The crow and the beast - Kaz brekker

chapter 24 - the ambush

It was a rainy day. Everything was set up and everybody knew the plan.

at the back inej was riding one of the fastest horses they had in ketterdam, she had knifes everywhere in the saddle.

Matthias and nina were driving the caravan in front of her, with wylan in the back ready to turn on the machines he made and he had stashed some bombs there as well that he could throw. Matthias had a rifle next to him and nina had a confident look on her face.

Up front Cara was nervously looking around with kaz beside her looking as emotionless as always. Jesper was in the back with another one of wylan's machines and enough ammo to shoot down half of ketterdam.

Kaz noticed Cara was nervous and placed a gloved hand on her thigh. "its going to be alright." She looked at him for a moment but then back to her hands.

they knew where most of the caravans were attacked, it was a good place for an ambush. There was an open field on the left side of the road and a steep hill to the right side. Of course this meant most people would be looking out on the field and never saw their attackers coming from the hill.

They were almost there now, just a few more minutes. Cara could smell them before she saw them; the rain masked their smell a little but it did not hide it completely. "they're here" she quietly said to kaz.

kaz's hand gave her tight a squeeze before holding onto the reins again. The caravan moved on slowly, they were at the spot now and Cara almost thought the plan would be a bust and the ambushers wouldn't show up until she heard a voice.

"what have we here? What goods have you brought us today? Food? Weapons?" Cara turned to look at them. she estimated them all to be between 20 and 40 years old. 4 boys and 2 women. All black hair.

Some of them did not look right, they had a weird facial expression and one of the boys held his arm weirdly. All of them had the same look, they wanted to kill. They would enjoy the killing.

kaz had stopped the caravan as soon as he heard the voice. "we bring nothing for you today ... only death!"

That was the signal and everything seemed to move in slow motion. Both jesper and wylan turned on the machines it was loud, deafening loud. A very high pitched tone was produced, it was the only thing Cara could hear anymore.

The people on the hill moved, some grabbing their ears others shifting immediately.

They were giant hyena's , carnivores. The 2 people that held their ears fell to the ground clutching their chest, nina's work. 4 monstrous hyenas stormed down the hill.

Cara leaped of the carriage and shifted mid air landing on her back paws arms wide. One of the hyena's signaled his brother and they both went for her while the 2 others went for the caravans.

all she could hear was the high pitched tune and gun shots. She charged at the 2 hyena's and met them halfway the hill, the weight of them making her lose her balance and stumbling back. She bit one of them in the neck while she felt their claws on her armor.

it was a flurry of teeth and claws as she tried to bite and slash at the yellow and brown fur. She felt their claws and teeth but adrenaline rushed trough her body and she was not giving in to the pain.

suddenly she felt something snap, first she thought it was a bone or something but when she looked to her side she saw the hyena's had managed to snap on of the straps of her breastplate.

This was bad, she knew hyena's had one a very strong bite force and would easily bite through her flesh and bone if they were given the chance.

She managed to throw one off of her and turned to the other one biting down in its neck with all the force she could muster. She heard a snap and the hyena fell on the ground dead.

She looked up at the one she had just thrown away and saw he was still getting up from the ground. She took this second to look around the battlefield. 1 more hyena laid dead next to the caravan, Matthias was wrestling with one and once she heard another gunshot that one also hit the ground.

That is when the 2 who were still on the ground from nina got up, seeing their family dead must have given them the strength to resist nina and one of them seemed to yell something before they shifted and joined the battle.

Cara threw herself on the hyena that was back on its feet and knocked it back to the ground. Before she could attack the hyena she felt something jump on her back and bite her shoulder. She heard another snap as another strap of her armor broke.

She grabbed the thing on her back and threw it off. The breastplate falling to the ground. She lunged at the closest hyena and it fell over under her weight. It slashed at her chest.

She knew she was bigger than these mutts, the hyena laughed at her and she opened her jaw as wide as she could putting the snout of the hyena in her mouth until she was far enough and bit down hard, cracking the skull and piecing the brain.

The hyena immediately went limp underneath her. Suddenly she heard a scream over the high pitched noise and when she looked up she saw the biggest hyena come over the hill. This one had scars all over its body and looked much older.

Before she had time to react it used its shoulder to throw her off of the dead hyena. She felt the cracks and knew he had at least 2 ribs. She soared through the sky and landed hard on the ground a few meters away.

She heard screaming, her chest hurt but she got up again. Sha saw some shots were fired at the bigger hyena but it did not even flinch. It went straight for her again, it slashed again but Cara was to slow to avoid it this time.

She felt its claws over her face and her vision on the right side turned red with blood. She could hear somebody screaming her name but did not see who It was. She was laying underneath the beast waiting for its final attack to finisher her.

She did not see where she came from but suddenly inej was on top of the hyena, stabbing it multiple times in the back. It did not do much to stop it and he soon threw her off. But it had given Cara enough time to stand up. She lifted her right claw to slash the monster but did not see that it had already recovered itself.

Before her claw hit the beast he had his jaw around her arm, just underneath her wrist and bit down. She felt the bone break and shatter and yelped out in pain loudly. Suddenly a gun shot was heard from very close by and Cara saw the beast fall down in front of her, releasing her wrist in the process.

She looked to where the gun shot rang from and saw it was kaz who had shot the beast in its head.

She looked around as if in a daze and did not see any hyena's standing, they are all dead she thought. We did it.

with the relief came the pain, her energy got sucked up from her body and she shifted back to human. She saw Kaz screaming something but did not hear it all she heard was the loud pitch.

She fell to the ground and shifted back to human. Kaz was next to her in seconds. Nina a few seconds after. She could not hear what they were saying but it sounded urgent.

She knew she was losing consciousness. She closed her eyes and felt she was being picked up. that was the last thing she remembered.

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when she opened her eyes again she was in the slat, in kaz's bed. she looked around and immediately saw kaz sitting next to her snoring away.

she smirked and then spoke "I told you that job was a bad idea" immediately kaz shot up. he looked around the room seemingly lost but when his eyes landed on Cara his eyes turned soft. "you're awake" he said.

"no I am talking while I sleep." He smirked.

"I will give you the full status report, we got back to ketterdam a few hours ago. Nina patched you up the best she could. She healed your cut above your eye and tailored away the scar. You have broken ribs but nina said they are healing already. You have cuts and bruises all over your body – not that I looked I mean .. nina told me. and your wrist ..."

Cara looked at her wrist which was bandaged and held in place.

"your wrist was shattered, nina thinks it will heal but it might be a lasting thing, it will never be like it was before." Cara nodded.

"did you get your kruge?" she said. Kaz cocked an eyebrow not expecting that question.

"yes, the money is being transferred to us as." He slowly said.

"keep my part, I don't want it. I did not do this job for the kruge. I did it for you."

kaz had an emotionless expression when he nodded at what she said.

"you should go back to sleep to rest, you lost a lot of blood and your body needs to heal."

Cara did not need to be told twice and closed her eyes again. Before she fel asleep she felt kaz taking her good hand in his, no gloves. "I am sorry he whispered."