CHAPTER 14: “Blood in the Heights”
1218 Words
The Heights had always been glass and steel pretending to be heaven. Towers pierced the low clouds, their lights shimmering like false stars. Rain sluiced down the mirrored walls, cutting the reflections of wealth into jagged fragments. The streets below were almost empty—people in this district moved aboveground, in private trams and skybridges, where the water and dirt never touched them.
Aria felt the weight of it as she stepped out of the van. The streets here weren’t hers. They had been built to keep people like her out.
Dominic was beside her, black coat heavy with rain. His eyes swept the shadows the way a wolf scents wind. “Target’s two blocks east, twelfth floor. Old money converted to corporate housing. Damaris’s men are already inside.”
“How many?” she asked.
“Four minimum,” Kellen’s voice crackled in her earpiece. “Two on the elevators, two breaching the door. More circling the block.”
“Too slow,” Aria muttered. She broke into a run.
---
The twelfth floor was silent when they burst out of the stairwell. Silent, except for the sound of fists on a door and a muffled, panicked voice pleading from the other side. The corridor smelled like polish and ozone. Soft carpets swallowed their footsteps.
Dominic’s hand shot out, catching her arm before she stepped into view. He leaned close, his voice a whisper of command. “Two ahead, pistols drawn. Surgical. No wasted rounds.”
Aria nodded. Her heart was already pounding—not with fear, but with that heat that came before violence. She had never been a soldier, but she had been raised by wolves. Instinct sharpened faster than training.
Dominic counted down with his fingers. Three. Two. One.
He moved first, slipping around the corner like shadow. His silenced pistol barked once, twice. Two bodies crumpled against the carpet without a sound.
The pounding on the apartment door stopped. From inside came a whisper: “Who’s there?”
Aria stepped forward, lowering her hood so her face caught the hallway light. “It’s me,” she said, voice steady. “Open up.”
The lock disengaged. The door cracked. A young hybrid woman, no more than twenty, peered out. Her eyes were wide, her breath ragged. She clutched a datapad to her chest like a shield.
“You’re Nova Quinn,” she whispered, disbelieving.
“Not anymore,” Aria said. “Pack your things. Now.”
---
They moved fast. Dominic cleared the back rooms while Aria herded the girl toward the stairwell. But they didn’t make it three steps before the elevators dinged.
More of Damaris’s men poured out, their faces hidden behind mirrored masks. Automatic rifles glinted under the fluorescent lights.
“Down!” Dominic shouted, shoving the girl back into the apartment. The first burst shredded the hallway wall where Aria had been standing. Splinters rained across her face.
She dove, rolling behind the metal frame of the stairwell door. The rifles roared, the sound bouncing like thunder in the tight corridor. Dominic returned fire, precise and merciless, each shot snapping into the gaps between armor. One mask shattered. Another man dropped to his knees, clutching his throat.
But more kept coming. Too many.
Kellen’s voice cut through the chaos. “Backup en route, but you’re on your own for three minutes. Hold.”
Aria gritted her teeth. Three minutes was forever in a fight like this.
She yanked the datapad from the girl’s shaking hands. “You want to survive?” she said. “Stay behind me.”
The girl nodded, lips pressed tight.
Aria surged forward. Bullets hissed past, one grazing her shoulder. Pain flared, hot and sharp, but she didn’t stop. She closed the distance, grabbed the nearest masked man’s rifle, and shoved it sideways as he fired. The muzzle flash lit his visor. Her elbow cracked into his throat, and his body folded.
Dominic was at her side instantly, a force of precision and brutality. They moved together without speaking, his strikes covering her blind spots, her fury opening paths he could exploit.
But the numbers pressed. A flashbang clattered across the floor.
“Eyes!” Dominic barked.
She turned, shielding the girl just as the explosion seared white across the hallway. Ears ringing, she staggered. Hands caught her—Dominic, dragging her back into cover.
“They’ll breach again,” he growled.
“No,” Aria said, shoving the datapad into the girl’s hands. “You’re leaving.”
The girl’s eyes widened. “But—”
“No arguments.” Aria’s voice was sharp steel. “Run for the stairwell. Don’t stop. Don’t look back.”
The girl bolted, bare feet slapping the wet carpet. Aria turned, drawing herself up. Her blood was hot in her veins, every nerve sparking.
The masked men advanced.
And Aria howled.
The sound ripped down the hallway, primal and raw. It wasn’t human—it wasn’t meant to be. The very air trembled. Windows cracked. For a heartbeat, the men faltered, rifles lowering as something ancient in their blood recoiled.
Dominic seized the opening. His gun barked. Two more bodies fell.
Aria lunged into the rest, fists and fury and teeth. She wasn’t a soldier, but she was a storm. The hallway became a blur of movement, gunfire, and blood.
---
When it ended, the silence was heavier than the rain. Bodies sprawled across the carpet, masks shattered. The girl was gone—safe, Aria prayed, if she’d listened.
Aria pressed a hand to her bleeding shoulder, her breath ragged. Dominic stood over the last body, his chest rising and falling like a metronome that had been wound too tight.
“That wasn’t three minutes,” she said.
“No,” he answered. “But it was enough.”
---
They regrouped at the docks. Aries was waiting, his expression grim. “Two of the other targets didn’t make it,” he said without preamble. “Damaris sent his wolves in hard. They hit fast, before we could reach them.”
Aria froze. The rain plastered her hair to her face, cold against her skin. “Who?”
Kellen’s voice was low. “Jace from the Heights. Lira from the Verge. Both gone.”
Something inside her twisted. She had promised—no, she had believed—that she could keep them safe. But belief wasn’t enough. Not against someone like Damaris.
“They died because of me,” she whispered.
“No,” Dominic said, stepping closer. “They died because Damaris couldn’t let them live. Don’t you dare carry his sins.”
But the guilt was a knife, sharp and sure.
---
Aries unrolled a new map on the crate, water pooling on its surface. “This was just the first move. Damaris is tightening his grip. He’ll strike harder now.”
Aria’s eyes burned with something that wasn’t just grief. “Then so will we.”
Dominic studied her, rain dripping from his jaw. “How far are you willing to go?”
Aria met his gaze. Her voice was steady. “As far as it takes.”
The storm above them cracked with lightning. The city shuddered, alive and watching.
And for the first time, Aria felt it wasn’t just hers. It was theirs.
---
- Writer
