[LEGACY VERSION] The Emperor of Time (Book 1 - The Kaireyeh Chronicles)

Chapter 30.5 - Damon, Talina

Talina's hand closed around the still-warm grip of the pistol. Lovich had kicked it onto the carpet, but not so far away that she couldn't reach it. Shots pinged around the room, focusing on the blur that was Landon Kynaston. She watched it all distantly, until the din became a reality she could not ignore.

She sighed and turned to aim at Lovich's face. Her shots at her mother had not been on the mark. Lovich was closer. She would be sure not to miss this time. He should have grabbed the pistol when he kicked it, or kicked it farther away. He was just now shooting at the Caelians. Sloppy. He saw her a second too late.

Red pulse darts flared. They bloomed wonderfully into a red mass that carried on through Lovich's face. Lovich toppled.

Talina's smile widened.

#

Damon watched the lieutenant fall under Talina's pistol barrage. He abandoned his attempt to draw his halo and stumbled toward the unreal Luc. Luc was levering himself up with one of his bladed half-staffs. He glanced at Damon and gave a grim, tight smile.

Damon paused. That wasn't the kind of smile Luc would give. That was more like Alexi.

Was Alexi still in his head? Or was Alexi in this version of Luc? How by the gods had Damon done that, splitting Luc off? This man wasn't an illusion, he couldn't be. This whole thing had to have been Alexi, but Damon couldn't feel Alexi anymore, and Alexi's body still lay prone on the carpet.

A headache ripped through Damon's thoughts, and his stomach turned. Whatever he was doing--whatever that unreal Luc was doing--it felt wrong.

One of the remaining guards fired at the unreal Luc. Luc shuddered as the pulse dart hit his shoulder, but he kept his balance.

Damon swallowed. Should he try and rush the guard, as the real Luc had done? He couldn't let the unreal Luc die if there was even a chance he was real.

Shots rang out, and the guard turned to face another threat: Talina. She advanced on him, pistol steady, her mouth a thin line of concentration. Most of her shots were absorbed by the guard's armor, but he stumbled back under their force. Then she shot him as she had the lieutenant, in the head. She turned coolly and surveyed the room for the next guard.

Damon tried to shrink against the wall, out of her line of sight.

He heard a muffled shout beside him and saw Campa, her face red and cheeks puffing around the skin tape covering her mouth. She tried to push off from the wall despite her injured leg. Her gaze locked on the carpet.

Damon followed her line of sight.

The real Luc lay on his stomach while Zivali pinned him with a knee to his back and twisted his arm behind him.

Damon caught his breath. He'd lost track of Zivali in the fight. He'd thought she'd gone down.

Luc's eyes were dull with pain, Zivali's bright. Her hands were streaked with red, her uniform jacket soaked from her wound. Luc tried to break Zivali's hold, but she wrestled him back, then drew a knife from her boot.

Damon yelled and dove at her.

Zivali dodged easily and Damon slammed against the bed and then the deck. He screamed as his bad arm took part of the fall.

Air whistled beside him, Zivali's knife arcing toward his own throat. Damon ducked and the knife sliced through his shoulder sleeve, but only nicked the skin.

#

Talina surveyed the carnage around her with a satisfied warmth in her gut. There were no more guards in fighting condition, she had just finished off the last. Thank you, Lovich, for the special training.