Page 80 of Captured By the Monsters
SERA
I was a fool. My Trifecta knew not to trust the leader, but I’d been blinded by my mission to correct everything, thinking myself capable of such an insurmountable task.
The leader of The Above could never be negotiated with, never swayed, because his mind had been poisoned. Even with the truth staring him straight in the eye in the form of my monsters, he refused to acknowledge that anything he had been taught was a lie.
Either he was in denial, or—worse—he didn’t care, but it didn’t matter because I was stuck in his office that was who knows how many levels underground. From their hiding spots came six men, and the sneers on their faces showed me they were not here to help with negotiations–only our deaths.
With the leader representative and the vile man who ruled The Above, that was eight people total intent on killing my mates and me. Of course, my monsters didn’t seem to care that the numbers weren’t in our favor.
We only had the four of us—five if you counted the rebel leader—but I doubted my Trifecta included him or me in their count. I knew from their stances that they would do everything in their power to protect me, and my skin tingled with alarm.
The Rumilus were stronger—stronger than humans by far—but were they weren’t stronger than human weapons
I’d noticed that the rebels used crude weaponry, things like homemade spears and knives, which made them easy to identify when I was in the Plaza. None of the castes were allowed to have anything that resembled a weapon, for exactly this reason—so there couldn’t be an uprising.
I supposed the joke was on them because the rebels turned everyday household items like pens into knives and caused a riot in the Unified Capital, but the casualties I’d seen in the Plaza were largely rebel bodies.
Although I acknowledged its futility, I continued to talk to the leader of The Above. I wasn’t trying to persuade him anymore—I was trying to distract him. My mates needed an opening.
“Think of how much better it would be if we worked together,” I shouted inanely.
The leader gave me an incredulous look, like he couldn’t quite believe I was still trying. I tamped down the urge to give him an equally dubious face that he was stupid enough to believe me. For the time being, his eyes were trained on me—as were the soldiers’.
My mates were smarter and knew exactly what I was doing. Taking his cue, Axton lunged at one soldier, Rowen and Sylan simultaneously following suit. By the magic that came from years of them being to together, they worked as a unit.
In one blurred motion, they took out three soldiers while somehow still managing to keep me blocked and protected. My Trifecta was so fast, in fact, that the remaining humans in the room couldn’t follow them enough to assist their now fallen brethren.
By that time, Axton, Rowen, and Sylan were advancing on the three remaining soldiers and The Above leader. The sound of guns firing ricocheted around me as they scrambled to counterattack, and I screamed as bullets whizzed by me.
I was too worried about my men to crouch down, so when one grazed my left shoulder, I could only stare in numb shock as blood pooled and started to spill from the wound. Another bullet slammed through my outer thigh and I dropped to my knee, hissing in pain.
As I looked up, I saw it wasn’t the soldiers’ stray bullets intended for my monsters that had hit me—it was the leader representative’s. Her face was twisted in unholy delight to see me felled.
With Sylan, Rowen, and Axton fighting in front of me—their element of surprise gone—they didn’t realize the danger at their backs. Even though the woman pointed the gun at me, my first concern was still for my men.
I flinched as she leveled the weapon at my head, wondering if someone really felt the pain of being shot there, or if it was over so fast the brain never had the chance to register the pain. I watched her pull down on the trigger as I rolled out of harm’s way, hissing at the pain from my wounds.
My brain might be scrambled, but my body seemed to be working on instinct—something I was grateful for.
When I looked behind me, a piece of the wall was gouged where the bullet had lodged itself. Where I had just been kneeled.
I had to take her out. I couldn’t give up and leave my Trifecta to take this on alone.
I ran at her, closing the gap between us with a zigzag pattern, making it harder for her to train her gun on me in the short time I needed to reach her.
Bowing my head, I ran at her like a battering ram, trying to ignore the pain pulsing through me. I connected squarely with her midsection, and a whoosh of air escaped her mouth as she went down. Before she could get back up, I kicked her in the side of the throat. She seized up, gasping for breath, and I took the opportunity to nab her gun and hit her in the temple with the butt of it.
Holding the gun with unsteady hands, I tried to aim at the soldiers attacking my mates, but I hesitated to shoot, scared I might accidentally hit one of my guys. I didn’t have any training with this. The rebel leader came over, and I turned to give him the gun, hoping he would have better luck, when suddenly, he crumpled to the ground.
In the center of his forehead was a smoking, bloody circle from where a bullet had hit him perfectly—too perfectly. Staring in horror, my eyes connected with the leader of The Above, who grinned at me in triumph as he lowered his gun and walked towards me.
Did he think he could take me as a prisoner of war to be used as a bargaining chip? Why the hell didn’t he shoot me too?
I refused to be used against my monsters or Paratiisi for him to get anything he wanted. They would do anything to save their Queen.
My body began to tremble, and I knew I was going into shock, but then something strange happened. A calm, numb feeling washed over me as I thought of my mates dying here. In almost a robotic fashion, I assessed the scene as if it were playing out in slow motion.
Axton had killed his opponent and was helping Sylan while Rowen fought the soldiers positioned in front of him—meaning the leader could easily shoot them. Considering how he’d just taken out the rebel leader without blinking, I knew he was more than capable.
