Chapter 16:
Eventful Night
The door burst open with a mighty kick from Kala, and Miranda tossed in a couple of strobes to cover their entry.
The inhabitants of the small warehouse scrambled to arm themselves but the blinding light was enough to buy the Aegis team time to close the gap between them.
The two Wolfen and the mighty Amazon charged in once the flashing lights stopped, immediately taking down three of the people inside before they could bring their illegal weapons to bear.
Miranda came in after them, a canister in each hand as she looked for the best place to deploy them.
Towards the back of the building two other men had been spared the blinding effects of the grenades and were helping a woman to her feet.
In the dim light, Miranda could see that she had large breasts.
“What do we do?!” One of the men spoke in a panicked voice.
Tears were leaking from the disoriented woman’s eyes, but she still managed to bark out orders.
“The crate you idiot, we prepared for this! Go! Open the crate!”
“But-”
“NOW!”
Miranda watched the whole exchange even as the girls finished with the guards at the front of the building and started towards the trio in the back.
The grey haired operator called out to the suspects in the back of the room.
“By order of the Aegis you are bound by law! Lay down your weapons and-”
“No thanks!” The stacked woman interrupted as she and one of the other men slipped out a side exit.
Miranda cursed, the exit hadn’t been visible at all from outside, before she could react though, her attention was caught by the other man as he hastily pried the front off of a large crate against the back wall.
There was a shrieking roar from inside and the charging Wolfen and Amazon hesitated as a naked Lapine girl burst out of the crate and tackled the man to the floor.
Even in the dim light, they recognized a Tenebrae for what it was.
Miranda didn’t hesitate as the dark girl tore into the man below her.
“Shit! Kala, take her alive! Lil, Jan, don’t let those two escape! Go, Go!”
But as they moved to the exit, another Tenebrae-Lapine burst out of the container, and then a Lambda behind her.
The first one had finished tearing apart the idiot below her and directed a shriek at Kala before charging.
The Amazon had well over a foot and probably forty pounds on the slight bunny girl, but she still stumbled back under the vicious onslaught even as the other two Tenebrae scrambled to join their dark sister.
Miranda didn’t need to call out to the Wolfen, the pair already abandoning the pursuit to aid the beleaguered Kala, though Lilly let out a frustrated snarl at the interruption of her hunt.
Kala spun and smashed the first Lapine hard into a stack of small barrels, the bunny slumping to the floor as casks tumbled around her. But the Amazon had barely turned to face the new threats when the charging Lambda slammed her head into her stomach with an aggressive bleat.
The sheep girl’s curved horns formed a natural battering ram that drove the air from the warrior’s lungs and knocked her several feet back to crash against the side wall.
Miranda’s eyes widened when she saw her rebound off and slumped to the floor.
“Kala!”
Her voice was uncharacteristically high with worry as she lost sight of her bond-mate under the weight of the Lambda’s sudden charge, though she could clearly see the two Tenebrae working together to stomp and trample the downed warrior.
Fortunately Lilly howled and took down the Lambda even as Jan likewise tackled the still standing Lapine and it looked like the powerful pair would be able to bring them under control easily enough.
Then Miranda smelled smoke.
Fire was spreading fast from the side exit that the woman and her remaining lackey had taken.
“Shit! Fall back! Girls, we need to get out!”
She rushed towards the fray, glancing down at the three men that they had hit first, but quickly looking away; the warriors had done their job too well.
Lilly and Jan struggled with a Tenebrae each, both suffering bites and scratches from the raging monster girls but their superior strength was enough to wrest their charges towards the front exit.
A dazed Kala meanwhile stumbled to her feet.
“Kala! Move it! We don’t know what else is in these cra-”
Before Miranda could finish, an explosion rocked through the warehouse from her right, knocking both her and her Amazon to the floor.
The woman’s senses came back to her slowly.
When they did her ears were ringing and she couldn’t seem to get her eyes to focus.
She coughed at the smoke billowing around her and pulled herself to her feet, one leg gave out though and she stumbled to her hands and knees, desperately trying to navigate the chaotic landscape around her.
A pair of hands seized the dazed Aegis operator under her arm, helping her back up and pulling her towards the exit, but as her wits returned she began to fight against her rescuer.
“Wait, no! K-Kala!”
She barely heard her own slurred words over the roaring of the flames.
The section of the warehouse where her bond-mate had been was blocked by a wall of fire, and the heat of it made her eyes water and burn as tears trailed down her cheeks.
“Easy girl! We need to get out of here!”
A gruff male voice shouted at her in the face of the inferno that was quickly overtaking the warehouse.
“KALA!”
Miranda wailed and struggled harder against the stranger’s grip, one arm reaching towards the flames blocking her from her love.
Then she felt a sharp crack on her head, the man had brought his fist down, knuckles first and hard enough for her to feel it.
“She’s dead Aegis! We need to get out or we will be too!”
He half dragged, half carried her out of the building, smoke and flames nipping at their heels as their lungs burned and tears streaked down their faces from their irritated eyes.
Outside, the night was painted orange with the light of the fire; the stricken Aegis operator looked around as the world slowed to a crawl.
Voices called out, buckets of water were being thrown, not at the warehouse, as it was a lost cause, but at the surrounding buildings to try to contain the blaze.
Nearby, Lilly and Jan struggled to control their Tenebrae, while various workers from the other warehouses moved to help them pin the dark girls to the ground.
The world sped up again as an urgent coughing fit stole Miranda’s lungs, more tears staining her cheeks from the effort.
“Over here! Quickly!”
A voice called from the left side of the building and several people moved to help.
“Crazy woman all but tore the damned wall down to get out! Quickly we need medics over- holy fuck! How are you even standing?!”
Miranda stumbled away from the man still supporting her as desperate hope clawed at her breast. The worst of the smoke was cleared from her lungs, now just an irritating itchy burn at the back of her throat.
Before she could round the corner, Kala stumbled into view, the burned and battered body of the Tenebrae in her arms while two men followed her, their arms up as if to help but afraid to touch her injuries.
Though Miranda’s relief was palpable, so was her shock at the sight of her pet.
The bite marks, scratches and numerous bruises from the crazed assault of the two Tenebrae were the least of Kala’s injuries.
Her right side was badly torn with bits of exploding crate sticking out of her flesh. She had multiple angry red burns on her arms and legs, one eye was swollen completely shut and there wasn’t an inch of her that wasn’t covered in either blood or soot.
But despite all of her injuries she limped towards her bond-mate before falling to her knees and laying the limp Lapine on the ground with great care.
The poor creature was dead.
“I… tried… Wife. I t-tried… to get her out in time.”
She coughed and slumped to the ground, sitting like a toddler with her legs spread, her head wobbling unsteadily on her neck.
“We need rope! Somebody bring some damn rope!” A woman called out behind them, drawing the attention of the men with Kala.
The brave girl had placed her knee in the middle of the struggling Lambda’s back, while Lilly gripped her by the horns and held her head in the dirt to keep her from using her natural weapons.
With fumbling fingers Miranda broke open her first aid kit, here movements slow and unsteady as she tried to figure out which were the worst of Kala’s wounds.
While a concussed Miranda struggled to keep herself focused on her Amazon, a fiery streak shot across the sky to land beside the man who had pulled her out of the warehouse.
“Don’t hold back Kit! There’s no one left inside so burn it out!” He coughed out his orders, like Miranda he’d gotten his share of smoke.
“Yes Master!”
The fire elemental cast her arms out to the side while Miranda shielded Kala with her body.
An orgasmic cry reverberated into the night over the roar of the flames as the girl unleashed her full power on the blaze before her.
The Ifrit directed the chaotic conflagration of the warehouse into a single dreadful column that howled high into the air. She pulled all of the heat upwards as well, so the many people around the building were spared from the furious torrent.
Though impressive, the flaming vortex quickly burned through the fuel that the building supplied and withered into nothing but smoke hovering over the charred remains of the structure.
Once the light show had finished, a still dazed Miranda glanced over to the Tenebrae, Jez had helped Jan by wrapping her tongue around the Lapine in her arms, while as requested a couple of people had brought rope and were helping Lilly secure the Lambda.
When she turned back to Kala she saw that a couple of nurses had arrived and taken over her clumsy efforts to treat the Amazon’s wounds, the pair were removing bits of wood with tweezers and dabbing at her bleeding wounds with gauze.
Seeing that there was nothing for her to do, Miranda got back to her feet.
“Okay Aegis, now that the excitement is over, you mind telling me what the hell just happened in my town?”
The rough voice of the man that pulled her out of the warehouse drew her attention away from Kala and she turned to face him.
He was stocky, with a bit of a gut, but with strong upper arms. He was also wearing a singed uniform, the emblem of a lawkeeper, though covered with soot, was visible on his breast.
Miranda coughed to clear her throat again, the man’s words bringing her priorities back into focus as her head throbbed and her voice came out in a painful rasp.
“Do you know who owns this building?”
His eyes narrowed as she failed to answer his question.
“Don’t you mean owned?”
Miranda took a drink of water from a canteen that someone handed her to help with her throat, after another little cough she glared at the lawkeeper.
“Fine. Owned. I still need a damn name.”
At her glare the lawkeeper decided it was probably best to answer her questions before asking any more of his own.
“Her name’s Bethany, friendly enough.”
“Big tits?”
He snorted.
“I never noticed.”
“Right.”
“What can I say, I like ‘em smaller.” He said sarcastically and his eyes flicked ever so briefly to Miranda’s own modest assets.
“Well, Bethany, if that is her name, is guilty of arms trafficking. Not that that really matters at this point as she also appears to be guilty of creating multiple Tenebrae.”
The sarcasm left the man’s voice as quickly as it came, and his look turned serious again.
“So you and your girls raided her warehouse, alone, hoping to catch her with her drawers down? How’d that work out for you?”
She glared at the man, and he returned it in kind.
“No Aegis presence here, so yeah, we had no back up.”
“Why didn’t you contact my office for help?”
She sighed and ran her hand through her hair.
“Buddy, I don’t know you. And while I’m grateful for you for risking your ass to pull mine out of there, this was an Aegis party, invite only, and you weren’t invited. End of story.”
He rolled his eyes.
“Okay, why don’t we try this then? My name is Hugh Laurent, formerly Aegis Special Operator, second class, now retired. If you’d bothered to check with me, then together we could have surrounded the building and done this properly.”
Miranda’s jaw dropped at his words, but before she could say anything he held up his hands.
“Look, what’s done is done, we can point the fingers all fucking night, for now, you need to see to your Amazon.” He let out a shuddering breath; “I’ll deal with the Tenebrae.”
Miranda was shaking her head before he finished speaking.
“No, we already have… arrangements in place for them. If you want to help, then work with Lilly to get them squared away for the night.”
His eyes widened at her words, but even as he opened his mouth to ask the obvious question she cut him off with a sharp whisper.
“Not here.”
“Right… well, if we don’t need to do anything permanent then all the better, I retired for a reason.”
As he spoke the elemental landed beside him, the orange skinned girl immediately pressed herself tight to his side and fussed with his face and hair as the flames coming off of her body enveloped him.
“Master! Are you alright? What happened? Who’s this stupid ugly bitch? Did she hurt you? I’ll burn her if she did!”
Elementals had their quirks, and everyone knew that Ifrit became incredibly jealous and possessive when their passions were up, and this girl had just torched an entire warehouse, so her passions were way up.
The girl’s heat blasted against Miranda, but she wisely didn’t say anything, instead waiting on Hugh to manage his volatile bond-mate.
“I’m fine Kit, I’ll explain everything later okay baby? And no, this ugly bitch didn’t hurt me. She’s stupid but she’s with the Aegis so please don’t burn her.”
The ugly bitch didn’t take it personally: hurtful words were preferable to hurtful flames.
She’d had enough of fire tonight.
Kit turned to face Miranda, with one hand around Hugh’s waist and the other on her hip, the Ifrit was incredibly smug now that her master had agreed with her assessment of the grey haired woman.
“Ha, suck it fatty! You’re stupid and ugly and my Master doesn’t want you, so go away!”
Again Miranda simply waited for Hugh to deal with the situation.
He sighed and rubbed at his smoke-stung eyes.
“Kit, we’re the ones who are going away, we need to see to the Tenebrae. Aegis, get those injuries tended to.”
“Y-yeah! Tend to your stupid injuries! Ha! Burn!”
She turned with a flirt of her smoking hot ass and the lawkeeper led her away, people wisely keeping their distance from the volatile monster, while Miranda looked to see them loading Kala onto a stretcher.
The Amazon was conscious, so Miranda followed the medics, pausing long enough to draw in a shaky and painful breath as her adrenaline crashed and her legs shook.
She’s okay, we’re all okay.
Barely.