The Dark Edge Chronicles - Clan War

UnderHanded Attack

"Kadasa," Lash hissed, reaching for his clothing. Long used to dressing in the strangest of places as a Qos Viran operator, he was fully clothed before the lilith could slip her underclothing back on. He turned to her to bow his head.

"My lady. I suggest you stay here. I will investigate why your team has lost contact with their rearguard."

"Let me come with you," she said, pulling her blouse back on. "If we're dealing with the Hand, my position should ..."

Lash quickly held up a forestalling hand.

"Forgive me for interrupting you, my lady. But the Hand attacked a lilith's holding in Belgium after they discovered she was harboring us. In their zeal to follow their masters' orders, they have forgotten the ancient laws."

She stared at him for a long handful of seconds. Then she darted in close to kiss him hard and deep before letting him go.

"Good hunting, my wolf," she said in a hoarse whisper. "Leave their blood cold on the ground!"

Nodding, Lash stepped back and reached behind him to open the door. Where he found a tall, and relatively strong-looking vampire with bright blue eyes and pale skin, obviously from the same clan as his queen. Seeing Lash step out of the small chamber, he backed up to let the much bigger vampire step into the aisle.

"Report," Lash tautly directed. Hearing the note of command, the M'tada guardsman bowed his head.

"Commander. Her Ladyship ordered a vanguard two cars up and a rearguard two cars back to give her a buffer of protection."

The guardsman's face tightened.

"We've lost contact with the rear guard two minutes ago. When we tried ..."

Lash found his eyes moving off the guardsman to what appeared to be shifting blurs around as the male continued his terse report. It was enough to push him into reaching into the small of his back.

"You need to pull back to your vanguard," he interrupted the guardsman to say, trying to track the blurs as best he could without moving his eyes or head.

"Commander?"

He looked directly at the guardsman, his expression hard.

"Take her Ladyship and retreat to the vanguard's position," he tightly directed. "Now!" He then pulled the Shanzi from its holster.

Seeing the futuristic machine pistol appear out of nowhere, the M'rada guard's eyes flew wide. But before he could speak or react, one of the blurs was behind him to sprout a pair of hands. Then one hand was taking him by the head while the other suddenly held a car'dieth knife, which was swiftly drawn across the guardsman's throat.

Blinking rapidly as blood abruptly spilled out the blackening slash, the guardsman stared at Lash for a handful of seconds, his mouth working soundlessly. Then he was crumpling to the floor.

Which was fine by Lash as he had snapped the Shanzi into position as soon as the hands had appeared. Now he had a clear line of fire.

"Death to the Hand!" he grated. Then the Shanzi was filling the car with death-dealing ceramic flying too fast to avoid.

First to die was the operative who just murdered the guardsman, stitched across the body by ceramic retribution. The slugs' impact threw him back with enough force, the stealth daycloak he was wearing was flung from his body. Which, in turn, made him visible.

Then the entire car was filled with suddenly visible bodies, the Shanzi's fiery ordnance both slaying and revealing as it slammed into the stealthed Hand agents. A single pass was all it took to make a full dozen appear as their cloaks were flung from mortally-wounded and twisting bodies.