Unmasked | Book 1 in "Dark Descendants" (Editing)

Chapter 38

~Rose

The amulet rested round my neck. I could feel my blood seeping onto it, staining the clear green of the gem as I leaped at the policeman. We couldn't afford to use our true potential just yet. There were too many of them and I could bet my life that some would escape before I got to eat them all.

I knocked the metal gun out of the boy's hands. A haze of gun fire and smoke clouded my eyes and ears. I growled angrily as I was seized by the arms and forced down to the ground, on my stomach. "You are under arrest for police assault," he yelled over the noise, "and accomplice in murder!"

I lifted my head up to spot Abby. She was the one kicking up dust, blinding the other men as she tried to trip them, knock them out, use her magic to make some of them sleep.

The click of handcuffs brought me back to my current situation. Wildly, I jerked my head back. The satisfying sound of it ramming into a skull brought me to a mild smile.

I shuffled to my knees and whirled around. The boy was scowling at me, hand drifting to his belt. Without thinking, I flung my my legs up, driving my heel into his face in a flying kick.

He staggered back, dazed, before crouching into a fighting position. I swung my bound hands to in front of me from underneath my legs. I clenched my fists.

A dark figure of a body hurtled by and slammed into him, knocking him to the ground before I could even register it. My gaze followed it to the source and I caught Abby's. She nodded at me in a I'm with you manner. I fought the urge to smile given the situation.

Instead I nodded back before spinning around, leaning towards the ground as I hit someone's head with the bottom of my foot. A cry followed and a hand gripped my wrist. I instinctively turned my hand, grabbing his own wrist and twisted his arm behind his back. He fell to the ground as my shoe came into contact with his face.

Something sparked in my mind and I unknowingly grinned in excitement. This was suddenly my idea of fun. My eyes refocused on man after man as they ran at me or aimed their guns at me, only to be knocked back either unconscious or dead in a matter of seconds each. My mind was racing, head pounding, but my eyes were wide and a crazed smile seemed emblazoned on my face.

Another body dropped to the ground and in the coverage the gun-smoke provided, nobody saw anything that happened within the radius of fallen men. Grunts of pain exploded in my ears as I used one man as a shield, holding him in front of me to ward off as many bullets as possible before the shooter noticed he was getting his comrade and not his true target.

Tossing the dead body to the ground, I risked darting for his neck.

"Rose!" Abby was kneeling, crouched down in pain. I paused, closing my unstained teeth to hide my mini daggers so that now I just hovered over his neck, almost looking like I was trying to whisper something. She was hurt, I needed to help her. Besides, the noise of guns had stopped for now and the smoke and upturned dust was starting to settle. No doubt they had called for backup, which I supposed would be arriving soon.

"Rosemary!" I groaned and instead squeezed the sides of the man's neck between my inner wrists and jerked it backwards with as much strength as my muscles could produce. He fell soundlessly to the ground while his killer, me, raced to help a friend.

"Abby, can you stand?" I panted, only then noting a thin sheet of sweat clinging to my skin. Taking her hand with both my bound ones, I pulled her to her feet.

My ears started ringing as louder sirens cut through the air. She gave me a panicked look. "We need to run, now!" I yelled.

I grabbed Abby's hand again, dragging her along with me until she could accept that there was a change of plans.