Woman Intuition Never Lies
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“We need to leave,” said the woman. She stood in her doorway, looking at him with a mixture of concern and worry that he was too exhausted for any of it to register. “We’ve been compromised.”
He looked around, trying to focus on anything but his own exhaustion. There had been no sign of anyone other than himself and the two vampires when they’d arrived. They were still alone. He didn’t understand why she believed they’d be better off elsewhere. The woman’s apartment was as safe as any place here—if there was anywhere that wasn’t a trap waiting to spring.
The only difference between this time and all the times before was that they hadn’t killed their attackers. That meant something. He just needed to figure out what and then take care of it. Then he could rest easy.
As he stared over her shoulder, searching for signs of the men who attacked them, the door slammed open behind her. A second man came through the hallway, holding a gun pointed right at him. His eyes widened slightly when he saw his companion but quickly returned to their normal cold glazed look of someone used to killing without hesitation.
“Take him downstairs and kill him,” ordered the man. When he turned to move, the woman reached inside the closet and pulled out an assault rifle. Her eyes never left his for even one instant.
When the first gunman realized what she was doing, he began screaming for help. The second man followed suit almost instantly. As soon as both guns went silent, she kicked the closet door closed and put a single bullet into each of their heads.
She took a few seconds to make sure they weren’t going to wake up again before leaving the room, grabbing a jacket from where it hung and slipping it on while she walked down the hall. She paused briefly to pull her hair back away from her face and tie it tightly against her head before turning toward the stairwell.
She moved like a predator stalking prey. No matter how many men came after her or tried to stop her, she made sure not to get drawn into unnecessary fights. With all the blood she had shed today, she didn’t have the reserves to spare.
When the elevator dinged on its way up, he followed quietly beside her, keeping to the shadows so he wouldn’t attract unwanted attention. Once the doors opened onto the floor above, he stepped out, pausing when the woman did to watch as the guards came to investigate the gunfire, then follow them across the lobby and outside.
It would be much faster if they just went straight to the car, but he didn’t think either of them would enjoy the ride.
Once he caught up, he slipped his hand around her waist as they moved past the parking garage entrance. She stopped for only a moment to pick up the keys dangling from the ignition. When she turned to go, the man in front of her drew a small knife. As soon as his hand came up, she kicked forward with enough force to send the man flying off his feet.
A second later, his scream rang out over the wind and rain as her boot struck him directly between the legs. For a long minute, his screams filled the night air, punctuated by the wet sounds of bones breaking. By the time she finally let him fall, his body lay twisted and broken in the mud-covered street as his cries died out.
They drove slowly and carefully for nearly twenty minutes before reaching their destination. In his experience, being watched was always the most dangerous time because it gave people more than ample opportunity to plan an escape should they decide to take it.
So instead of pulling into a large underground parking lot, he circled several blocks until he found a deserted alleyway. Then, using the rear of a dumpster as cover, he parked the car and followed the woman inside.
After locking the door to a vacant office, he waited for her to step out, then led her upstairs where he stripped naked. Once he’d climbed into bed, he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close, drawing her soft body against his chest as he kissed her lips gently. After a long moment, she melted against him.
Within moments, their bodies were tangled together as they drifted into a deep, peaceful sleep.
***
You Can Lead a Horse…
When he woke to find her gone, he sat up quickly, listening intently for any sound, but everything appeared quiet and still. Looking out the window, he saw that it was still dark, but he knew that was only an illusion created by his internal clock. The sun wasn’t even close to rising yet.
The first thing he did was grab the radio hanging next to his headboard and turn it on. “I’m in.” It came out a little garbled, which was understandable since his voice hadn’t been used in a while, but he didn’t really mind. The last thing he needed was for anyone to know he was awake now.
He waited a few seconds before replying:
“Okay, thanks.”
As he waited for a response, he slipped on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. He pulled a light jacket over his head and tied the hood tight, making sure he couldn’t be seen from the street. Then he hurried downstairs, grabbed another bag full of guns, ammunition, and food, then headed out.
By the time the sun rose, he would be far away from Washington City and beyond anyone’s reach.
***
For the sake of convenience, we’ll call them “Gorillas” — Gorilla for short.
In the three decades Gorilla had spent working for various governments, he’d seen a lot of things. But nothing had ever prepared him for what happened when he crossed paths with a woman named Angelina Russo.
It wasn’t until a year after that meeting that his bosses finally admitted to him exactly who and what she was. That admission left him numb for days as he processed the reality of his new knowledge.
Angelina Russo was the world’s deadliest assassin. Not just because she could kill at will, but also because she did it without mercy, leaving nothing behind but blood and death.
From his perspective, Gorilla had never felt more worthless than he did now. His job was simple: keep her safe. And despite all his training, he failed miserably. There had been many times in his career when he’d been responsible for the deaths of men, women, and children, but this was different. He was too late, and by the time he arrived, there wasn’t anything he could do to save her life.
It took several years before he managed to work through the guilt and eventually start over again as he learned to cope with his new identity, but it wasn’t easy. No matter how much he tried to pretend that his old self didn’t exist, it lingered in the background, ready to jump out at him if something threatened to destroy everything he’d worked so hard to build.
And as if the loss wasn’t painful enough, he was haunted by his memories of those terrible last minutes. Angelina had screamed and writhed against the ropes, trying to tear them apart and get free.
Then the man holding her down pressed a gun to her temple and blew away half her face, taking one side completely off in a spray of blood. As she screamed in pain and rage, he shot her twice in the other eye to silence her.
Then he turned and walked away … laughing.
Since then, he’d been waiting for the perfect chance to exact vengeance against her killer, but he knew it wouldn’t be an easy task. The last time he’d seen Angelina, she’d looked like a ghost. She was pale as milk and covered in blood.
Her beautiful green eyes stared back at him without recognition or fear. And when she’d seen Gorilla watching over her, she’d smiled at him and then vanished into thin air.
She’d taken everything else with her.
***
“So, how many of you are we talking about?”
There were five of us sitting around the table in my living room having drinks and dinner when I answered the question. My sister, Tasha, was missing, as usual; and my father and mother weren’t home yet. It was just me and four friends from college and work — two of which were married.
One of them was divorced with a young child, and another was engaged to be married within a couple months. We’d been getting together for several weeks now every weekend, and it was the first time any of us mentioned anything about marriage and children.
“I think six sounds pretty good,” said Jeff, a guy from work who was in love with a girl he’d met a few months ago.
“Six is fine by me,” added Kevin, a childhood friend who lived across town. He’d always wanted kids, and although his fiancé had put up a fight for a few days, he won her over and she was starting to warm up to the idea. They planned to wait a little longer, maybe go a year before they had their first baby, but she already knew the names they’d picked out.
“Five is better,” offered Jason, who was married and had a small son. “The more hands involved the easier it should be.”
Jeff and Kevin nodded. I didn’t know what to say and simply shrugged, feeling the sting of embarrassment in my cheeks.
We talked for a while about babies and marriage and the upcoming wedding of the only single person present: Matt. Then, just when things seemed to be calming down, the conversation went off track.
“What do you think is causing all these attacks?” asked Jason.
“Do you think it has something to do with terrorism?” asked Jeff.
Kevin chuckled and shook his head. “No, probably not. The government doesn’t have that kind of budget. If there was ever a terrorist group out there, they’d be huge by now. No, this is just someone’s sick joke.”
“Maybe they’re targeting politicians,” suggested Matt.
“They’ve never done that,” I explained. “This is way out of the ordinary.”
“How do you mean?” asked Matt.
“Well,” I started, trying to figure out how to explain. I had to take a sip of wine to steady my nerves. “For starters, these are very organized attacks. It seems almost calculated, almost like somebody knew exactly where they were going to strike.”
“You don’t think it could be aliens from outer space?” offered Jason, looking at me for support.
“That would make sense,” added Matt with a grin.
“No, no, it’s still not enough to draw such a conclusion,” I argued. “First off, we haven’t heard from anyone on Mars. There aren’t even any radio signals coming from the planet anymore. Not to mention how expensive it must be to travel through the galaxy.”
“But why to bother?” asked Matt. “Why bother with Earth? What would they want here?”
“Who knows?” replied Kevin, shrugging his shoulders.
“Maybe whoever’s behind it thinks they’ll find something valuable,” suggested Jeff.
“Or, maybe they just like killing people,” added Jason.
“Don’t forget about the whole alien angle,” offered Kevin.
“Yeah,” I agreed. “It would fit right in with the whole UFO thing. Aliens would make sense, but I’m afraid it would be hard to believe after so many years of nothing. Plus, we know the government is hiding something.”
“And it might be too big of a leap of faith for most people,” added Kevin.
“If I had to guess, it’s some kind of cult,” said Matt with his mouth full of food.
“Cults?” responded Kevin. “I hadn’t really thought of that…”
“Sure,” agreed Tasha, my sister-in-law, who’d arrived home shortly after the conversation began. “They’ve got their own little world. Like the Order of the Dragon, or the Black Cross …”
“Sounds like something out of a horror movie,” said Kevin, shivering in his seat. “Is there anything we can do about this stuff?”
“I don’t think we should worry about it,” said Tasha. “It’s just part of being an adult.”
“Yes, it is,” agreed on Dad when he walked into the apartment and saw our discussion. “Just keep calm, and we’ll figure out what’s going on.”
The End