Page 85 of Blood Bearon
She fired until the pistols were dry, then shoved them home in their holsters and grabbed a second pair lower on her legs. Spare magazines criss-crossed her chest, but there was no time to spare for reloading. Not yet.
More creatures went down and she twisted in a circle, guns blazing. Nothing was going to stop her from reaching the northern lines and Khove. Not until she could find the big dumb bastard to kiss him and tell him she loved him.
Blue light blazed down from the heavens in front of her. Rachel was close enough to the lines now to see the shifters it hit disappear, burned black and then incinerated. A solitary figure shot from the sky and landed on one knee before rising and gesturing to the crowd.
The Fae broke and ran at this, leaving her momentarily alone until something came plummeting from the sky. Rachel dropped to one knee and spun, both pistols coming up to eye level, but she held her fire.
Two figures impacted upon the snowy ground, sending up a spray of snow.
She watched as a woman with golden-blonde hair that fell past the middle of her back got up and began half-carrying, half-dragging a man with horrific burns to most of his body toward the medical station.
“Dammit!” the woman screamed, tears running down her face. “You can’t die on me yet, Kasperi. You are not leaving me to raise our child on its own. So you hold on. That’s an order!”
Rachel almost went to help, but two others appeared from nowhere and scooped the mangled burns victim up onto an ATV and they rushed off below the Manor. She watched them go in silence before continuing toward the heaviest of the fighting at a jog. Time was running out, she could feel it.
Although she couldn’t make out details at this distance, it was obvious who the person facing the shifters was. Korred had won the magic duel. Now he was trying to end the fight. Rachel’s legs pumped as she ran over the slow rolling hills that surrounded Ursidae Manor, desperate to close ground in time.
“No,” she whispered as a figure advanced against Korred, sword held high. “Khove, you idiot. What are you doing?!”
She dipped into a low spot and her view of the fight was lost for several precious seconds. By the time she crested the next hill, it was already over. Khove and one other figure were wrapped up in a red glow, while a dozen other shifters lay scattered about on the ground nearby.
A booming laugh reached out over the distance. Rachel was almost there.
“Put him down!” she screamed, but over the roar of the ongoing fighting on all sides of the individual fight, nobody heard her coming. “Let him go!”
Korred gestured with his hand and the Queen screamed in agony. He lifted his fist into the sky and the Queen rose from the ground. Then the evil mage dropped his hand and she slammed hard into the ground, another shriek reaching Rachel’s ears.
Rachel watched in horror as Korred then turned his attention to Khove. He closed his hands into a fist and Khove bellowed in pain. Rachel screamed in impotent fury. She was too far. The distance was too great. Korred would see her coming and Khove would die before she could tell him what he meant to her.
That was unacceptable.
Dropping the pistols into the snow, she pulled the assault rifle from her back and rammed home her spare magazine, trying to stop her arms from shaking. It was time for Rachel to make a decision. She was too far away to stop Korred by normal means.
Khove roared again in pain, and Rachel cringed at the agony the man she cared for was in. There was a way to stop it. She could put an end to it. If any of the nearby shifters tried what she was about to do, Korred would see it coming. But Rachel was far enough away, and at an angle, that she could do it.
She could make the shot.
Bringing the rifle up to her shoulder, she leaned down the stock, closing one eye. It was either Khove, or Korred. This wasn’t cold-blooded murder. It was saving her partner.
Rachel breathed in, and out, steadying herself.
Inhale.
Exhale.
The crosshairs landed on Korred, and she suppressed a shudder at the maniacal gleam in his eyes. There was no time to spare, but if she rushed it, then she would miss her opportunity.
Both Khove and the Queen screamed in pain as Korred toyed with them, the evil mage content in his belief that he’d won.
Inhale.
Exhale.
There it was. The shot. It would be the first time she’d ever taken a life. Her job was about saving them. About protecting people, not killing them.
And by doing this, I’ll save two lives worth saving.
Rachel stroked the trigger.
