Page 21 of Pride
White-robed figures descended the stairs. Their usual Halloween face masks had been swapped out with white, full faced breathing apparatuses.Faithful. Syndicate henchmen and desperados. He could sense their pride as they came down. There were at least—he counted and stopped at twenty. This was an ambush, or a massacre.
Pity they didn’t realize each Sinner was worth ten of them.
And he was worth more.
He grinned. Now it was starting to look like a party. The armed Faithful swarmed down the staircase and were met with a tornado of black clad death. Each Sinner became a weapon, or used a weapon to cut down anything with a white robe. Their time was limited, but none panicked. Each had begun their assault with cool, calm efficiency.
Their assault was a beautiful dance.
Gunshots fired. Parker ducked and kicked up the lounges to make a barricade and then dragged the drowsy Reverend Mother behind one. She gave him a grateful look and then promptly passed out as the gas worked into her lungs. He checked her pulse, and it beat strongly. Crouching low, Parker rushed to the weapon’s rack and pulled off a Katana, then he picked out a white robe and charged.Too easy.The robed bodies stacked up within seconds. He almost laughed at the foolhardiness of coming intothisbasement, and then he saw another set of feet descending the staircase… and another. These new white-robed figures weren’t masked. No… they had unnatural tight-skinned and deformed faces. He’d seen this type before, many years ago.
Replicates.
Slits for a mouth and nostrils. They were malformed and undercooked. They hadn’t gestated enough in their cloning tanks, or something had gone wrong with their cell replication for them to look that way. They were expendable, but they were also imbued with extra strength, possibly powered and sin-sensing—just like the Deadly Seven.
These Sinners might be elite fighters, but they wouldn’t stand a chance against superpowers… especially if they were out of breath and succumbing to the sleeping agent.
He jammed the panic button on his watch against his tooth and then checked over his shoulder for Alice. She fought off a Faithful in the corner, but she stumbled, her face turning red with effort and her held breath. A tiny kernel of unease bloomed between his ribs. He stopped playing with the Faithful in front of him and ran him through with the sword. Then he sliced a section of the robe free and used it to cover the still oozing gas bomb.Should have done that first.There were three Faithful to get through before he could make it to Alice, and the replicates had joined the fight.
Parker hit the panic button on his watch for the third time, realizing that perhaps he was a little overzealous thinking he didn’t need that robotic arm. With it he could simply rip heads from shoulders or pull beating hearts out of bodies. Heat flushed his cheeks, and he refused to accept defeat. He refused to acknowledge the burn in his lungs. Scanning the room, he tried to take stock.
Four replicates. Six more Faithful alive. Five Sinners slowly running out of juice. Smokey gas still in the room. One muscular Faithful standing on the steps holding an iPad, lording over the scrummage. Parker’s eyes zeroed in on that device. Liza had told him that the replicates had been controlled by a device by Julius Allcott back at the warehouse altercation. To even the playing field, all Parker needed to do was get his hands on that iPad.
Parker discarded his sword and let The Beast out. It surged to the surface as though second nature, and he hated it. But he used it. The Beast fought his way through the melee, heedless of cuts and hits to his body, and went straight for the masked man on the steps.Don’t think about the replicates getting to the Sinners—to Alice—just get to that control device.
Through the breathing apparatus, the Faithful’s eyes widened at Parker’s approach. He tried to back-step up the stairs, but Parker reached him first. His clawed hand ripped into the robe and jerked him closer. They scuffled. A blow to Parker’s head infuriated him, and he roared, forgetting about the gas. Too late. He held his breath again and ripped the ventilator off the Faithful.
For a moment, Parker allowed surprise to hit him—the Faithful in charge was no deformed man nor undercooked replicate. He appeared normal in face. Could be your next-door neighbor. But then desperation came in all shapes and sizes. This man’s reasons for pledging his human life away were none of Parker’s concern. He was the enemy, and he was no match for The Beast. In a blinding blur, Parker went for the jugular with his fangs, but the Faithful used the iPad as a shield. Parker snatched the iPad, roared, and was amused to see the man retreat. He chased him a few steps, but only until the air cleared and he could replenish his lungs.
The Faithful had escaped.
Good. Someone should be left to tell the tale.
He rushed back down the steps, threw the ventilator down into the mix, realized only three Sinners were left standing, Alice among them, and replicates closing in. He picked up the smart device, balanced it on his knee, wildly scanned the application on screen until he found the disconnect button. The remaining three replicates stopped mid stride and turned to statues.
Parker blinked. Just like that?
Now they weren’t fighting for their lives, each standing Sinner scrambled to pull a ventilator from a fallen Faithful. Parker walked further into the basement. Through the clearing haze, one Faithful remained fighting in the corner.Alice. He dropped the control device, picked up a ventilator, and ran to her. But before he could lift a finger in aid, the Faithful dropped to the floor, his own mask wrapped around his throat. Alice looked at him, eyes bloodshot from holding her breath. Parker shoved the ventilator at her. Together, they collapsed to the floor while he tried to help put it on, but, damn it, he needed two hands.
An overwhelming sense of inadequacy pumped through him. The Beast slipped away, and all that was left was Parker and his raw impotence. All he could do was fumble and try to help Alice when she was almost passing out herself. Suddenly, he was nudged out of the way.
Another Sinner—Mercy—took over. She fitted Alice’s mask to her face. Instantly, Alice took a breath, heaving her lungs until she fed oxygen back to where it belonged. Parker stood back, frustration welling. He’d never felt so powerless until this moment. Until Alice needed him and he couldn’t help her.
10
Alice’s lungs were dying.So were her eyes and every molecule in her body. Fighting without being allowed to take a breath was the worst thing she’d ever done. But now she had a ventilator on, she could recuperate, and she could reassess.
Sitting on the floor against a wall, looking around the basement, she was surprised that they’d taken down so many Faithful. Three replicate soldiers, mask-free and a little weird looking in the face, were standing still like statues, arms hanging loosely at their sides, eyes vacant.Creepy.
Only two other Sinners had managed to last. Mercy was checking on the Rev, and Thea was checking on Leila, Tawny, and Raven. Since their psychic had passed out, Alice believed she’d failed to foresee this attack. Raven’s mystical gift wasn’t an exact art. She couldn’t control it. The visions came when they wanted to come. Her Katana must have been a show of power for Parker’s sake.
At first glance, none of the team was injured, but they had Parker to thank for that… or accuse. Whichever way they wanted to look at it because it was clear he had been followed, just as Parker had tracked Alice there.
He sat on the steps, his long legs bent and wide as he tapped away on an electronic tablet device resting on his knee. His hair was mussed up and dangled over his face, hiding his face from Alice, but she remembered his expression when he couldn’t put the mask on her face. Two golden eyes were wide and concerned, perhaps even a little frightened. She’d never seen him look like that. Ever.
His suit had rips in it, especially the prosthetic side which had deep slashes and bullet holes, as though he’d used it as a shield. Even one-handed, he’d been a sight to see in battle. He deserved every ounce of ego in that inflated head of his.
Alice eased herself to her feet, just as another two sets of feet descended the steps behind Parker. Adrenaline shot through her ravaged body, forcing it into a state of alarm. She picked up a dagger and threw it. The blade barely left her hand before it halted, frozen in mid-air like magic. It took her brain a moment to catch up.Deadly Seven—Greed and Envy. Greed’s blue face mask covered his mouth and nose. His gray hood was up around his head. And his outraged eyes glared at Alice. Envy tugged his green mask down to reveal Evan Lazarus’s face. The youngest in the family was reckless revealing his identity. But then again, Alice had always suspected the electricity summoning hero had some kind of psychic ability, too. Maybe he knew the alliance they’d proposed would go through. Surely after this it had to. Green eyes slid to her and held as the crackle of his power skipped over his fists.
