Persona (35 page)

They fall into the opposite wall, and as they does Liam get his clawed hands into the man’s chest and pushes into him. The man screams as the hit into the wall pushes Liam’s nails into him deeper, and when he twists his hands just right, the screaming stops.

Pulling himself free of the now dead man, Liam gets to his feet and surveys the hallway. His eyes land on Marty first, who is standing over a guy and holding him by his shirt with one hand and punching him with the other. Satisfied that he can handle himself, Liam searches out for Moira, since the blood is pumping into his veins to out of control to sense her at the moment.

When he finds her though, his blood runs cold and all feeling leaves his body, but not from something bad. No, this girl seems to be able to handle herself, and by herself, Liam means her kick ass self.

Somehow the guy that she launched herself at before is still trying to hurt her, stupid Liam thinks, as he punches at her now baton free. He gets in a hit that knocks her back into the wall, and before he can go to her again, she lets out a growl to match his own, and rushes the man. Instead of leaping onto him, this time she grabs onto his shirt from and digs her nails into him.

Having a hold on him while he yells in pain, and in a move too fast for Liam to even keep up with, she spins them around and lifts the man off the ground. With a scream she releases the man, and he gets thrown into the wall right behind Liam, causing him to duck down before getting it.

His head turns and follows the man’s movement, and he watches as he hits the wall with such a force that the wall cracks from the pressure; and so does the man’s body. As it falls to the ground a lifeless heap, Liam slowly gets to his feet and turns to face Moira.

She is standing in the middle of the hallway breathing heavily, and with an intake of breath, he can sense the apple coated persona. The force of it inside his head almost brings him to his knees. She is staring at the fallen man, and instead of regret, Liam see’s justification in her eyes.

He whole heartedly agrees with that, he just didn’t know what she was capable of. Neither did Marty, who is now getting to his feet, as the man he was fighting is now still on the floor. He looks at Moira like he’s never seen her before, and he has a moment to wonder what was really done to her at the time in the facility. Then she blinks, and her cold bright green eyes shift to him, and some life comes back into her.

He is about to go to her as tears form in her eyes, but then the sound of more glass shattering at other spots in the house, followed by the screams of the others makes him pause. The three of them share a similar look, before they move as one and charge down the hallway and towards the sounds of another fight.

***

As she runs into chaos, Moira can’t believe what is going on, and she feels like she is just a passenger as someone else controls her body. She knows that’s not true, but she still feels like it is. It scares her, to her core, to feel her hands slice into flesh and not stopping to care about what she is doing.

She and the boys make it into the main living room, and find that there are more of the men dressed in black gear brandishing batons. There are more than there were in the hallway, at least over ten or so. Moira has no idea what they want with them, but she definitely isn’t going to stop and ask them.

Her pulse spikes up for the hundredth time that night, and her persona jumps to a new level of humming in her body. For a second as she stands in the entrance of the room, looking in she feels unstoppable. That thought alone keeps her in place and not charging into the room.

Marty and Liam aren’t so hesitant though, and with one look inside, they both run head first into the room. The others are already in the room, and she wonders if they have been fighting the men off at the same time that they have. Ray and Daisy are side by side and backed into a wall between three of the men. They keep making the mistake of jabbing at Daisy with their batons, which drives Ray over the edge.

Together they look like the rising sun, all glowing shades of light from head to toe. Across the room is a ravenous Raven, whose hair is cascading around her shoulders in silky waves of jade black. Moira almost feels bad for the two men trying to hit her, since she is handling herself pretty well between them.

To the right of the room is Gordon, and he looks the most startling to Moira. She has never really seen an adult using their persona, or one that never seemed like one of them before. He is fighting a handful of the men and is holding his own with them, much to their displeasure. He got a hold of one of the batons, and he uses it against the men’s own batons coming for him.

It looks like a sword fight gone wrong, Moira thinks. When the boys jump into the fray, they split apart and head for the next couple of men that are heading their way; leaving Moira alone at the doorway.

Liam looks like a barbarian warrior, to her from the way he runs and jumps before he launches himself claws outward at the closest man. He lands on him without problem, driving his nails into the man’s chest. They fall to the ground, and when Liam is already pulling his hands free and turning to the next guy, she realizes the man he attacked didn’t even scream.

Marty on the other hand, is all punches and kicks, and Moira thinks he’s not exactly subtle in his attacks either. Never the less, they work for him, and he has one man knocked how and is already working on the next one. Moira can feel the tension and adrenaline in the room as if it was her own, and in a way it is.

A hot coursing feeling travels along her skin and makes the hum of her persona feel like a tickle. Her vision goes red, and all she feels is rage, and very protective of every one of her friends.

Never feeling stronger than at this moment, Moira doesn’t wait any more time, and charges into the room with a yell. The closest men to her are just two that seem to be observing the others, well too bad your mine now, she thinks.

They barely turn to her when she is almost upon them, but then she doesn’t care either way, she is still going to take them down. She is close enough to touch the first man, when he finally faces her and starts to swing his own baton at her, so she changes tactics. She spins away at the last second, and leaps at the man beside him that wasn’t watching her still.

She launches herself onto his back, making him yell in surprise, and she quickly digs her nails into his face. He starts to fall forward and she senses the other man coming for her back, so in a cat like grace, she kicks off the man she is on. Spinning in the air, launches herself at the other man with a growl.

She collides into him with such a strong force that they get knocked to the floor, and she sees her opening. Getting her hands on his head, she makes sure to push it down hard as they land. At first contact, his body jerks and goes still. In the back of her mind, she knows she should worry about hurting these men, but then she also thinks no freaking way; they started it first.

Breathing heavily, but not even the least bit tired, she slowly gets to her feet searching out the next threat. The others are still busy and didn’t see what she did, and that makes her slightly better for doing it in the first place. Shaking her head, she dismisses these thought, they are just a distraction.

Then among it all, she sees her next target. Some fool, who thought sneaking up on a busy Raven was a good idea, well not tonight she thinks.

In a blur of speed, that she never thought possible for herself, she finds herself across the room and beside Raven in a heartbeat. The other girl’s eyes go wide at seeing her there out of nowhere, but she quickly goes back to kicking another guy rushing at her. Moira takes a moment to be impressed by her movement, and feels jealous for her tall stature and perfect kicking legs. Then there is the man that thought he could sneak up on Raven while she was distracted, he came to a startled stop when Moira appeared.

Now though, he must have gotten his bearing, because he is advancing on Moira. She doesn’t even bother trying to pretend to be nervous; she just stands there and lets him come to her as she smirks. Oh yeah she thinks, come and get me.

She is so wrapped up in the excitement of another fight, feeling the blood pump through her veins, which she doesn’t notice the front door open up behind her and Raven.

She is just getting ready to pounce at the man before her, when Raven yells to her. Moira looks over to the other girl and follows her gaze behind her, but she doesn’t get to finish the movement. She hears the sound of something snap free and goes air born, and can almost hear it whizzing in the air. She doesn’t know what it is, but knows whatever it is, it’s coming straight for her and she won’t have enough time to move.

She has a second to be slightly irritated that she is going to be missing out on all the fighting, when Raven is suddenly standing right in front of her.

Moira is confused and she feels her eyes go wide at seeing her, and the other girl looks just as surprised. That is until she screams as her body jerks and falls towards Moira, who could only watch as an arrow slides into her left shoulder.

She catches Raven to her and as they fall to the ground together, she can feel her blood already seeping into her night shirt. Raven is going more limp by the second, and Moira distantly thinks that the man she was about to attack, isn’t coming for her anymore.

Looking up, she sees the man they met in Moorhead and his two sons Paul, and Joseph. They also seem to be brandishing crossbows.

She pulls back her lips from her teeth, and let’s loses a bone chilling growl, that would do any pissed off mother wolf proud. In a move she is already comfortable in, she gets up into a crouch and is about to pounce at the men.

Her body tenses and she quickly flexes her nails outward, and pushes her up into the air towards them. She is in midair when the boy Paul smirks, and aims his crossbow at her. Later she’ll think it was stupid to not remember that little bit, but she doesn’t now though.

So she feels slightly behind in what her body is doing in her mind, and knows she wants to stop, but she can’t. She does stop and fall to the ground with a cry of pain, when an arrow pierces her in the upper thigh of her right leg.

Raven is now lying unconscious on the floor beside her, and Moira tries to get to her feet, but a stabbing pain causes her to stumble back onto the floor. Instead, she drags herself over to her fallen friend so that they are touching, so that no matter what Moira will get the brunt of whatever comes her way. She owes the other girl that much.

She can hear the others still around the room and she can even taste Liam’s cinnamon scent that is heavy in the air around her. Then the worst happens, her persona slowly fades away from her and takes away the scent of cinnamon with it. Leaving behind a throbbing pain in her thigh, and she can only watch as the boy Paul walks over and kneels by her head. He no longer has the crossbow, now he has a syringe and he quickly jabs her with it before she can tell him not to.

As her vision faded in and out with bobby shadows, she feels her body being moved. Just before her vision goes completely dark, she realizes that she still has Raven in a tight hold. She tries to release her, but can’t make her hands work, and neither can the men dragging her. As her vision goes completely dark, she realizes that wherever they are taking her, Raven is coming with her.

Then there is nothing.

***

Liam spins around to the man behind him, as the one in front of him falls to the ground unconscious, and swipes out at him with his claws. He ends up scratching the guy in the face, tearing through the mask he is wearing. The man turns away from the pain, and Liam unarms him of his baton, and uses it against him.

He brings it out and around towards the man’s already lowered head, and on impact the man is knocked backwards into the wall inert. He is about to sigh with relief, knowing that most of the men are already disarmed or knocked out, but then he hears the sound of squealing tires coming from outside.

For reasons he doesn’t know yet, his pulse sky rockets and he tries to pick up on the too familiar scent of a girl that drives him crazy. There is nothing in the air, and closing his eyes to concentrate and taking in a deep breath, there is still nothing.

Opening his eyes, he turns around to scan the room, just to be sure. To the left, Marty is beating two guys at the same time and seems to be enjoying himself. He had just punched one guy in the face beating him back into the wall, while he spun and kicked out at the second guy. Liam gets the feeling he’s taking the opportunity to use his pent up rage towards him, and that doesn’t even bother him.

Figuring he doesn’t need any help, he finds Ray next. He is across the room beside Daisy, and as he watches, a man gets in a lucky hit to Daisy and knocking her off her feet. She cries out from pain, as blood pours out of her nose as the guy that hit her advances. Ray snaps then, he uses his claws to latch onto the guy in front of him, and he tosses him into the guy going for her.

They fall to the ground and slide into the wall with such a force, that they are laid out from the impact. They boy turns his attentions to the girl now, and takes her in his arms.

Liam turns away from the sight, and finds Gordon next. He is on the right side of the room and has just delivered a powerful blow to a guy in black gear, which leaves the man still on the ground at his feet. His back is to Liam, and he can see the other man shaking from the entire excursion, but it’s still enough to impress him.

He didn’t think the old man still had it in him, but clearly he was wrong. As Gordon turns and their eyes meet, Liam realizes who is missing from the room. Eyes going wide, Liam scans the room a second time, then a third, and by the fourth time he is positively chaotic. He finds himself in the middle of the room and sniffing at the air, as if that would help, but in a way it does.

He finally picks up the barest hint of apples, and closing his eyes, he lets his nose lead him to it.

He doesn’t get very far unfortunately, and ends up on his hands and knees with nowhere else to go. Then his hands slide into something cold, wet and sticky. Opening his eyes in a flash and flexing his hands on the hard floor, he sees that there is blood on the ground; Moira’s blood.