Page 164 of Promises in the Dark

“Stay still, you piece of shit,” he snarled, slashing wildly.

I barely stayed on my feet, forcing myself up. Every inch of my body screamed in pain, but I didn’t give a damn.

“That the best you got, you backstabbing sack of shit?” I spat, raising my fists.

Pyro grinned, all teeth and madness. “I’m just warming up.”

He came at me again, a flurry of strikes that I barely managed to dodge. I blocked a blow with my forearm, feeling the blade slice through flesh. The pain was white-hot, but I used it, let it fuel me.

I countered with a right hook that caught him on the jaw. His head snapped back, but he recovered quickly, lashing out with the knife. I felt it graze my ribs, adding another line of fire to the constellation of pain that was my body.

Across the room, Viper and the Captain were still going at it. Viper was holding his own, but Captain Ballsack fought dirty. I saw him land a vicious knee to Viper’s groin, doubling him over.

“Viper!” Red cried out.

She had managed to free herself and was scrambling towards the fallen gun.

Pyro saw her too.

“Oh no, you don’t, sweetheart,” he snarled, disengaging from me to lunge at her.

“NO!” I screamed, throwing myself at him.

We hit the ground hard, rolling across the floor in a tangle of limbs and fury. His knife caught me in the shoulder, but I barely felt it. All I cared about was keeping that piece of shit away from Red.

Gunshots rang out, and then I heard Captain’s voice, howling in rage like the bastard he was. Pyro and I separated, both of us turning to see what the hell was going on.

There was Captain, on his knees, blood blooming on his chest like a sick fucking flower. Behind him stood Raven, pale as pale as a corpse, holding his gun in her shaking hands.

“You...” he gasped, then toppled forward like a sack of shit.

For a moment, everything froze. Then Pyro let out an inhuman howl of rage and charged at Raven like a goddamn lunatic.

I tried to get in his way, but my body had other plans. I hit the ground hard, useless, watching the psycho close in on her.

Raven pulled the trigger. Once. Twice. Three times. But there was no fucking bang, no muzzle flash. Just the hollow, terrifying click of an empty chamber.

“Shit,” I heard her mutter, her eyes going wide.

Without missing a beat, she drove her knee into Pyro’s face with a brutal crunch. Blood spurted from his nose, but the asshole wasn’t done. He grabbed her injured arm and yanked her down hard, eliciting a scream of pain.

I forced myself up, ignoring the fire ripping through my side, and grabbed Pyro by the hair, slamming his head into the floor. Once. Twice. Three fucking times. But this bastard just wouldn’t die.

He threw me off, and we were back on our feet, circling each other like two rabid fucking dogs. Blood dripped from his broken nose, his eyes wild, not just with rage but with fear. He knew he was screwed.

“Give it up, Pyro,” I growled, barely keeping the hatred from choking me. “It’s fucking over.”

He laughed, a crazed sound that made my skin crawl. “It’s never over, Rogue. You think you’ve won? You’ve got no idea how deep this shit goes.”

Before I could shove that laugh down his throat, another gunshot rang out. Pyro’s eyes went wide, that psychotic grinwiped right off his face. He looked down at his chest, where a red stain was rapidly spreading, then back up at me.

“Fuck,” he managed to say before collapsing.

I spun around to see Red holding Captain’s gun, her hands shaking, but her aim still dead on. Viper was on Captain Cocksucker, his fists a blur as he pounded the life out of him.

“Red,” I breathed, relief flooding through me.

She was okay. She was alive.

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