𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐓𝐄𝐂𝐓𝐎𝐑─𝐥𝐢𝐚𝐦 𝐝𝐮𝐧𝐛𝐚𝐫

15.

"They're coming" Someone from Satomi's pack announced, breaking the silence that had settled across the room. 

A shaky breath escaped my lips as my brother glanced over at me, his eyes flashing red. "You ready?" he whispered. 

I nodded, readjusting the gun in my hand, "I'm ready."

But I now know that I was not ready, not truly as within seconds a crowd of men dressed in riot suits barged into the warehouse. Shots began flying around the room around me as Satomi's pack along with Scott shifted, instantly ready to fight. But as everyone else moved, I felt as if my feet had been glued to the floor. Sure, I had learn how to shoot, but that didn't mean I had ever actually shot at a living person before.  

"Sydney!" Scott screamed, looking over to me with wide eyes, "Go!" he urged, already charging toward one of the assailants. 

It took me another moment, but soon enough I snapped out of my trance. My eyes were wide as I fired my first shot at one of the assassins, that one hitting the wall beside him. The next shot I fired hit the man, sending him to the floor with a thud. My brother looked over at me, giving me a small nod of approval.

I shot again, hitting another one of the masked men. And then another. 

Just as I was getting a hang of things, something came into contact with my face, sending me tumbling to the ground with a pained grunt. 

I looked up with wide eyes to see the barrel of a gun pointed directly at my head. I closed my eyes, awaiting the shot, but nothing came. I reopened my eyes just in time to see Brett take the man down, Braeden shooting him once he was debilitated. 

Brett was basically panting as he helped me up, his eyes still scanning the room, "Are you alright?" he asked, surveying my face. 

I nodded, quickly reading up to touch the blood that was seeping from a wound on my forehead, "I'm okay." I promised, giving him a quick smile, "Thanks."

It was then that I let my own eyes roam around the room. As quickly as it had all started, it was over. All of the men had been taken out, or had voluntarily begun to retreat aside from one, but it looked like Scott was taking care of that. He sat atop the man, slashing at man's chest as his red eyes were wild and ablaze. Truthfully, I had never seen my brother like that.

Derek quickly yanked me toward him, clamping his hand over my eyes to block the scene from my vision. 

I let out an exasperated sigh, "Derek, I'm not a child."

He didn't respond, as before he could, a ringtone sounded off, echoing throughout the warehouse. I pushed Derek's hand from my eyes to see what was happening, and I regained my vision just as Scott reached into the assassins pocket, pulling out his phone before reading it. He then showed it to the man, his features returning to normal before he jumped off of the assassin, making his way over to the rest of us.

"It's over." Scott sighed, relief present in his voice. He stopped beside me, giving me a small smile as he reached out to squeeze my hand, 

I felt myself relax as a look of relief fill everyone's faces. It was all over.

But that's the thing. We were all too relieved to see to see the last man walk into the room. We were all too relieved to see him raise his gun and we were all way too relieved to see him pull the trigger.