Smashed (Alexa O'Brien, Huntress #8.5)

When every agent was gathered at the place that I’d told Jez to describe in the report, we converged on them. We didn’t leap out of the trees with a loud display of violence. No, we slid from the brush with soundless steps and grabbed the closest agents first. Clapping a hand over the guy’s mouth, I bit deep into his carotid before tossing him aside and grabbing another. Jenner mirrored my actions, taking it a step further by also breaking his victim’s neck. We dropped four of them in just seconds. That’s when the first shout rang out.

With our presence revealed, we abandoned stealth in favor of a savage attack. Briggs shouted orders that included the command to take us out. Laughter poured from me as I spilled their blood. Shots went off, and I held one agent in front of me as a human shield. The crossbow bolts meant for me embedded in his chest, and he screamed in agony. I silenced him quickly with a twist of his neck.

“Not him,” I shouted when Jenner went for Briggs. “That one lives. But only that one.”

With a shrug, Jenner slammed Briggs with enough power to take his feet out from beneath him. The Fed went down hard on the paved walking path, and I took the opportunity to relieve him of his weapons and his phone.

“You’re making a big fucking mistake here,” he snarled through teeth clenched in agony.

I whirled around in time to take a bolt in the shoulder. “Cocksucker,” I swore, retaliating with a psi ball big enough to tear the guy’s head off his shoulders.

The bolt lodged in my flesh hurt like a bitch. I tore it free and plunged it into the neck of the nearest agent I could get my hands on. Blood spurted from the puncture, and the guy went down grabbing uselessly at the wound.

A wolfish growl rumbled in my throat. The walking path was littered with bodies. The remaining two agents surrendered, hands held high and guns on the ground. There would be no mercy for them. Despite their pleas, we killed them. I threw one guy down in front of Briggs. His wide, gaping eyes stared at his superior as the life faded from them. Briggs looked about in horror, trying to take in what he’d just witnessed. It had all happened so fast.

“Now, who were you saying made a mistake here?” I asked, standing back to allow him to get to his feet. Blood stained my face, and I knew by the disbelief on Briggs’s face that Alexa’s wolf was showing in my eyes.

“You’re not doing anything to help her with a display like this,” Briggs said, meeting my gaze head on. “Why stop there? Why not kill me too?”

“Because they’ll just replace you with some other douchebag. And I kind of like you.” My smile was met with a scowl. “You’ve got balls. I can respect that. But I can’t let you hunt Alexa.”

Briggs stared at the carnage, his face incredulous. “These people didn’t deserve to die like this. I can’t imagine how you thought slaughtering innocent men serving their country was the best way to prove either of you shouldn’t be hunted.”

“Serving their country? I see you’ve been drinking the Kool-Aid, Briggs. I thought you were smarter than that.”

“You won’t get away with this, Arys. I know you think you’re doing the honorable thing by defending your woman, but you’re wrong. You’re just another fucking monster that deserves to die.” Briggs was uneasy but he wasn’t afraid. It was admirable. It was also stupid.

“Give me a break, Briggs. I killed several of your men outside your own building, and you didn’t do fuck-all. Alexa barely scratches the surface of trouble, and you launch a hunt?” Shaking my head, I got close enough to the Fed to hear his heart rate increase. Maybe he wasn’t immune to fear after all. “I’m on to you, Briggs. I know what men like you are after. You call it justice, but I call it control. You always wanted Alexa to join the FPA. I’m willing to bet you haven’t given up on that. Have you?”

He stared past me to the bloody mess Jenner and I had made. His expression was stony, his silent refusal louder than words.

When he refused to speak, I continued. “You think if you get her back into that building you can warp her mind, turn her into one of your weapons. It was always her that you wanted. You settled for Juliet, but it never really ended there in your mind, did it? You tried to take Alexa in for the Abigail Irving hit, and when that didn’t work, you had to dream up something else. This was what you were waiting for. An opportunity to cage her and program her.”

A muscle twitched in his jaw. I’d nailed the truth.

Jenner sidled up to sneer into Briggs’s face. “You’re a clever piece of shit, aren’t you? Too bad. You chose the wrong vampire to fuck with. I’ve known this guy a long time, and nothing makes him as ruthless as messing with his girl does.”

I shot Jenner a dark look, seeing that personal blow for what it was. Leave it to him to choose a time like this to remind me that though we were brothers, we were also frequently rivals. Evidence suggested that Jenner was still pissed about what went down between us all in Vegas.

“So what then? You kill me now?” Agent Briggs had accepted that fate. His resignation showed in the hard set of his shoulders.