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The tents fall away as I rush around ‘em and I see Yaron standin’ at the base of a low hill, his cloak snappin’ in a wind that’s characteristic a’ these parts even if the rain isn’t. Alphas and Betas wearing crimson approach him from the back on all sides, made up of his elite team — like my Six, only they call themselves Crimson Riders — me and my Six and another fifty Alphas from Dark City. Together, we’re seventy-eight total and even though Yaron only thought to bring eighteen of his Riders to stand against the dead army — bastard still only half believes it exists — we more than outnumber the scavengers makin’ their way down the hill towards us.
“Why’d you stop?” I growl as I step up to Yaron’s right and watch the scavengers climb slowly down the hill, weighed down by the weapons strapped across their chests, the many layers they’re wearin’, and the rain soakin’ ‘em through.
“The flag.” He juts his chin towards the flag carried by the scavenger in the front. It’s white.
Well, it was once white. Now, it’s closer to black, but the message still stands. In observing the flag and the one who carries it, I narrow my eyes. “Unfuckinbelievable.”
Yaron shouts as I storm forward, “You know these Betas?”
“Betasis a generous fuckin’ term,” I snark under my breath before shoutin’, “You’ve got some fuckin’ balls on you, Merlin, I’ll give you that much! But I’m gonna tear ‘em fuckin’ off, disembowel you and take your eyes back for my Omega.”
I stomp through the muddy terrain, rain slickin’ my hair against the sides a’ my face, slidin’ underneath the collar a’ my tee shirt and soakin’ me through to the bone. Don’t give a shit about that, though. I’m about to tear through my clothes. My Berserker is fuckin’ agitated at the sight a’ her.Maybe, if I tear Merlin inside out and offer Echo the corpse, she’ll forgive…
“I’ve got a flag,” Merlin blurts, finally lookin’ up from the careful way she’d been walkin’ down the hillside. She waves her sopping flag pitifully and tries to rub the hair out of her eyes, but the ragged blonde strands remain stubbornly plastered to the outside of her obnoxious fuckin’ goggles.
“That rag ain’t about to save you…”
“Hey!” She flips open the flap of her coat and levels the barrel of the automatic weapon in her hands at my chest. A machine gun. It’s an even nicer model than the last one she had.
“You dare point a weapon at a Berserker!”Yaron’s voice hits me like a wall and both Merlin and I stagger. I glare at him over my shoulder as he whips open his own cloak and reaches for the axe strapped to his back.
“Wait! I have information you want.” Merlin’s finger on the trigger looks happy, but she stays her hand. That alone I find troubling. She isn’t the kinda woman to wait. She’s more of a shoot first, kill the bastard, sell ‘em to the Mirage City Berserker so his Fates can reanimate ‘em, then ask questions later kinda gal.
Yaron doesn’t know her. He doesn’t notice, but I stand back watching, concerned by a sensation that there’s something absolutely not right about this. Those lingering questions are what keep me from actin’ on every impulse I have to kill the blonde trigger-happy fucker.
Yaron glares between Merlin and me — between her gun and me. The water in his hair drags black tendrils down the sides of his face and forehead like spilled ink. “Trash City carries weapons.” I don’t answer and he hisses under his breath. Sounds more like a prayer than a curse. “Jesús!”
A tall Beta male with black hair trots up to us. “Berserker.” He bows to Yaron, then to me, and, to Merlin, shows a mouthful of sharpened teeth.
“Ride to Ruby City. Return with the rest of the war contingent we left stationed there.”
Unlike my Six, he doesn’t talk back. He nods sharply, red cloak flapping in the wind, and says, “The entire contingent? You don’t want anyone left behind to guard the ships?”
He seems to consider, then says, “Ruby City are our allies, but they are known to ally themselves to Mirage City as well. Bring me a hundred more Crimson Riders. Leave a sparse few behind to defend the ships and send the rest to return to the south island. Keep an eye on the ports and set the villages on high alert. Betas capable of fighting should arm themselves and prepare to defend their lands in the absence of my full war party. It seems that ourallyDragnovic was telling the truth.”
“You doubted me?” I ask as Jesús disappears in a breeze.
“I did. Scavengers with automatic weapons and Alphas back from the dead make for difficult digestion.” His slippery gaze slides to Merlin, who shifts the barrel of her gun to him. He snarls, “But if you did not exaggerate about this, then perhaps you did not exaggerate the rest.”
I grunt, “Don’t flatter me now.”
“I didn’t.”
“Hector, relieve the scavengers of their guns.”
Hector, an Alpha about Echo’s height with thin legs and arms, struts forward, approaching Merlin first. When she gives her gun up, my suspicion inflates like a balloon prepared to burst. “The fuck are you doin’, Merlin? How’d you find us?”
“Are you kidding?” She spits as she watches Hector and two other Alphas remove guns from the other dozen scavengers at her back. “You thought we wouldn’t know about two Berserkers joining forces and roaming across Paradise Hole?”
“That don’t answer the fuckin’ question.”
“Grasslands compound told us. They’ve got scouts all over the area,” she says with a shrug.
Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.“We would have seen them.”
“No, you wouldn’t. We Betas have been livin’ in y’all’s shadows for a long time. We know how to avoid the sun.” She looks Yaron over in a way that seems threatenin’ and I know he feels it too when aggression and a growl roll off of him in response. Merlin’s lips flutter and she lifts both hands palm up by her face as if she’s only just remembered who the fuck she’s speakin’ to. “Look, I didn’t come here to get robbed. I came here to do you a favor.”
“Ha!” I laugh, loudly and theatrically. “You shittin’ me right now?”
