Fading into time

chapter 13

It was like the previously dark and abandoned basement room suddenly sprang into life, full of sharp colours and buzzing noises, the fluid rippling of shadows and figures, and in the midst of it all, a figure that looked only too familiar.

"Welcome back, Kygo. I was thinking you would never return."n

With guards surrounding us, armed with tasers and whatnot, and feeling Sophie hitch a frightened breath beside me, I let the anger course through my veins, feeling it light me up and consume me from the inside out. Now was not the time to freeze, it was the time to fight.

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I didn't know what I was thinking when I swerved and ducked under all the gloved hands reaching out for me, running in aimless circles around the room trying to dodge and dive while Kygo whipped around the basement like a goddamn hurricane, black with fury and lightning-fast speed. He stretched out his wings, midnight-black and huge in their majestic glory, sending them left and right, knocking people onto their backs before they could raise their guns or tasers to defend themselves. In the short time of the fray, Liam had ascended the platform and suddenly, the time machine hummed to life, sending a deep vibration around the room. He must have gotten all the materials he needed except for Kygo's blood, and if he was planning to return to the future, that probably meant he was going to take Kygo along with him, which also meant that he was very certain that he would be defeated tonight. We were grossly outnumbered, two versus about two dozen or so.

A hand latched onto my arm from behind and the momentary fear of being tased or shot rushed through me like a burst of adrenaline, and when an audacity I didn't knew I possessed, I whipped around and socked the guard right in the face. My fist crashed right through the visor and landed with a sickening crunch on his nose and the poor guy let go with a pained yelp, hands flying to his face and accidentally tasering himself in the process. Goddamn, people were stupid.

I knew I needed a distraction - I couldn't keep running in circles forever. I would eventually tire out and then they would be on me before I knew it. Since I asked to come in with Kygo, I would have to be able to protect myself, since it looked like Kygo was currently on a whacking spree with his wings and fists and legs and unable to come to my aid.

Okay, okay, what did I have right now that could...Oh

I slipped into a small space between a complex-looking robot and the guards behind me, quickly pulling out the stink bombs from my pocket. My cousin had just given them to me tonight and these were her newly created specialties. I threw one behind me and another in front at the guard who had suddenly appeared, vaulting over the workbench before it exploded in a mass of stinking paint. Trust my cousin to think of coloured stink bombs. Typical of her.

That would put them off, but not for long.

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I was in full battle mode, swinging and diving left and right, front and back, looping in the air and slamming into bodies full-force. It hurt, of course, and I could feel cuts and bruises blooming all over my body, but the pain enveloped me in a good way.

On the other side of the room, colourful splatters of paint littered the walls while the nauseating stench of rotten eggs and I-don't-know-and-don't-want'-to-find-out permeated the air, making me gag. Good lord, what on earth was in that package?!

Out of the corner of my eye, I could espy Liam, his face set in annoyance and frustration, making his way out of the door of the time machine and vaulting over the gate. He probably thought I could be defeated, but nope, I refused to give him the satisfaction of that tonight.