“Someone set off the sensors, she can’t be far,” came a voice down the hall.
I reached over and grabbed Caleb’s shirt and pulled him towards me, “You stay right here. As soon as I’m gone, you go to Law as fast as possible. Do not let them know that you’re here.”
“I’m not letting you go over there alone,” Caleb said in a pleading tone.
“Caleb, this person is very important to me. I need you to take care of her and make sure she’s safe. I’m not letting them hurt her anymore and I won’t let anyone hurt you. If they take me, you guys just have to come find me.”
“Okay,” Caleb said, nodding his head quickly, but with a dazed expression.
“And take the cat with you,” I whispered as I exited her apartment quietly.
I walked down the hallway. My hands shook with fear, not knowing what my fate would be once I reached the doorway.
“What are you doing in my apartment?” I asked three men, who were searching around as if I might be hiding in a cabinet.
“That’s her,” one said, nodding to the other.
“Be careful,” the other said.
“There’s nothing she can do to us. It’s a Mortal Night.”
“Maybe,” I said, casually opening the door to my closet, where I reached for a few weapons. I pulled out my 9mm knowing there were only two rounds left in it. I grabbed four throwing knives for variety.
“I think you’d better put that gun down and come with us,” said one of the men, who displayed his firearm sideways. What an idiot. I flipped the tip of the knife into my hand, arched my wrist, and shot it across the room. It impaled the wrist of the first idiot and his weapon dropped to the ground. Another began to draw his weapon. I drew mine faster and fired a shot at his right shoulder. The third man lunged toward me without drawing his weapon. I leapt to my left and slid across the counter into the kitchen. I reached for my decrepit broom and stomped on the end till it broke in half, making it a makeshift fighting stick. The man approached me, and I swung upward, popping him across the jaw. I rolled across the counter and back into the living room with the other two men, whining over the wounds. The man came fumbling back into the living room.
“You got a stick, I got this,” he said, pulling out a ten-inch blade with a grin like he had won.
“True,” I said and transferred the stick to my right hand, “But you’re going to have to get pretty close to me to do any damage.”
He ran towards me and I stepped back as he swung it at the air.
“That’s pretty good,” I said.
“You can twirl that thing all you want. It looks pretty fancy, but you’ll only be hitting air too,” he said, slightly out of breath.
“You’re right,” I said. I got a running start and slid across the mattress on the floor. I drew my foot back and kicked as hard as I could into the side of his knee, breaking it instantaneously. He yelped out in pain and gripped his knife to draw it down on me. I gripped the stick and swung it full circle. One side hit across his face, splintering slightly and immediately drawing blood, and then the other side came around, smashing into the same spot once more, rendering him unconscious. I tossed the stick to the side. I slid from the mattress and began to back out of the apartment, listening to each man groan in pain. I drew my gun, in case any of them wished to make a second attempted.
I heard a noise from behind me. I turned and drew my weapon upward. When my brain registered that I had it aimed right at Caro’s forehead, I hesitated. She didn’t, she sidestepped in the hall and pulled the trigger. I saw black and yellow pointed in my direction and had just enough time to turn my back. It was a clean shot, one prong in the shoulder, and one just above my hip. It made a clicking noise as the prongs shot electricity through me. My body seized, causing my finger to grip the trigger of my gun, sending a bullet through the floor. Like a bowling pin, I fell straight to the floor, face first.
Two more men followed in behind Caro, as she stepped towards me. My God, I hated Caro sometimes. Of course, only she would be able to take me out; she knew the ins and outs of my mind better than most. She knelt down beside me, grabbing a shirt from the couch. She wiped the blood from my face, now leaking from the brim and inside of my nose due to the impact with the floor.
“Oh, Dani, you should’ve know better,” she said.
“Ugh, you’re such a bitch,” I replied, trying to regain function of my limbs as the two men bound my legs and feet behind my back.
Caro grabbed the back of my neck and whispered in my ear, “Where’s your friend?”
“Long gone,” I said with a grin.
One of the men handed Caro a square box, she opened it and pulled out a syringe. She grabbed my arm, pulled my sleeve up, and drove the needle into my flesh, injecting a foreign substance.
“Go to sleep,” she said, as they pulled a dark cover over my head. As I drifted out of consciousness, I couldn’t help but think this wasn’t the best idea.
Bright light surrounded me when I woke up; it was like some sort of TV interview, all of them pointing directly at my face. I was slouched sideways in a metal chair. I knew better than to try to move my hands and feet. They were
