There was an angry shout deeper in the forest. It sounded like Sonya. I ran in that direction.
Crashing through the trees, I saw a blue fire glow ahead. I stepped into a clearing and into the middle of a standoff.
Sonya was stuck in the middle. In front of her was the last Drekavac, and his twisted, metallic caricature of a face burned with fury. Behind her was the bedraggled succubus who was clearly tired of chasing her through the woods, because she lifted one hand to unfurl a bullwhip. When she snapped it, the whole thing burst into orange flames.
I couldn’t figure out why neither of the two monsters had made a move yet, until I realized that Sonya was holding a hand grenade to her chest and had already pulled the pin. The only thing keeping her from blowing herself and the Ward up was her hand pressure on the spoon.
I slowed down. I’d done something like that once as a bluff because I’d only been armed with a smoke grenade. That was a frag. Sonya wasn’t about to get dragged down to hell alive. Couldn’t say I blamed her.
“She’s coming with me,” the succubus said.
“You are nothing to me, minor spawn,” the Drekavac rumbled as he pointed his blunderbuss at Lana.
“Oh, I’m no pushover,” the succubus said. “This body has gotten some serious combat upgrades recently. I’m working for this human who has got some serious connections.”
Sonya glanced nervously between the two creatures. “Do I get a vote where I go?”
“No,” said the Drekavac. But he didn’t get any closer to her, because as much as he wanted to punish the thief, his contract must have specified that he had to retrieve the Ward undamaged.
“Either of you come any closer and I swear I’ll blow this thing to bits! I’m not messing around!”
“I’m trying to save your life here,” said the succubus.
“I can’t imagine why she doesn’t trust you,” I said as I walked into the clearing with my rifle on the Drekavac. I probably could have just started shooting, but I didn’t know how tough the final body would be so I didn’t know if I could drop him by myself or not. I was really hoping my friends were on the way and needed to buy them some time to get here.
“Owen?” At least Sonya had gotten my name right that time. She was now boxed in on three sides, but MHI was by far her best option. We were mildly inconvenient and didn’t want to give her bags of money, while the blue guy wanted to condemn her to eternal torment, and the sex demon with the flaming whip worked for the spy Sonya had robbed. In that equation my team seemed downright boring in comparison.
“Yeah. Let’s all remain calm.”
And then things got even more complicated as Agent Franks stepped into view across from me, which meant Sonya had no direction left to run. From the looks of him, he’d had about as rough a night as Earl, with his armor covered in scorch marks and bullet impacts. Despite going after the succubus, it appeared that Franks had taken care of a whole lot of Drekavacs for us along the way.
“Franks!” Lana didn’t seem too upset to see him. “I was really hoping you’d show up in time for this.”
Despite her enthusiasm, Franks aimed his rifle at her. “Where’s Stricken?”
“Well, this is awkward,” she said, coy. “You wouldn’t shoot me.”
Franks just grunted in annoyance. I figured the list of all the sentient beings in the universe Franks wouldn’t shoot would fit on a Post-it note, and I sincerely doubted any of us assembled here had made the cut.
“Alright. No need for you to get all huffy. I’ll tell you where Stricken is, but you’re probably going to be upset as usual . . . because he’s right behind you.”
There was the clack of a shotgun bolt being dropped.
Stricken had seemingly materialized out of nowhere, about twenty feet behind Franks. The man must have had gnome-level ninja skills to have gotten that close without any of us seeing him. He had a semiauto shotgun pointed at Franks’ spine and had ditched the suit in exchange for some MCB-style body armor, though he had kept the shades. Of course he’d retained that trademark affectation, even though it was pitch-black out here.
“Don’t move,” Stricken said. Franks was fast, but there was no way he’d be fast enough to not get plugged in the back. Except Stricken must have known that Franks wouldn’t mind getting shot if it meant killing him in the process. “I know what you’re thinking, but I had these armor-piercing slugs made special after our little Project Nemesis debacle. The shells I’ve got loaded in here are filled with a neurotoxin harvested from a jellyfish that is the nastiest poison on Earth. Even as tough as you are, all those redundant organs of yours will basically melt.”
“It’s even lethal to Franks?” Lana said. “Nice.”
“Sugar, this shit would nuke a T. rex.” Stricken looked around the very nervous clearing. He saw me, but I didn’t dare take my gun off the Drekavac in order to shoot Stricken. “So the gang’s all here. Pitt, meet Lana.”
“We met earlier. She kicked me in the head.”
“You told me Pitt was ugly, but I think he’s kinda cute,” she said.
“You say that about everybody . . . And you’ve all met Silas Carver.” Stricken nodded toward the Drekavac. “Cursed witch burner turned whatever the fuck he is now, but we’re going to need a nearly unkillable super monster where we’re going.”
The monster was still staring at Sonya with unquenchable hate, except she was keeping the live grenade pressed against her chest so he didn’t dare move without risking his prize. Sonya was wearing the same face as earlier—her supposedly real one—and she looked downright defiant. It wasn’t that she was unafraid to die. She was obviously terrified. But if you were going to die anyway, better to do it on your terms
