Page 108 of Two Chambered Heart

“Don’t look.” It was a warning in her ear.

She looked.

Jason was chained to a chair in the back of the room, a red mess, skin flayed. His eyes weren’t open, and one of his hands was obviously broken, fingers sticking out at odd angles, blood dripping from where his fingernails had been.

The sight didn’t cause her to freeze like Archie had expected. Instead, blinding rage consumed her.

She lunged, not drawing her two guns. She knew it would be too close quarters for her poor aim and untrained hand. They’d only worked in the hallways because she was blanket shooting large targets. She couldn’t risk Jason.

One man met her, and she dodged the arm he’d thrown out, kicking his hand hard enough that he dropped his gun. She unleashed everything she’d learned—everything the twins had taught her. She raked her new claws across his face, tearing through his flesh and his eyes as he screamed in agony.

The sound was music to her ears.

He fell to the ground, searching for his gun. She kicked it away before landing another kick to his head. He went down, and she threw a knife right into his throat.

Then she was knocked down too, and her head hit the floor hard. She saw black for a minute before she rolled quickly to the side, springing onto her haunches, ready to launch herself at the second man who’d come up behind her while she was taking down the first. Then she noticed her earpiece on the floor. It must have fallen out when she hit her head.

The man fired off a shot in the split second she’d wasted considering the earpiece. She jumped up, letting the shot hit her in the bulletproof vest.

Fuck. It still knocked the wind out of her and sent a searing pain into her ribs.

She pulled out her own gun and pointed it at the man in front of her.

They were at a stalemate, both of them with guns trained on each other. She started walking towards him and felt a trickle of wetness run down her face. She must have split her skin when she hit her head. It ran into her mouth, and she licked the coppery substance off her lips, tasting pennies.

The man took a step back, and she felt a feral smile take over her face. His eyes widened at her.

She took a few more long strides toward him, and he let off another shot, aimed at her shoulder. She dropped to the ground so fast that her vision swam, but she lunged for his legs before he could make another move, knocking him to the floor. He threw his weight around, and somehow, he landed a punch to her face. She felt her teeth grind together, sediment peppering her tongue, and more blood flooded her mouth. A chipped tooth.

Corey ripped her hands away from his legs, driving her claws deep into his thigh. He howled in pain. It took some effort to pull the blades out, they were embedded so deep. A maroon fountain spurted from a punctured artery.

Despite his fatal wounds, the man didn’t let up. It would still take him time to bleed out. He flipped them and kicked her hard in the shoulder, aiming the pistol at her face. She knocked the gun away and scratched him across the face, blinding him. He screamed. Then she sliced his throat, cutting off the sound. She watched him slump to the floor, the gurgling of blood barely audible above the roaring in her ears.

“Behind you.” It was a rasp of breath from the chair at the side of the room. From Jason.

Her mistake was that she turned to look at him rather than behind her. Someone else kicked her in the back, and then she was the one screaming as the man kicked and kicked, yelling profanities at her.

He didn’t seem to have a weapon on him, which was the only reason she was still alive. She curled in on herself to protect her organs from his boots, but she could already feel he’d hit her kidney. She was going to piss blood tomorrow. If there was a tomorrow.

In the fetal position, she managed to pull her other gun from the holster under her arm. Only because she was facing away from Jason, she pulled the trigger and let the bullets tear through the body that had already done too much damage to her.

He was dead before he hit the ground.

On aching limbs, she pushed herself up, stumbling over to Jason. The chains holding his wrists and ankles were mechanical. She ripped herself away from him, scrabbling for the earpiece forgotten on the ground.

She got it back in her ear.

“Oh, thank the fucking devil.” Archie’s rich voice was back with her, still underscored in terror. She had to battle to hear it over the ringing that was only growing louder.

“I can’t get him out of the chains.” Her voice sounded far away.

“Get to him and put the earpiece to each one until they unlock.”

“What?” She made out his words, but his instructions made no sense to her.

“Please, Corey. There’s still one guard unaccounted for up here. I’m sweeping the surveillance, but I need to unlock Jase, and I can’t do both.”

Still on hands and knees, she shuffled to the chair, pulling the earpiece out and pressing the tiny piece of tech to each lock until they clunked heavily to the floor.

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