t tell a soul. We love you, Supergal, and will do anything to protect you.”

I blew him a kiss. “I love you always, Candyman and my Viking. I’ll try to make it back in a few days, okay? Tell Pascal I love and miss him.”

Knoxe caught Tor by the shoulder, gesturing for them to let us go. “Take care of yourself, Sunset. And we’ll see you soon, brother,” he added to Raze.

My wolf rumbled back at him.

“Get out of here before I cry.” I waved at them.

They cleared out, hauling vampires to their feet, dragging them through a portal for arrest and arraignment. Shaken from the turn of events, I broke into sobs, Raze nuzzling me, purring at me, stroking me.

I prayed to the deity that saved my and Raze’s ass from certain death that I’d see them again shortly, and that the warden honored the Styx contract and released us from the Guardians the instant we collected the last of the escaped prisoners. Because I couldn’t take another day in that place hunting all the fugitives.