Love and Decay, Volume Eight (Episodes 9-12, Season Three) Read Online Free Page A

Vaughan and Javi joined the fight.
Fists flew with purpose, smacking against skin and bone.
    Matthias shouted for nobody to shoot. The men
that had grabbed Hendrix hadn’t been holding their guns; they
needed both hands to restrain him.
    More men tried to push into the cell, but we
dominated this cell and gained ground with every passing
minute.
    Hendrix managed to twist around and drop his
elbow directly on the top of the head of the guy to his left. The
guard collapsed unconscious to the ground. His body landed in the
doorframe, blocking the path to the swinging door. They couldn’t
get it closed with the guy in the way and that seemed to be their
plan now that we had revolted.
    With one guard down, more shoved through to
subdue us. Heavy hands clamped around my arms and picked me up off
the ground as if I weighed nothing. I was too blind with fury to
make out the man’s face, but I knew that he was huge. He acted like
it was no bother at all to carry me in front of him.
    I shouted foul curses at him. I heard his
low, amused chuckle and my vision blurred red.
    Somewhere in my chaotic mind, I registered
that he might be strong, but he still had to use both hands to
carry me. That left the rest of him unprotected. My foot sprung
forward with every ounce of capable strength and I connected with
his crotch.
    He dropped me at the same time he sucked in a
breath as loud as a vacuum. His eyes nearly popped out of his head
when he bent forward to cup his broken man parts. Somehow in the
last minute, Hendrix had broken free from his other guard and when
the man that held me dropped, he turned to seamlessly pick up the
wheezing guard and smash his face into his knee. The sickening
crack of bone resounded through the jail, cheering on our
efforts.
    He looked back at me for a second, nodding
once, before turning back around to fend off the next wave of
attackers.
    I dropped to the ground and nicked the loaded
handgun from the back of the bleeding man’s pants. My hands deftly
went to the safety and I flicked it off before sweeping up and
pointing it straight at Matthias.
    Tyler swooped down to grab the gun from the
clump of man lodged in the doorway. She tossed it to Vaughan, who
caught it, pointed it at the attacker trying to pummel him to death
and pulled the trigger.
    The body dropped to the floor in a newly
silent room. I kept my weapon trained on Matthias and waited.
    He glared at me through the flickering, dim
light, knowing I would shoot him with my next breath.
    My chest heaved with the effort to breath. I
felt bruises bloom over my entire body. It hurt to stand. It hurt
to breathe. It hurt to just be alive. I wanted to curl into a ball
and whimper, but I had to ignore all of that and deal with the pain
later. Much, much later.
    “I have more guns than you,” Matthias
declared. He ducked to the right and my gun followed him. “You’ll
be dead in seconds.”
    “I just have to get one shot off first,” I
told him.
    “You don’t have the stomach,” he sneered.
    I hated his arrogance. I hated how sure he
sounded, how delusional he was. I hated him more than I hated
anything in my entire life and I truly hoped I never hated anything
as much as him again.
    I shuddered at the idea that there was
something out there worth more hatred than this.
    I ran my finger over the trigger and focused
more intently on Matthias and his giant head that would look
fantastic with a big hole right in the center of his forehead. The
only thing that kept me from pulling the trigger, I mean the
only thing , was that he was right about one thing. They did
have more guns than us and I wouldn’t risk all of those guns going
off and killing my friends. “Let’s find out,” I suggested.
    He remained silent, knowing there was not a
bluff to call. I couldn’t wait to kill him. I practically buzzed
with the nearness of his death.
    “I suppose you’d like a truce now.”
Matthias’s cold tone betrayed the fear I could sense on his skin.
For as