Badger to the Bone (Honey Badger Chronicles #3) - Shelly Laurenston Page 0,145

trigger. “Now I’m debating what I should do.”

“Really?” Charlie asked. “Because I’m not.” She took in a breath, then bellowed, “Badger fight!”

* * *

Darren didn’t know how he’d gotten here, why he was here, or if he’d leave here alive. He just knew he was chained and about to be moved to another location. The bizarrely large men who seemed to love anything with honey on it had been getting ready to give them all injections. Those injections were filled with something that knocked all the captives out. Every time Darren got one of those shots, he’d wake up in a new place. At this point, he no longer knew which country he was in. He assumed he was in America, though he’d started in Canada.

But as the large men had been getting those shots ready, they’d suddenly stopped what they were doing and lifted their heads, sniffing the air. And, as they’d sniffed, they’d begun to growl at each other. Like some kind of weird warning. A few minutes later, they’d grabbed several of the prisoners to use as shields seconds before that woman had busted through the door.

At first, Darren had thought she was a policewoman, coming to rescue them. But she’d been alone and other than the body armor and her weapons, she’d had no badge or any markings on her equipment that suggested she was law enforcement. Then her friends had been dragged out of the ceiling and he’d given up all hope, ready to be taken wherever the large men were planning to take them.

Until the woman had screamed something. Darren couldn’t quite make it out. Whatever her words had been, her friends seemed to understand. Despite the grip the men had on the backs of their necks, the women were able to turn and face their captors; their skin stretching in a way that was terrifying to say the least. Then Darren saw claws and fangs and those two women attacked with such viciousness, he backed up even farther against the wall he was near and began to pray.

The attacking women climbed the large men holding them and dug their claws into their necks and faces. They used their fangs to tear off bits of them. The nose of one. The lips of the other.

The other large men jumped in to help, grabbing the women from behind. They ripped off one and threw her across the room. She hit the wall and landed on the ground. Not even a second later, she rolled over and got on all fours. With a snarl, she charged, climbing the back of another large man and slamming her claws into his skull.

By now, the woman who’d kicked in the door had picked up her weapon and she began firing. Carefully, though. Not spraying the room. No, she shot with precision. Head shots when she could get them. Neck or chest shots when she couldn’t. It took at least two head shots to take down each large man. At least six shots to the throat or chest to kill them that way.

Before Darren knew it, the large men were bleeding out on the floor and the women were unlocking his chains.

“You all right?” one of them asked.

“Yes,” he said, unable to look at her. Her face and neck were completely saturated in blood and bloody drool still poured from her mouth.

But still, she was letting him go. He would always be thankful for that at least.

* * *

Nelle opened the locks and removed the chains.

“Come on!” she ordered the full-humans. She didn’t yell, but she made sure to command them. That always worked better in situations like this. Then she said it again in a few other languages just in case.

Streep and Tock helped move the people out of the house. Just as they got them into the yard, a semitruck came toward them on the driveway. The transportation for the “product” they were selling, which was how the shifters had referred to the full-humans.

“Go!” Nelle yelled at Streep and Tock. “Get them down to the buses!”

While her teammates took off, she charged back into the house. As she went for the stairs that led to the lower floors, Charlie and the others were coming up, with even more freed full-humans. Her friends were covered in a good amount of blood, so Nelle wasn’t too concerned about anyone not friendly coming up from the basement.

“Truck coming,” she warned.

“You and Mads take these people out,” Charlie ordered. “Get them to