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The devil has come to play.
I call out to him as I catch sight of more Gatekeepers headed over our way, but my warnings fall on deaf ears.
Two shots ring out, each driving through the temples of Cal’s two opponents.
They drop instantly and Cal takes a jarred step backward.
I look out to see Wraith with his gun still in firing position, up high on one of the shelves of the pallet racks.
I watch Cal blink rapidly and become more lucid, the jolt of Wraith’s unexpected interference seeming to have pulled him from the pits of darkness.
The next thing I know, he’s acknowledging me and skidding to a stop beside me. “Fuck, Char. I—”
“It’s okay, I get it. I’m good.” Struggling against the weight bearing down on me, a snarl escapes me. “I’m just pissed about being trapped.”
“Not for long,” he vows, grunting and growling as he grabs hold of the beam. “Motherfucker!” he roars as his muscles bunch, arms straining as he fights to get it off me. I’m not sure he can. We’re talking about several hundred pounds and he’s beaten and bloodied, not at his best and honestly just using adrenaline and rage to hold on right now.
At the sound of rushed footsteps, I see him note that several of Priest’s Gatekeepers are coming in hot, barreling toward us.
At the same time, Wraith is on the high ground, hurdling over the wreckage and fallen crap everywhere to reach us in time. He fires off two shots in quick succession, taking out two guys at the front. As their bodies fall, it pulls the other soldiers up short, a couple of them tripping over the fresh corpses of their dead teammates. A well-placed distraction on Wraith’s part. I watch him leap over some raging flames as the soldiers fire his way, trying to take him down. He barely lands stably on the concrete ground before vaulting forward out of the line of fire and ducking and rolling beneath the cover of another fallen pallet rack, putting him close to our side of the warehouse.
He maneuvers behind the cover, managing to make his way to us behind several pieces of fallen scaffolding. Bullets from the Gatekeepers ricochet off the metal as he skids to a stop beside us.
He takes in the situation with me trapped beneath a heavy beam, watching Cal’s fight to pull it off me. “Stop,” he tells him, laying a hand on his shoulder, getting that he needs the contact to keep him rooted to us so he doesn’t let the dark consume him. That won’t work well right now when we need logic and reason, rather than destruction and hellfire razing our enemies.
Cal releases the beam with a grunt and Wraith instructs, “Ideally, lifting with our shoulders at the point where the beam overhangs the crates would work well, but there’s not enough space in this case, and it would put one of us right out there in the direct line of fire. So, if we both exert enough force at this point,” he gestures to the beam,” It’ll buy her a few seconds to roll out from under it.” He takes me in, concern blazing back at me. “You think you can manage that? It’ll have to be quick.”
“Yes,” I tell him.
“Char, you sure?” Cal asks, mirroring Wraith’s worry.
“I can do it. And what other choice is there? Stay here and get cut down by the Gatekeepers, maybe go up in flames with the warehouse too?”
“Jesus Christ, don’t be talking like that,” Cal says, scrubbing a hand over his face, spreading the blood all over his skin.
“Surrender now and we’ll make your deaths quick!” one of the Gatekeepers calls out.
“Fuck,” Cal mutters, eyeing Wraith. “Hurry.”
Wraith nods and takes position, grasping the beam at the optimal point for leverage, just like Cal does.
“One. Two. Three,” Wraith utters.
And then they lift, the both of them grunting and growling at the effort.
The beam lifts a couple of inches, but it’s not enough for me to roll out.
“Son of a bitch!” Cal mutters, his muscles bunching and straining. “Where’s Cavalno?”
“No clue,” Wraith grits out, shifting his weight and trying to get more leverage with the beam. “Just focus on the immediate.” He gestures with his head toward the Gatekeepers closing in on us. “Or we’re dead men walking.”
“Just go,” I tell them. “Get out of here while you can.” There’s still a path of cover through the south doors. But if the Gatekeepers get any closer, that won’t be an option any more.
“We ain’t leaving you,” Cal tells me, looking beyond pissed that I even suggested it.
“The club needs you, Cal. Ax needs you. Your daughter. Your grandbaby.”
“You need me right now. We ain’t going nowhere without you.” He glares at Wraith. “You hearing me?”
