"Fucking," he corrected, one side of his mouth lifting up. "Fucking works better there than shitting. Trust me on that."
"Then I'm fucking tired," I told him. "I want to make this stop. I want to help."
"Then let's go make sure they're all gone," he told me, showing me where to go next.
We barely made it a block before someone in the main street yelled, "Move and I'll blow your brains out!"
English. That meant one thing. I pulled the old magazine from my weapon, dropped it on the ground, and slammed a new one into place as I rushed forward. My hand was flicking off the safety as I rounded the corner of the house to see another hunter aiming his weapon at a Dragon just in front of our house. Both of them had paused, and the Dragon actually had his hands up.
It was a Dragon I knew. I recognized the hunter as well. Drozel and a man I'd sewn up many times were in a standoff, but it seemed neither one knew Kanik and I were here.
"Cyrus?" I yelled, calling the hunter's name. That was enough to make him look over at me, and I refused to waste the chance. "Drozel. Run!" I ordered in Vestrian, lifting the gun into place and looking down the sights the way I'd been taught as a little girl.
At the edge of my vision, I saw the Dragon bolt, but Cyrus jerked his weapon up, turning towards me. My finger tightened on the trigger, and the pops were loud. It was as if they echoed off the houses on either side of us, but I didn't dare let go. There was nothing behind him right now but an empty house. No one else was around. I also knew that if Cyrus managed to get off a shot, there were Dragons somewhere behind me. Kanik was - and there was a chance he could be hit.
I had to kill this man.
So many of my bullets missed, but one slammed into his throat. More hit his chest. Blood sprayed and Cyrus dropped, forgetting about his gun as he clutched at his throat. I took one step forward, into the street, intending to grab the weapon - and something hot slammed into my hip.
I didn't hear a sound. I only felt the flare of pain and then weight smashed into me from the other side. A flash of brown made me realize that it was Kanik just as we both crashed into the dirt. My necklace flew out of my shirt and up, over my chin. I grabbed at it, terrified I'd lose the thing, but I couldn't put it back in my shirt because Kanik was pressing me into the ground!
That was when my brain registered the sound of gunshots flying just over our heads. Lying half over me, Kanik twisted, aimed, and then loosed an arrow. The bow bounced right in front of my face, but the bullets stopped.
"Ayla?" he pleaded, turning me onto my back as he lifted up and looked me over. "Did you get shot?"
"My hip hurts," I admitted, twisting to see why.
There, right across the side of my pants, the leather was split and my skin was red. Raw flesh was visible, but it wasn't deep. Not as bad as when the woman had cut me with the kitchen knife, at least.
"It's just a graze," I assured him.
Kanik sighed in relief. "Thank fuck," he breathed. "But now will you let me get you back to Saveah's?"
"I'm fine!" I insisted. "Pain is fleeting. It's easy to ignore. We have to get the Moles out of here."
"And I'm starting to feel like my roommate's showing me up," he joked, pushing to his feet just to offer me a hand.
I took it. I also needed it, because while I could ignore the pain to a point, that wasn't the same as not hurting. I had to limp. Not badly, but only because I refused to give Kanik any more reasons to lock me back inside. With each lurching step, my sign die and the ring bounced against my chest, the jingle oddly comforting.
Together, we made our way up and down multiple streets, but we didn't see any Moles. Instead, we ran into Jeera, who I learned was also on the city guard. She was working with another man I didn't know. A tailless one. They traded information with Kanik, the four of us trying to figure out where any Moles might be left.
If there were any, they weren't on this side, and the gunshots had stopped. Jeera suggested we head back to the main command area to see if anything else needed to be cleared. That was up the street, not far from the market.
We didn't use the main road. The Moles liked shooting down it too much to take the risk. Instead, we backtracked, treading through people's yards to find a rather large group of Dragons all converging in the same way. Clearly, this was the command post.
There, we found Zasen and Drozel talking to other Dragons. Zasen was clearly giving orders, pointing off in different directions only to have people head that way. To me, it all looked very official, but I still felt confused, like I was waiting for the next bad thing to happen. But as we got closer, Drozel spotted our group and tapped Zasen's shoulder.
The Wyvern turned, saw me, and it seemed like nothing else mattered. Forgetting about everything else he was doing, Zasen rushed forward, pulled the strap of the gun off my shoulder, then crushed me up against his chest. At the same time, he managed to pass the gun to his sister, and then he was leaning me back so he could check me all over.
"Ayla, are you okay?"
"I'm fine," I assured him.
"She got shot," Kanik corrected. "Grazed."
Zasen just chuckled. "Which means she's fine. This one's tough, Kanik. Terrifyingly so."
Then Drozel stepped closer. "Zasen, I'll take over. You worry about getting her checked out."
"Really?" Zasen asked.
Drozel looked over at me, then forced a weak smile. "She saved my life. Yeah. Really. Seems you were right after all. This one is worth keeping around."
That was enough to make me smile. From his tone, I was sure it was a compliment, and right about now, it felt huge. I had no idea how many Moles I had seen killed, and I was terrified to learn how many Dragons had died tonight. But there was one family that was supposed to be my responsibility, and I'd left them alone.
"We need to check on Saveah and the kids," I told the men.
"Moles already ran," Zasen promised, gesturing for me to start walking - or limping. "Although there weren't many of them left to run. I'm not sure they got any bodies this time."
"I saw at least one of ours dead," Kanik admitted. "West side, in the street."
"We'll figure all of that out tonight," Zasen said. "I'm just trying to tell myself this was a win right now."
"It was," Kanik promised.
"And yet it wasn't enough," Zasen said. "I'm starting to think it will never be enough for the Moles."
Seventy-FiveAyla
