Triple Infinity (20 page)

Aiden was directly in front of her. He was already engaged with four of them, half-circled in front of him. More Malefics piled in the through the doorway behind the first four. The entry was wide, and they fanned out, their half-circle three deep in every direction. There were already three Malefic bodies littering the ground in front of him.

Aiden parried the two closest to him, just as the Malefic group circled him. “Get the hell back up the stairs, Skye,” he said low, knowing her ear piece was still in.

“Hell
, no,” she whispered back. “You’re forgetting that I saw what they did to those babies. They’re not getting to them again.” Aiden was now blocked from her view. And the Malefics on the ground level still hadn’t noticed her midway up the stairs, so intent they were on Aiden. When the group swelled inward at her husband, Skye broke through her last shreds of restraint.

Furious
fire burned in her blood as she barreled down the steps, ignoring the pain in her shoulder and grabbing her dagger with her free hand. She plunged it into the back of the nearest Malefic, aiming at his heart. She yanked it from his body and he sank to the ground, falling on the feet of a Malefic just to the right of him.

Skye waited until
that Malefic realized what a body on his feet meant, and looked up at her. Before he could get his machete-holding arm up, she swung, slicing halfway through his neck with her sword.

She killed two more that way, skirting along behind the crowd, picking them off as their attention was on Aiden. The masters had drilled it into her head that
surprise, sneaking, and fighting dirty would be her best friends in a melee like this. They were right.

W
hen two Malefics finally realized death was sneaking up on them from behind, Skye lost her edge. She had to block one heavy old sword, while trying to dodge the thin saber swinging at her belly from the other. The saber soon hit flesh, and cut into her side.

But
instead of hindering her, the slice triggered the memory from the first time they were here. The memory of that first dead woman, with her back split open and baby legs poking out from under her. The image flashed in Skye’s mind, and triggered something deep within her — unleashing a lethal firestorm of rage.

And then she lost all control.

She dropped to the ground and rolled, dagger in her right hand slicing the tendons on the back of one of the Malefics’ ankles. Sword up, she got it just under his heart as he fell. She kicked him up and off her sword, rolling to avoid the falling body.

As she scrambled on the floor, she dug the d
agger into the foot of another Malefic coming down on her. She dodged a thrust of his machete, and sent the side of her sword straight up between his legs. He crumbled in front of her, and she pulled a secondary dagger from her calf, and buried it into his heart through his back.

At the same time as Skye was making her way downstairs and into the battle, Triaten got down the hallway to the room Charlotte was in, just in time to see her swing her sword at thin air. The speeder Malefic stopped against a far wall, laughing. Blood trickled from Charlotte’s forearm.

“Char, behind you.”
Triaten warned.

Malefics were climbing in the open window across the room.

Charlotte moved away from that side of the room and jumped onto the bed. “They’re yours, Tri. I’m settling a different score.”

Triaten rushed across the room, engaging the first two Malefics that had made it through the window.

Charlotte stood tall, but still, on the bed. She stared down at the mattress, its rumpled sheet half pulled off. She ignored the speeder Malefic at the corner of the room, all focus aimed next to her feet. She waited. 

The mattress twitched, and Charlotte swung. The speeder’s movement onto the mattress gave her just enough time to react. A direct hit, sword sinking into flesh.

The Malefic’s speed slowed and he stumbled, falling off the bed. Charlotte jumped down after him, not allowing a second to pass in her pursuit. She swung her sword and connected, slicing his battle hand off at the wrist.

Immediately, t
he Malefic picked up his sword with his other hand, shaking it to set the severed hand free from the hilt. He jumped to his feet and Charlotte swung low, aiming at his ankle. The sword didn’t cut the entire way through the flesh, but it was enough to disconnect his entire foot, the heel only holding on to the leg by some sparse tendons and skin.

By the window, T
riaten had two Malefics down, and he looked back over his shoulder as he waited for the next brave one to make it into the room. Charlotte danced around the speeder as he hobbled on one foot and swung at her, air light under her feet. She was beautiful to watch in battle. She had always been efficient at killing, and there was never any hesitation in her swing. A travelling guillotine.

So Triaten’s gut sank when
he realized this time was different. She was aiming at all the appendages on this Malefic. Dismembering him, limb by limb.

Two Malefics bust
ed through the window in tandem. Triaten got to the one closest to him, just as the other skirted across the room and out the door, not even pausing to give a go at Charlotte. Triaten pulled his blade out of the dead Malefic in front of him, and then tore out of the room after the runner.

Triaten caught him
, just as he reached the main entryway. Grabbing him at the scruff of his neck, Triaten sent him pounding to the floor. The Malefic started to beg, but Triaten didn’t pause. He had no pity for the monsters that had massacred thousands of innocents. His sword sank quickly into the Malefic’s chest.

Looking up, Triaten was
momentarily distracted by the full-out battle in front of him. Aiden had six on him, which wasn’t unusual and he was handling the lot of them just fine. But what got Triaten’s attention was watching Skye pick apart the Malefics, one by one. Whatever had been going through Skye’s mind when they were on Mustique, and she was fighting Genevieve, had clearly been replaced with a warrior spirit. She was still somewhat awkward in her fighting, but made up for it tenfold in brute rage.

Aiden and Skye clearly ha
d this room under control, so Triaten sped back down the hall to Charlotte. He arrived just as Charlotte killed the fifth Malefic coming in through the window. Her steel was through the Malefic before his feet hit the floor. She shoved his body back out the window.

The speeder Malefic, still alive, was
now a stump of a torso leaning up against a wall, sitting in a pool of blood. Every limb was absent.

Charlotte turned back from the window and went over to the speeder. With a high swing, her sword came down along the Malefic’s head. An ear went flying and he screeched in pain.

Alarm shot through Triaten. “Charlotte, what are you doing?”

She didn’t look at Triaten, her eyes trained at the stump in front of her.
“Doing what deserves to be done.”

S
lowly, she grabbed a dagger from her belt and bent down in front of the Malefic. She flipped the blade in her hand for leverage, and thrust it into him, just under his ribcage. Bit by bit, she slid the steel down the side of his stomach as he tried to jerk his body away. Entrails started to spill.

Triaten swallowed at the grotesque sight.
He’d seen much worse. But he’d never seen it at the hands of Charlotte. “Stop it Charlotte. This isn’t you.”

“It is.”

“No, you need to stop and think, Char.”

“Leave then
, Tri, if you don’t want to watch.” Her voice was deathly low as she stood back up. “This is what’s going to happen.”

Triaten moved into the room, his palm up
to her, trying to reason. “I want to watch you kill him. Not torture him.”

Charlotte
sheathed her dagger and shifted her sword back into her right hand. She brought the sword down, quickly slicing off the other ear. The Malefics screams had turned into shaking sobs.

“You’re better than this Char.”

Her eyes didn’t leave the ripped-apart Malefic. “Am I?”

“Yes.”

“He killed babies, Tri. He killed babies. Right. In. Front. Of. Me.” Vengeful spite punctuated each word.

“Yes. And we saved them. And he will die.”

She shook her head. “Doesn’t matter. It’s not good enough. He still did it.”

Triaten was within
arm’s reach of her. His voice was low, begging for her to listen to reason. “Char, it’s how he goes that you have to live with. Just kill him and be done.”

Charlotte raised her sword to waist level
, and then her hand wavered. Her eyes went to Triaten. The calm reason he exuded managed to break through the crusty shell of revenge she had erected. She glared at him, and then, with a frustrated growl, she swung, slicing off the Malefic’s head.

Before her
sword even halted, Triaten snatched her, enveloping her into his chest. She crumpled into him.

The shaking
started, as was usually the case with Charlotte immediately after battle. Triaten gripped her as tightly as he could to his chest, trying to stop the trembling, all the while knowing it would just have to subside on its own. He really couldn’t do anything to stop it.

His left hand went to her neck, caressing rock-hard tendons
. He stood for minutes, holding her up, until the shaking eventually petered out. When he was sure Charlotte had her feet about her again, he pulled away from her to report to Aiden and Skye.

“All’s good here. We’re off to check the perimeter.”

Aiden’s voice came back in their ears. “We’re almost done here.”

In the entryway, Skye worked over every Malefic that was within reach. And it wasn’t that she had suddenly developed superior strength or skill, nor elegance in how she fought — she was still clumsy, but at the same time, gritty and tenacious. Any stab, any slice into her body didn’t slow her down. Blood drawn from her veins only added to her tornado of fury.

Skye lost count after six,
and across from her, Aiden fought in contrast to her, elegant and cold as he cut down Malefic after Malefic. His strength and speed benefitted him, in that blades rarely made it close to his body.

A dagger sunk into the back of her shoulder in the same spot the bullet had hit. The hilt of the blade stuck out of her bac
k as she twirled, facing two in-sync attackers. Both big. And both looking like they were about to tear her limbs off.

She dove to
the ground in-between the two. She switched the sword from her left to right hand so she could try to get the dagger out of her back. She couldn’t reach it. A machete blade came down on her thigh.

Two shots burst through the air, a bullet hitting each of the Malefics above her. Skye gave a quick glance in time to see Aiden throw the gun in the corner
, just as he blocked two swords close to his neck.

The M
alefics were both blown back against the wall, and it was the sliver of opportunity Skye needed. She moved to her feet instantly, swinging her sword, and was rewarded with slicing the head off of one. The other snarled at her as he straightened up from the bullet shot. Skye ducked as he swung at her head, and she kicked her leg out, toppling him at his feet. She grabbed the hilt of her sword with both hands and sunk the tip straight down into his heart.

It was quiet behind her.

And then a pain shot through her body, straight from where the dagger was still embedded in her shoulder. She spun, sword close to her head for protection, but also to kill whatever was behind her.

Aiden caught her wrist just as the sword sunk in
to the muscle on his forearm.

“Easy, tiger.”

“Holy hell, Aiden! Do you not see what state I’m in — I almost killed you.”

Aiden smiled. “Killed, no. You are the first
one today to draw some blood, though.” He looked down at his bronzed arm, now marred with a thin line of blood.

Skye
followed his eyes. Only Aiden could fight twenty-plus Malefics and not have a scratch. Maddening, and she wasn’t really so sorry she had sliced him. But she coughed out an apology anyway. “Sorry. But still. What the hell are you doing to me?”

“The dagger in your shoulder. Remember? I thought I could slide it out quick before you knew what was happening. I expected to be quicker than you, an
d instead I just sliced the cut open farther.”

He stepped around her and grabbed her shoulder right above the blade, steadying her in place before he grabbed the hilt again. “Don’t move this time.”

He slid it straight out, smooth and almost painlessly.

Almost. “
Eeeesh,” Skye exhaled.

“Skye, you have
wounds and gaping holes all over your body, and this you ‘Eeeesh’?” He stepped back in front of her.

She looked at him like he had just grown a medusa head. “I don’t have gaping holes.”

Aiden’s finger started to point to various spots on her body. Arm, stomach, thigh, neck, calf, wrist, and forehead — the bath of blood that covered her was grotesque.