The Puppet Assassin [TTR sequel]

The Puppet Assassin - Ch 30 [death's harvester]

Well, he should’ve made me promise or something, my little voice said snidely. I heard a crash, not too far away and knew that someone had gone through a window in Garth’s bedroom. I heard the murmur of conversation and knew it was more than one person. Time to show that I didn’t need to be put in a corner.

One man pushed open the door and looked both ways. I didn’t hide, there was no point in this wide hallway. He saw me and did a double take before opening the door fully.

“Dizelde, what the hell are you doing up here?”

I recognised the man, couldn’t put a name to his face but knew he wouldn’t be an easy fight. And then Kieran stepped out behind him. He laughed at me.

“What the hell are you thinking? That you actually have a chance against us? You should’ve hidden behind your new Changer friends.”

He’d changed, I could see it straight away. His eyes had no spark at all anymore, cold, dead, like he no longer saw the world like he used to. He looked cruel.

The other man raised his hand, holding Kieran back. “We can’t injure her. Don’t be rash, kid.”

Kieran scowled. “I know. It’s not going to be difficult.” He walked around the hand and started towards me.

I wasn’t going to hold back. He didn’t realise that I’d never had the guts to go all out in training, afraid of hurting someone. Now, it didn’t matter. I had to stay safe for Larkin, therefore I had to beat them. When he was two metres away, I attacked. I went for a kick first and, when he blocked me, managed to twist my body and ram my elbow into the side of his head. In an intricate move, he knocked me backwards off my feet but I was back on them before he could do anything more. I let go of distractions, making my mind fluid until all I could see was the next attack, the next defence.

The other man joined in and they tried to work their attacks in sync but I was moving faster than I ever had and adrenalin was flooding my veins. It was all reflexes and instinct. I forgot the fact that I was fighting people and habit took over. I got more than a few scrapes, would have more than a few bruises and perhaps a broken finger, but I was grace personified. Without the option to really attack me, the two of them were forced to take my barrage of attacks and it was slowing them down. The older man was limping, I knew I’d shattered his kneecap, and his breath was coming out hitched with the occasional grunt. Kieran’s forehead had a large gash where I’d smashed it into the photo frame on the wall and he had to keep wiping it to keep it from trickling into his eyes.

With his slower reflexes, I managed to uppercut the older man’s jaw and he dropped like a stone, leaving me with only Kieran to finish. I swallowed when I saw the glint of silver in his hand.

He grinned and brought up the knife so we both could see it clearly. “I don’t care so much as to how we get you out of here. A couple of nicks here and there can be healed so I don’t have a problem with delivering you injured. And you know how much it hurts, remember, getting them deep cuts to make us hurt. It was supposed to give us a high pain threshold but you don’t want to feel that again, do you? Like they put a firework beneath our skin. And they grinned when it went off, you remember?” He tapped the flat of the knife against his stomach where I knew he would have three scars. “And I’m not as learned as they were. I might cut into your intestines or some other important organ. They say that it infects your blood stream straight away and hurts like bleeding heck.” He pointed the knife at me and my gut clenched in memory of the pain. “But, if you want, you can just follow me out that window.”