Pure Destiny (PureDark Ones #12) - Aja James Page 0,34
and blocked the downward arc of her chakram with his sword while stabbing forward with the long dagger. As the blade caught the handle of her second chakram, he flicked his wrist and easily twisted the weapon from her hand. In the same move, he slashed across her unprotected torso, slicing a deep gash across her middle. Not deep enough to open her bowels, but deep enough to incapacitate.
She fell to one knee with a pained gasp.
He moved past her just as Tristan came at him from the left, while Morgan attacked from the right. Wielding the sword and dagger in each hand, he countered two enemies at once.
Tristan’s blows were heavy, obliterating when they landed. But for the same reason, his movements were slower. Morgan might be weaker as a human, but his honed reflexes from military training and vicious street fights when he was undercover aided him now. He was fast, instinctive, and every attack was aimed to inflict maximum damage.
But neither, nor both, was the warrior’s match.
He’d held off two Great Beasts before—the Tiger King and his son. Tristan might be an Elite warrior, but even when he was still the Paladin, before the Master amplified his powers, the warrior could defeat the Medieval knight nine out of ten times in hand-to-hand combat. And the human soldier might be well-trained, but he was merely human.
Shortly, the warrior knocked Morgan out with a sword hilt to the temple. Then, he focused on Tristan, dodged a mighty swing from the Elite’s axe, and used the momentum to push the knight back with rapid parries of his sword.
When the enemy was backed against the wall, he moved in with his dagger, stabbing it straight through flesh and bone until he’d nailed Tristan’s shoulder to the plaster-covered concrete.
A muffled grunt of agony was all he heard as he retrieved another dagger from the wall of weapons, discarded his sword and strode toward the exit.
If his luck held, the training hall wouldn’t be on lock down yet. By his calculation, less than eighty seconds had passed.
The Pure Ones didn’t employ twenty-four-seven security to watch live feeds from every room. After all, their base was supposed to be secure. This wasn’t a prison; it was a sanctuary and home for the Immortals. Which was why the warrior bet he still had about thirty seconds before someone picked up on the carnage he left in his wake. At least he’d let them live.
On to the next task.
His target should be heading down this corridor right now.
Five, four, three, two…
One.
Just as the double doors of the training hall slid open, the warrior’s target walked past, his hand held in a female’s.
The ex-vampire queen, Jade Cicada. Her touch could be debilitating if she wished it, the warrior recalled from the intelligence reports in his memory banks. But he’d never let her close enough to touch his bare skin.
His hand struck out faster than the human eye could track, grabbing his target around the upper arm and pulling him into the warrior’s side.
The female vampire didn’t react in time, not trained in the arts of battle, dangerous though she was. Sliding a dagger into and out of her belly was like slicing through butter. So soft and vulnerable, despite being an Immortal.
She clutched the gushing wound and staggered back, her eyes wide with shock and fear. Not for herself, it was obvious, but for her charge. One hand reached out toward the warrior’s target as if she could somehow pull him back to safety.
Too late, the warrior thought.
His target had been acquired.
*** *** *** ***
“Code Red security breach, Level Seven,” Inanna said grimly a few seconds after Sophia dropped the metaphorical bomb of who Benji’s real sire was.
They’d all been struck dumb by the reveal, yet no one challenged the truth of it. It was as if they could all feel the veracity in their bones. In their souls.
This was what Destiny felt like.
Inanna’s words shook them out of the paralyzing silence. Both she and Tal wore almost invisible ear pieces as members of the Elite. Though they weren’t currently on guard or hunt rotation, it was protocol to be connected during waking hours, an added security measure in these increasingly violent and unpredictable times.
“No.”
The syllable whispered from Inanna’s lips like the last breath before the heart stopped beating, as her blue eyes went wide with terror.
“What’s going on?” Sophia demanded. “Report.”
But Inanna had already run from the room as if demons were on her heels.