Page 134 of Dash

Caught in the electric jolt, I tipped over. My last sight was Arthur, punching the button in his ring.

Boom.

The house shook as I hit the floor. The electricity stopped. The explosion illuminated the night with a lick of fire and set some of the drab winter garden aflame. Inside the dining room, the blast cracked the mirrors and sent chunks of plaster to rain on me.

Was she dead?

“Fry him,” Arthur ordered, a big dark shadow looming directly over me.

The bolts speared through me. My nerves powered a grid of scorching pain. My body became a live wire, a conductor of electricity, a fleshy version of a high voltage station, on fire and about to burst.

I had no control over my movements, no will of my own. The bolts prevented me from reclaiming my body and yet, above the painful buzzing, my mind kept repeating a single word.Now, now, now. It had to benow.

“Leave him alone, asshole!” Thena’s voice broke through the pain.

The current cut out. The pain abruptly stopped.

Thena! I lifted my head from the floor, but I didn’t see her.

Now.

Fighting my stiff muscles, I rolled on my belly and stabbed my dagger into Arthur’s foot with all the strength I could muster. The blade ripped through leather and fabric and found flesh. The crush of bones and the man’s scream gratified my efforts. I sensed more than saw movement behind me. I held on to the metal hilt with all I had.

Buzzzzzzzzzzz.

Electricity roared in my ears, the sound of a billion wasps stinging me from head to toe. My body spasmed. My hand fisted around the dagger. Arthur’s screams cut out. He crashed on the floor. His foot vibrated at the same frequency I did. And still my hand was locked around the hilt of the blade. The current flowed from my hand, to the metal, to his body, delivering a jolt in the max setting that almost did me in. Together, Arthur and I shared in the pain he’d designated for me alone.

“Shit.” Shaw cursed and took his finger off the button.

Abruptly, the pain ceased.

I knew what I had to do, what I had to force my body to do, but I was weak and aching and I was late rolling to my back. I spotted Arthur, splayed on the ground next to me. His eyes were closed. His chest wasn’t moving.Fuck the fucker. He didn’t deserve the fast death that came with cardiac arrest.

I still held my dagger in my right hand, but it took all I had to lift my left hand. Fumbling along the back of my neck, I unclasped the collar and yanked the damn thing off my neck. The spots where the contacts had touched my skin burned like hell and the world spun around me, but I was free now. With a grunt I sat up. No more electro-shock therapy for this soldier.

Eyes wide, Shaw threw away the collar’s remote, snatched his carbine from the floor, and aimed it at me.

“No!” Thena darted out from under the table, grabbed the cake cart, and pushed it.

It traveled at top speed across the room and hit Shaw straight on. His shots went wide— well except for the one that plunked right into me. My thigh burned as if it was on fire. Fucking great. It’d been about healed. Didn’t matter. A fucking round was not gonna stop me now.

I snatched the Colt from Arthur’s belt and rolled under the table. Dragging my bleeding leg, I elbowed my way beneath the tablecloth and past Thena’s discarded heels. I found Thena crouching on the other side.Shit. The only thing between her and Shaw’s rounds was a golden tablecloth and a whole lot of air.

I grabbed the edge of the massive table and pushed. It took all my strength, but I heaved the colossal piece of furniture table on its side. It slid a little before it crashed with a huge clatter. Everything on it spilled to the ground. The mess of plates, glasses, utensils, and flowers landed on the other side of the upturned table along with Shaw and his weapons. On this side of the table, Thena and I took cover, along with Arthur’s corpse.

“Dash.” Thena threw her arms around me.

It felt good to have her in my arms, to feel her heart beating against mine, but she was still in danger and that meant my job was far from over.

“Get out of here.” I grabbed her by the shoulders and nudged my head toward the French doors. “Find cover where no one but me can find you, and stay hidden until I come for you.”

She opened her mouth to protest. “But—”

“I got this,” I checked the mag and found five puny rounds in it. “Keep low and run.” I clicked the mag back into place and chambered a round. “Please, let me do this for you. Ineedto do this for you. For Nix, too.”

She hesitated and yet the diamond flecks in her irisesignited with the kind of rare love and understanding that a man like me would kill for.

“Don’t you dare die on me.” She planted a quick kiss on my lips. “And don’t keep me waiting.”

---