Rage and Ruin | 2

5 | 8

D E L P H I N I U M

      My gaze locked onto Gigi—so covered in blood and grime that her ONNT-issued white clothes were barely visible underneath. As far away from me as she was, I could still see the sadistic look in her eyes.

      Everything faded to the background: Benny's escape, the realization that Riley had betrayed us all, Jaxon's imprisonment in a supermax prison, Arlo and Kane's anger. Our team was falling apart but it didn't matter. Not now. Not that Gigi was back, somehow broken out of the ONNT facility.

     Gigi was here to kill me. During our fight, she'd said that she eventually would and now she was here to fulfill her promise. My daggers were already out. She wouldn't take me down.

"Delphinium and Gigi, how awkward for you two to be back together now," Benny said, smiling wide at me. He'd planned this. Imperium had planned everything. After I was finished with Gigi, I'd carve that smirk off his face.

      I eyed the new girl standing at Benny's side. She wore the outfit of an ONNT soldier but she was clearly with Imperium. However, once I searched her squinted dark eyes and the rest of her elegantly-featured face, I knew that I didn't recognize her. I guessed that she was just another one of Imperium's agents, but of course I could have been wrong—she was here in the middle of a brewing battle for a reason.

"I told you that I'd get out of that cell eventually, Secerător," Benny told me in Romanian. "Now that I have, your destruction shall begin."

"What is he saying to you?" Kane's tone was accusatory; did he honestly think that I was planning something with his brother?

"That's it," Jake hissed from behind me, ignoring Kane and stalking toward Benny. "I told you that the day I saw you out of your cell was the day you'd die."

He fired the first shot at the assassin. After that, the airport fell into chaos.

Both Benny and the assassin girl ran for Jake. Jaxon resumed screaming at Riley and Kane later joined in. Sooner or later, I knew they'd resort to using their weapons.

Gigi came at me with a shriek. She held no weapons, at least none that I could see as she streaked toward me. When she was halfway there, I began running for her, ready for war. She wasn't the only one who wanted blood.

When the two of us were so close I could see the whites of her eyes, I ducked down and rolled to the side, swiping out with my knife. It caught her leg as she tried to correct her position. She uttered another terrible scream and dragged me down with her. My body endured countless hits as she pounded me with both arms and legs. I waited for an opening before stabbing downward at her. Unfortunately, she moved to the side and punched me in the face right as my dagger sunk into her shoulder.

I stood and blinked back the prickling tears that automatically welled in my eyes. With my eyes stinging, Gigi took the opportunity to rise to her feet and make a fist with her hand. My stomach tightened and nausea swelled in me. I barely had enough time to bend over before I was emptying the contents of my stomach into the concrete. Gigi had me sprawled out on the ground with a single kick to the back, daggers strewn about.

Turning over so that I was on my back, I did my best to edge away from my furious opponent. My knives soared back into my hands and slashed at anything I could get close to. She jerked back but I was still on the floor.

Before I could get to my feet, I heard a terrible crack and yelped as pain screamed through my right leg. She'd broken my femur with her mind. I screamed louder as she broke the other.