Heart of Venom (Elemental Assassin 9)

We didn't even make it into the woods before a couple more of Grimes's men raced into the clearing, guns out and firing at us.

"You take Sophia!" Owen shouted, raising his own weapon to fire back. "Warren and I will cover you!"

"Do it!" I yelled back. "But stay close to us! We can't afford to get separated!"

Owen nodded, and he and Warren let loose with another volley of shots. Their guns would be more effective than my knives at this range, even though all I wanted to do was turn around and throw myself at Grimes's men.

Together, Sophia and I hobbled into the woods and back up the faint path that Warren had made earlier when he'd led us down to the pit.

Crack!

Crack! Crack!

Crack!

Bullets zinged through the forest all around us as Grimes's men let off another round of shots. They put their stockpile of guns to good use, because the bullets slammed into the trees, cut through the leaves, kicked up wads of dirt, and pinged off rocks.

I put myself on the side of the trail where the bullets where coming from, protecting Sophia as much as I could, but I didn't reach for my Stone magic to harden my skin. I needed to save my power for something else that I had in mind, so all I could do was hope that Sophia and I wouldn't get shot in the meantime and that Owen and Warren wouldn't either.

Crack!

Crack! Crack!

Crack!

Owen and Warren returned fire, and several yelps of pain sounded as their bullets hit home. They had the advantage of using the trees as a screen, whereas Grimes's men were still standing in the clearing and firing blindly into the woods. Still, one of them could easily get in a lucky shot on any one of us.

Sophia hobbled along as quickly as she could, but it was slow going, especially since we were climbing back up to the top of the ridge that Warren, Owen, and I had used as a vantage point to spy on the camp earlier. Still, we trudged on and moved as fast as we could. That was all that we could do. Behind us, I could hear the crunch-crunch-crunch and crackle-crackle of Owen's and Warren's footsteps through the dry leaves as they stopped and started, firing, then moving up the trail, pausing to reload, then firing again, before repeating the whole process.

Sophia and I were about halfway up the ridge when a man stepped out of the woods in front of us.

Apparently, he hadn't thought that he would actually get ahead of us, because he seemed surprised by our appearance. He got over it real quick, though. He snapped up his gun and took aim at us.

Crack! Crack!

I pivoted so that my back was to the man, and the bullets punched into my silverstone vest with all the hard force of a jackhammer. The impact made me stagger forward, and I lost my grip on Sophia, who went tumbling down to the ground, her shovel flying from her hands.

Crack! Crack!

The guy put two more bullets into my back, both of which caught in my vest once again. I palmed a knife, whirled around, and threw it at him. The blade sank into his windpipe. He clawed at the blade, then foolishly pulled it out, essentially cutting his own throat. He waved his gun with one hand, while the bloody knife wavered back and forth in his other.

"That's mine," I hissed, darting forward, yanking the knife out of his hand, and shoving him away.

Letting out a high, whistling wheeze, he stumbled over the edge of the trail and rolled down the wooded hillside.

By this point, Owen and Warren had caught up with Sophia and me. My eyes locked onto Warren, who was limping and leaning on his rifle for support just like Sophia had been doing with her shovel. He was favoring his right leg, and my gaze dropped to his left thigh - and the blood and the bullet hole there.

"Warren?" I asked.

He waved his hand at me. "I'll live. Let's move!"

Owen darted forward, put his shoulder under Sophia's, and helped her to her feet. She grabbed her shovel to use as a walking stick once more. The four of us started back up the trail, with me in the lead this time, Sophia and Warren hobbling along behind me, and Owen in the rear, watching our backs.

Another man stepped out of the woods in front of us, but I was able to ram my knife into his chest before he even realized what was happening. I pushed him off the trail too, and we kept climbing, going as fast as Sophia and Warren could.

But it wasn't fast enough, not nearly fast enough.

Through the green wash of trees, I spotted more of Grimes's men running up the hill and converging on our position. Soon, enough of them would get ahead of us, cutting off our escape route, and more of them would swarm over us from behind. We'd be caught, trapped in the middle of a sticky web of death, and then we'd be executed, simple as that.