What She Thought She Knew (Rachel Moore Mystery Book 1), стр. 83

Martin Hill reluctantly pulled away, obviously disappointed that he couldn't hurt me.

To be honest, though, I wasn't sure what was worse: getting mutilated by Hill, or having to come face to face with the monster that made me.

I was pulled from my thoughts by Hill as he grabbed me roughly by the shoulder, and began to lead me back to the darkness from which he came.

Claire followed alongside us.

All the while, I looked around me hastily for any way of escape.

I groaned as I was hit on the back of the head.

I looked behind me and saw Hill smile at me. "There'll be no plans of escape coming from you. Don't want daddy to ground you, do ya?" He laughed hard.

I glared at the balding man as he continued to laugh.

He smirked at me. "Say, how's the pretty little brunette? We have some unfinished business to attend to."

Fury coursed through my veins as I tried to claw at the bastard.

He held tightly onto both of my hands, and laughed louder, before he was abruptly cut off.

I pulled my hands from his slack grip, and he fell over.

A pool of blood began to form from the bullet wound that pierced his neck.

Claire tensed up automatically, and grabbed me as a human shield while she pressed her gun against my temple. "Agent Fear, I assume. Don't do anything stupid, otherwise I'll blow your friend's brain clean out of his skull."

As expected, there was only silence as an answer.

Despite Claire's outward wariness, her heartbeat was surprisingly calm.

A whizzing noise interrupted the tense atmosphere as a bullet narrowly missed Claire's cheek.

Said person turned around just as a body collided with both of us.

We all fell to the ground.

The wind was knocked out of me, and my vision was momentarily blurry as I saw two figures struggle to gain the upper hand.

One of them pushed the other back, and fired a shot in the direction.

A silence then formed that was only interrupted by loud breathing.

My clear eyesight came back, and I saw both Claire and Fear stare at each other in a defensive stance.

Claire smirked. "Well then, I guess this'll be the sparring match that we so wanted."

Fear's face was blank, however, as he dropped his sniper rifle to the ground.

In return, Claire placed her dual pistols and all of their bullets on the ground.

Immediately, she launched herself at Fear who quickly rolled to the side and kicked her.

The woman fell, but caught her balance by pressing both of her hands on the ground.

At the same time, she managed to slide one foot through Fear's belt, and threw him over as she stretched her leg back.

Like Claire, Fear regained his balance, and narrowly missed a punch to his face.

The next little bit was them exchanging blows and blocks until Claire got tired of the repetitiveness, and jumped back.

She breathed hard, however, there was a look of amusement on her face. "Not bad. However, I don't play by the rules." She smirked.

Suddenly, she threw several small pebbles at Fear who turned away to cover his eyes.

Thick smoke enveloped the area, and I coughed at the compound.

The sound of a gun cocking forced me to turn my head to the right as I saw Claire slowly walk towards me with the gun pointed at me. "Come on, Agent Delta. I've got a delivery to make."

Just as she bent over, a gunshot went off, and a small amount of blood splattered across my face.

Claire's glowing eyes were completely wide as she stared at me in shock.

She then looked down, and saw the mass of blood that stained her blouse and continued to spread.

She looked back up at me before she fell over on her side.

Immediately, I shuffled away from her, but went still when footsteps came towards me.

Luckily, it was just Fear as he threw Claire's second pistol to the side, and adjusted his visor on his eye.

I stared at Fear in slight shock who merely looked at me blankly. "Did that hit her? It was supposed to be just a warning shot. Oh well." He shrugged carelessly. "I was never into redheads anyways. I prefer brunettes."

For a moment, all I did was blink repeatedly as I had no idea how to react.

Apparently tired of my behavior, Fear bent down and snapped his fingers in front of my eyes. "Earth to John. Is anyone in there?" He asked.

My eyes snapped to attention and I glared at him before I stood up.

Fear followed my example and stood up as well. "Once again, I saved your ass. Next time, you'll owe me a medal." He joked.

I snorted. "Yeah, well, how about you make this time on the house?"

Fear chuckled before he turned his attention to the figure of Claire.

From my angle, I could see her chest rise and fall, although it was very weak.

I walked over towards her and leaned down so that I could see her face.

Her eye color was back to hazel, and through the haze of pain, I saw sorrow expressed as well. "I'm so sorry." She whispered, before she shuddered and relaxed into the pavement.

I continued to stare at her for several minutes as I reflected that the girl always had the best intentions, however, the Phantoms were master manipulators.

I sighed in pity for the dead body and stood up.

I didn't realize that Fear was already beside me.

I gave him a questioning gaze, which he ignored.

Instead, he too leaned down and gently ran his fingers through Claire's short hair.

He held his hand over her blank eyes, before he closed the eyelids.

He then stood up, and stared at me with an unrecognizable look.

"Are you alright?" I asked softly.