Mathieu (White Flame Trilogy) - By Paula Flumerfelt Page 0,161

wait. Then you’re set when the light turns from orange to blue.” Mathieu turned and pointed to a roof some distance away. “And a demonstration.” Lifting the gun, he closed one eye and took aim at a satellite on the roof. Give the trigger a pull, he fired one precise pulse shot. The force of the blow sent the satellite spinning off its stand and into the air before clattering to a stop five or six roofs away. “Packs a hell of a punch even at long distances.” Quickly he traded with Solomon again and aimed for the next satellite, successfully riddling it with holes. “That’s about all there is to know. Take these back with you,” he nudged the crate he had retrieved earlier, “and go teach the others.”

Two of the man Armel had brought with her nodded to each other and picked up both ends of the crate. “Thank you.” Armel said and shook Mathieu’s hand again before following the others.

“Nice quick lesson.” Mathieu said offhandedly.

Solomon looked down his nose at him, “And how do you know how to use a gun, Mathieu?”

He raised an eyebrow. “I lived in the royal palace for over six years. You think I can’t handle some mundane weaponry? I also know that the King has men working on genetically mutating people and animals for his personal defense, but I don’t go telling everyone I meet that, now do I?”

“Just asking. No need to get crabby.”

Mathieu sighed and ground the toe of his boog into the dirt. “Sorry. I just want this to be over, you know? It hasn’t even been that long, but…”

Solomon wrapped his arms around Mathieu, kissing the top of his head. “Two days. That’s all that’s left. Are you ready to face the King?”

“Yeah. I’m ready.” He leaned into the blond, feeling safe and warm for the moment. The pit of his stomach sank a few inches, but he knew what he had to do and he had no qualms about that.

Chapter

Twenty-Five

Things hadn’t gone as planned. At all. Mathieu coughed as he ran through the smoke of District 2, looking around with watery eyes. Thanks to Anastasie, more than half of the districts in Ateri were on fire now, and his team had become split up in the explosion. Vincent was at his side, but the rest were vanished into the debris and smoke. All around him, he could hear fighting. The fighting of the citizens and the soldiers; the fighting of Korinthians and Unithians. “Damn it,” he growled to himself, ducking down as a wiz of bullets went overhead. He needed to get somewhere higher, somewhere he could see from.

Vincent, back in the body of his wolf form, was pulling softly on his tunic, whining. “I know it‘s hard to breath, Vince,” Mathieu said, “We need to get to a roof, okay?” His eyes scanned the doors around him and he settled on the closest one.

With one good kick from him, and all of Vincent’s weight thrown at it, it flew open to reveal the bottom floor of an empty office building. “This will have to do. The power’s been cut, so we have to take the stairs.” He knew that it didn’t do much good to talk to Vincent, seeing as to how he couldn’t respond, but it was helping him keep a clear head through the haze of gray.

The door to the stairs was in the back left corner, and it opened with a good shove. The locks hadn’t been engaged. As they started climbing the stairs, he wondered what he has really expected for the invasion. Mathieu hadn’t really thought that they’d come storming in and the soldiers would just lay aside their weapons, but he hadn’t wanted this blood bath, either. It had to end soon, and the only way that would happen was if he finished what he’d come to do.

“Five more floors.” The stitch in his side was killing him, and the sword at his hip wasn’t exactly a basket of kittens.

Vincent sprinted ahead of him the rest of the way until they stood outside the door that led to the roof. Stopping to pant, Mathieu put a hand on the wall to keep himself up. Once he had most of his breath back, he unlatched the door’s floor bolt and pushed it open. Here, they were above the haze of the explosions and he could look down the entire block. Soldiers and Unithians were fighting most of way down. Not far,