* The following chapter contains blood and violence. *
Forty.
They sent forty men to fetch the two children sleeping inside the house. Whoever wanted them knew that they were in shifter territory.
Angel looked at them from the second-floor mezzanine. They were human. How she knew...was another mystery that she needed to add to the ever-growing list that she had.
The only entryway they could use was via the Rec room located in the garage of the house. They must have cut the glass wall to enter.
Even in the darkness, she could discern that these men were trained. Although, they were sorely lacking the right equipment. The usual gear these humans normally wear was not present. What they do have were guns and a combat knife strapped on their waist.
The guns though triggered another memory...
["Angel," her daddy called her one day.
When she was in striking distance, something was injected into her. She nearly hit her head on the floor if her daddy did not catch her on time. She could hear him speaking but his voice sounded too far away.
She could hear several people shouting, and someone being hit at the back of the head. But after a while, the chemical that was injected into her slowly began to lessen its effect. The darkening of her vision stopped and she slowly regained her strength.
She experimentally wiggled her fingers and her toes. She blinked several times to clear her vision.
"Daddy?" she said.
The shouting stopped and the face of her daddy appeared the minute her vision cleared. She saw relief and pride shining in his intelligent grey eyes. Whatever he must have given her, must be something deadly.
"How long was she out?" he asked.
"A little under two minutes," a voice said.
"I was expecting that her body would at least be knocked out. This is better than I gave expected," her daddy said while rubbing her back. He gathered her into his embrace and hugged her tight. "I'm sorry," he whispered.
"I want all of you to remember her reaction to the chemical that I gave her. It is a tranquilizer for shifters. With the right dose, it will affect the nervous system, forcing it to shut down." He looked at Angel with a gentle smile on his face and continued, "But it looks like this would never affect you. Even if you were, your natural antibodies would quickly get rid of the toxin." There was a note of pride in his voice.
With his free hand, he withdrew another syringe from his jacket pocket. He looked at his sons and the other people around her. With a stern voice, he commanded, "This is the new tranquilizer that was developed by the Were Nation. For now, it has no formal name, but let us name it WNp1." He handed the syringe to his eldest and let him examine it before passing it to the person next to him. "What you are passing around is phase one of the WNp1. I am not sure how many trials will go through before they have the chemical composition they want. But a drop of that liquid had accidentally killed a horse."
There was a collective expletive said in different languages around her. "Daddy?" she asked.
"You will be fine, Angel. No matter what concoction they do with that formula, your body has already memorized its basic elements. If you will be shot with the new formula...]
"...my body will only be affected for less than a minute." She murmured to herself. "No better way to try it out like the present."
She soundlessly made her way down to the ground floor of the house.
Ten men were sweeping the ground floor of the house. Guns were drawn, and they carefully examined every nook and cranny of the place.
Angel shook her head when one man came out of the pantry carrying a bunch of snacks.
Killing these men would be a piece of cake. They were too relaxed, and they have no sense of danger around them.
[So now, I'm thinking like a damn assassin,] she thought as she stood in the shadow at the corner of the stairs.
Angel smiled. These men must have thought that she and Thea were hapless women looking after the kids. Too bad they have to die...
When one of the men started to turn in the direction of the stairs, she stepped out of the shadowed corner. Her action forced the man to shoot her in the chest accidentally. He cursed and the comm link activated, asking what had happened.
She could feel her anti-bodies working overtime to rid of the effects of the tranq. The man Angel kept remembering was right. It was the same drug that was given to her a long time ago. The minute the dart started to spread, the faster her body reacted.
Angel felt that she was being hoisted on the man's shoulder. When she was sure that the effect of the chemical was wearing off, she played possum and waited for the right opportunity to strike.
The minute they were out of sight, Angel reached for the combat blade that was strapped on the man's right hip. She then shifted her body weight to her left side, causing the man to lose his footing on the steps and her to fall off his shoulder.
Angel felt the steps of the stairs on her side but remained unmoving. When she was sure that the man was near her, she opened her eyes.
The man was shocked to see her wide awake, hence he did not see his blade being buried at the bottom of his chin. Blood started to overflow from his mouth and he tried to dislodge the woman. But she was a lot more powerful than him, for her next move ended his life.
She twisted the knife and dragged it down till it reached his clavicle, then she glided the sharp edge of the blade along the left side of his bone.
When she was satisfied with her work, she slowly withdrew the blade out of his body. Angel picked the comm link that he used and dropped it on the pool of blood that was slowly spreading on the carpet.
She wiped the blade on his suit and calmly stepped over his lifeless form. There were at least nine people that she needed to kill before she finished the ones in the rec room and media room.
Angel's red eyes glowed as she climbed the stairs.
She grinned when she saw that another man was standing at the landing, his back behind her. Angel mentally shook her head. These men looked and acted like they were professionals, yet they were not. She quietly crept up to him.
Their height difference was no problem to her as she jump onto his back, pulled his hair, and effortlessly slit his throat from ear to ear. Cutting all the major arteries on the neck.
Angel did not let go of his hair until she was sure that the man had a waterfall of blood dripping from his wound.
"Two down," she whispered. Like what she did to the man on the stairs, she wiped the blade she used. Spying the other knife of her second kill, she also took it.
She saw two shadows moving on each of her sides. Angel stayed still, waiting for either one of them to look her way.
They did not.
She picked one of the two, just like she did the second one. It was quick and efficient.
"Three down..."