Big Bad Beast
Page 47

Using the man in her arms as a shield for the bullets coming at her, Dee pulled back a few feet until she could drop the corpse and dive behind a bench. She cleared out the empty clip and slammed in a fresh one. She heard more gunfire and knew Malone and Desiree had made it into the room. Taking a breath, she came up, firing the entire way.
The money man and cigar guy grabbed the cash and ran up the stairs.
Malone! Dee yelled, catching a fist that was swinging at her face and twisting until the arm attached to it broke in several places, the full-human going down screaming. Stairs! Go! Malone moved and Dee slammed her booted foot into the face of the male at her feet just to stop all that damn screaming. The fact that shed probably killed him in the process didnt worry her much. Not after seeing all the hybrid bodies piled in a corner.
Dee! Desiree called out. Back up Malone! Go!
Dee ran for the stairs, ducking as shots flashed past her. She hit the bottom step and charged up. When she got to the second floor, there were more men coming toward her. She fired and kept running, jumping over their bodies and hitting the next set of stairs. It was quieter on this floor, but she scented the presence of full-humans as she headed to the next flight of stairs. She had her foot on the bottom step when a hand caught her from behind. She turned and slashed down and across with her knife, cutting through skull, an eye, nose, lips, straight through a jaw. Then she was away and up the stairs. She saw a door that led out to the roof and Dee yanked it open and went through.
The felines were holding their own against another group of men, one of them going fist to fist with Malone. Honestly ... Malone and the brawling.
Dee stepped out onto the roof, raising her weapon to start shooting anyone who didnt naturally have fangs when she realized someone was behind her. She spun and a brawny hand caught her weapon, lifting it up. The other hand punched her in the face a few times, forcing her up against the wall. Her automatic weapon was snatched from her hands and her face was hit again. She blinked, shaking her head, ignoring her broken nose and possibly readjusted cheekbones.
The full-human male, clearly a steroid user, tossed aside her weapon and came back to batter her face a little more. Dee blocked his fists with her arms and kicked at his leg. But she missed his knee, hitting his overdeveloped thigh. It hurt him, but only enough to piss him off. He backhanded her across the face, sending her flipping across the roof. When she managed to get to her hands and feet, he was there, kicking her in the gut. Dee rolled with it, but realized too late she was near the edge of the roof.
She landed on the ledge, half of her dangling into nothing.
The man reached for her, grabbing hold of her vest and lifting her up. Dee unleashed her claws and ripped them into the mans head. He screamed and she dug in deeper, then outward, trying totear his face off.
He fought her, swinging at her, and finally flinging her away and over the side, but Dee still clung to him. He screamed, trying to pull her claws from his face while she dangled several floors off the ground.
Dee held on but the blood was making it easier for him to pull her away from his irreparably damaged flesh, his hands gripping her wrists. He was almost free, her claws nearly out, when Malone landed on the mans back, her own military issue knife ramming into the base of his neck, again and again.
Whatever steroid this asshole was taking, he wasnt going down easy. Even spouting blood from a major artery, he still fought two She-predators like a demon, holding on to one of Dees wrists with one hand and reaching back for Malone with the other. He flipped Malone over and out. But after releasing her own blade, Malone grabbed a healthy amount of the bastards hair and held on.
Dee now had at least one arm free and she grabbed hold of her bowie, sticking it into the mans neck and yanking it from ear to ear. His eyes glazed over and he lurched forward.
Still holding her knife, Dee caught hold of the ledge while Malone scrambled back over the mans body and onto the roof. The man spilled forward and went sailingbut he still had a death grip on Dees other wrist. She screamed when the weight of the big bastard nearly tore her arm out of its socket.
Malone snatched the knife from Dee and reached over, sawing at the mans hand until shed cut through flesh, muscle, sinew, and bone. His body dropped and Malone reached for her, but as she lowered her body to get a good grip on Dees waist, Dee saw another man behind the feline, his gun raised. One of Malones team was near, but shed never reach the man before he got a shot off. With her right arm unusable at the moment since it wasnt in its socket, and the other the only thing holding her onto the ledge, Dee did the one thing she could think of. She grabbed Malone around the back of her neck with her fangs and yanked her off the ledge like a momma-wolf would her cub.
Roaring, Malone dangled from Dees mouth, unaware of the gunshots that had nearly blown the back of her head off.
Malone slapped one of those big tiger claws against Dees throat and was seconds from ripping in and down when big bear arms reached over and caught hold of them both. With a good pull, he dragged both She-predators back over the ledge and then got between them when the fists began to fly.
Arent you both too old for this? he asked as only a twenty-something male could stupidly ask two fighting females sliding down the dark edge of thirty-five.
Ow! he yelped. What are you hitting me for?
Dez MacDermot put her gun away and caught hold of the man Dee-Ann had told her was probably the one in charge.