A third explosion interrupted Xia's attempt to answer Celina's question. She paused with open mouth until the quietness resumed, then spoke again.
"Someone is breaking in. We are going to ambush them!"
Xia pushed Celina towards the doorway that separated their hallway from the stairs. Celina followed her obediently.
Xia took weapons—a gun and a short sword—from a still warm corpse. Then she beheaded it with a quick swing, pushed the dead man out of their way and crouched at the side of the door with a gun at the ready.
Celina did the same with her corpse and watched Xia dart to the one she killed and behead it, too.
Another, even closer explosion sounded. Celina tucked her own gun at her waistband and prepared herself for a fight by gathering more moisture from the air. Now she had enough to form a short whip that she coiled around her palm.
