In Between

Chapter Nine: Warriors

It was total pandemonium.

At first, Apryl thought that the Warriors might be at the lab for a different reason—maybe they were simply checking on how Mr. Dalhart and his team were progressing with their project. Then she focused on their words. "Secure the portal! Capture the Outsiders!" a brash-looking woman shouted.

Six of them were barreling in, shouting to each other, and pointing at the two girls. Apryl saw the Warriors' aristocratic uniforms—the gold-colored armor, the brown leather boots—and then she was knocked sideways. She watched from her position on the ground as a Warrior crouched above her and removed a lethal-looking instrument from his belt. He pointed it right at her heart, and blue-white electricity began crackling up the metal stem. Apryl's survival instincts kicked in and she tried scuttling away on her back to no avail. The Warrior was faster—he grabbed hold of her ankle and stabbed the metal instrument towards her chest.

Apryl froze in terror as the weapon came towards her. In her peripheral vision, someone in a lab coat dropped to the ground, twitching as if they'd been electrocuted, and she knew that the crackling weapon was some sort of stunner. Perhaps the scientist was dead. The thought enraged her, and she stuck out her free leg with a reflex similar to that of a cornered animal. Lash out! Attack! her brain told her.

It was a useless effort, because the man was three times her size. She was preparing herself for pain and possible death when the weight of him suddenly lifted from her legs as he was slammed to the side—Draven had appeared out of nowhere and thrown his body against the Warrior. The grip on Apryl's ankle was gone, so she scrambled to her feet and turned towards her savior. There was no time to thank him. The scuffle had devolved into an all-out battle with the Warriors aiming to stun everyone in the room.

Apryl saw Mr. Dalhart grappling with the brash, female Warrior. Aimi was the one who had already been stunned, but Marko and Timon were still holding their own against a Warrior each. When Bri appeared from behind the metal screen in the arms of another Warrior, Apryl ran towards her without hesitation. She didn't have a weapon—she was an eighteen-year-old girl who had never been in a physical fight in her life—but she had to help her sister.

Stop! You'll only be captured too! Draven's mental voice snapped the warning like an icy whip, but Apryl ignored him. She realized that he was following her, elbowing Warriors aside with unexpected strength and skill. They reached Bri who was yelling and thrashing in the arms of a male Warrior with greasy black hair. Apryl felt a degree of shock when Draven dodged the man's stunner and punched him square in the jaw, because he did it so naturally—gracefully even.

Go! he thought to her. Get to the—but whether he had meant for them to go to the door or portal Apryl didn't know. She turned away from him and grabbed Bri's arm, leaving Draven to deal with the Warrior who was obviously hoping to get revenge for being punched in the face. They ran towards the door only to find their path blocked by the other man who Draven had tackled earlier. Bri began steering them, yanking Apryl around in a one-eighty spin; she seemed to think that going to Paris might not be such a bad idea after all.

Together they sprinted towards the portal. Apryl looked frantically around the room, unaware until she saw him that she had been looking for Kieran. He had gone to help Draven and was hanging onto the arm of the black-haired Warrior, specifically, the arm that held the stunner. Apryl sent him something in thought that might have started out as a goodbye but turned into an exclamation of surprise. The Warrior yanked his arm away and simultaneously shook Kieran off and shoved the stunner towards Draven in an instant. He dodged it faster than Apryl thought possible and countered with a calculated jab at the Warrior's wrist.