Page 44 of Crew Princess
Zellman and I were the ones who usually got into trouble. The rest swarmed in to save us or back us up, but not Jordan. Never Cross. This wasn’t normal. Then again, I had a feeling Jordan was jumped.
It didn’t matter. Whatever it was, we were flying in to fight. No matter who it was against.
Cross’ phone lit up and he read the screen, still running.
“It’s some of the jocks from the Academy,” he said, not winded at all. “They’re ahead.” He put his phone away and picked up speed.
We were right behind him.
That was one thing I had going for me—I could run almost as fast as the guys. Long distance wasn’t for me. No way, but I’d always been blessed with speed. We were getting closer to the crowd, and we could see the jocks ducking and dodging. A few were wading in for a punch, then darting back out of the way.
Cowards. All of them.
As we came to the clearing, we could see Jordan trying to swing at them. He was almost to his knees, but his head was up. His eyes were half-closed. Blood caked his face.
He swung, his fist almost getting a guy by luck before another stepped in from behind him and punched the back of his head.
He was going down.
My stomach churned.
A fist connected with the side of his chin. Blood splayed everywhere. His head jerked, and it was like I saw it in slow motion. His head whipped to the side. Blood. Sweat. Tears. All of it dripped down his face, and exhaustion.
I didn’t know how long he’d been trying to fight them all, but his shoulders were dropping.
He fell to his knees, his head down.
It was as if he were asking for a break, a pause, so he could get a second wind. In some fights, this was granted. I knew it wouldn’t be with these guys. They were cowards. Not one of them would stand a chance against Jordan one on one. They had to fight in a pack, like hyenas, and they were cackling like them too.
The closer we came, the more calm I felt.
The rage was there, the need for vengeance, to protect one of ours, but I dampened that down. A whole storm twisted my insides, but over it, I found serene peace. I needed it. It was a skill I’d been developing. Silencing the mind. I could do the most damage like this. I would see things they wouldn’t see. Our opponents. Our enemies. Whoever was hurting us, they were going to be hurt. They were going to be ripped to pieces.
We were going to shred them.
We all moved to the edges of the pathway, coming in hot and fast, but silent—and on the side. If people looked back, they would look in the middle of the walkway. They’d look for a silhouette. The eye would automatically skip over the darkness.
I braced myself, waiting for someone to shout our arrival, but so far nothing. Maybe the people we passed didn’t recognize us. Maybe we were just lucky.
Maybe we were supposed to have the element of surprise.
Maybe, just maybe, the universe was on our side with this one.
We were almost to them.
Jordan’s entire body jerked as he tried to gasp for breath. As we cleared the last of the pathway, one of the attackers broke formation. He moved in, his fist up and cocked behind him. He was coming at Jordan from his right-side rear.
Jordan wouldn’t know the punch was coming.
Then the guy looked up and saw us. His eyes widened.
I saw all of this in slow motion as well.
His mouth started to form a word, to yell and announce our arrival, just as his eyes skipped to mine. They caught and held, and I let him see the deadly calm in me. He got it. In that moment, he saw everything in me.
This was not our first day with violence.
We reveled in this.
