Chapter 7 - The Hunted
They had the company, but they still needed to survive the night.
As Seraphina and Julian took the executive elevator down, the building’s power abruptly cut out. The emergency red lights bathed the elevator car in a sinister glow. The elevator ground to a halt between the 30th and 29th floors.
"That wasn't a power grid failure," Julian whispered, drawing his gun. "Someone manually cut the mainframe."
Marcus Blackwood’s personal fixer, a ghost known only as Silas, had found them.
Julian pried the elevator doors open. They climbed out into the dark, empty expanse of the 29th floor—a floor currently under construction. It was a maze of exposed steel, drywall, and shadows.
A suppressed gunshot hissed through the air. The concrete pillar inches from Seraphina’s head exploded in a shower of dust.
"Move!" Julian shoved her behind a stack of drywall.
A terrifying game of cat-and-mouse began. Silas was a professional, moving silently in the dark. Julian exchanged fire, the brief flashes of muzzle light illuminating the empty floor.
"I can't hold him off forever. I only have one mag left," Julian hissed, pressing his back against Seraphina in the dark. "You need to run for the stairwell."
"I’m not leaving you," Seraphina whispered fiercely, grabbing his hand.
"Sera, if you die, they win," Julian said, turning to look at her. In the red emergency light, the distance between them vanished. Without thinking, Julian leaned in and kissed her. It was a kiss of desperation, adrenaline, and unspoken devotion.
Seraphina kissed him back hard, her hands gripping his tactical vest.
When they broke apart, her eyes were resolute. "We both leave, or neither of us does."
Seraphina grabbed a heavy nail gun from a nearby construction cart. She locked eyes with Julian. "On three. You draw his fire. I flank."
May you like
Julian grinned, a feral, reckless smile. "Three."
Julian broke from cover, firing at Silas’s shadow. Silas returned fire, stepping out of his concealment. Seraphina lunged from the side, pressing the heavy nail gun directly into the gap of Silas's tactical armor and pulling the trigger. The fixer screamed, dropping his weapon, and Julian finished him with a swift blow to the temple.
