SAVING HER

"Hi, guys," Kyros said, casually strolling out of the shadows with his hands in his pockets.

As the men looked up from their phones. Before either of them could react, Kyros had crossed the distance between them faster than any human eye could track.

He grabbed both men by the back of the head and slammed their skulls together with a dull crack. They crumpled at his feet with the surprise still frozen on their faces.

Aylin stared at the two bodies and then up at him, her grip tightening on the rusted pipe until her knuckles went white.

“Once I open these doors, stay close to the walls,” Kyros told her, his voice low but firm as his eyes swept over her from head to toe. “Find your baby and get out as fast as you can.”

Aylin’s chin came up. “I can keep up.” 

“I know you can. I watched you outrun two grown men tonight,” he replied steadily. “I’m telling you to be careful, not fast. I’ll draw their attention to me. Are you ready?”

"Yeah," Aylin replied, nodding so hard that her curls bounced.

Kyros kicked the doors open with a crash that echoed through the building and stepped inside.

The warehouse went silent, and the men inside froze around crates and folding tables covered in cash and cheap liquor.

Every head turned toward the door. 

“What’s up, guys,” he greeted boisterously, his eyes subtly cataloging the room as he casually strolled deeper into the hall. 

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" the man closest to the door snarled, approaching him. “Who the fuck are y—”

Kyros's fist connected with his jaw before he could finish, and the man's head snapped sideways as he dropped to the concrete, out cold.

Without stopping, he caught the next man's wrist and hurled him into the group charging up to him. 

The four of them went down together in a tangle of limbs.

Aylin carefully crept in as the whole warehouse exploded into chaos.

Men rushed him from every direction, shouting and swinging. 

Kyros met them head-on, and every strike of his fists, elbows, and knees put someone on the ground. 

He moved like a storm, ducking knives, twisting away from punches and snatching up anything he could use, a broken chain in one hand and a length of pipe in the other.

Aylin pressed her back against the wall, her heart slamming against her ribs as she watched him. He fought as if he had done this a thousand times before, and nothing about it looked like practice. 

This was a man who knew exactly how to survive.

But the men kept coming, and there were so many of them that they began to swarm him. Kyros let out a low, rumbling growl, and Aylin's breath caught in her throat when claws slid from his fingertips and gleamed under the dim lightning.

Aylin forced herself to look away from him and scan the room, her eyes darting over crates and shadows until she spotted a set of iron bars in the far corner. Behind them, a small figure was huddled into a ball.

"Zuzu," she breathed, her stomach twisting at the sight. 

As she ran to her, a human thug lunged at her from behind a stack of crates. 

Without even thinking, she swung the pipe with every ounce of strength she had. It hit him with a heavy thud, and he slumped against the wall and slid down it.

When she skidded to her knees in front of the cage, Zuri lifted her tear-streaked face, and her whole expression crumpled with relief.

"Lin!" Zuri cried, scrambling toward the bars as Aylin wrenched the bolt free and yanked the door open.

Zuri threw herself into her arms, small hands fisting in her shirt as she sobbed against her chest. 

Aylin crushed her close and buried her face in her hair, breathing in the familiar scent of strawberry shampoo beneath the smell of the warehouse.

"I'm so sorry, baby," she choked out, her voice breaking as she rocked her. "I'm so sorry. You're safe now, I promise."

Zuri suddenly stiffened in her arms.

"Lin, look!" she screamed, her eyes wide with terror as she stared at something behind Aylin's back.

The butt of a gun was coming down at her head, but she twisted aside just in time, and it smashed into her shoulder instead. 

She yelped as pain exploded down her arm, and she fell, protectively curling her body over Zuri on instinct. 

Kyros's head snapped toward the sound. 

When she looked up, the man raised the gun and fired.

The gunshot was deafening.

Kyros quickly discarded the man he was fighting with and crossed the warehouse so fast that he was nothing but a blur.

Aylin flinched and squeezed her eyes shut, folding herself tighter around Zuri as she waited for the pain to rip through her. Her ears were ringing, and the sharp stink of gunpowder burned her nose, but the pain never came. 

She forced her eyes open to see Kyros standing between her and the gun, his broad back filling her whole vision.

For one horrible heartbeat, nothing happened. 

Then he staggered, and she saw the dark stain spreading across the back of his shirt where the bullet had punched straight through him.

"No," she whispered brokenly, her whole body going cold. "No, no, no."

He had done that for her. A man whose name she had learned a few minutes ago had thrown himself in front of a bullet meant for her. 

Kyros let out a low and terrifying growl. Then he tore the gun out of the man's hand, and before the guy could move, he drove his claws through his chest.

When he was sure the man was gone, he turned toward her, his face gray.

He staggered towards her, his chest heaving as he tried to drag in air that would not come. Blood was soaking through the front of his shirt now too, so much of it, running down his stomach and dripping onto the concrete between them. 

"You guys okay?" he rasped, a thin line of blood spilling from the corner of his mouth.

Aylin’s throat had closed up completely, and all she could do was stare at the blood and nod while tears streamed down her face.

Some of the tension left his shoulders.

Zuri whimpered and pressed her face into Aylin's neck. 

"Lin, he's bleeding," she sobbed, her small fingers digging into Aylin's arm. "He's bleeding so much."

Kyros tried to take a step toward them, but his knees buckled. "Shit," he muttered in pain. "I think he hit my lungs or something."

"Kyros!" Aylin screamed, her voice raw and terrified as she let go of Zuri and lunged forward with both hands outstretched, too slow to catch him as he fell.