Chapter Fifteen
She was jarred awake by a ringing voice. A glance outside told her dawn hadn’t broken yet. She jumped out of bed, collecting her sheath, axes, and boots, and dashed out of her room as the voice blared.
“All captains and barrack members: an enemy force has entered the barracks. Execute a sweep.” In a sweep each barrack swept through the area between them and the next barrack down. In her case she’d head towards Barrack Nine, Kenny’s barrack.
“The group was last reported attempting to escape towards the outer perimeter on the east side. They are suspected to have abducted the missing member of research. Take as many alive as possible. Our objective is to retrieve the abducted member and take at least one prisoner.”
Dahlia met her troop in position and she led them at a breakneck but silent pace, spread between the circle of inner paths and the trees between the barracks and the outer wall. She focused on opening her senses to scan for anyone.
Minutes before she heard them she sensed two groups moving towards her. The one behind had Kenny’s unmistakable presence. The one in front seemed to be from outside her forces.
“Together at my point,” she called just loud enough. He barrack members fell in step behind her.
“Barrack Nine has someone on the run towards us. Be ready for them to make a break when they become aware of our presence. Genji, anticipate them breaking for the perimeter and be ready to cover them. Everyone else follow me and Lieutenant Sabir and prepare to work in Genji’s cover. If they don’t break towards you, Genji, follow fast.”
Genji broke off from the group, heading diagonally in the trees. She slowed her pace slightly to give him time to get in place and run parallel.
She heard the group coming towards her a moment before they heard her group. She sprinted forward, Arreal keeping up with her. When the enemy force became aware of the new group descending on them they bolted. Half the group headed towards the perimeter while the rest of the members shot diagonally up and back, trying to get around Kenny’s barrack. They moved faster than the first group, no longer masking their noise. They must have been trying to draw pursuit, giving the rest a chance to escape. Dahlia sensed a stronger presence from those members that, along with their increased speed, marked them as having ranked officer equivalents among them.
Kenny’s barrack was in sight. She shouted, “Lieutenants run point after the group heading towards Genji, soldiers with them. Watch for Genji’s cover! Ravin, over here!”
She heard Kenny bark, “You heard the captain, men. Go!”
Then he blurred and appeared in front of her.
Recovering quickly from his unexpectedly fast movement she shot out, “Ravin, can you catch us up with the second group?”
He nodded and turned. She swung onto his back and held on as he took off. She felt a pressure build underneath her as he pulled on his abilities and increased speed. She crouched tighter, making herself as small a target as possible as thin branches whipped by. The night flew past in a blur as he moved silently through the trees.
“We’ll pick them off, force them to stop,” she called against the rush.
She felt him nod in acknowledgement.
Within a minute they were closing in on the men. Kenny caught up to the first one on the edge of the group and knocked him down with a quick slash of his sword to the man’s ribs before the soldier could even respond to their presence. He cried out as he fell and she felt the other soldiers turn their attention to her and Kenny. Realizing that the two captains could easily pick them off if they continued to run, the soldiers turned to face their assailants. Two leapt up to position themselves in the trees above the fight. They drew bows and trained arrows on Dahlia and Kenny. Dahlia threw herself off Kenny’s back, rolling to one side as an arrow flew towards them and the men drew weapons.
One of the arrows struck Kenny in the shoulder and glanced off. He grinned at the men around him and shot forward, grabbing one unlucky man by his neck and hurling him into a comrade. The four others surrounded him, attempting to take the massive captain down. Kenny knocked the first man’s sword out of the way then moved in a blur to stand beside him. He ran the man through as he caught the next soldier’s blade in his bare hand. Dahlia saw blood on the blade before Kenny whipped his sword out of the first man’s body and slashed the second diagonally down his chest. The man’s rib cage showed in a flash of white before red welled up in the wound. The man fell with cry but flung out an arm and a thin spike the length of Dahlia’s forearm appeared in front of him. Kenny twisted in time to avoid being hit in the chest, but he roared as the spike shot through his shoulder. He brought his sword down again, throwing more weight behind it and cleaving the man in half.
Dahlia had moved to intercept the three other men surrounding them. She gestured and three women, identical to her, appeared. Her puppets: manifestations of similar speed and skill with weapons, though only partial strength.
Two of the men startled and hung back for a moment but one assumed they were just illusions and tried to continue through them. Two of her puppets fell on him and he found his blade caught on the first woman’s weapons as the other ripped into him with her ax.
Dahlia felt an arrow tear into her shoulder and she pointed towards the archer and released the trigger she’d set for her trap. The man froze then fell slowly from the tree, landing at the bottom with a painful thud. Behind her she heard another thud and crunch as Kenny grabbed one of the men near him and slammed the man into a tree. The man she’d trapped let out a disoriented sob as he lay on the ground.
Dahlia ripped the arrow out of her shoulder and countered as one of the men reached her. She caught his blade with both her axes and spun it to the ground. She brought an ax back up and slashed at his throat. He moved in the nick of time, backing up rapidly and she felt energy gathering around him as he drew on his abilities. She smiled, pointed a finger at him, and fired a psyche shot directly into his face. He went down, dazed by the assault on his mind. The energy around him dissipated. She smacked him across the temple with the flat of her ax and he was knocked out cold. Kenny’s blade flashed by her as he threw his sword like a javelin and speared the second archer through the shoulder. The man rocked back, thrown off balance by the momentum, and fell.
She turned towards the other two men and her puppets. Her first two puppets had taken the man they’d attacked down while the third danced backwards, pursued by the other soldier. Dahlia turned and waved the first two puppets to restrain the archers at the base of the tree. She stepped in front of the third puppet and caught a strike from the soldier pursuing the puppet on her own ax. Dahlia shoved the blade up and swung her shin into his knee causing it to buckle with a crack. He fell to the other knee, throwing out a hand to catch himself. Dahlia cruelly kicked the hand out from under him, catching the sword again with her ax as he tried to lash out at her. Then she swung the flat of her second ax into the side of his head with enough force to dislocate his jaw. He dropped as well.
She turned to see Kenny had incapacitated the last man, breaking both arms then lifting him up by the neck. The man’s feet hung a few inches above the ground as Kenny looked at him with disappointment. Her third puppet was standing nearby.
That meant Kenny had taken out five plus one of the archers. She and her puppets had accounted for another three and the second archer. Adrenaline from the thrill of pursuit beat in her ears as she looked around for any soldier still standing.
She heard the man drop and felt Kenny move towards her. She turned to see the dark, primal god she’d witnessed before. His black eyes were on fire with the heat of the fight. Her body, already high from the exertion of combat, responded to his hunger. The lust she’d pushed down before flooded into her veins. She felt her sanity engulfed by a feral, vicious desire that found resonance with him.
He caught her up and slammed her back against a tree as she hooked her legs over his hips. Her inner demon whispered in the back of her mind and she drowned in her primitive lusts for conflict, dominance, and sex. She let her demon out to play and let her dark, blood-soaked god take her. As their prey lay around her and blood trickled down her chest from her lover’s wounds she felt him press his body into hers. She leaned her head back and howled out insane laughter.
Feeling him buried in her stoked some animalistic desire into an all-consuming need and every scrap of humanity vanished. She grabbed at him, swore, and rode him as he satiated a hunger she’d never let free before. His scent, mixing with the tang of blood, filled her nostrils, drove her mad. She needed to immerse in the sensations. Pain, pleasure, everything that touched her senses she wanted to drown in. The desire to fill her mind with nothing but the raw, physicality of sex, burning muscles, and pleasure overwhelmed her. Her body demanded more.
“Harder, I want you to make me scream,” her voice was almost unrecognizable.
He moved faster inside her. Feral and savage, she felt the madness they’d been caught in consume her mind. She growled and moaned, encouraging him to take her even deeper.
She nipped at his shoulder that had taken the spike and she tasted blood. She felt the growl of a beast vibrate from his body and she lapped at the light marks she’d left. Holding her up with one hand he pushed the other into her hair and forced her mouth against his. The hot, iron taste of blood filled her again as their tongues met and she moaned in pleasure and need.
He filled her completely, slamming against her inner wall. Pain coupled with pleasure, pushing her higher towards satiation. The hand in her hair tightened and pulled her head back so her neck arched and her chest was thrust forward, bared for him. He bit her breast and she could feel the skin breaking. She couldn’t twist away. She felt caught, restrained, and she reveled in it. She cried out and pushed harder against his grip, forcing him to tighten it even more.
She dug her fingers into his waist, gripped him tighter with her thighs, and pulled him closer, deeper as he thrust into her. She felt herself finally breaking, the rush drawing her further into her raw need. She released him, raised her arms above her head and planted her palms into the tree, pushing her hips down onto him as she came. The madness in her satisfied, the storm in her mind abated and left a passive lull behind.
Limp, her new found hunger finally replete, she fell against him while he thrust into her as he came.
He held her there a minute until her breathing returned to normal then he pulled back and set her down. She reassembled her clothing best she could--Kenny had torn the front of her tunic--and tried to piece her sanity back together after the shock of what she’d done. She checked that the soldiers they’d taken down were all still present.
She smelled blood, sex, and fear in the air. If the men had been afraid before it would be nothing compared to what they were experiencing now. They were justified in thinking their captors were psychotic. They’d been nothing more than two blood crazed predators rutting over fallen prey.
She met Kenny’s flat, black eyes. For better or worse she’d have to deal with this later. For now she needed to let it go and behave like she was a captain instead of an animal.
“Six of them are still alive, only two are conscious. They’re both too terrified to run now though they might try something when we take them in if there’s an opportunity.”
Kenny was grinning. He, at least, was comfortable with what had happened.
“I’d love it if they tried to run.” She bet he would. Images of a chase flashed through her mind. She shoved them aside. Screw not suppressing your thoughts and emotions.
“And the archer is not going to be aware of his body for quite some time,” she continued.
“Since there’s six of them and more of me than of you,” she gestured and two more puppets joined the first three, “I can take them in while you locate our soldiers and take charge of whatever situation you find.”
He shrugged, “Your show, happy to collect the troops.” He paused. Then, “You ok?” he eyed her cautiously. “I was a little rough.”
“I’m fine.”
His grin was back, “You seemed to like it.”
“Later, Kenny. The barracks might need you.”
“You’re the boss,” the amusement was still thick in his voice. He took off, running flat out again.
Dahlia sent a puppet to each man then collected the sixth herself. They set off carrying the archer and the two still unconscious, marching the two who had regained consciousness with an ax on the side of the throat while she carried the one with broken arms.