Marinah shot up in a whirlwind of motion.“Hurry!I didn’t bother taking off my boots.Why did you?”she demanded as I laced mine up.
“I don’t love and caress my boots the way you do,” I replied, smirking.“Mine are fine for the floor.”
“Argh,” she grumbled every few seconds until I finished.
“Don’t forget the antidote,” I told her before she could leave the room.I picked up the first syringe and injected it into her upper arm.She did the same for me, then gave me a piqued look suggesting we were late for the war.I stomped out after her.
We ran into Beck on our way.“Ships on the horizon,” he said, falling into step with us.“They’re not moving closer.”
“They’ll release the hellhounds first.Are Cabel and his team clear of the water?”Marinah demanded.
“Yes.Missy has the archers stationed at the shore, ready and waiting.”
“Tell them to shoot at will once they spot hellhounds coming in,” Marinah ordered.“I need to get to the armory, and then I’ll head her way.We’ll bomb their ships when I give the order.”
Beck nodded sharply and took off in the opposite direction as we continued toward the armory.
Inside, Ruth and Che were sprawled on cots, sound asleep.They were so exhausted that even the sirens hadn’t woken them.Marinah strode into the room, barely pausing as she plucked the armory key from Ruth’s slack fingers.
She locked the heavy metal door behind us as we left, her eyes already scanning ahead, her mind undoubtedly planning our next move.
“Have I ever told you that you’re brilliant?”I asked.
“She’ll be angry but alive when this is over, and at least I didn’t need to force them into the smaller room,” she replied, attempting a smile that worry refused to let through.Once the battle started, she would loosen up.
We headed to the motorbikes next.For someone who had been terrified the first time she rode as a passenger behind me, she’d become a pro.She revved her engine and took off, tires spinning and a cloud of dust rising behind her.I watched for a moment as she picked up speed, her braids flowing behind her like a banner.
Within minutes, we reached the bay, where fifty Warriors stood at attention, waiting for Marinah’s command.The Federation ships were nothing more than small pinpoints on the horizon.Marinah scanned the water, her expression calculating.
“If we can see them, they can see us,” she said.“They know we’re alerted to their presence.As soon as they release the hellhounds with them, we’ll send the planes in.”
Marinah had decided against sending our planes out to sea before the Federation ships hit our waters.I hadn’t questioned her decision, and Beck hadn’t been around when it was made.Marinah always had her reasons, and I didn’t need to understand them to trust her.
We had four operational passenger planes and sixteen fighter jets.The downside?Only six pilots.Shadow Warriors and humans were still in training, but they weren’t ready yet.Like everything else in this fucked-up new world, we made do with what we had.
The hellhounds we’d secured in the bay were still in place, without the Federation’s knowledge, and we had our own frequency signal to release them.The last thing they’d expect were hounds in an area where they hadn’t planted them or at least that was the hope.We climbed back on the bikes, joined by the Warriors, and rode to the closest point where the Federation planted hellhounds that they expected to come ashore.
The beach was eerily still, even though more of Missy’s archers stood on the road overlooking the ocean.The waves broke far from the shoreline, and we waited in tense silence.
I removed my boots and shifted while Marinah watched the water.
The first ripples came while it was still dark, the ocean’s surface betraying the movement beneath.The horde emerged; their waterlogged bodies more grotesque than ever.Some had moss dangling from their twisted limbs, while others had missing body parts chewed off by underwater creatures.They moved almost in unison, surging toward the shore like a single entity.
When they hit the beach, the water no longer slowed them down, and their speed increased.Marinah clicked her radio and gave the order.“Air attack on the Federation ships.Now.”
She placed the radio back on her side strap and faced me.“Ready, baby?”She threw me a teasing smile, her eyes alight with a killing gleam.
I answered with a flash of fang.She bent and carefully removed her boots, placing them in the bike’s saddle bag, adjusted her straps, and shifted to Warrior form.She sent me a blown kiss with a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth.
“Let’s kill some hellhounds,” she said, charging forward.
I sprinted after her, using my legs to propel me up and over her tall body so I landed in front.
“Show-off,” she laughed, her voice full of adrenaline as we launched into what we were made for.Kill, Beast whispered inside me.I had no problem obliging.
I swung my sword, cleaving the first hellhound from skull to shoulder in a clean, precise arc.With a slight pivot, I drove the blade’s tip into the next one’s throat, slicing through bone and cartilage.Its waterlogged body made a grotesque sound as I severed its spinal column.
Nearby, Marinah raised her mortuary sword high over her head, bringing it down with a deadly force that felled another hellhound.I turned to the next target, the thrill of battle coursing through me.
