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  "Agony, run for the cliff! This was all to get you out of here."

  "Sorry, Alec, but I'm staying. The way I see it the two of you probably have a decent chance of holding Brandon off. Even if we can't kill him, if I can get in a couple of good strikes I might manage to cripple him forever. Putting a monster like him out of the picture is more important to the resistance than I'll ever be."

  I shot a frown at him, and then there wasn't time for any more talk. Brandon arrived, blurring with speed, and his first attack nearly knocked the sword completely out of my hands.

  Chapter 22

  Adriana Paige

  Ambush site

  Southern New Mexico

  Sitting motionless and quiet underneath the huge silver blanket for six hours was much harder than I'd expected it to be. Taggart and I had arrive at the ambush point in the company of Isaac, Heath, Dom and the others well before dawn and set up near the stream and then spent a mind-numbing amount of time waiting.

  Our position was necessitated because while Heath could make us invisible and mask our scent he couldn't do anything about our heartbeats. He said that the stream would probably cover up any sound we might make, but he went even a step further.

  When Heath had concealed himself from us in the parking garage there had been enough other heartbeats for his to get lost in the background noise. This time he'd brought half a dozen small electronic devices, all of which played recordings of running water.

  It was eerie to lie on the ground and just trust that Heath would be able to edit the sensory feed of anyone else in the area. It got downright surreal when Alec and the rest showed up a couple of hours before we were expecting the caravan to come by.

  I'd thought that my feelings for him had been strangled by the knowledge that he'd addicted some poor girl to his touch, but the reality was just the opposite. My feelings came back with a vengeance when I saw him.

  The moment when he and the other guy walked over and set their swords down less than twenty feet away from me was the hardest. It took everything I had not to call out to him.

  Taggart hadn't trusted Alec from day one. I was pretty sure that he thought Alec was there to ambush anyone who tried to free Agony, but I knew that wasn't the case.

  Even before Alec and the others attacked the Coun'hij enforcers, I knew that Alec was there for the same reason we were. The fight between Alec and the rest was like a symphony of violence.

  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.

  Alec and the others were dead, they just didn't know it yet. Brandon had set up Agony perfectly by offering up the one target he'd known that no hybrid could pass up. It had been the perfect trap precisely because nobody, not even Brandon could have gotten out of the way in time, but it turned out that Brandon hadn't needed to.

  Instead he'd just used his grip on Carson's right arm to angle Carson's blade up into Agony's heart.

  As my mind registered what had just happened, I realized that I'd stepped around so that I was fully out from behind my tree.

  It was a stupi
d thing to do, but that paled in significance compared to the fact that my gun was already out and rising up into the two-handed stance I'd spent so many hours practicing. I'd never even considered taking a shot at Brandon before this. The range wasn't too bad, especially against such a large target, but the four of them had been moving too quickly for me to guarantee that I wouldn't hit Alec or one of the others by mistake.

  Only now that wasn't a consideration anymore. Agony was still between Brandon and I, but he was on his knees and falling. Alec was off to one side struggling to pull himself back up to his feet, and Carson's struggles to free himself from Brandon's cruel grip had moved him out of the line of fire as well.

  My first shot took me by surprise. I'd acted out of reflex. I knew what my target was and my sights had finally lined up on it. I squeezed the trigger without even thinking about it and didn't even realize that I'd sent a round downrange until the gun bucked in my hand and I lost the sight picture I'd had on Brandon's chest.

  Brandon was still insanely fast. He spun back around while I was still trying to bring my pistol back down so that I could get another shot lined up.

  This time I overthought things. It was the first time that I'd intentionally fired in anger at a live target and I was scared that I wouldn't be able to get another center-of-mass shot before he started moving towards me.

  Instead of waiting for my gun to finish coming back down so it was pointing at the center of his chest, I pulled the trigger again as soon as his head came into view over the barrel of my pistol. It would have been a perfect shot except for the fact that my hand tightened up slightly and pulled the barrel right at the last second. It was such a small movement that most people wouldn't have even realized what had happened, but it was enough that I missed him, creasing the side of his head rather than putting a round between his bestial eyes as I'd intended.