Two shots ring out almost overlapping. At the same moment I fling myself at Max. Wrapping my arms around her we roll backwards off the bed. One of the bullets slices downwards at a thirty degree angle to the floor. It ricochets upwards off the stone tiling and makes a clean entry and exit through my left thigh. Dropping Max, I raise myself to my right knee and peer over the edge of the bed.
I was a boy of seven when I saw my first dead body. A behemoth of a man, twice my size, and hairy and unkempt. He had been lying like a shot dog on the forest floor bleeding out his life. With perfect distinction I remembered the gurgling of his breath, struggling to fill his blood filled lungs. His pale eyes were opaque and unseeing, and the gaping hole in the center of his chest had taken over as the window to his soul. I'd shot that man. He'd been designated as the enemy and I'd killed him just like I'd been told. I saw my first dead man when I was nothing but a little boy, and I'd felt nothing because they'd taught me too well. All I had seen was a completed mission, no pity, no regret.
Looking down at the shell of the woman that lay bleeding on the floor I feel immeasurable pity. She'd been the big enemy. Five more seconds and she would have killed me and the woman I love more than life itself, and I felt bad watching her bleed to death. I guess once you get a conscience it just doesn't go away.
Sandeman's boy Jacob stands in the doorway, his skinny arms cradling a bedraggled bundle of long raven tresses and red silk. Lela leans on the slim boy heavily, her body as bruised and bloodied as Max's. Her lower lip trembles slightly and I can almost swear that a few solitary tears are trickling from her eyes. However, the two hands which still hold the gun in front of her are rock steady, and the eyes which sight down its barrel hold all the furious calm of a goddess delivering divine judgment.
The blond on the floor rasps out a gurgling breath, a bit of blood dribbling down her rounded chin. Her dilated blue eyes roll around coming to rest spitefully on the woman who'd just shot her down. "I want to know, how did you do it?" Her breath heaves in and out, shakily flecking the white silk with more red droplets. "You, you ain't nothing to any of us. All your life, no one has ever paid you mind. The only reason you weren't drowned at birth was because we needed you for today. Well today is almost over you know, and then what. What have you got left in this life? Do you enjoy being the black sheep? The one all of us spit on, because you aren't worth the dirt on our shoe…" Lela squeezes the trigger one last time and puts a bullet right between her eyes. The woman's blond hair falls over her forehead as she slumps over, covering the bullet hole so that she looks almost asleep.
"I was going to poison them all. The High familiars that is, but Otto failed me. I lost my temper with the dear boy and said a few harsh things. Turns out that I trained little Otto better than I thought. Instead of poisoning his kinfolk like we'd planned, he went behind my back and made a deal with that thing." She tilts her chin toward the prone woman on the floor. "Look, I've saved the both of you now. You're honorable kids, and I know you won't stab me in the back. So I say we call it even. The two of you get out there and start saving your family and I just walk away."
My eyes catch Max's. It's her decision to make, her sister, her people, and her battle. She nods her head once in her sister's direction, and then holds her hands out to me. In one smooth motion I hoist her too her feet. I watch proudly as she stands without wavering. She's one of our people, and I feel a moment of pride for what I am. The totipotent stem cells in her blood have already begun doing their job and her muscles hold her straight without a spasm. Built Manticore tough. "Come on Alec, Jacob we've still got a fight to win out there. Are you up for it?" She limps slowly towards the door. Jacob lowers Lela to the floor and the both of us turn to follow. "Oh and Lela, if I ever see you at my back again, I won't hesitate to put you down permanently."
Their eyes meet, black on black and the dark woman smiles at the implied challenge. "I'd expect no less from you sister."
A renegade, a former assassin, and the chosen savior of the world square their shoulders and walk side by side to the battleground.
