Page 14 of Shadow's Chosen

He watched her for a long moment, just taking her in. Watching the breeze catch in her hair, watching the lights shine on her skin. She wore simple clothing, but it hugged her figure nicely. When he felt he'd studied her enough, he deliberately made a sound to get her attention. It didn't take much for her to turn around suddenly and see him.

"You," she said with extra disdain after a brief moment of staring up at him in surprise. "Why are you following me?"

Nezka smirked. "I wasn't. I was here first."

That answer didn't seem to please her any more than if he had confessed he'd actually been following her. She turned away from him to look at the city. The breeze picked up, brushing her hair back, and Nezka caught a glimpse of a small band of white around her outer ear where he had bitten her. Besides that one small detail, one wouldn't have thought she had been in a fight. Though he had given her a fair match, he had made sure not to hit as hard as he could. Even with the padded armor, he could have damaged her severely if he had wanted to, but he wanted her breathing.

"Why are you here anyway?" she asked, looking back at him angrily.

"I could ask you the same."

She grimaced and turned once more away. "I wanted to see green before all I saw was steel and concrete."

Nezka thought that over for a moment then dropped from the statue. He moved to the balcony and stood only a few feet away from her to lean against the rail. Though he was learning drogin quickly thanks to the translator, he was having a hard time finding words in their tongue that he wanted to say back to her, so he instead remained silent.

"I hope you're happy then," she said after a pause. "You won your fight. I'm sure you feel real superior. Not like beating on a bunch of people would have made that any different."

Nezka drummed his fingers along the rail. "True." From the corner of his eye, he saw her frown and cross her arms. "Not that it was much of a fight."

Her lips thinned as she looked over at him. "Oh? If I count right, there were only two of you left at the end. I'd say we held our own pretty well."

Nezka shrugged. "Two. Five. One. The victor remains." He looked over at her and smiled. "But if you want a rematch, I wouldn't mind seeing you on your back again."

That thoroughly annoyed her, and all he could do was laugh. Her reactions were the funniest damn thing he'd seen in a long while. Her attempts to hide her shocked anger were useless with such an expressive face.

"You really are an asshole," she muttered. "And I don't think I have met someone I hated so much in such a short amount of time."

Again, he had no drogin words yet equivalent to what he wanted to say, so he said in his own tongue, "Most do when first encountering me. But that's because I'm usually about to kill them."

She looked at him, confused. "What?"

He took a step toward her. "Or they are very afraid. But you’re not very afraid, are you? Or at least you hide it well with your anger."

"What the hell are you saying?"

As he continued to approach her, he could tell she wanted to back away. Only her stubbornness kept her locked in place. Her hands turned to fists at her side, and she grew very still, but she did not flinch as he got as close as possible without touching her. He tilted his head and closed his eyes, waiting until he heard the soft thumping of her heart, a steady yet fast rhythm, though not as fast as he would have thought. He felt the heat of her, could taste her scent on his tongue, like the smell of a storm or of an ocean, the slightest hint of salt and the very small yet still detectable metallic scent of fear. He could see the energy radiating from her through the small sensors along his brow and the colors she portrayed were colors of rain and lightning and a sun at dusk. When he opened his eyes and gazed down at her, he saw her watching him with growing suspicion.

As if possessed, his arm rose up without thought and reached for her, needing to collect the final sense of her. He went to touch her bare arm when she immediately slapped it away, breaking the moment.

"Don't touch me again," she hissed. "Come tomorrow, we will have to go down together, we might have to work together, but I don't ever want to talk to you again. I don't ever want to see you looking my way. You stick to your job, and I'll stick to mine, and when it's over, we will return home, me to my world and you to whatever nightmare hellhole you likely come from, and that will be it." She pushed off from the rail and walked away then stopped mid stride and turned back. "And if you get in my way tomorrow, I won't hesitate to take you out."

Nezka watched her go, fierce little thing that she was. Her threats brushed off him like a speck of dust on the wind, but the disappointment he felt could not be so easily swiped away. His eyes narrowed on her as she slipped out of the garden and disappeared. Too bad. She thought she hated him now? She was in for a rude surprise.

Six

As dawn came, Elise and her team assembled down at the east docks, not meant for ships but for other methods of transport, mainly the trams that would take them over to the gate leading to the undercity. From there, they were told, special armored vehicles would take them through and across the lower sector. Though most of the higher city’s transport was by train and ship, the drogin had built special cars to traverse the city below, capable of taking heavy fire and powerful enough to plow through walls if need be. The trams of the lower city were either destroyed or overrun, and since ships were unable to land in fear of electric strikes, shields, and outage barriers, they needed another way to get to their mark which, by their calculation, was located a little over eighteen miles out from the nearest gate not yet taken over by gangs. Theoretically, if they drove straight through without a single incident, it would take anywhere between a half hour and an hour at most. Since they knew that was unlikely in every possible way, it would take them most of the day, possibly into the night depending on what they encountered.

The drogin soldiers waited near the tracks, geared up and ready to go, wearing armor and carrying shields. Elise knew they would mainly be used as a distraction, taking out the smaller groups and lower-tier thugs guarding their strongholds, blowing out buildings if they had to. Elise and her team were to take one of the middle cars and aid when possible until the area was cleared and they could make a quick sweep, making sure no humans might be hidden somewhere they shouldn't. The hunters would go in with them initially but would then separate throughout the process to slip inside the more heavily fortified sections to take out the leaders of gangs. Once they made it to the energy deposit, they would go in again while everyone else attacked from the outside. Once the place was cleared from the exterior point, Elise and her team would go in, take out any remaining baddies, and find the missing team. It was going to be a long day, but by the end, Elise was confident they would find the Grayhart team and get back home, still ignoring the odd feeling that clawed at her even if it seemed now they were more prepared than ever.

Elise fixed on the last of the armor atop her suit and clipped her chosen handgun to the holster at her hip followed by the sniper at her back. The drogin's tactical uniforms were much more...flashy than any of the military's back home. Usually her team wore the same gear consisting of blue or black camo pants and long shirts with vests and pads. The drogin had given them suits equivalent to what they had similarly worn in the arena yesterday only with much more heavy-duty armor and in various colors. Bruce and Reese wore dark blue, Adrien and Jerico wore red, and Tom wore a deep green; Amy and Helen wore steel-gray, and Elise somehow got stuck with white. When they activated the chargers and lights along their suits, each one lit up with a different color ranging from yellow to orange to purple. Elise’s lit up...pink.

She wished she could ask for another, but it was too late for that, so, as she adjusted the suit and armor one last time, she grimaced but resigned to bear it. She'd only have to wear it for today.

So, suck it up and get serious, Elise. Who cares about the stupid color? Let's just get this over with.

The rest of her team tested their suits carefully, making sure they could move and walk properly, that nothing snagged or pinched.

Reese looked down at his and laughed. "We look like...shit, what's that old cheesy kids’ show? Power Knights? Power Police?"

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