But he was already rushing out of theelevator in a blur of motion. It took everything she had not topoke her head out to watch him. However, she much preferred not tohave a bullet between her eyes.
Lucy hit the open-door button, and the lightturned on as the doors remained open, but Melanie didn’t trust it.She kept waiting for something to override it somehow, for thedoors to close, and for them to be trapped within the steel cage asit sank back beneath the earth.
It took everything she had not to scream asterror and frustration mounted within her. This not knowing wastorture as the bullets stopped denting the back wall but continuedto fire. They were aiming athimshe realized as herbreakfast almost resurfaced.
She wanted to charge out there and help Kyle,but she could only stand there and hug her friend as she prayed forsome miracle to get them out of this.
A bullet hit him in the shoulder and knockedhim back for a fraction of a step, but it didn’t stop him.Nothingwas going to stop him now that he was free andMelanie was at risk. If he failed, they would all die, so failurewasnotan option.
He zigzagged across the space in a patternmeant to confuse, and it did. As he approached the first guard, thebullets pummeled the ground behind him before ceasing. The otherguard was trying not to shoot their friend.
The first guard swung the automatic rifleback and forth to take him down, but no more bullets hit him. Kylemoved faster than he’d ever believed possible as he unleashed thepower reaching maturity brought him.
He didn’t care what he had to do; he wouldmake sure Melanie survived this. Another bullet grazed his temple asecond before he caught the end of the gun, jerked it down, andpunched the human’s face.
Bone and cartilage shattered, and blooderupted. His fangs extended, and saliva rushed into his mouth. Hehadn’t realized how ravenous he was; they’d given him blood, but itwasn’t enough to sustain the healing his body required.
Grasping the man, he held the guard againsthis chest as he spun toward the other one. The other man’sreluctance to kill his friend died the second Kyle grabbed him.Bullets pummeled the man’s chest, and he spasmed in Kyle’s grip asgunfire riddled his body, but he kept Kyle shielded.
Kyle felt no sympathy for the dying man as helifted his rifle and aimed it at the other human. He didn’t care ifhe had to slaughter every single person in here to escape. If itmade him a Savage, then so be it, but he would do whatever wasnecessary to get away from here with Melanie.
The man across the way dove for cover as Kylefired at him. Continuing to use the dead man as cover, he chargedafter the other guard, who ducked behind a corner of the wall.
When Kyle arrived at the corner, he shiftedhis hold on the dead guard and, grasping his ankles, swung his bodyaround the corner. An oomph of sound and the slap of flesh againstflesh told him the other human didn’t retreat far.
More gunfire erupted, and Kyle twisted hisrifle around the small corner and started pulling the triggeragain. He didn’t have to wait long before the other man stoppedfiring.
Cautiously, he poked his head around thecorner and spotted the guard lying on the floor with his eyes openand blood trickling from the hole in the center of his forehead. Hethrew the first guard on top of the body and grasped the otherrifle. He also removed a handgun from the second guard’s beltbefore sprinting back to the elevator.
“We have to go!” he yelled as he ran.
Lucy and Melanie poked their heads out fromaround the elevator doors. They’d both paled considerably, but theydidn’t hesitate before rushing to join him.
“Do you know how to use a gun?” he askedMelanie.
“Yes, we both do,” Melanie answered.
He handed each of them a rifle. “I have noidea how much ammo is in them, so be careful.”
They nodded, and then Melanie let out astartled cry when she saw the blood trickling down his arm. Thestrange red and black color encompassing his skin had spread overhis body and spread up toward his face, but it did little to hidethe bright red color of his blood.
That strange color should unnerve her, andmaybe if he were acting differently, it would, but he was stillherKyle. She went to clutch his arm, but her hand frozebetween them. She didn’t want to hurt him anymore by jerking onhim.
“You’ve been shot!” she cried.
He grasped her hand and squeezed it. Anydoubts he might have had about how she felt about him vanished asshe gazed at him with tears in her eyes. She wasn’t just using himto get out of here; she loved him too, even if she hadn’t said ityet.
“I’ll be fine,” he assured her, “but we haveto go.”
Melanie’s eyes flew up to his as another moretroubling realization sank in. “You killed them.”
“Technically, one of them shot theother.”
“But you’ve never—”
“It was necessary,” he said.
“Will it make you like the ones below?”
