The Puppet Assassin [TTR sequel]

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

Suddenly his face screwed up and he glanced towards the stairs. “Make your choice fast or I’ll make it for you.”

I stared at him, giving him only the one option. Like I’d be scared of his bloody knife. He had to reach me with it first. He moved towards me and I watched his eyes, ready for him to go for my stomach. It was gruesome, to watch the dry and wet blood on his face, but I wouldn’t look away. He jabbed and I knocked his hand back. He danced around me, thrusting here and there, kicking occasionally in an attempt to get me off my feet. My muscles were screaming for me to sit down, to relax, but I kept my face cool and ignored it as best as I could.

I saw an opening as he swang the knife wide and grabbed onto the wrist holding the weapon. I wasn’t strong enough to halt him mid swing so the sharp metal found the skin of my shoulder and bit through it slightly but I was unaffected as I twisted around, pulling his arm with me, and pummelled the bottom of my palm into the back of his elbow. I heard a large crack and he screamed as his elbow extended backwards, opposite to its natural movement.

I saw his face grimace and harden as he brought himself upright, using his other hand to swipe my grip off his arm. He was seriously still going, his determination great enough to fight through all the pain he was in. They had trained us well.

There was a blur of motion and disappeared from in front of me. There was a thud as the black cat landed on top of him a few feet away from me. I leaned back against the wall and watched as Garth carefully stepped off of Kieran, who had been knocked out by the fall. He looked up at me and growled.

“I was handling it,” I said in response.

He shook his head slowly and I could imagine him rolling his eyes. He reached his front legs forwards and stretched his back before sitting on his haunches next to Kieran’s motionless body. I saw the fur rippling and receding, his body shape lengthening and shortening in different places and pushed off the wall. I started towards the stairs, not wanting to watch Garth change back to human, or see his naked body. I could just imagine him not being the type of person to care that he was nude in front of others. I turned into the corridor that led to the stairs and noticed Larkin coming up them towards me with slow steps.

Humm, either way I went there’d be trouble, especially with my trembling legs and obvious post-fight state. There was no way I’d go back and watch Garth’s body mould but still, as Lark got closer, I took a step back. His head snapped up, his eyes catching mine and telling me not to take another step. I froze, staying completely still until he reached me, his hand pressing against the small of my back. He led me into his bedroom silently and pushed me down to sit on the bed. His eyes swept over me and he clenched his teeth before glancing over his shoulder.

“Wait here,” he grunted. He stalked out and I heard him talk to Garth in the hallway, most likely discussing what to do with the two knocked out bodies. I wondered how Luke was. Larkin had a graze on his cheek but other than that I couldn’t see any wounds or injuries. I believed that Luke was a better fighter than Lark, even though I’d never seen him fight, but there had been more than one trained assassin downstairs and no one should be able to beat them unscathed. That person would have to be able to read minds, or see the future. I should see if he is okay, after all I was the one that brought this upon them, but I was sinking into this bed. And I didn’t want to go against what Larkin said yet again, so blatantly, and exasperate him any further.