Page 44 of Xander
Anzû pushed past the pain and swung his fist toward them as he stepped forward, and he struck her in the face with his closed fist.Frost was stronger than he gave her credit for, because she didn’t move an inch when his hit landed on her cheek.Xander’s hand moved as Anzû’s did; he wrapped his hand around the immortal’s forearm and crushed it when he closed his fist and twisted.Xander yanked Anzû closer, dislocating his shoulder in the process.His hold on Anzû gave Frost ample time to return the punch to his jawbone and they all listened to the satisfying crack of his jaw breaking.The smile never left her lips.
Xander landed a blow on Anzû’s nose a moment before Frost’s foot landed square in his chest, launching him back as the blood splattered against his face and down his shirt.He landed in a heap several yards from them.
“This man you believe to be your leader has no chance of taking over Dark Company, despite what he might have told you.He lied to you, probably about everything since you’ve been hired, which is why you aren’t loyal to him.If you still want to fight, you could stick around and get a firsthand demonstration of how a real team of immortals, both vampire and shifter, work together.But I wouldn’t recommend it.”Ghost’s voice rang out in the darkness.
Several had done the smart thing and turned around, heading out the way they came in, but fifteen stood with Anzû.Xander, not giving them a chance to talk or back out of the fight, made a split-second decision and attacked.He kept one eye on Frost as he incapacitated those in his path, and soon, the fighting behind him started in earnest.
What became apparently clear in the next few minutes was that these men had no real training of any kind.They had tried for a few minutes to fight without weapons, but punch after punch was landed on their core and their face.They had tried to retreat enough to regroup, which none of the assassins would allow them to do.They had kept the group separated from one another, taking away their advantage of fighting as one, but one of them pulled a gun and shot Hunter in the shoulder.The panther howled in anger and lunged for the one stupid enough to shoot him, and effectively ripped his head off.
Xander easily disarmed the shifter he’d been fighting against, but the man pulled out his knife sheathed against his ankle and managed to stab him through the thigh.The pain only managed to piss Xander off.With one punch to the immortal’s face, he crushed the bones in his face.The impact managed to separate the immortal’s brain stem and he dropped to the ground, forgotten.
The vampires had taken to biting the shifters they had fought, effectively swamping their system with vampire venom, which was deadly to the shifter.They dropped as soon as their bodies were infected and they moved on to the next shifters.Kane, Thomas, and Isaac had stuck together and were taking out the majority of the shifters, while Kai preferred a hands-on approach.That vampire was scary as hell when he fought.
Ax, Gunnar, and Jade stuck together.Jade took the other shifters’ feet out from under them as they preferred to stay in their human forms rather than shift.When they lost their balance, Gunnar and Ax would go for their jugular and either break their necks or rip out their brain stems.
Frost stuck close to Xander, and she preferred to fight with her tactical knife that she had taken a liking to during training, and watched as not one of her opponents got a strike before she severed an artery or ripped their hearts out.
Xander became distracted when he had two shifters rush him.He took one out with a quick step forward, striking him in the nose with the palm of his hand and driving the bone straight into his brain and stepped over him when he fell to the ground, dead.As he glanced around, he noticed that he had moved too far away from Frost.When he saw movement to his right, he glanced up and watched in horror as Anzû spun Frost around and wrapped his hand around her neck and pressed her back against his chest, the knife pressed close to an artery in her throat.
“Let…her…go.I won’t ask you again.”Xander’s voice had never taken such a deep tone before.He was both frightened and determined to kill this motherfucker once and for all.
Anzû flinched and Xander realized that he could sense Frost’s distress, and of course, amped up the thoughts pressing into Anzû’s head.He continued to bombard him with thoughts until Anzû spoke.
“I will saw her head off her body and kill your abomination of a child if you don’t get that brat to stop with the assault.”Anzû closed his eyes as he spoke.
Everything in that moment slowed to a standstill.Anzû knew about Silas, knew about his powers, while he had his mate under knifepoint and threatened to kill her.What the fuck have I done in this life that was so bad to deserve this shit?
His eyes flashed to his mate, hoping to convey to her that he would get her out of this situation, but instead, he watched her face morph into something that, frankly, scared the living shit out of him.
At the same moment her eyes sparked with pure rage, she knocked the knife away from her neck with a simple brush of her hand.When it was free of her neck, Frost leapt into the air and before Xander had a chance to blink, her shift had already begun.By the time she flipped around and her head snapped down toward Anzû’s exposed neck, she had shifted fully.Her bright-white fur along her body was contrasted by the black pattern that ran over her head and down to her muzzle of her snow leopard form.The brightness of her fur lightened the darkness that surrounded them and they could see her movements clearly.
A loud growl escaped her throat as her mouth opened and her large white teeth flashed, a second before they clamped down around Anzû’s neck.Her teeth sank into his throat as she bit down and he could clearly hear a gurgling sound as her mouth tightened.Anzû had been taken completely by surprise and didn’t even have time to shift, before he dropped to the ground.The look of utter astonishment broke over his face, before her teeth cut through the soft tissue of his neck and severed his spine.The look of surprise was permanently etched on his features as his head rolled off his body.
Silence surrounded them at the sight before them.Then, all at once, there was a mad scramble for those who had survived their encounter with the assassins, once they heard their leader’s neck snap.They let the others go without thoughts of pursuit.Hopefully they would remember how easily they were defeated and if they were smart, wouldn’t be stupid enough to challenge them again.Right now, though, Xander couldn’t care less about them.
Xander approached Frost, and when he met her gaze, he sucked in a breath because her green eyes looked back at him.He remembered how green they were when they first met.The mix of blue was absent in this form.But what surprised him was the tears that formed in her eyes as she glanced down at Anzû and then back up to him.
“Sweetheart, you did what you had to do to protect Silas.There is nothing to be ashamed about or to feel bad about.We knew that he would never stop coming after us if you hadn’t taken care of him.And he would have done much more than threaten our son if we gave him the chance.”
As Xander mentioned their son, Frost looked at the house.
“Silas would want to see you as a snow leopard.By the way, you look ferocious with the black markings around your eyes and forehead.It’s absolutely beautiful.But let’s clean your muzzle before heading back to the house.Silas is fine.I hear him humming contentedly.Liv must be reading to him.”
Frost chuffed at him and he smiled.
He proceeded to wash the blood off her muzzle, making sure there wasn’t any trace of it, before they walked up to the house.The others trailed behind, glad to give them time together.As soon as Xander opened the door, they rushed up the stairs and peeked in the door.Liv had Silas cradled against her neck as he stared intently at the book in front of him.But when Liv paused to turn the page, Silas glanced up and his smile widened as he got his first good look at Frost as a snow leopard.
“Mommy pretty.”
At five and a half months, their baby had just spoken, aloud, his first words.Both of them were completely stunned when they turned to look at each other.Of course, their son was remarkable; they shouldn’t have been surprised.
Frost sauntered closer.
Silas reached a hand out and patted the top of her head.You did good, Mommy.He wanted to hurt Daddy and all of my aunts and uncles.You couldn’t let that happen.
Frost chuffed.
I love you, Mommy.
I love you, too, baby.And Daddy, too.
Xander smiled when Frost finally relaxed.
I love you, too, sweetheart.With all that I am.
