Chapter 25 - A Shield of Rain and Blood
The muffled *thwack* of the suppressed gunshot was drowned out by a thunderclap, but the impact was unmistakable.
Julian, who seconds ago could barely stand, tore himself from my grip with an inhuman surge of adrenaline. He threw himself forward into the icy deluge, his boots skidding across the slick wet planks. He collided with Maya just as the round tore through the rainy mist, shielding her small frame with his own broken body.
A grunt of agony ripped from Julian’s throat as the bullet struck his back, tearing through his dark leather jacket. The momentum sent both of them tumbling onto the wet bridge.
"Julian!" Maya wailed, clutching his chest as he pinned her under him against the wooden railing.
"Run... Maya... get behind Elena..." Julian wheezed, blood foaming on his lips.
Rage, pure and blinding, eclipsed every ounce of fear in my veins. Alexander was dead, but the world was still crawling with monsters who wanted to tear my family apart. I dropped to one knee, drawing the service pistol I had snatched from the guard in the burning hallway. My hands were shaking, slippery with rain, but I locked both eyes onto Victor Sterling.
*Crack! Crack! Crack!*
I emptied three rounds in rapid succession. Sterling was an operative, trained and swift; he threw himself sideways behind the hood of the state police cruiser. Sparks flew as my bullets ricocheted off the steel chassis and shattered the cruiser's windshield into a web of white safety glass.
"Elena, move!" came a booming shout from the dark tree line behind the police cruiser.
Through the curtains of rain, two heavy black SUVs roared out of the forest road, their high beams piercing the darkness. For a terrifying second, I thought they were Sterling’s extraction team. But then the lead SUV rammed straight into the side of the police cruiser, spinning it around and pinning Sterling behind a barrier of crumpled metal.
The SUV doors flew open. Out stepped Marcus Vance—my father’s oldest confidant, a man I had believed dead for five years. Behind him were half a dozen heavily armed men wearing civilian tactical gear, bearing the insignia of the old Vanderbilt private security.
"Get across! Now!" Marcus roared, raising an assault rifle and firing a steady volley toward the crushed cruiser to suppress Sterling.
"Julian, get up!" I sobbed, dragging Maya to her feet with one hand and hauling Julian upright by his belt with the other. "Look at me! Marcus is here! You are not dying on this bridge!"
Julian's eyes were glazed, but his teeth were clenched so hard they cracked. "I've got her... keep moving..."
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With every remaining drop of strength, Maya and I supported Julian as we dragged him across the final twenty yards of the wooden suspension bridge. Just as our boots hit the solid gravel of the western ridge, a deafening explosion ripped through the air behind us.
A secondary blast from Blackwood Ridge's underground fuel depot tore the foundation of the bridge away. The cables snapped with sounds like monstrous whip cracks, and the entire wooden span plunged into the roaring abyss, cutting off the burning ruins forever.