Page 147 of Beast: Part Two

Turning around, I spot Hawk, Seth, and Many coming in through the back.

We make quick work moving through the guards downstairs. When it seems as if we can make it upstairs, four guards appear at the top of the balcony, looking over us into the foyer. They start firing off rounds. We all duck behind doorways and pillars.

I peek around the corner and fire off a round, hitting one of the guards in the chest. He drops to the ground. Hawk takes out two others. Seth gets the last one in the head. Before we could celebrate that victory, two more appear at the balcony overlooking the foyer. They have large machine guns. We all dive back behind the safety of our chosen hiding spots as bullets start to rain down on us.

“Victoria and Yohan are on the move,” Maksim shouts.

I peek around the corner of my wall and see the tall blonde from the video from the house along with the curly-haired guy run up the stairs.

“We can’t do anything with these two above us,” Seth shouts. Bullets continue to rain down on us.

“Kyra and Zel, can you take them out?”

“Let me see,” Zel says slightly out of breath. “No. The window only gives us a view of the top of the stairs. It isn’t wide enough to view the entire upstairs area.”

“Shit,” Maksim shouts. “We’re stuck.”

“They have to switch the magazines in a minute,” Many shouts. “When they do, cover us.”

“You’ll only have about thirty seconds,” Hawk tells him.

“Yes, we know.”

At that second, the bullets pause. We all slip around our hiding spots to shoot. The men with the guns take cover.

“Go, Many,” I shout.

Many runs from behind the wall where he was hiding. He pulls one of his harpoons out of his back, extends it, and tosses it at the wall in front of him, all while in motion. The harpoon lodges into the side of the stairs. Many jumps up onto the bench placed against the wall, leaps on top of the harpoon as if it’s a step and then do a back flip into the air. He pulls out his guns and, as he’s falling back to the ground, he fires off two shots. When his feet hit the top of the stairs, the two bodies of the gunmen fall over the railing and down to the ground.

“That might be the coolest shit I’ve ever seen,” Maksim says with his mouth wide open.

“Many, down,” I shout as Evan steps up behind him with his gun at his head.

A gun fires, but instead of Many falling to the ground, it’s Evan.

“I got your back, brother,” Zel says into the earpiece. He took the shot from the foyer window that faces the top of the stairs.

“Keep moving,” I say.

More guards come in from the first floor of the house. Many leaps back over the stairs and shoots one, while Hawk takes out another.

“I’m going upstairs,” I shout as I move toward the stairway. I shoot my way past the guards as I take the stairs two at a time.

As soon as I get to the top floor, I shoot a guard that was aiming at me. A bullet whizzes by my head. I turn around and another guard is there, but he quickly falls to the ground with a shot to the chest. Turning back around, I find Beast coming up the stairs, his gun aimed.

“You good?” he asks.

“Yeah, let’s spread out,” I check my clip to my gun, noticing I have about ten more rounds in this one. “You go down that way and I’ll go this way.” He dips his chin. I turn and head in my direction.

With my gun out in front of me, I head down the hall. I peek around the corner into the first room and find it empty. Backing out, I push open the next door and ease inside. It’s a bedroom.

The bed is in the center of the room. A patio is on the left side of the bed. I step into the quiet room. Moving through the area toward the open door, I believe to be a bathroom. A dresser is to my right with a mirror. Glancing into the glass, I spot Victoria coming up behind me. I turn around and fire, but she knocks my gun out of my hand, causing the bullet to hit the wall and the gun to slide under the bed. She aims her gun at my face. I spin around and bring my elbow up, hitting her in the face. I then grab her gun arm and bring it down over my knee, causing the gun to fly across the room.

She shoves me away. I turn around to face her. She wipes the blood away from her busted lip and then sneers.

“You fight like a woman scorned.” She chuckles. “I wonder if it’s because I killed your man?”

I glare at her before charging. We throw blows back and forth. I catch a right hook to the face, but return with an uppercut to her chin. She swings at my face again, but I dodge her blow before punching her in the throat. I run toward her as she stumbles back, tackling her to the ground. However, she uses her larger body weight to flip us over to where she’s on top of me. She punches me in the face so hard, my head slams back against the floor. Searing pain explodes behind my eyes. She wraps her hands around my neck and squeeze.

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