Chapter 58

  A metal thermos flew from the crowd. Adam managed to bat it down just in time for a briefcase to strike him in the shoulder. Stumbling backward, he smashed his hip into the desk, and a flare of pain shot down his leg.

  The receptionist lunged, grabbing Jessica by the hair. She dragged her onto the desk with savage force. Jessica thrashed, her claws flashing as she flayed the skin from the woman's arms. Blood flew in every direction as the two women struggled. With a bone jarring thud, Jessica's head smashed against the desktop and she tumbled to the floor.

  Natalie stabbed forward with the hooked end of the crowbar, taking an advancing man in the gut. He doubled over but he kept coming, clawing at her with one hand while the other grabbed at the crowbar, attempting to wrench it away.

  Hector brought the butt of his shotgun down on Natalie's attacker. The bone in the man's nose snapped like kindling, and he reeled backward. Two women hurdled the falling man and tackled Hector, knocking the shotgun from his hands.

  Samantha was being driven away from the group. She was using a combination of shields and jabs with her knife to hold the workers back, but was quickly losing ground. They seemed all but immune to pain, recoiling momentarily from each cut but quickly wading back in.

  One of the women had gotten behind Hector and she stomped on his back, driving him into the tile. He tried to crawl away but met the dress shoe of another man, kicking him in the ribs hard enough to roll him over. He caught Adam's eye for a heartbeat before vanishing under the press of business suits and pencil skirts.

  Adam drove his shoulder into a man trying to grab him, pivoting into the back of the woman fighting with Natalie over the crowbar. Stars danced across his vision as a punch landed on the back of his head, causing his teeth to clack together. A pair of hands grabbed him from behind and threw him to the floor. Before he could get back to his feet, he felt a bolt of pain lance through his shoulder as something latched on.

  He bared his teeth, vision flickering between his companions as they were slowly overwhelmed by the crowd. Hector had his hands up, protecting himself the best he could, but punches and kicks were still getting through. Natalie bashed at the arms and legs that lashed out at her, doing her best to go down fighting. Jessica crawled over the desk, a wide gash on her forehead weeping blood and painting half her face in a crimson mask.

  The moment stretched until finally it shattered like a sheet of glass. The pain from the teeth grinding into his shoulder bone dulled and then faded until it was happening to someone else.

  You are going to die, the voice in the back of his said, calm and certain.

  Your friends are going to die.

  You are weak.

  A man slammed a laptop against the side of Natalie's head. She crumpled like a felled tree, her knees buckling before she bounced off of the floor with a dull thud. She lay motionless between the desk and the wall, out of the fight.

  After everything they'd suffered, all of the pain and struggle, they were going to be beaten to death because he was too weak to keep them alive. Too weak to do what it takes. Too weak to kill.

  Something inside of him tore loose, the threads of his control snapping one at a time like overloaded cable. His breath hitched and his heart began to thunder, raging against his ribs like it was trying to escape.

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  He threw himself forward, weathering a barrage of battering fists, bringing the bat down overhand into the head of the man that had just attacked Natalie. The bat crumpled his skull, sending bits of brain and bone spraying from the wound.

  He backhanded the woman stomping on Hector, his fist collapsing her throat with a meaty crunch. Kicking her aside, he swung the bat one-handed at another attacker. It smashed through his neck, an explosion of sparks rippling across the man's skin as he died.

  Adam waded through the crowd like a machine, pulse roaring in his ears. His vision narrowed to pinpoints. Rage surged through him, drowning pain, and turning his skin to iron. Two men came at him from either side, hands outstretched. He let the bat fall and greeted their attack. They dove for him and he pressed his palms against their faces, reaching for his power. It waited, coiled and ready just beneath the skin.

  Lightning spewed from his hands in a blinding torrent, pouring into the two men. Their heads split like rotten fruit, bursting with a pair of sharp, burning pops. The bolts carried on, arcing into two more workers. Their skin bubbled as their clothing flash burned, filling the air with the stink of charred meat and scorched polyester.

  He reached over his shoulder, seized two handfuls of hair, and tore the biting woman off his back. The room snapped back into focus as she thrashed, raining punches down on him. He let her drop, then drove his heel into her gut, folding her in half and sending her sprawling.

  Power surged through his veins, singing to him as the woman started to rise and he shook his head trying to clear it. She stumbled back to her feet, eyes still burning with the same mindless fury. A surge of disgust rose in his gut and filled his mouth with bile. She charged, wrapping her arms around his waist, trying to drag him to the ground. He drove his knee into her chest, lifting her off the floor, and stabbed the bat down on her back until her legs gave out.

  She collapsed, and he drove the bat into her face until she lay still.

  He turned away, unwilling to see the aftermath. The room spun, and he fought to keep from vomiting as he took in the carnage.

  Hector wrestled with a man in a sharp suit, hand clamped over the man's eyes. Light, so bright it made his eyes water, poured from Hector's hand. The blinding radiance spilled from the man's mouth as his body seized.

  Natalie held a man by the throat. As Adam watched, the skin over her attacker's mouth closed over, followed by his nose, and finally his eyes. The man collapsed, clawing and scratching desperately at the smooth, suffocating flesh.

  A wave of heat washed across his back. He turned to see two charred bodies crumple at Samantha's feet, smoke curling from her trembling hands and her cheeks glistening with tears.

  Jessica crouched atop what might've been the receptionist. The body was mangled beyond all recognition. She wiped at the blood drenching her face, succeeding only in smearing it across her already gore drenched features.

  The room was silent as Natalie's victim finally fell still. Adam turned away from the grisly sight, planted his hands against the wall, and threw up. He sobbed while he emptied his stomach but nothing came from his burning eyes. After a minute he wiped his mouth and turned back to the others.

  They stood staring at him.

  "We're not doing this." Adam's voice came out as a croak.

  He cleared his throat, spat, and tried again. "We're not falling apart. They were going to kill us. And if I have to choose between us and them... I choose us."

  "Adam, I can't..." Samantha moaned, sinking to her knees and burying her face in her hands.

  Natalie and Hector leaned against the wall, staring at their feet. Jessica sat on the receptionist's desk, calmly cleaning the blood from her hands with a package of wet-wipes.

  "We just killed a ton of people," Natalie said, her voice brittle. "Not monsters. Not super-powered psychos. People. Just regular people." She took a deep breath and hissed it out between her teeth. "We're going to need a minute."

  "We don't have a minute." Adam called the bat back to his hand. He swung it once to clear the gore, then holstered it. "More could be coming. The building could collapse. Or the alien god trying to wriggle down the chimney could finally show up to deliver presents we really don't want. So get up, get your head on straight, and let's move."

  He reached down and pulled a bloody badge off of the ground. Adam walked over to Samantha and offered her his hand. She stared up at it, her expression unreadable. After a moment, she took it, and he helped her to her feet.

  "Are you still in?" he asked.

  "Yeah." She took off her cap, and a mess of brown hair tumbled down, veiling her gray eye. "Let's finish this."

  "What about the rest of you?" Adam wiped the badge on his shirt. "Are you coming?"