In the distance, a guitar played a fiddler’s tune. It came to them on an intermittent wind, colder than the dead air that hung around them. It was a melody that reminded Euan of home. It was a soft, lilting song that carried a sense of finality. Euan held that memory tight as Knight spoke.
‘I’d run out of miracles, McKay. When Lily was taken, I had two choices. Save everyone, or save her. I made a choice, a choice that I’ll always regret. But there are no more easy decisions. She was so fucking strong before she’d been taken. She’s only now beginning to get some of that back.’
Knight’s dark gaze tilted towards the light that beckoned them. ‘I would do anything to see her happy. Anything. If that meant supporting her to rule the new world, or killing everyone because she wanted it done, I’d do it. Your job isn’t to stifle them. If we survive this and save Nick, your job is to protect her while she does whatever the fuck she wants. You do anything else and you’ll lose her. And I don’t mean physically. I mean her light. I’d do anything to get Lily’s back. Don’t take what Kira has for granted.’
At Knight’s words, there was an uncomfortable brand right where his heart should be. The pulse of his heartbeat was in his fingertips. He knew it to be true. But he couldn’t think further than saving Nick.
‘I hear you,’ he said.
‘Good, because the end is coming. Soon, you’ll need to make a choice. And it won’t be one that will be easy. Choices like that never are.’
Knight moved on, his big body swallowed by the darkness. The crunch of his boots over the cement allowed Euan to follow and before long, they were shoulder to shoulder. Man to man. Two males, realising that their future was not with themselves, but with the women that they loved.
Chapter 24
Euan
They were creatures of the night. As each hour passed they stole souls and sent them to their maker. They were nightmares reincarnate, a force of justice and carnage. They were both man and shadow, phantoms in the dark, waiting for their victims like silent crusaders so they could feed on their essence, and amass their weapons. When the chorus of laughter and revelry began to die down, and the night settled into its longest hour, they had collected a small hoard of ammunition and had set it out in strategic locations. Every stockpile in line of sight of the fences, and the men that guarded it.
They were close enough now to the compound that the strobe lights used to light the buildings was enough to illuminate their way. The generators rumbled to support them, somewhere, water dripped. Their breaths were slow and even. Euan’s shoulders were loose and his body thrummed with confidence. They were in the place they had strategised that would begin this farce. He turned to Knight. ‘Ready?’
A grim look of determination met his and Knight gave him a jerk of his chin.
He would feel no remorse for what was about to take place. Like he had granted Lenny’s wish all those months ago, he would bestow the gift of death onto those men that wished it now.
He raised a rifle, peered through the scope with his single eye, and eased the air out of his lungs in one long exhale.
Then, he pulled the trigger and one by one, shot the guards that lined the wire fence.
The sound of the gunfire ricocheted off the concrete blockwork to reverberate through the industrial landscape. It was a horn to announce the beginning of battle. Euan’s victims gurgled as they hit the ground, thrashed as blood splattered the concrete at their feet. The bright strobe lights cast an orange glow over the puddles that bloomed out of convulsing bodies.
When the men at the fence fell into the dust, swarms emerged from the building to aid their comrades. Weapons were aimed into the night, shots were fired with unlimited stolen ammunition. The rat-a-tat-tat of semi-automatics echoed around them. Euan pressed his spine to the bricks just as the cover at his shoulders disintegrated from the gunfire. He hunched his shoulders to avoid the bullets and ducked only just in time when a stray missile made of brick landed where he had hidden.
Knight mirrored his actions. He avoided the bullets while also shooting his own. The sound of his rifle was lost in amongst the chaos of the gunfire, the screams of the dying, the orders and war-cries. The strobe lights and the wire fence were in their favour. If they could avoid the retaliation, Parker’s men were easy to see and shoot.
A sense of calm came over Euan. His body was fluid as he and Knight dashed to their next hoard. The indecision that had plagued him previously had been replaced by a lightness in his chest, loose limbs and a steady pulse. In unison, they each picked up a handgun and shot carefully. Now they aimed not at the men, but at the machinery. The generators, the lights, and the fuel pumps. The rumble of engines spluttered while others died. The sky turned black as the strobe lights flickered off. The compound was thrown into shadow and darkness.
A world Euan now enjoyed.
It was chaos. It was mayhem. Men screamed, others cursed. The last bellowed for assistance. Water sprayed from the tanks to gush over the cement. The sounds of it mixed with the clunk and whine of generators that attempted to continue despite fatal injuries to their working parts. The scent of petrol stung Euan’s nose as they dashed between buildings, using each stockpile strategically to confuse and misdirect their enemy.
The
