Page 35 of Lust
Damn it.
Sirens wailed in the distance, but they were too far.
A heavyweight knocked into Liza. She careened to the side. Another knock. A Faithful’s fist in her face. Her firearm disappeared from her hand. A swarm of sweaty, grunting white fabric covered men swarmed her. Her body moved on instinct, blocking, and retaliating, but it was the poison leaking from her hands and mouth that did the most damage. The instant she touched broken skin, or yellow fumes were inhaled by her opponents, they wilted in dead weight, foaming and convulsing.
Holy shit, this was dangerous. And frightening. Any bystander nearby could be hurt—from her—and she had no way of controlling it. Afraid to shout, to scream, or to do anything but hold her breath, a mad panic bubbled in her system.
What if she did this around a child? What if she was kissing Joe?
Pushing the weight of a Faithful from her body, Liza scanned the ground for her gun.
Pop! Pop! Pop!
An explosion of shots fired like a shooting range.
Liza ducked, scanned wildly, and found Joe at the door to Heaven, gun pointed and shooting any threat he could safely aim at. He wasn’t the only one. Max and Bailey were on the street, guns aimed and discharging.
“Liza! Behind you,” Joe shouted, eyes locked on her. He moved his aim to Liza’s right and fired. The Faithful behind her went down, a bloom of red spreading on his robe.
She got to her feet and nodded her thanks.
Dead bodies piled up, both innocents and criminals. This was a shit-show. There would be an inquest. The captain would have her badge if he didn’t believe they handled it properly. She had to trust that the evidence would back her up. She had to trust that no one saw or captured their abilities on camera.
Joe started for her, but she backed away. She couldn’t be near him with her emotions heightened, with the poison still coming from her mouth and hands.
“Sloan!” Max bellowed.
Liza looked to where she’d last seen Sloan and found her no longer on the roof of the car. From the way Max manically fought his way there, he must have seen her go down. But he knew she was stronger than she looked. Heknew. So why was he panicked?
Unless she’d been taken out.
Shit.
Pushing her thighs into action, Liza ran. No time to worry about appearances. She vaulted over bodies and sprinted to where Sloan had gone down. An undulating sea of blood-stained white blocked her way, snarling and ready to fight. Too many. She wouldn’t make it through. Not in time.
Daisy appeared at Liza’s side, plucking Faithful away, stabbing, jabbing, shrieking like a harpy in the biggest display of emotion Liza had seen come from her. Elation and hope momentarily lifted in Liza’s soul. Daisy blinked at Liza, surprised. And then Max went down.
Liza screamed in frustration.
“Save Max,” she ordered Daisy, and pointed to him. “Max!”
Covered in war-paint of streaked red and dirty sweat, Daisy nodded. She changed tactics.
This was it. Liza couldn’t both save Sloan, and hide her powers. She had to make a choice and move. Liza did what had to be done. The valve on her power burst. Mist oozed from her mouth at an alarming rate as she fired the last of her bullets, aiming for heads.
Out of ammo.
She dropped the gun and shifted to manual combat. Strike. Jab. Snap. Her body flowed like water. Her fists like iron. Each time she moved, the poison not only seeped from her hand but shot out in an almost imperceptible tiny dart-like projectile that burned her palms on release. Each time she exhaled, her breath came out in a sharp, steady, and focused tiny toxic gust. She plowed through body after body, discharging toxin until the air misted into yellow, making it hard to see and her eyes sting. But it also provided her cover to act unhindered.
Eventually, Liza was on the floor, crawling through falling legs and tumbling trunks of white robes, and then she found Sloan, passed out. Liza launched, covered Sloan’s body with her own, and…
Electricity crackled, metal creaked, blue fire flashed. Katanas and leather-clad warriors descended from the sky like battle-born dark angels. The cavalry had arrived. In what seemed the blink of an eye, an eery silence descended, and then sirens blared.
SWAT was here.
Too afraid to move and check, Liza covered her fallen sister. And then Sloan groaned. Liza almost wept with relief, but her poison hadn’t received the memo to switch off.
Please stop. Please stop.
