Ambushed (37 page)

Before
that moment I wouldn't have said that death and blood could be formed
into a masterpiece. Even later on I was still sickened by just how
many people had died in such a short period of time, but that didn't
change the fact that there was an inherent
rightness
to seeing Alec and the others spring into action.

Hybrids
were built for speed and strength and nothing tested the limits of
their ability like combat against their own kind. From our vantage
point I couldn't see Alec for most of the fight. Once he disappeared
behind the truck I could only guess at what he did to stop the
vehicle. I didn't stop worrying about him, but the fight between the
two groups ahead and behind of the massive diesel captured my full
attention.

For
a second it looked like Alec's people were going to be overrun. I
looked over at Taggart and Isaac, beseeching them to go help. I even
went so far as to get onto my hands and knees to go help myself, but
then one of Alec's people went into convulsions, which somehow sent
most of their enemies into convulsions.

Isaac
and Taggart waved me back down once it was clear that Alec's people
were going to come out on top. It was obvious that neither of them
wanted to come out in the open if they didn't have to. Taggart
obviously didn't like the idea of Agony going off with Alec and the
rest, but it was a safe bet that we were all on the same side which
meant it would be much safer for all of us if we just stayed quiet
until Alec's people had all left. What they didn't know couldn't be
pulled out of them via torture or metaphysical means.

I
thought my heart was going to stop when I saw the paratroopers. We
were far enough away from everyone else that Taggart, Isaac and Heath
risked a quick, whispered conference.

The
key was obviously whether or not their guy who had sent everyone into
convulsions could repeat his earlier feat, but by the time I realized
that he was one of the ones that they'd dropped off with the rest of
the injured, it was obvious that Alec's people were going to need a
miracle.

Taggart
motioned for me to hide behind a large tree and then he and the rest
of the shape shifters started towards the group of injured people
huddled up against the edge of the canyon.

I
watched as they broke into a loose jog and then a few steps later
they all disappeared as they moved far enough away from me that I was
no longer inside of the area that Heath was shielding.

A
few seconds later Alec and two more hybrids reached the swords they'd
left behind such a short time before. Alec's hybrid was basically
indistinguishable from any of the others to my merely human senses,
but somehow I knew it was him as he stood a couple of dozen feet away
from me, panting in an effort to fill his lungs with air.

He
was magnificent, like some kind of pagan war god. Even his injuries,
the long, bloody gashes that he'd collected while hidden by the
massive bulk of the semi-truck, only emphasized the sheer strength
and vitality flowing through him.

In
the next instant one of the Coun'hij hybrids arrived and I saw
something that dwarfed even Alec's strength and speed. Alec had
yelled at someone named Brandon and I realized it must be Brandon
that he and the others were fighting.

Brandon
was death unleashed. My improved senses were capable of following a
normal fight, even between two hybrids, but Brandon was simply faster
than anyone else I'd ever seen. He attacked Alec with powerful,
lightning-fast slashes that rocked Alec backwards and seemed to send
a shiver of shock all the way up to Alec's shoulders.

Alec
yelled for someone named Carson, but the other hybrid, the one with
the sword, had already stepped forward, attacking Brandon with
blindingly-fast slashes of his own. Meanwhile the third hybrid, who I
was pretty sure was Agony since he was the one who had been locked up
in the trailer, was circling around in an effort to get behind
Brandon.

What
followed was like nothing else I'd ever seen. It was like watching a
trio of wolves try and bring down a grizzly bear. Alec and his
friends surrounded Brandon and tried to lure him enough out of
position to score a blow on him without giving him the opening he
would need to kill one of them.

Alec
was big, strong, and as fast as any hybrid I'd ever seen—other
than Brandon—but it was obvious that he didn't know as much
about using his sword as Carson did. Alec attacked with furious stabs
and slashes that seemed always on the edge of committing him too much
and thereby giving Brandon the opening he needed.

Carson
on the other hand was all fluid grace. His blade was in constant
motion. It was like a striking snake, licking out and back in before
Brandon could respond to his attacks. Brandon was faster than Carson,
but he was obviously having a hard time compensating for the greater
reach Carson's massive sword provided him with.

It
quickly became apparent that Agony was the one in the most danger.
Unlike the other two he didn't have a sword to help offset Brandon's
greater speed and strength. There were several times where only a
quick attack or two from Alec or Carson kept Brandon from mowing
Agony down, but Brandon seemed oddly reluctant to just bowl Agony
over and take his lumps in the process of killing the smaller hybrid.

It
took me nearly a minute to remember that Agony had the ability to
permanently scar even another shape shifter. Brandon was obviously
worried about being crippled.

It
was a delicate balance. If Agony had been equipped with a sword then
the three of them would have quickly killed Brandon. If Agony had
been any other hybrid then Brandon would have overwhelmed him and
then turned and killed Alec and Carson despite their weapons.

If
Alec had been as experienced as Carson then they would have likewise
been able to kill Brandon, but if Carson had been even just slightly
slower or less skilled then Brandon would have overcome the trio
facing him and gone on to kill the rest of Alec's people.

The
four of them were moving so quickly that it felt like hours had
passed, but when I risked a quick look away Brandon's people were
still a few seconds away from the edge of the cliff. Alec's people
were throwing themselves off of the edge in ones and twos. For an
instant I thought they were committing suicide until I saw that they
all had backpacks on and realized they had borrowed a page from the
same playbook Brandon had used.

They
were parachuting to safety, which was good for them, but it was
obvious that they weren't all going to get away before Brandon's
people arrived.

The
clang of steel on claws brought me back around in time to see Alec
reel back away from Brandon with blood dripping from his stomach.
Brandon tried to follow up on his momentary advantage, but Carson
stepped forward and his sword nearly took Brandon's head off.

Brandon
changed directions instantly and threw himself towards Carson, trying
to get inside the reach of Carson's blade, but then Agony was there
and it was Brandon who was reeling away with a long set of gashes
across his ribs.

Alec
shook himself and sprang back into the fight without stopping to
assess how badly he'd been hurt. Brandon knocked Alec's swing wide
and then things were back to almost the same position they'd been a
second ago. Brandon was in the middle of the three of them and they
were shuffling around the perimeter trying to find an opening.

The
only question now was whether the fight would end in the quick,
lethal violence I'd seen so far today, or if it would turn into a
prolonged battering match in which slow blood loss would eventually
cause one of them to succumb to exhaustion and make a fatal mistake.

A
flicker of motion off to my left caused me to risk another quick look
over to the main battle. Isaac, Taggart and the rest materialized
between one breath and the next and charged into the mass of Coun'hij
hybrids before them with an abandon that should have gotten them all
killed, but it didn't.

That
was partially because Alec's people, those who hadn't thrown
themselves off of the cliff already, realized what was going on and
attacked from the other direction, but mostly it was because of
Heath. Even from more than a hundred yards away I could see that
Brandon's hybrids weren't reacting like they should have. They were
stumbling into each other and they were slashing empty air in
response to the faintest sound. In short, they were fighting blind.

It
wasn't all of them—apparently there were limits to Heath's
ability just like there had been limits to the number of people that
Alec's guy had been able to throw into seizures at any one time—but
it was enough to more than even the odds. I saw Isaac block a vicious
but aimless attack from a big brown hybrid and then he stepped in and
rammed his claws into the other hybrid's chest with enough force that
he must have shattered the ribs between him and his opponent's heart.
The other hybrid dropped bonelessly to the ground and then Isaac
stepped forward to engage another enforcer.

Another
hybrid, who I was pretty sure was Taggart, grabbed his opponent's
wrist as the enforcer tried to slash him. A split second later
Taggart was hanging from the enforcer's arm with the talons on both
his feet embedded deep into the enforcer's chest.

The
combination of pain and the weight of a full-grown hybrid, was too
much. The enforcer collapsed to the ground as Taggart repositioned
for a killing blow.

Dominic
was the easiest person to spot in the entire melee. She was the only
cat and she was bigger than most of the wolves. She waited until one
of Alec's wolves started their attack and then she sprang at the same
hybrid a split second later.

Her
target heard the wolf coming and got his claws up to roughly the
right area, but before he could firm up his grip on the poor wolf,
Dominic hit him. She raked his back and shoulders with all four sets
of claws as her powerful jaws clamped onto the back of his neck. It
didn't look like it was a position from which she could execute a
quick kill, but he couldn't get at her and he'd already dropped down
onto all fours. Unless someone from his side intervened soon, he was
as good as dead.

Our
guys and girls were tearing through the Coun'hij enforcers like a
chainsaw. Unless something catastrophic happened in the next minute
or two, we were going to win at least that part of the battle, and
once Brandon was outnumbered ten or fifteen to one, even he couldn't
hope to win.

Only
when I looked over at Alec and the rest it was obvious that their
fight wouldn't last the minute and a half it would take for Taggart
and the others to come help. Carson was bleeding now. His left arm
looked like he'd had to use it to ward Brandon away and it had been
terribly savaged as a result. It was dripping blood which I was
pretty sure would make it hard for him to continue to wield his
sword, but he was losing even more blood from a long set of claw
marks that had opened up from his left shoulder all the way down to
his right hip.

Alec
was in just as bad of shape. He'd taken a couple of nasty wounds to
his legs and even I could tell that they were slowing him down. That
was probably how he'd ended up with the new splotchy pattern of
wounds dotting his upper chest.

Agony
on the other hand seemed to have mostly stayed unmarked. He was still
bleeding from a few places, but they weren't as deep as the wounds on
Alec and Carson. Brandon still seemed reluctant to close with him
enough to really hurt him.

It
was obvious that Agony understood that more and more of the fight was
falling to him. Even as I watched, he took the fight to Brandon,
attempting to drive the bigger hybrid back into the reach of Carson's
blade.

Brandon
stepped to one side and sliced Agony's face open from just in front
of his ear all of the way down to his chin. It was a vicious blow
that came within millimeters of taking Agony's eye or opening up the
carotid artery along his neck.

Brandon
was bleeding from more than a dozen places and he seemed to be moving
slower now too, but the blow he'd just landed on Agony was persuasive
evidence of the fact that he was still incredibly dangerous. Once
again, he'd been within inches of ending the fight with a single
blow.

Agony
backed up in an attempt to dodge Brandon's follow-up blow, but
instead of pressing his advantage, Brandon turned and stepped into
Alec. It was the kind of thing that Alec could have easily avoided
just a minute or two previously, but he'd lost too much mobility and
his sword was out of position.

Brandon's
fist disappeared into Alec's chest and for a second I thought that
he'd destroyed Alec's heart, but it was on the wrong side for that.
Carson stepped forward, blade slicing towards Brandon's side aimed
for approximately where the kidney would have been on a human, but
Brandon intercepted the attack with his right hand as he let go of
Alec and raked Carson's right arm from shoulder all the way down to
his wrist.

Less
than a second had passed and Agony threw himself forward in an
attempt to save Alec and Carson. Even I could tell that Agony was
going for the kill. Brandon's back was to him, which meant that all
Agony had to do was latch on and then ride Brandon to the ground
while Alec and Carson got out of the way. It was risky, especially
against someone as fast as Brandon, but it was obvious that Agony
couldn't hope to fight Brandon by himself.

For
a second I thought Agony had done it. Brandon moved slightly, but not
enough to deny Agony the shot at his back that the smaller hybrid was
angling for. I expected Brandon to start thrashing about in an effort
to try and buck Agony off of him, but instead the four of them stood
frozen, motionless for nearly a full second before Agony dropped to
the ground with Carson's sword through his chest.