Louder. Filter out the movie if possible.
Increasing to sixty percent. Filtering…
Under the currents of gunfire, laughter, and grunting, she could suddenly hear Jaxon and Lucius breathing behind her. Could even hear the slide of sweat from their skin. The whoosh of it, the drip as it hit the ground.
Gunfire. Laughter. Yes, female laughter. Muted now. That drifted from the TV, she realized, because there was a hint of static. The gunfight, however, did not fade. It wasn’t coming from the TV.
“—can’t see them,” Mia snapped.
“—they’re on me,” Dallas grunted.
“Duck!” Eden shouted.
“Your friends,” Mishka said. The sound of her own voice nearly felled her. Too loud. She quickly bypassed the small kitchen, the equally small living room with threadbare furniture. The front door loomed ahead, closed, locked. No Schön. No gunfight. “Your friends are here,” she said, trying to keep panic from her voice. “Battle has already been engaged.”
“Damn it.” From Lucius.
“Where?” Jaxon.
Absolute panic covered both of their faces, and they didn’t even try to hide it. Lucius for Eden. Jaxon…for her?
Sweating, she easily picked the lock, shoved open the door, and peered out into the hall. “We’re in an apartment building. They probably killed the other tenants, because I don’t hear any other conversations.” So badly she wanted to cover her ears. More and more, the sound of her own voice was like booming thunder. “Do you hear them? See flashing from under the doors?”
“No,” they said in unison, and she cringed.
Jaxon’s strong arm wrapped around her waist and he dragged her down the hall, to the elevator. “Up or down, sweetheart?” he whispered, and that saved her from vomiting.
“Don’t know,” she whispered back. They’d have to experiment. “Go down one.”
He pressed a button. The doors slid closed. Lucius stood behind the left side, ready to attack anyone who tried to throw themselves inside the elevator when it next opened. As the metal box descended, however, the fight grew the tiniest bit quieter.
“Up,” she rushed out. “We need to go up.”
The elevator stopped on the floor he’d first requested, and the doors opened. No one appeared. No one attacked. Jaxon pressed another button. Soon they were rising, past the floor they’d occupied and to the next one.
When they reached it, she cried out. The fight was so piercing now she could no longer discern individual sounds. Just a constant stream of loud. Return volume to normal.
“There,” Jaxon said.
She opened her eyes. When had she squeezed them shut? Jaxon had already ushered her out of the elevator. They were pressed into a corner in an empty hallway. Blue flashes edged from the crease at the bottom of the door at the far end.
Lucius was already halfway to the room, creeping along the wall. Like a phantom, he blended with the shadows.
“You good?” Jaxon asked her.
“Yeah. But someone needs to stay here in case they try to escape.”
He opened his mouth to say something. What, she might never know.
“I’ll do it,” she said, obviously surprising him. “I’m going to change my vision, so that I can see the Schön even if they’re invisible. They’re brighter than humans this way, but I won’t have time to judge brightness. I’ll simply fire at whoever comes out that door.”
“Noted. Just be careful.” He planted a hard kiss on her lips, slipping his tongue inside her mouth for an all-too-brief taste. And then he was gone, creeping right behind Lucuis.
Staying here was going to be the hardest thing she’d ever done, she realized. Already she wanted to tag behind him, watch him. Guard him. He’s strong. He can protect himself. Knowing didn’t stop the worry, though. He was her man, her love.
He flicked her a heated glance before concentrating on the doorway. Both he and Lucius claimed a side. They were going to kick it in and throw themselves into the heart of battle.
He would be all right, she once again assured herself. Switch to infrared vision.
She heard the creak of metal and the grunt of man as the world around her once again darkened to nothing. This time, she didn’t have the flash of a single red light to break up the black. Jaxon and Lucius were already inside the room.
“Thank God,” Mia said between grunting. She must be fighting an alien while speaking. “We followed your signal, but couldn’t find you.”
“We can’t see them.” Eden. Grunting, as well. “I managed to tag a few with pulse beams, but those disappeared too.”
“Le’Ace?” Dallas said, panting.
“Hall,” Jaxon replied. “Don’t go out there. She’ll attack. Now throw me a goddamn weapon.”
Glass shattered. A table overturned. At least, she thought it was a table by the thump followed quickly by teetering bowls.
Mishka saw a red light peek from the door. It disappeared as she fired, then reappeared a moment later. She crouched, ready. The light never approached her. Instead, something skidded across the floor and sailed into her boot.
“Gun,” Jaxon said. “Your ten minutes are up.”
The small light disappeared.
If she hadn’t been so nervous, she would have grinned as she palmed the weapon. Straightening, she weighed the weapon. Pyre. Having trained in the dark, she pressed her thumb against the internal dial and knew it was locked on stun. Good.
Several minutes ticked by. More grunting, even a scream. Curses. Glass breaking, crunching. Sweat trickled down Mishka’s body. What was going on? The longer she stayed in place, the more intense her feeling of helplessness.
There was a growl. Dallas, she thought. Jaxon cursed. Someone crashed against something solid. A red blur darted from the doorway. Le’Ace aimed and fired. The bright red line froze in place.
Alien.
One down.
How many more to go?
Had any of them managed to hurt Jaxon? Was he still unscathed?
Panic rising. Breathing too uneven.
Deep breath in, deep breath out. The darkness, the sounds of battle, she hated them both more with every second. Someone screeched, cutting into her thoughts. She tensed.
The aliens began muttering in a language she did not understand, a language she had not heard before. Panic must have settled inside of them, as well, for they’d managed to remain quiet, keeping them from A.I.R. detection until now. If not for the isotope inside of Jaxon, Mia and her friends might not have found them at all.
“You bitch!”
Mia’s voice. Then, a red blur stepped into the hall and Le’Ace fired. Could be Mia, could be someone else. The blur managed to jump out of the way.“Not going to get me that easily.”
Mia, then. Not a Schön. Still, Mishka didn’t relax. No, she geared for more. “I don’t want to hurt you, Mia.” Jaxon, where are you?
“Too bad.” The red inched a few steps closer. “I want to hurt you. Will hurt you.”
“We have a job to do.”
“Yeah, but I doubt we’re on the same team.”
Jaxon! She didn’t call his name, didn’t want to distract him. But she needed his interference. He would not forgive her if she killed his friend. Mia was too quick to stun, however, so that left no other option but physical confrontation.
Mishka couldn’t risk switching back to normal vision to fight, gauging where her punches landed so she didn’t cause too much damage. If one of the Schön left the room, she had to know it.
“You froze Devyn. He was trying to help us!”
“Accident. I can only see color, not features,” she said, even though she knew it exposed a weakness. “He was warned.”
“Was Elise?” The words were edged with hate.
“Do you seriously want to do this here? In the middle of a battle?”
“They’re the enemy, you’re the enemy. No better time.”
She leveled the gun. “I’m sorry I killed Elise. I live with regret every day, every night.”
“Even if you spoke true, that wouldn’t be enough.” Another inch.
“Have you never done anything you regret? Never done something bad for what you thought was a good reason? Have you ever been forced to do something you didn’t want to do?”
“You killed her,” she said, obviously unwilling to consider Mishka’s words. “And you’ll kill Jaxon if you’re allowed to live.”
“Never.”
Another inch. “Dallas saw it! I read the list.”
“He saw wrong! You are wrong. Now stay where you are or I will be forced to hurt you even though we need you.”
“Try.” Mia’s relish was like a living thing in the hallway.
Mishka didn’t have time to respond. One moment Mia was at the opposite side of her, the next she was in her face, knocking the pyre-gun out of her hand and slashing a blade at her throat.
On instinct, she arched backward. The blade still managed to nick her, stinging. Immediately she turned, kicked out, but Mia was already out of range, red outline moving to the left…quickly. Mishka struck, fist flying forward.
Crunch.
A hiss of breath exploded from her. She’d hit the goddamn wall. With her human hand! Because she couldn’t see the little details of Mia’s body, she was afraid to hit her with metal. At this speed, one wrong move might kill the agent.
Mishka whipped her head from side to side, seeing only a vast expanse of darkness. Where the hell was she? Mishka turned, took stock. Again, only darkness. The wall, behind her, she knew. Stay focused. The elevators were a few feet over. No light there. Ceiling—
Her ankles were kicked out from under her, and she tumbled to her ass. Breaking through a momentary suspension of shock, she punched forward in case Mia thought to close in and go for her face. Only air greeted her, whooshing mockingly.
Feminine laughter. “How does it feel, being helpless?” Blur to the right. No time. A fist slammed into her temple. Blur to the left. Another fist to the temple.
Her brain rattled inside her skull, and stars winked over her eyes. “Never helpless,” she growled. Seeing the blur race behind, Mishka popped to her hands, legs kicking backward. Contact.
Mia propelled into the wall and gasped. “You’re not going to kill me, and you’re not going to kill him!”
“I love him.”
“You love yourself.” Mia was panting. Tiring? The blur moved again, faster this time.
A sharp sting sliced through the back of Mishka’s leg as she stood. She didn’t have to see to know she’d been cut. Then the blur twisted, some of the heat remaining behind and forming a vortex of twinkling stars.
“If you loved him, you’d walk away from him.”
Walk away? She knew herself well enough to know she didn’t have the strength to do so. As long as she was alive, she would do everything in her power to be with him. Circumstances be damned. He was a drug, her drug, an invisible tether seeming to stretch from him to her, always pulling at her. No, there could be no walking away.
“I can’t.”
“Selfish. His friends will never accept you, which means he’ll end up giving them up to make you happy. Maybe he’ll grow to resent you, maybe he won’t, but either way the loss will kill him. Even if you don’t.”
“Maybe he needs better friends,” she said, even though panic rose inside her. Hot, dark, consuming. She had trouble drawing in a breath. If his friends wouldn’t accept her, Jaxon would give them up. He loved her that much, she knew he did. And without his friends, his job would be the next thing to go. She didn’t want him giving up all that he loved.
Adrenaline levels too high.
Consider this later. A red light shot from the door down the hall. Mishka stiffened. Alien? “Someone’s coming,” she said.
“Sure. I believe you.”
That light closed in, arms stretched forward for attack. Mishka pushed to her feet, but Mia kicked them out a second time. As she fell, the runner reached the agent. There was a grunt, a shuffle. The pair tangled together and fell, a blur of color.
Mishka crawled along the hallway, patting for her gun. All the while she kept her gaze glued to the door. Once, the combating pair tripped over her, but Mia managed to hold her own.
“Mishka?”
“Jaxon!” Relief poured through her. She saw his red light, crouched, still, not as bright. Concern blended with her relief. “Are you—” Another light crept behind him. “Look out!”
Even as she shouted, he was slammed into the ground.
CHAPTER 27
Jaxon had hoped for the attack, had prepared for it. When the Schön slammed into him, knocking him to his stomach, he simply shifted the gun in his grip so that the barrel faced backward and fired.
The weight on his shoulders didn’t ease, but the struggling and grasping at his clothes stopped. Satisfied, Jaxon pulled up his knees, dislodging the other-worlder and sending its frozen, now visible body to the floor.
Devyn was locked in place a few feet in front of him, and Kyrin was frozen a few feet back, both otherworlders having been pegged by stun during the battle. Mishka was on her hands and knees, blood dripping from her face and arms. Her eyes were glazed over, the irises completely black. Like a starless, midnight sky. Her skin was pale, several blue veins visible.
The sight of her like that nearly stopped his heart.
“Jaxon?” she said.
“I’m fine, sweetheart. Don’t move, okay?” He lifted his arm, aimed the pyre-gun.
Mia was clearly battling one of the invisible bastards. Her body was contorting as she twisted and rolled to keep a firm grip on the alien who was trying to fight his way into the elevator.