Author's Note: Howdy! How y'all doin'? Well, this chapter was kind of disturbing to write but I liked it anyway…I am in delicate health. ::wide grin:: I should probably warn you, I have no problem with letting really bad things happen to my characters…I'm not too sure if this will be one of those times, probably not, but just so you are prepared. Or maybe just so you will find the next two chapters more suspenseful. I play some dirty pool, babes. Anyways, enough about me…on with the story.

Review, it might help keep Jondy alive.

Comin' to Get You

Chapter 15: At all costs

Sasha was barking, her voice filling the apartment in a way that Jondy's breathing, loud and booming in her own ears, could not. She didn't look behind her to see who had kicked down the door she just knew that she had to get away. She had to save herself. Her hair was flying out behind her like a battle flag snapping in the wind, blue and gold wrapping around itself in a declaration of war. Her arms pumped at her sides as leapt out of the way of a bullet that grazed her arm, the scent of her own blood stung her nose but she didn't pause in her flight. There was a sickening whimper behind her and the barking stopped that's when the pounding of feet started. Jondy winced not wanting to know how they had managed to silence Sasha, knowing that if she knew she would start screaming and wouldn't be able to stop. All she could think was she needed to get to her room, lock the door, and make a mad dash for the Browning 9mm that she knew she had stashed under a pillow. "What I wouldn't give for heavy explosives," she cursed under breath as she heard the banging start on her bed room door.

"Ha! Gun," she grabbed it up just as her door gave way under incessant feet she turned and without aiming took out one of the men that poured into the room. The tails of his coat billowed out around him as he flew back into the wall, catching another man with the dead weight of his body. The gun was a solid weight in her in the palm of her hand, reassuring in its cold practicality. She didn't have enough time to aim, too many men swarmed around her at once. She shot one man in the leg and wasted precious seconds gaping at him as he stood right back up. Two men lie on the floor and didn't get back up but five more were standing and they didn't look like they were stopping. A man with brown hair took advantage of her distraction to aim her gun up, it went off and tore a hole in the ceiling and before she knew what happened she had lost the gun.

Her boot connected with one man's chin, snapping his head back and sent him flying through the air his arms windmill-ing before he crashed into the wall with a loud thud. Her right fist connected with one man's nose while her left elbow did the same to another man. She caught a fist to the stomach and doubled over and used her momentum in standing straight to upper cut the one who had landed the blow. She wasn't thinking the fight through anymore, her body was reacting as they backed her into a corner. She head-butted a man with dark drown hair and felt only animalistic pleasure at the dark blood that pooled underneath his nose. She knew she was going to lose by the feeling of hands clawing at her throat, the fists on her body, the sharp metallic scent that filled her nose and covered the back of her throat. She could smell the distinct mix of animal and human that told her it was her own blood that drowned her senses.

She threw herself onto her bed and let two feet hit one man solidly in the chest; his body went concave as he went crashing back into another man. It was a good move but it wasn't practical, she had to scramble off the bed hands clawing at the covers for enough purchase to move faster. Someone had a knife, she could feel the warm trail of blood that made it's way down her back as she was once again on her feet, at least she was out of the corner now.

She stood at the door her body frozen screaming for fight or flight. Instincts clamored against one another, and suddenly she was a snarling animal trapped and wounded. The knife cut on her back burned. She lashed out, grabbed a man by his arm her nail leaving long red welts on his skin as she threw him through the door, his body falling in a heap at the feet of more men. Catching a man with blond hair she hugged him close to her body her arms wrapping around his thick neck and twisted, her leverage was off so all she managed to do was cut off his air. She looked over to see a gun pointed at her, with her elbow she knocked the gun from his hands, wrapped her arm around his, broke it, and then brought him closer to her. She had no more hands left so she bit him. Her teeth ripped through the soft flesh just below his chin and the taste of copper blossomed on her tongue as she listened to the soft gurgling noises of a man who could not scream. She let him drop to the floor, clutching at the bloody mass of his throat, and backed away. She snapped the blond man's neck in one last desperate wrench as she delivered a back kick into another's groin.

She leapt through the air, covering the distance of the living room. She heard gun shots but didn't feel anything as she hurled her body at the man that, something inside her whispered, was the leader. Her hands closed around his neck, her nails digging into tender flesh, as they both toppled over onto the floor, blood dripped onto his face from her cheek and chin her own mixed with a dead man's. A dark side of her brain laughed, roared, with the poetry of it.

The leader's eyes bulged in surprise when he couldn't throw her off, and when they met with her own and saw nothing human in the electric blue depths. His mouth opened but no sound could come out as hands gripped at her, taking flesh but not the power in her lean frame. Then her back arched her fingers loosening but not letting go. She snarled down at the dark man beneath her, lips peeling back from perfect white teeth to reveal fangs just that much sharper than a normal human's. An animal had taken over and it wasn't giving up, not yet, not even as the man behind her pulled the syringe from her back.

The leader watched as her eyes lost some of their focus, the gleam died slowly, and suddenly he could breath again as she was dragged off of him, her body giving it's last struggle.

Jondy lay on her back; her mouth hung open as she tried to drag in air. Her eyelids fluttered and the room got brighter and brighter around her. The men almost disappeared in the glare. Her heartbeat was booming in her ears, so loud she couldn't hear the shouts of the men around her. Faces leaned over her; the dark man that was the leader looked down at her a hand clutching at his throat. She saw the fear sparkling in his eyes and smiled. She wanted to laugh, to throw her head back with the force of it but she couldn't seem to take control of her own body. All she could manage was a soft wheezing through her smile.

Something soft and furry touched her hand before she lost the feeling in her fingers. Above her heartbeat she heard a soft whimper and couldn't tell if it was her own or Sasha's. And as the light got brighter all she could think was she hoped it was Sasha's, because that would mean she was alive. Light filled the room until she couldn't see anything but white, no men and no walls, and then everything went black.

~*~

Zane walked slowly up the stairs of the abandoned building that would lead to his and Jondy's apartment, alone. The red head had been dropped off at her place with a handshake and no promise that she would ever see him again, though she had made it perfectly clear that she wanted to. He rubbed at his face, sighing softly into his hand, knowing that trying to go out on a date would be useless. For one it hadn't seemed to effect Jondy very much as she had danced with several men, and for another thing it made him miserable. He looked at the women, no matter how different they looked or acted from Jondy, and compared them. He had yet to meet a woman that could stand up against such a comparison, as far as he was concerned it was a hopeless battle.

He rounded the corner of the hallway and froze, his door was open and from where he stood he could see the frame cracked and torn. He walked in a half crouch, reaching for the gun strapped to his back underneath his leather jacket. He peeked around the doorframe into the apartment gun first and his breath caught as he saw the living room destroyed.

The scent of blood hung heavy in the air coating everything; blood and fear. He walked gun still in hand and stopped just short of a smear of red. Someone had been dragged away. His nostrils flared as he bent down next to it, with a shaking hand he touched the blood and found it cold, over an hour had past since the body had been removed…or the unconscious person.

The couch had been overturned and he righted it absently as he toured the devastation. His heart speeding up with every step he started for Jondy's room. The bed covers had been ripped from the bed and lay in heaps on the floor, a lamp had been smashed, and her books were scattered everywhere. His foot hit something small and solid, sending it skidding across the floor. Zane swallowed as he watched Jondy's Browning 9mm come to a stop against her closet. Next to another smear of blood. Zane turned his head slowly, his breath coming in ragged gasps; another smear went down the wall and across the floor. This trail of blood was darker then the rest, so dark that it was almost black, seeing it made him shudder, wondering if it was Jondy's.

He picked up her gun and emptied the clip. She had gotten off three rounds. Three smears of blood and a hole in the ceiling. She hadn't been the only one with a gun. Zane closed his eyes, letting heavy lids block out the wreckage around him, and hoped that it had been the other gun that had made the hole in the ceiling. A low whimper caught his attention and he was running into his room.

Sasha stood, favoring one leg, with her head down and her tail tucked between her legs. "Oh, girl, did they hurt you?"

He leaned down slowly and with gentle hands he felt her leg and breathed a sigh of relief that it wasn't broken. "What happened?" he asked putting his forehead against Sasha's to comfort her. "This isn't good," he told her softly. He picked her up and laid her on his bed, careful of her foot, before he got out his cell phone. He paged Max and sat down next to his dog to wait.

His cell rang in his hand, making him jump when it disturbed the silence of the apartment. "Thank God," he said as a hello and was surprised when Max snapped at him.

"This better be important."

"Jondy's missing," he said simply, not wanting to deal with finding out what her problem was.

She was quiet for a moment, he heard her take a slow breath, "maybe she just went out, she wasn't in a very good mood when she left Crash."

"Right, she decided to trash the apartment, smear blood all over the place, shoot off a couple of rounds from her gun, and kick my dog…cause she wasn't in a good mood. I'm telling you, Max, she's missing…someone took Jondy."

There was a longer silence this time, "What do you know about it?"

"Three bodies got dragged out of here. At least one of the bodies was a corpse."

"How do you know?"

"The blood was almost black," he took a breath and supplied, "life blood."

"What do you mean?" he could hear the confusion in her voice.

"Come on, Max, think about it…Head, stomach, heart anytime you're hit in those areas the blood is darker, closer to a major artery or something. It means you're going to die. I'm guessing the corpse was shot in the head, but I'm not sure. If they weren't dead when they were dragged out they are by now." He let that sink in for a moment before going on. "It happened at least an hour ago. I don't know who did it and I don't even know if Jondy survived," his voice broke on the last word but he went on. "Get over here."

"I'll be there in five minutes…and I'm bringing Alec."

Zane's jaw clenched, "fine, just hurry." He hung up without a good-bye and looked over at Sasha who was staring at him sadly. "It'll be fine," he told her. "Jondy'll be fine. Nothing to worry about cause she'll be fine." He let his head sink into his hands as he whispered, "she has to be fine."