The Change (Unbounded) (48 page)

Somehow, I had to get us out of this situation. I couldn’t depend on the others making it on time.
They won’t shoot unless Mari fights them.
Except she probably would. She wouldn’t realize that they didn’t care
how
they managed to take her prisoner. A simple bullet to the brain or heart would temporarily stop any struggle—long enough for the cutting to begin.

Biting my lip until I tasted blood, I edged forward as far as I could without exposing myself, close enough now to pick out actual words.

The Hunters stepped from behind the distant trees, running toward Mari, as silent as wolves. Still only two. Good. A thrill of anticipation rolled through me. One man sported a ponytail, a grizzled beard, and wore a camouflage jacket; the other was clean-faced with stringy blond hair that emerged from his knit cap and fell to the collar of his brown coat. The older man would likely be more dangerous, especially if he’d dealt with Unbounded before. Neither was a match for me, though if they got off a lucky shot, they could immobilize me long enough that I might be in trouble.

Mari must have heard something because she glanced behind her. Seeing the strangers, she moved forward quickly to join Trevor, but he held up his hands and spoke loud enough for the oncoming Hunters to hear. “Nothing personal, Mari. You have too much of their blood. It’s tainted. I can’t be with you anymore.”

“What are you talking about?” Mari sounded dazed. “Who are they? This has nothing to do with anyone but us.”

Trevor shook his head like the dog he was. “They tracked your ancestry. It was a long shot that you were one of
them
”—he uttered the word with disgust—“but they assigned me to you to make sure. Last week when your knee got better, and how you can add up those numbers. It all means something, Mari.” He gave her a mean little grin. “It means you’re a monster.”

I was going to kill that man when I got my hands on him.

Mari reached for Trevor, but he shook her off as though she carried contagion. The other men laughed and lunged for her, securing her arms.

“Hey, I know you.” Mari peered at the younger man. “You were at our wedding!”

He barked a laugh. “Ask Trevor how much bonus he got for that. Best way to see if you turned.”

“Let me go!” Mari began struggling.

At the panic in her voice, Trevor hesitated. “Go easy on her now.”

The older Hunter snorted. “You know what she is, and what you signed on to do. What you was
paid
to do. Now git outta here if you ain’t got the stomach for it.”

“You—you’re not going to, uh, do it here, are you?” Trevor stared at his frightened wife.

“Of course not. Now git. Or have you changed your mind? Because you know what that means.” The old man leveled his rifle at Trevor.

Trevor held up his hands, stumbling back a few steps.

“Trevor,” Mari whimpered.

Without another word, Trevor turned and fled.

Mari’s scream filled the park, and the grizzled Hunter shook her. “Stop that, or I’ll shoot you right here. Ain’t no one gonna hear you anyway. We got men making sure no one comes this way.”

She didn’t stop struggling. Fighting was against her docile nature—her former nature—but now that she’d Changed, the old Mari was gone.

The young Hunter pulled Mari against him, her back to his chest, and put a hand over her mouth. She promptly bit him, but he only laughed and stroked her neck with his other hand. “She’s a pretty one—and feisty. I want a go at her.” Squatting slightly, he rubbed his groin up her backside. A terrified sob escaped Mari’s throat as she arched away.

“There’s no time,” growled the old Hunter.

“Sure there is. It’s not like I have to talk pretty to her. You said yourself they ain’t human. What’s it gonna hurt? I want to see what it’s like. What Trevor’s had all this time.” His hand snaked to Mari’s waistband.

The old man searched the growing darkness. “Be quick about it then. You know how the others are. They think it’s a sin to touch one.” He laughed hoarsely. “Like it’s catching.”

“Then hold this.” The young Hunter thrust his rifle at his companion before turning his attention back to Mari.

She struggled more furiously as he yanked open her pants. He turned her around, still pulling on the material, but Mari’s fist caught him in the face. Shoving her at the old guy, he ground out, “Grab her. Keep her standing. Won’t be but a minute. Smack her good if she tries anything. Might be true what they say about some of them being able to get into our minds.” He emanated a wave of lust so strong, I could feel it from where I hid without even trying.

Tucking the rifles under his arm, the old Hunter complied, placing one big hand on Mari’s stomach and pulling her to him, his other hand clapping over her mouth, jerking her head back until it hit his shoulder. Mari kicked at his leg, trying to free herself, but he shook her roughly. “Stop that, bitch, or he’ll make it worse for you.”

The young man laughed, his hand fumbling at his own clothing. “Just hold still and enjoy. I’m way more of a man than Trevor ever was.”

Enough.
It was tempting just to shoot them both, but I didn’t want to alert the companions they claimed to have out in the darkness. If Ritter had been around, he’d have probably made sure I was carrying a silencer. But he wasn’t. He’d abandoned me, and I didn’t need him to finish this task. Mari was
my
responsibility; I wasn’t going to let them have her.

Slipping the gun back into my holster, I arose silently from my hiding place and sprinted toward the men, leaving a few strands of my blond hair on the bushes as I squeezed through. I’d traveled half the distance separating us before the old guy looked up and saw me, his face gray in the sparse light. He let go of Mari and tried to bring up his rifle, but he was clumsy with the added weight of the younger man’s weapon.

I helped him drop both guns to the ground with a well-placed kick that even my brother Jace would have appreciated. The old man grunted as my foot continued on to connect solidly with his side. As he curled forward in pain, I followed with a left hook, striking him to the frozen grass and hopefully buying me a little time.

Mari screamed, and I turned to face her. The young man, his pants open and sliding down his narrow hips, had jumped behind Mari, his arm circling her waist.

“Mari, it’s going to be okay,” I told her. “But don’t scream again.”

The young Hunter peered into the night. “Help!” he shouted.

Great.
I hadn’t expected him to have that many cells left in his tiny brain.

Movement behind me signaled that the old guy had recovered. I whirled, slamming my elbow into his head as he tried to rise, a rifle clutched in his hands. I kicked the gun out of his reach.

The young man was backing away, dragging Mari after him. I took out my gun. “Let her go.”

He shook his head, his knit cap askew. His breath came in fast gasps.

“Let her go, or when I get finished with you, you’ll never touch another woman again.” I took aim at the thin slice of his face that wasn’t hidden behind Mari.

“You—you won’t shoot her.” His voice increased two octaves on the last words.

“Why not?” I took a step closer. “As you said, she’s not human, so it won’t matter if I shoot her. In fact, it’d probably be easier for me. I’ll get you both with one bullet. It definitely won’t hurt her as much as what you have planned.”

The sound from his throat was half protest, half sob. His eyes grew impossibly wide. “You’re one of
them,
ain’t you?”

“One of who exactly?”

No answer.

I shifted my position so I could keep an eye on the old man. He wasn’t moving, but cockroaches had a way of coming back to consciousness when least expected. Besides, there was no way to tell if anyone else had heard the commotion. I had to be prepared for the worst.

Mari was struggling again, her efforts loud in the quiet of the park.

“I’ll give you to the count of three,” I said to the Hunter. “One . . . two . . .”

The young Hunter’s eyes went again to the blackness, where help had failed to materialize. With a whine, he pushed Mari at me and ran.

I sidestepped Mari and leapt after him. I didn’t have far to go. His jeans slid further down his thighs and tripped him. I chuckled, kicking his sprawled body over with my foot, my eyes sliding down his nakedness. “So that’s why you’re a rapist. Can’t blame a woman for not wanting any of
that.
”

Heat filled his eyes. He jumped up and lunged toward me, forgetting my gun and his bareness. Exactly what I’d hoped. I mean, how can you strike a naked guy lying on the ground?

I blocked his punch with my right arm, and hit him with two left jabs. He lunged at me again, and I heard a sharp click a half-second before hot fire spread through my stomach.

A knife. I hadn’t expected that. We trained with knives as we did everything else, and for an instant, I considered retrieving the one I carried inside my boot. Stupid when I had the gun.

I aimed the Sig. “Stop.” I could feel warm blood leaking down my stomach, though already the wound would have begun healing. There were only two ways to kill Unbounded, and a scratch like that wasn’t one of them.

“You ain’t going to use that gun,” the Hunter mocked. “My friends will hear. Then you’ll be the one begging for
this.
” He felt his groin before hitching up his pants and rushing me. His movements were sloppy, unpracticed, but he had a knife and twenty pounds on me.

I turned to avoid the knife, hitting him at the same time with another left jab. He stumbled past me, pivoted on his heel, and dived at me again. I cracked the gun in my right hand down on his head.
Take that, idiot.
A pistol had more than one use.

He fell forward with a thump—and lay there unmoving.

Carefully I turned him over. He’d cut himself in the stomach with the knife, but unfortunately not deep enough to bleed to death. He still had a pulse, too, so that meant he’d recover from being pistol-whipped. For all that he was a scumbag, I was relieved. Since my Change, I’d shot people and fought a lot more, but I’d never killed anyone. Not permanently killed. Killing Unbounded didn’t count if it wasn’t permanent. At least that’s what I told myself because in truth it was still horrifying.

No time to think about it. I had to get Mari to the safe house—and I still had to decide what to do with the Hunters. They could identify me now.

I turned, half expecting Mari to have collapsed in a sobbing heap, but she’d grabbed one of the Hunter’s rifles and was pointing it—at me. She backed away, her eyes wild.

I put the Sig in my pocket and held my hands up to show I wasn’t armed. “Put it down, Mari. We have to get out of here.”

“You—how—why . . .”

“I promise I’ll explain everything, but later, okay? Trust me.”

“You killed him! You were going to shoot me!” Her face was flushed and her eyes wide, her hands shaking with fear. Fear of me, the person who’d gone to work at a boring accounting firm for months in order to protect her from people a lot worse than the Hunters. The person who’d brought her food when she was too depressed to eat. The one who’d urged her to start taking charge of her life.

The truth of it was that she had more than enough reason to be wary of me. I’d run myself if I were in her place—in fact, I
had
run, and my family had paid for that mistake with a life. Luckily, Mari had no family to endanger, except fourth cousins she didn’t know and Stella, who was technically her fifth great-aunt but whom she hadn’t seen since she was a little girl.

Mari looked ready to bolt, and I still didn’t know what else might be lurking out there in the dark. “He was going to rape you,” I reminded her. “Besides, he’s not dead.”

“How did you know I was here?”

“I followed you.” The street lamps in the park chose that moment to go on, making me feel exposed. How long before the Hunters’ backup arrived?

“You followed me?” Her voice rose to a pitch that hurt my ears. “Who are you, Erin? Who are you really? Because
normal
people don’t follow their friends.
Normal
people don’t know how to fight like that.” Her eyes went to the sprawled Hunters.

“I told you I’ll explain later. We have to get out of here. These guys usually travel in a pack.”

Besides, wherever there were Hunters, the Emporium was never far behind. Hunters might hate all Unbounded, but Emporium agents had been infiltrating their organization for decades, using them as a weapon against us. That the Hunters had found Mari or knew to watch for her Change smacked of the Emporium more than the Hunters, who were too short-lived to think over generations. But no matter how they’d found her, if I didn’t get Mari out of this situation safely, Stella might never talk to me again. Renegade Unbounded guard their family lines as carefully as any treasure—even from most fellow Renegades—and she’d been waiting more than a hundred years for someone in her family line to Change.

I sent out my mind, trying to determine if anyone else was out there in the darkness, or at least within my sensing range. We needed to avoid running into anyone else. Mari was already spooked as it was without watching me fight again.

Someone
was
coming—and fast. Had to be Unbounded. No mortal could move that rapidly. No time to run.

I reached for my gun.

Mari gasped as a shadow appeared from behind her, yanking the rifle from her hand. Her eyes went to the man, as if she didn’t know whether she should scream and run—or fall into his arms and weep with relief.

Which was almost exactly the way I felt.

He was a tower of strong muscle, carrying himself with undeniable grace, as did all those gifted with combat. No movement wasted, no attack he couldn’t anticipate. His black hair fell to the right, grazing a mole on his cheek. His square jaw, in need of a shave, was set in determination, and his eyes glittered with anger. He carried a gun in his right hand, and the sword emerging from a back sheath announced that he’d come prepared to find Emporium Unbounded. Wet-looking patches spotted his black jeans and jacket. Definitely blood
.