Where the fuck were the other six?
Swinging my blades around, I made a fanning motion and stepped into the monster's space. But fuck, no, this was a werewolf, a person, and not a monster. And yet, I could keep telling myself that as much as I wanted, but it wouldn't change the fact that the human-shaped beast coming for me was covered in thin, scraggly patches of hair, that its face was elongated and distorted, or that it was leaking strange fluids from its pores, eyes, ears, and nostrils.
There was nothing in the eyes of that creature that I could recognize, no sentience or acknowledgement of what it was doing or why. I'd seen some shifters infected with dust before but not at this stage, not like this. No wonder Bennett didn't believe in a cure. I wasn't sure I believed in one either after seeing this.
Dropping into a sudden crouch, I rolled to the side and came up swinging, my blade cutting straight through the creature's neck and severing its head. Blood spattered over me, and I knew I had to be careful about getting it in my eyes or mouth, into a cut. If I did, I could be the next infected shifter the guild had to take down.
I could just imagine Mikhail standing over me, mouth pressed into a thin line, eyes cold and hard. He'd put a sword through my brain without a second's hesitation. He'd feel bad about it, but he'd do it. Maybe for a few night's after, he'd feel bad, but he'd get over it because in his mind, he'd have done the right thing.
Fucker.
Panting, I stepped toward Bennett, his hands wet with blood, and put my back up against his naked one. The corpse of the wolf he'd killed was lying nearby, head also severed. Seeing as Bennett had no weapons, it was a fairly impressive and utterly grotesque feet. Good thing he was an alpha; his leg wound should've healed already. If he'd been of any lesser rank, I'd have to wonder if he might be infected now, too.
"Six more, right?" I asked, my hands tight around the hilts of my blades. They were wrapped in black leather, smooth and well worn to the shape of my hands. Holding them was almost as natural as shifting, as breathing. But killing shifters who'd done nothing wrong? That was hard. Seeing monsters that used to be people, that was harder.
"Six more," Bennett said, his voice this deep, low growl, threaded with violence. He was taut behind me, strung up and ready to burst. If we didn't have more targets to deal with, I'd have to wonder if he might turn all of that pent-up rage on me. "Keep your calm, fox." A wild scream exploded from one of the tunnels, and I heard the sound of heavy footsteps. I didn't bother to turn and look; Bennett could handle it.
While I stood there waiting for my next target, I sheathed one katana, and pulled out my gun instead, switching off the safety. My ears swiveled around on the top of my head, listening for the next monster I'd have to dispatch, the next target. I couldn't think of these things as people, as wolves, or else I wouldn't be able to do it. Seemed hypocritical for an assassin, huh? To have a problem killing somebody? But I killed bad guys for a living. I killed men who were sex trafficking young girls, doctors at research labs that were testing on supernaturals, leaders of drug cartels. That's what I did. I didn't kill stupid but innocent teenagers who took the wrong drug or had a little condom-free slip up. They needed education, support, maybe a fucking spanking from their goddamn parents not a death sentence ...
More sounds emanated from the nearby tunnels as Bennett slammed his newest target into the wall, cracking the stone. All the noise from that fight, echoing around the vast cavern, it was destroying my ability to pinpoint the new sounds I was hearing, the screaming and the growling. Because of that, I didn't have a lot of time to process what was happening with the remaining five wolves all came out of one tunnel.
I fired off a single shot and hit one of them between the eyes.
I could've made a few more shots, probably taken out at least two of them. But for a minute there, I was stunned. The person I'd just shot ... she had breasts and blonde hair streaked with pink. Yes, her face was still elongated and distorted, her eyes empty. Yes, she still had fluid leaking from her pores, but ... I'd clearly just put a bullet in the head of some pre-teen girl.
For a split-second there, I faltered. My emotions got the better of me, something that'd never happened to me, not even on my first mission. Fuck. But I'd also never killed an innocent teenager before.
The four other wolves bore down on me so quick that if I hadn't had Mik as a teacher, if I hadn't had ovaries of fucking steel, I'd have died that day.
A quick drop to the floor, a roll, and I ended up going underneath the feet of my attackers. They were powerful, strong, and fast, but whatever this disease did to them, it made them a little stupid, too. The goo that leaked from their bodies was warm and foul smelling; I almost threw up as I dropped the katana to the floor, whipped out my other Ruger and fired off several shots from either hand.
Didn't drop a damn one of the creatures. They moved too fast; I was shaking; the angles weren't right and the light was bad and the sound was off.
Shit!
One of the werewolves launched themselves at me as I went to stand up, cracking my skull against the floor of the cavern. My vision blurred as pain took over, blinding me momentarily. I still had the wherewithal to grab my mom's knife and thrust it upward, into the throat of the wolf attacking me. Pretty sure that saved my life.
Bennett saved me next.
He flew over me and tackled the wolf off, landing on top of me in his place. Much as I had mixed feelings about the alpha wolf's naked body on top of mine, I was fucking grateful to be alive. He pushed up to his feet, straddling me and snarling as he flashed claws on the end of his fingers. Whatever signals he was sending to his pack, they worked. For a minute there, I almost believed that Bennett would be able to command them to back off. And that both thrilled and terrified me.
If he commanded them and they listened, we'd be safe and they wouldn't have to die.
If he commanded them and they listened, then I was no longer just an assassin. Then, I was a murderer who killed teenage girls.
Whatever vestiges of sanity the creatures had left in them faded as fast as they appeared, owed more to Bennett's dominance than anything else I guessed. The wolf he'd knocked off of me, the one with my mother's knife sticking out of its throat, it was the first one to launch itself at us.
This time, it was the monster who knocked Bennett back. I rolled out of the way as he crashed into the ground next to me, swinging my gun up and putting another round through the side of its skull.
Its.
Because I couldn't keep reminding myself who these monsters really were or it was going to be me with my head severed and lying on the cavern floor.
Scrambling to my feet, I whipped out another knife and chucked it at another female. No, another it. It, it, it. My hands were still shaking, but I managed to nail the creature between the eyes again. Good for me. I was a killing machine with or without my magic.
Bennett let out a roar as he surged to his feet and clocked one of the others in the head. When he spun back toward me, toward the last of the wolves, I saw his eyes go wide with surprise.
That's when I realized there was something else behind me.
Even though I had a bit of a warning, spinning and swinging my leg out to knock my newest attacker down, it didn't work.
Because my next attacker was on the wall and not the floor.
A scaled creature threw itself at me, swinging a tail full of sharp, serrated points into my leg and knocking me down at the same time it severed my leg, right at the thigh. Fucker bit me on the shoulder, too, stabbing needle-like teeth into my flesh.