Second Assault — Bond And Treason — novel Chapter 36

ALEXEI

I give a signal to all my men and watch as one by one, they enter the tunnel, using the flashlights of their weapons as the only means to illuminate the narrow path. Yaakov and I stay behind the group, accompanied by three other henchmen. The long passage is cold and our footsteps are heard loudly, echoing. My pulse quickens and my breath stirs as we advance, I force my senses to remain active and sharp, my wolf is taking more and more control over my body.

When we reach the entrance, everyone stops while Adrik takes out the special key from his pocket, which Angelo gave us a few days ago. He takes one last look at me to ask permission to continue and, with a simple nod of my head and a twist of his wrist, our attack is unleashed. The passage opens slowly and the grip on my gun tightens, watching the wall slide aside. A dim light welcomes us as we move forward, watching our steps.

The longer it takes them to detect us, the better. I recognize the shelves full of uniforms and other cleaning supplies shown on the video that Xander was able to capture. Nikon opens the door quietly and I can see that his eyes are now yellow, indicating that his puma has taken over. He takes a quick look down the hall to see if there are any enemies in sight. He raises a thumb-up, giving the green light to continue.

Yaakov and I give silent directions to the men to follow and spread out, I can see several of them adjusting their weapons to shoulder height and trying to keep their steps stealthy. I move in with my cousin next to me once all the henchmen have left. A few steps away, I hear a thud behind me and when I turn around, it's to check that Derek has slit a man's throat and left his lax body on the floor carefully. Yaakov nudges me to focus again, so my feet resume their walk.

I hold the gun in both hands and my bulletproof vest is a little tight, but I pay attention to it. I only have one target between my eyes and plan to find him before the night ends.

Further ahead is Adrik kneeling and pointing to a corridor in front, indicating the path I should take. I nod and head in that direction, but just then, there is a loud shout coming from the garden... And that's when all hell breaks loose.

Without giving me time to react, debris falls on my head as bullets hit the walls and destroy valuable objects distributed along the huge property. My men struggle to defend themselves as best they can, and soon after, a potent alarm sounds, causing an annoying ringing in my ears, and the light, once dim and white, is now bright red, making it difficult to tell who is who among the crowd of armed men.

—Magnus, we must hurry! — Yaakov's yell stands out among all the other noises and we both run through the corridor that had been indicated to us earlier. Several enemies tried to block our way, but Yaakov and I quickly got rid of them with our nimble aim.

My wolf is now in charge, I feel the change in my eyes just as my fangs now scrape the skin of my lower lip and my claws are fully extended, making it a little difficult to maneuver control of my weapon, but I quickly adjust it for my comfort. We keep running, but when we reach the end of the corridor, it opens in two directions, leaving two possibilities to go to.

—Damn it! — I mumble, just before one of my bullets hit the skull of a bastard who was rushing at us.

—We could split up, but I don't know if that's a good option now — we both ducked behind a wall as we heard the footsteps of more men approaching our direction.

—Don't be reckless, Yaakov — I scold him and we shoot to defend ourselves from the group that targeted us —. We must stay together, we don't know how long it will take for the others to get rid of... — I shoot one in the leg, finishing him off in the head once he falls to the ground screaming in pain —. Get rid of the other motherfuckers.

—I fucking know! — grunts —. But if you manage to find fucking Dimitri and finish him, that will be enough to stop them all — we hold our position and I had to use two of my rounds to counterattack. My body is covered by a layer of sweat and the odor of gunpowder and blood in the air is dense and annoying to my sensitive sense of smell.

—We must move forward, Yaakov! — I urge him, continuing the fire blasts —. We can't stay here forever! — My muscles are throbbing with tension and excess adrenaline.

More steps can be heard on the way we came and we both prepare to continue killing, when I perceive who it is, I cannot avoid the sigh of relief that escapes my lips.

—But what the hell are you still doing here?! — Derek grunts, crouching next to us.

—Wow, Captain Obvious. In case you haven't noticed, we're cornered — then another rain of bullets falls on our heads. The three of us are doing our best to protect ourselves. We aim aggressively at our targets and manage to eliminate most of them. I get shot in my shoulder, but luckily, it hits my bulletproof vest. I pull the still-warm piece of metal out of the hole and toss it aside. The skin on my shoulder starts to burn.

—Fuck, you gotta go, Magnus! — Yaakov growls, then gets up, shoots twice, and ducks again —. We'll take over here, we'll cover you!

—Well, Captain Intelligence — I focus my attention on my cousin —. I remind you that there are two paths to take and I have no idea which one will lead me to him.

—Shit! — The three of us fired at the same time and when we thought we had the situation under control, more men appeared on the scene —. Can't you smell him? — I change the cartridge for a fully loaded one and shoot.

—There's no time for this shit — Derek proceeds to take off his vest and shirt, I watch him in confusion until I figure out what he's going to do —. You'll have to improvise, Magnus. We'll cover as long as it takes for you to leave, it's up to you to find this fucker.

—Make sure he suffers, partner! — my cousin screams and then fires again, giving Derek a chance to invoke change. Where once a man stood, now a big, burly Bengal tiger rises. Wasting no time, he rushes towards our enemies, using his powerful strength and fluid movements —.Now, Magnus! — Yaakov stands and presses the trigger, giving me the distraction I needed to make my way down one of the corridors, hoping that my decision was the right one.

I run with all the force and speed that my legs allow me and I listen to the screams of pain and the animal grunts at my back. I glance over to notice that Yaakov has joined Derek too, now wearing the body of a powerful, reddish wolf. I swallow thickly at the bloody scene and keep running. The corridor is quite long with not many doors around it, but I still keep my eyes open for any attack.

After a few minutes, I take advantage of my loneliness and stop. I close my eyes, tilting the head back, the flaps of my nose move as I sniff the air, trying to detect his trail. After a few seconds, I succeed. There it is. Quite weak and subtle, but it certainly belongs to him. I open the eyes and my feet move forward automatically, chasing the thin thread of his unpleasant existence. My lungs burn from the effort of breathing, I ignore it, too concentrated on finding my target.

Finally, at the end of the corridor, I find a large dark wooden door with a round golden knob.

The smell gets more and more intense as I get closer, so I run faster until I am in front of it and without wasting time in cordiality, I push myself and open it wide with a powerful kick. That's when I see him. Sitting behind a desk, with an arrogant smile on the fucking face and a relaxed pose, as if he didn't have a care in the world.

—Until you finally arrive, Magnus — slowly gets up and goes around the table —. I was waiting for you.

—Soon you'll wish you hadn't — I take two steps forward, entering without looking away from him —. You and I have business to settle, you piece of shit.

—Oh, come on — proceeds to take off his suit jacket —. Do you seriously want to fast-forward to the fun part? — drops the tie and unbuttons his shirt —. What do you say we settle this with our animals?

Honestly, my hand trembles from pulling the trigger, putting a bullet right between his eyebrows and watching the little bleeding hole for a long time. But, I must admit, the urge to feel his skin tearing under my claws, seems the most attractive option at this point. I place the gun on a small table in front of me and release the clips and zippers that attach the bulletproof vest to my body.

He smiles at the fact that I have accepted his proposal, taking off his pants and shoes. Our glances never divert from each other, and without the incentive to worry about little things, I rip my shirt off. The buttons fly out into the air, jingling on the floor.