The Bare Truth part 2

Chapter 22

She dropped the knife in surprise as the lights went out in the room. A moment later, dim, auxiliary lighting kicked on and an alarm began to sound.

A few minutes passed. Sierra stood still, waiting to see what would happen next.

Then, from out in the hall she heard shouting, followed by gunshots.

Sierra ran to the wall and pulled down the scythe. She pressed her body against the wall right next to the door and waited.

A few more minutes passed, and then one of Dorrian's guards burst into the room. He looked around wildly for a moment, expecting her to still be on the floor where they left her. Sierra snuck up behind him and slashed the scythe across his throat. She ran out or the room and down the hall to the lobby.

The hotel was in chaos. Bullets rained down in the marble foyer, leaving dust clouds in their wake as they hit home in the cold stone. Dorrian's men were all over. Some were dressed in tactical gear and bearing automatic weapons. Others were fighting off the intruders in leopard form.

And the intruders...

Like Dorrian's people, some were in human, and some were in animal form. There were wolves, alligators, foxes and lions. There were hawks swooping down from the lofted ceiling and striking with their claws and sharp beaks before flying back up again. And there were bears. Her bears.

Sleuth had come for her and their children.

All of the packs had come for their children.

And in the middle of the fray, there was Joe. She would have recognized his sleek, black fur and powerful form anywhere. He was fighting off four of the leopards at once, decimating them with ease. He tuned from them and saw her from across the room.

Joe bounded towards her, shifting smoothly as he closed the distance between them and breaking into a run. She threw her arms around him and he lifted her off her feet in his embrace, spinning her around and kissing her deeply. Amid the bullets and the chaos and bloodshed around them, they held each other just for one, still moment.

Then the moment passed and they returned to their dire reality.

"Do you know how to get to the hanger?" he asked her urgently.

"Yes."

"We have trucks down there waiting to take the children out of here. I want you to go get in and take the first one out."

"No!" she insisted. "I'm staying! I'm helping!"

"Sierra!" he shouted at her.

He took a moment to take in her determined expression.

"Fine!" he said. "I want you to go find as many kids as you can and get them down to those trucks. Okay?"

"Okay," she said.

Joe pulled her into another brief kiss.

"I love you," he said. "Be safe."

Joe ran off to rejoin the fray. Sierra darted for the stairwell, scooping up an abandoned rifle as she went.

The door to the stairwell was locked. Sierra fired the gun at the door handle, splintering the wood around it until the door would open. She bounded up the stairs as fast as she could. She headed straight for the twelfth floor, where she knew the older girls were.