Page 146 of Beyond Protection
"I am ordinary," I said.
She laughed. The sound chilled me to the bone. "You're perfect. Classical proportions. Aesthetic grace. And they're destroying it. All of you. But I can fix it—"
The front door exploded inward.
The crash was enormous—wood splintering, hinges screaming.
"Police! Drop the weapon!"
Tactical lights flooded the hallway. So bright I threw my arm up reflexively.
Vanessa spun toward the noise, gun pointing.
Matthew lunged, reaching for the weapon.
Marcus came through the dining room archway, low and fast, flanking left.
And behind the tactical lights—
Eamon's silhouette. Michael beside him.
They couldn't be here. They still had to be almost thirty minutes out.
But there they were. Real. Moving through the doorway with controlled economy.
"You!" Vanessa's voice cracked completely. "The contamination!"
The gun swung toward Eamon.
He started to hesitate. Just for a second. Maybe less. A flicker of something crossing his face—memory maybe, the ghost of the past failure.
I saw it. Saw him remembering. Saw the old wound trying to paralyze him.
Then something shifted. His jaw set. The hesitation shattered.
He moved.
Marcus crashed in from the side, going for Vanessa's gun arm. Michael came through behind Eamon, both of them converging.
Vanessa screamed. "No! You don't understand!"
In the struggle, her finger wrapped around the trigger.
The gun went off.
My ears rang immediately, and all other noise muffled around me.
Eamon jerked. I saw the impact—his shoulder snapping back, momentum carrying him sideways into the doorframe. Blood bloomed across his shirt, dark and spreading fast.
He slid down the wall. Hit the floor.
Everything after happened in slow motion—my body moved while my brain tried to catch up to what I'd just seen.
I skidded on my knees beside him.
"No no no—"
He looked at me. Focused. Still present.
