Chapter 19

The leader lowered his weapon as the creature began tearing itself free from the rubble.

Ramona watched him carefully. His attention wasn't on the monster anymore. It was on the device mounted beneath his wrist guard.

A teleportation field began forming behind him.

He's leaving.

Ramona didn't hesitate.

She fired first.

The rifle cracked through the chamber, but the leader twisted aside before the round reached his chest. The shot struck the teleportation device instead, sending a burst of sparks across his armor and destabilizing the forming field.

His head snapped toward her.

Ramona was already moving.

She closed the distance before he could recover, Fang flashing from beneath her sleeve. She drove the blade toward the gap beneath his helmet, forcing him to intercept with his black energy blade.

The collision sent a violent shock through both weapons.

“You really thought I'd let you walk away?” Ramona said.

The leader shoved her backward.

She used the momentum to pivot, kicked off the broken transport, and came back at him from the side. Her Fang struck his armor twice before his blade caught her third attack.

He was fast.

Too fast for an ordinary commander.

Ramona changed tactics immediately. Instead of trying to overpower him, she attacked his damaged wrist.

The Fang cut through part of his gauntlet.

The teleportation device sparked again.

His composure finally cracked.

“You're making a mistake.”

“No,” Ramona said. “I'm making sure you can't report anything.”

She drove forward.

The leader blocked her first strike, redirected the second and caught her wrist before the Fang could reach his throat. For a moment, they were locked together, faces only inches apart.

Then his eyes shifted toward the creature.

Ramona followed his gaze.

The monster had stopped moving.

It was watching them.

The leader suddenly released her and stepped backward.

Ramona lunged after him, but he slammed his damaged gauntlet against the floor.

A pulse of black energy exploded outward.

Ramona threw herself behind the transport wreckage as the shockwave tore across the chamber. Concrete shattered. Metal twisted. The creature staggered beneath the impact.

When Ramona looked up, the leader was already standing inside the unstable teleportation field.

She raised her rifle.

He smiled beneath the fractured edge of his helmet.

“You've confirmed everything I needed to know.”

Ramona fired again.

The shot passed through the field a fraction of a second before it collapsed.

The leader vanished.

Ramona lowered the rifle slowly, staring at the empty space where he had been.

She hadn't stopped him.

But she had damaged his equipment, forced him to reveal his combat ability and, more importantly, prevented him from leaving without understanding that she would fight back.

Behind her, the creature released a low, grinding roar.

Ramona turned.

Its red eyes locked onto hers.

The leader's final words echoed through her mind.

The weapon is ready.

She tightened her grip around the Fang.

“He can call me whatever he wants,” Ramona said quietly. “But I'm nobody's weapon.”

The creature lunged.

Ramona raised her rifle and charged straight toward it.

If the Black Division wanted to use her as bait, they had just made their first mistake.

They had put the weapon within reach of its target.