Destin's Hold (The Alliance #5)(55)

Sula turned and hurried back to the lamp. Switching it off, she swiveled to return to the front entrance where Beth was waiting. Beth turned and started to open the door when it exploded inward. Sula watched in horror as Beth’s body flew backwards. She automatically lifted her weapon when she saw the weapon in the intruder’s hands.

Sula released a stream of energy from the tip of her baton. The line swarmed out and encased the weapon, heating it until it glowed a brilliant red. The attacker cursed and released it.

The sound of a loud shot stunned Sula. She watched in shock when the attacker staggered backwards into the two males behind him. Glancing down in surprise, she saw Beth in a partial sitting position with a primitive weapon firmly clenched between her palms. She fired several more times.

“Run,” Beth ordered, rising to her feet and backing up as she continued to fire.

Sula turned and ran for the bedroom. She swept through the door, turning when Beth followed her. Slamming it shut, she pointed the baton at the handle and melted the metal before doing the same to the three hinges. The door was essentially welded shut. It wouldn’t stop the attackers for long, but it would help some.

Beth was also pushing a heavy piece of furniture in front of it. Sula grabbed the end and helped her align it in front of the door. A startled squeal escaped Beth when a blast from a laser burned through the door and barely missed her head.

“Holy shit!” Beth exclaimed, turning and aiming the weapon at the door before pulling the trigger. The weapon made a clicking noise instead of the loud sound from earlier. “Double shit!”

“The window,” Sula urged swirling the baton in her hand and forming a shield against the blasts opening up holes in the door. “Hurry.”

Beth ran to the window and unlocked it. Pushing it open, she glanced through it to make sure there was no one waiting outside for them. Sula backed up, wincing when the shield lit up.

“It’s clear,” Beth called out, waving for Sula to hurry. “Come on before they figure out what we are doing.”

Sula twisted, trying to keep the shield between her and the door as she slid out of the window. She released her control of the shield once she was outside. Beth was inserting a long clip in her weapon and pocketing the depleted one.

“This way,” Beth murmured, holding her weapon up.

Behind them, Sula heard the screeching of the furniture. She followed Beth around the corner of the house. Together, they ran for the next building.

“Do you have your communicator with you?” Beth asked in a quiet voice when they reached a small storage building.

“Yes,” Sula replied with disgust at not thinking of it sooner. She pulled it out and pressed the emergency number Trig had programmed into the device once they arrived.

“State your emergency,” a male voice responded.

“This is Councilor Ikera. Intruders have attacked my residence on the base,” Sula whispered, wincing when Beth’s weapon made another loud bang.

“Warriors have been dispatched,” the voice replied.

Suddenly Beth cried out, jerking and dropping her weapon. Sula turned, the communicator lowering in her hand. One of the attackers had circled around and come up behind them from the opposite side of the shed. Either that, or there had been more than the three they had first seen.

“Cut the transmission,” the male demanded, pointing his pistol at Sula.

Sula cut the transmission and dropped the communicator to the ground. Behind her, she could hear Beth’s smothered whimper of pain. Her hand tightened on the baton in her hand. She froze when she felt the end of another weapon pressed against the back of her head.

“She notified security,” the first male said. “Kill the other female; we don’t need her. Take the Councilor. General Achler wants her alive.”

Fear unlike anything Sula had ever felt before swept through her. Her fingers moved along the baton. With a flick of her wrist, she tossed it behind her to land on the ground next to Beth. There was a slight delay before the shield engulfed the other woman. It wouldn’t last for long and it only worked because Beth had slid down along the back of the shed to the ground.

The second attacker turned to fire on Beth, but the shield absorbed the blasts. Sula took advantage of his distraction and the fact that he had moved his weapon from her head. With the fluid grace of years of training, she kicked the weapon the first attacker was pointing at her to the side. She bent forward when the other male turned to fire on her. The blast struck his comrade in the chest, knocking him back several feet before he collapsed.

Sula’s grabbed the male’s wrist, forced his weapon upward, and hooked her leg behind his knee. Falling backwards, she used her weight, surprise, and her grip to pull the heavy male with her. She rolled backwards, lifting the male up and over her before pushing with her feet to flip him.

The attacker continued to hold onto his weapon. Sula was already back on her feet before he landed. Her gaze flashed to the weapon of the first attacker. She raced for it, hoping to reach the pistol before the male regained his feet. Sweeping the pistol up in her hand, she turned it on the male just as pain exploded through her body, sending her stumbling backwards. A second shot echoed through the air, along with shouts in the distance.

Sula watched as the attacker collapsed back in slow motion, a small round hole in the center of his forehead. She twisted, stumbling awkwardly in time to see Beth falling wearily back against the wall of the shed. The warm liquid running down her arm did little to stop the chill starting to set in.