"Jesus Christ," came Diego's voice. "It smells like a whorehouse in here."
Rafael and I both scrambled to yank our clothing back into place while getting to our feet. I winced at the feeling of dried cum spread all over me. Jesus, he’d been really into it.
Jasper took in the scene before grunting and lighting a cigarette.
"Oh, good!" Diego's face lit up as he set down his bags. "You finally fucked! Maybe the tension will be better now."
Rafael took one look at me, then pulled away from me like I'd caught fire.
"Oh no." Diego's smile faded as he watched us refuse to look at each other. "This is worse, isn't it?"
"D?," Jasper said around his cigarette. "Much worse."
We yanked our clothes on without looking at each other. The air between us was thick enough to choke on. Every accidental brush of skin made us both flinch.
Diego set down the last of the supply bags. "Right. Well. I brought food and ammunition and—"
A proximity alarm suddenly screeched.
Jasper dropped his cigarette, stomped it out and drew his katana while Diego went to the monitors. "How many?"
"Twelve. No, fifteen. Mierda. Sacra Custodia and Cerberus. All three entrances."
"Both?" I demanded, leaning over the monitors.
Diego frowned. "And from the looks of it, this time, they're working together."
Something cold slid down my spine. "That's not possible."
"I'm looking at the same feed you are, hermano."
Rafael moved beside me, staring at the monitors. "The Church and the Pantheon don't cooperate. Ever."
"Well, someone forgot to tell them that," Diego muttered.
Something big banged on the warehouse doors once, twice… The doors buckled and then broke open. The soft clink of gas canisters registered as tiny metal cylinders rolled in.
“Move!” Jasper yelled just as the smoke canisters exploded.
I dove to one side, pulling Rafael with me, both of us coughing. As soon as we found cover, I drew my blades and peeked over the work table we’d ducked behind.
A dozen Sacra Custodia poured through one entrance, while Cerberus soldiers came through the other, rifles raised.
A Pantheon enforcer came at Jasper with a rifle. Jasper's blade took his hands off at the wrists before the man could pull the trigger. The enforcer's scream cut short when the katana's return stroke opened his throat. Blood sprayed across the concrete in a wide arc.
Another operative rushed him from behind. Jasper pivoted, the blade moving in a tight circle that caught the man under the ribs and continued through his spine. The body folded wrong, collapsing like a puppet whose strings had been cut.
Holy fuck, he was scary in motion.
Diego was beside him, sawed-off shotgun in hand. His first shot caught three Sacra Custodia operatives clustered near the door. The blast turned their silver masks into scrap metal and their heads into red mist.
I turned just as a Cerberus operative came at me, combat knife raised. I blocked, twisted inside his guard, and drove my blade up under his jaw. Bone cracked. The tip punched through the roof of his mouth into his brain. He went limp instantly.
Rafael's rifle cracked beside me. An operative who'd been lining up a shot on my back dropped, neat hole between his eyes.
"Behind you!" I shouted.
Rafael spun, driving the rifle stock into a Sacra Custodia operative's temple. The man's head snapped sideways with a crack. Rafael followed with a kick that sent him sprawling, then put two rounds through his chest.
