Page 76 of Rarely Pure and Never Simple
Blaze waited for a full three breaths, then rolled over onto his back so his head rested in Damien's lap. "Just no?"
The position was terribly distracting. Damien twined his fingers in Blaze's hair, letting the soft ginger strands caress his skin. "If they were here and were taken somewhere else, I'd only know that the trails lead on. But there are no more here."
"All right. Got it. Need to get through today first." Blaze had closed his eyes in a contented cat sort of way. Damien expected him to start purring.
"And we can't let them arrest Shudder."
Blaze cracked an eye. "Yeah, fine. Got no problem decking some snot-nosed Guild rat. Would give me an excuse to."
They sat for a few minutes more in comfortable silence, the four of them, the camaraderie something Damien had never experienced before. After a few blissful moments, Blaze checked the time and rolled to his knees.
"Just about there. They should be coming out in the yard any minute if they're coming out today."
"And if they do come out?" Dryad asked as she returned her field glasses to an inside jacket pocket.
"Same plan. Maximum confusion and distraction. We'll just be able to spot the kids sooner."
Damien heaved a shaky breath. "Blaze…"
"Scared?"
"Always. I just hope this is right."
Blaze had his scope out, presumably searching the buildings. "There is a tide in the affairs of men, which taken at the flood leads on to victory—"
"Fortune," Damien corrected softly.
"Fortune what?"
"Leads on to fortune, not victory."
"I like victory better."
"But it ruins the meter."
Blaze snorted. "Iambic pentacrap can kiss my ass."
"Oh, God. I'm going into this with cracked intellectual weirdoes," Shudder moaned, though his attention never left the site. "Blazey, we've got movement. They're coming out."
"I see it. Give us to the halfway point. Twitch, you best keep up."
Blaze shot up out of his crouch and took off across the open distance between them and the compound. Only half a heartbeat slower, Damien raced after him, struggling to keep up with Blaze's long, loping strides.
Gears ground in the towers as the huge guns turned toward them—ponderously, inevitably. They had known they'd most likely be spotted prior to reaching the fence. All they needed was to get close enough to be able to cover the distance once Shudder started his distraction. With luck, the sensors would be fouled, and they would get lost in all the panicked confusion.
A warning shot fired, kicking up the dirt a few yards in front of them. Still out of range, but they were closing fast. The gun in the tower to their left whined as it turned and powered up. The muzzle flash warned them. Blaze seized Damien's arm and yanked him to the left. The plasma bolt overshot by six feet and slammed into the dirt on their right, where they would have been without Blaze's course correction.
A gasp behind them had him turning to catch Dryad picking herself up from a roll to the side and sprinting after them.
"You were supposed to stay with Shudder!" Damien called out as she caught up with him.
"You need me in there!" She maneuvered him to the left as another shot missed them.
"I don't need you dead!"
Blaze ignored them both, reached into his coat with both hands, and pulled out his huge Mannheim in his right hand, the thing a miniature cannon all its own, and his smaller Sig Ritter in his left. A ferocious smile lit his face, transforming his handsome features into those of a guardian demon. He stopped his forward momentum, raised the Mannheim, narrowed his eyes, and fired. A dark shadow toppled from the left-hand tower. Blaze spun and fired the Sig at the tower directly in front of them. That guard dove to the floor of his tower, but it gained them time to race forward a few more yards.
The right-hand tower guard tried a shot, but it fell short, spraying dirt over Damien in a hard rain. The center tower guard climbed back to his feet, repositioning his long-barreled stationary gun. Damien's heart sped, certain they were running out of luck and time. Blaze's attention remained glued on the center tower, his thumb crooking to cock the Mannheim for another shot.
