“Come on! We don’t have much time.”
The rescue team emerged into a darkened alley within a minute. Harry kicked the manhole cover back onto the hole, and it shimmered and blurred until it looked like the rest of the asphalt in the alley. Perfect camouflage.
How many of these things do they have around town? Do they have one near my place?
They’d arrived in an older business district. The flaking paint, occasional barred windows, and rusted signs were proof the decades hadn’t been kind to the area.
Shay’s head shot up at loud shouts from above. Several dark forms leapt from building to building. A moment later, mocking laughter cut through the air, and several more people jumped across.
The tomb raider’s eyes narrowed, and her jaw tightened. Even at a distance, she spotted familiar colors. The boy had been wrong, and that changed the entire situation.
“Good news, Harry. They aren’t bounty hunters.”
Harry stared at her. “You sure? One of the others said he spotted bounty hunters. That’s when I broke off to go find help.” He frowned. “Who the hell are they, then?”
“That’s the bad news. They are Demon Generals.”
Lily, Casey, and Harry grimaced at the mention of the vicious street gang.
Good. At least these kids have enough street smarts to be afraid of the gang.
Shay turned to Lily. “Any visions?”
The girl shook her head. “I…can’t see anything.” She frowned and looked away.
“We’ll just deal with what’s in front of us, then.” Shay searched the alley for some way to get to the roof and spotted a convenient drain pipe. “If a bunch of these guys end up dead, it’ll only be worse for you. They’ll come looking in force, and it’ll also get the cops involved.”
The teens nodded.
Shay started shinnying up the pole. “But if we knock ‘em around a little and run, that shouldn’t be a big deal. Just need to catch up and distract them so your friends can get away.”
The tomb raider and the three teens made it to the roof in time to see the gang members leaping after the others.
Fucking Demon Generals. When did they get so brave?
Shay and the others rushed toward the edge and leapt at the same time. They landed with practiced rolls that maintained all their momentum.
The teens in front of the gang members hit a fire-escape and jumped off it to a narrow ledge on the original building. They pushed off the ledge and hopped down to another similar-sized ledge. The gang members took one look at the ledge and rushed down the stairs instead.
Not so brave now, are you, assholes?
Several shouts sounded from the ground. A pack of Demon Generals was closing in from both sides.
Fuck.
Harry, Lily, Shay, and Casey stopped and looked around.
The teens would be able to get away if only the first set of criminals had been a concern, but with three groups of gang members now on them, escape looked a lot less likely.
Shay sighed. “Damn it. I’ll handle the guys on the ground. If the others can just shake the guys following them, this’ll work.” With her heart pounding, she hopped down to a balcony right beneath her. She landed with a thump, then leapt from balcony to balcony until she hit the narrow street.
Fuck. There’s no way I can stop both groups without killing a bunch of them. Even if I take the guys on one side out, the others will probably go for their guns. Guess I have no choice.
Shay reached for her gun.
A sudden hard gust of wind howled, shoving back one of the groups of Demon Generals on the ground. Several of the men hit the ground with loud grunts. Casey stood on the edge of the building with her eyes closed and her hands out in front of her.
I keep forgetting that Lily’s not the only special one, even if their shit is unreliable. Just hope Casey can keep it up.
Harry and Lily leapt from the edge of the building, and Shay’s heart rate kicked up. It didn’t look like they were going to clear the roof. At the last moment, they grabbed the edge of the next roof and pulled themselves up and ran after their friends.
Damn! Impressive.
Shay charged around the corner and approached the four ground-level Demon Generals. They were so focused on tracking their prey and their men above that Shay was able to down two with quick kicks to the knees before they even realized they were under attack.
The two other gang members reached for their guns as they turned around. Shay rushed forward to throat-punch one and slapped the gun out of the second man’s hand. With the first man on the ground clutching his throat, she threw a series of quick punches.
All the tattoos in the world didn’t make up for a lack of solid training and near-daily practice. The man grunted under her hits, staggering backward. She finished him with an uppercut that sent him to the ground.
Not wanting to repeat her enemies’ mistake, Shay didn’t turn her back. Instead, she rushed back to the three other men and made sure they were unconscious with a few solid kicks to the head.
She hissed at an ache in her side. The Demon Generals hadn’t hurt her, but she risked opening her wounds from the Central Park fight.
Lily’s really dragged me into a lot of unprofitable fights. Don’t know how I feel about that, but I might as well finish what I’ve started. Not like I don’t have my own reasons for not liking the Demon Generals.
Shay sprinted in the direction of the fast-moving teens and gangbangers still above her. The howling wind from before had died down, but the reinforcements didn’t come around the corner. Maybe Casey’s wind had knocked them out.
The front group of teens was closing on a construction site where a massive crane was parked, but there were no decent buildings
