Fever (The Omegaborn Trilogy 3)

Behind us, the sounds of boots hitting pavement indicated that the omegas were running the streets. The beta army would need time to move their forces, to get them into formation but by then, it would be too late. The omegas would have escaped and then turned back to fight with the alphas.

The five of us reached the hole in the wall and turned, prepared to help the omegas fight and escape should the betas put up any semblance of resistance. The first wave of women rushed at us, some of them bloodied and injured. We watched as they surged past us, followed closely by the second group not far behind. From either side, I could see men gathering, betas preparing to stop the escape of the omegas from the city.

I watched them carefully, seeing them assembling in formation and without delay, they attacked. The five of us waited until most of the omegas had rushed by, but a large number of them turned and stood behind us.

And then the battle well and truly began.

Ethan, Viktor, Damiyen, Nikki, and I were all comfortable in a fight. We fanned outward in a circle, backs to each other as we focused on the enemy. Battle cries sounded loudly as snipers shot from above, but we’d readied ourselves for that too. Some of our best marksmen were situated above on the wall, beta allies that had abandoned their posts with Philip’s army. They had years of training and without delay, quickly divested the attacking snipers of their lives, leaving us to focus on those that we had to fight on the ground.

Nikki moved like a feral cat. Her movements were swift and sure as she balanced between fighting with a knife and a gun. She used her bullets conservatively, knowing that she only had a defined number of them before she had to reload and even then, she didn’t carry a large number of them. She relied on her speed and strength, using her skills she honed over the years to twist, turn, and slice through her enemies.

She’d tied back her hair, but the silvery strands were soon stained with blood. Had her leather not been red, it would have been a terrifying sight indeed. She tore through one after the next with a ferocity that surprised every single man she encountered. As she fought, more and more omegas tore by, until finally, the last group appeared just around the corner from our position.

The cries of betas echoed loudly around us, but the shrill screams of the omegas we lost in the battle were louder. Nikki gritted her teeth and surged forward, viciously attacking a man who had just broken the neck of one of her omegas with only his hands. She was brutal and quick and before he had a chance to react, she’d buried her knife to the hilt right into his kidney from behind. He dropped dead as she pulled her blade free.

A strange humming sound filled the air and I stilled, searching the streets for any indication for what it could be. Gears grinding. Rocks scraping against the ground. The sound of steam billowing out into the air.

I realized that I knew what it was.

Damiyen had hinted that the betas had access to certain high military power tanks, a much-guarded government secret. He’d devised a plan to counter such a powerful vehicle, should we encounter one. I fingered the grenade at my belt, a specially made explosive filled with the same liquid fire that had blown through the wall. Every single one of us had one, just in case. Now we were going to get to use them.

I grinned.

Now the party was really going to get started.

I glanced to the side and saw Viktor pull the bow from his back. The heavy copper-colored tank turned the corner and he pulled the red-tipped arrow from the quiver on his back. He cocked the arrow in place and pulled back the string of the bow. Then he released it.

The arrow sailed straight and true, firing straight into the grate at the front of the tank. For a second, the world was quiet and then the arrow exploded. Designed as a much sleeker and more efficient form of the grenade at my waist, the red-tipped arrow was a formidable explosive and shot into the sole weak point of the tank, it was deadly.

The explosion rocked the tank back and forth, gears screaming to turn but ultimately failing. Another carefully shot arrow shot straight down into the barrel of the massive gun atop its hull. After a long second, the barrel exploded into pieces and rendered the tank ultimately useless.

The last of the omegas poured out from the city streets and moved behind us. Then we all moved out of the city walls and back into the wilds.