Toxic (Denazen #2)(53)

“This might be something,” Kale said, picking up a small leather bound book.

I took the book from him and flipped it open. The first word on the random page I hit was “Supremacy.” “Score! Was there anything—”

Kale stiffened. “Shh!”

Muffled voices, then one clear as a bell. “I want a clean sweep of the bedroom. No one leaves till we find that diary.”

“Shit!” I started for the window but Kale beat me to it.

“Stuck.” There was the tiniest hint of panic in his voice. “We’re—”

“Screwed,” I said as three men in Denazen’s trademark blue monkey suits barged into the room.





20


Kale stepped in front of me, and for the longest second, no one moved.

“This makes my job a whole lot easier,” the one in the front said. He eyed me like a supersized golden goose egg that someone had just tossed his way. “I bet Cross promotes me for bringing his baby girl home.”

Kale chuckled and shrugged out of his hoodie. The sound sent a thousand tiny shivers down the back of my neck. “You know I’ll kill you if you come closer.”

The man sighed and stepped aside. His colleague had a tranq gun—standard issue, Kale told me once—aimed right at us. “Which is why you won’t be coming any closer.”

I heard the tiny pop as the dart left the gun, followed by a muffled grunt as Kale shouldered me aside. The dart hit the window, and the glass cracked but didn’t break.

Kale flew at the men, scattering them apart like a bowling ball headed for the perfect strike. One went down right away. Eyes wide, he tried to scramble out of the way but wasn’t fast enough. Kale’s bare hand connected with his face. He shoved hard, and the man stumbled, disintegrating just before colliding with the wall.

One of the others kicked out, catching Kale across the middle. He wobbled and fell to the ground—but he didn’t go alone. Twisting at the waist, he kicked his legs around in a circular motion and, with a graceful sweep, caught the man behind the knees.

Meanwhile, the last one charged me. I scooped up the dart from the floor below the window and ran to meet him. He managed to grab me around the throat, but not before I sank the sharp point of the dart into the soft skin of his neck. His fingers flexed once. Twice. Three times—before he let go and staggered away.

He ripped the dart from his neck and threw it to the ground with a growl. “You’ll pay for that,” he swore.

“I hear that a lot,” I said with my sweetest smile, then dodged him as he came at me again, though this time with a lot less grace. The meds on the dart were starting to take effect. I just had to keep him hopping until he went down.

He took another swing. The force behind it threw him off balance and sent his body lumbering sideways into the desk. The chair wobbled to the left and crashed to the ground just in time to trip the agent Kale was dealing with. I made the mistake of watching him go down, ignoring my own guy and giving him the chance to gain the upper hand.

But it was only a halfhearted attempt. The agent’s grip was lethargic, and his movements were slow. I was able to buck him off and move away before he even knew what’d happened.

He opened his mouth, but no words came. Eyes rolling back, his body collapsed to the pale blue carpet.

I took a few seconds to admire my handy work. Big mistake. I heard the soft pop of the gun again and out of the corner of my eye saw the pointy blur zooming toward me. It would have been impossible to move from its path. Yet somehow I did.

Or someone did. Kale.

He crashed into me from the right, sending us both careening sideways. The impact was so hard, I stumbled and collided with the far wall, well out of his reach. He was on his feet again in the blink of an eye, facing off against the remaining Denazen guy.

“This is silly,” he said. “You can’t touch me, and you won’t be touching her.”

The man said nothing, only smiled and reached around to his back. A moment later, he produced a small knife. It made an audible whoosh as he sliced it through the air in front of Kale, who avoided it with ease and reached for the man—only he wasn’t like the others.

He ducked safely out of reach, whipping the blade in intricate circles. Kale pivoted and spun while the man attempted to carve him into more manageable bits, spinning and swinging the knife with exquisite expertise. Kale advanced as the man skated out of reach. It was like watching an exotic dance. Poetry and grace hiding deadly intent. Once I tried to move forward to help but thought better of it. Kale was focused and deadly. I couldn’t take the chance that I’d accidentally get in his way.

A low curse spilled from Kale’s lips. The knife had caught his shoulder. At first it was nothing more than a rip in his T-shirt. A few moments later, the edges of the tear began to darken as the wound started to bleed.

Kale, slightly shocked, turned to examine it.

That should have been a huge red flag. But it wasn’t until the man relaxed, folded his arms and chuckled, that I saw the reason. Protruding from the back of Kale’s other shoulder, was the dart the man shot at me.

Kale must have seen it at the same time I did. His eyes got impossibly wide as he yanked it out. It fell to the floor, bounced twice against the carpet, and lay still at his feet. “I’ll kill you long before the effects kick in.”