A taste of Moon Over Manhattan...

Today, instead of writing a full blog, where you listen to me ramble on and on about stuff...I thought I'd give you a taste of my new story...you know, the one I mentioned in mid July.

Silver, Tamsin L.
Moon Over Manhattan
© Copyright 2010

Prologue

This was not going as planned. But when do things go as planned?

She should’ve known better.

Denika ripped a piece of her black tank top off and tied it around her upper thigh where it was still bleeding. She scanned the area below her for movement; nothing. Sheathing her sword across her back she walked across the tall hill of a rock towards her second in command. As she approached him she looked out into the darkness again. This time her eyes caught movement in the distance below. She didn’t know how he’d gotten that far ahead of them but she wasn’t happy about it.

“Shit, he’s getting’ away!” she yelled out, picking up her second sword and pointing at the figure she saw jumping over the fence into the playground with it.

“Not for long! Come on!” Cash said as he popped a new clip into his gun. He quickly shoved his mess of blonde hair out of his eyes and saw her leg. “You still bleeding? Sure you can handle this boss? I mean, I’m sure I can do this without you if you if you need to sit this one out,” he said with a smile, his humor escaping Denika completely.

“Fuck you! Quit dickin’ with your gun and lets go!” She started to run at full speed until hitting the edge of the hill and then she was airborne. This was faster than walking down the sloping side of the large rock they were on top of.

Cash followed in suit, landing seconds after she did, still chuckling. He then made an off color comment about his dick and his gun which she ignored as she tore across the lawn, hurdled one green seeding fence after another until she was on the lawn just outside of Heckscher Playground. Unfortunately there was a taller fence around the kid’s playground in Central Park and she’d not be able to hurdle that one.

“He’s heading up Umpire Rock!” Cash yelled.

“No shit!” Did he think his eyes were better than hers? Arrogant ass.

She was halfway to the playground fence when a gun went off. Even though a silencer was used her werewolf senses could hear it and inborn reflexes took charge. Due to the little bit of light still in the park she saw the bullet, as if in slow motion, coming for her. Twisting her left shoulder down and back at the last second, it zipped past, embedding itself in the tree behind her.

Denika dashed to look at it. “Jesus! He’s using silver bullets!” As she spun back towards her partner, who had turned to face her, she saw a dark figure appear out of nowhere behind him. “Cash! Behind you!”

He whipped around, pulling his sword out in the same move. She heard the metal hitting each other before seeing it. Reaching behind she started to pull out one of her swords so as to go help him when three more dark figures dropped from the tree branches above to stand between she and Cash. Two turned towards her and one headed for her Beta.

“At your seven Cash!” she yelled out and then looked at the two large men in front of her. Denika realized she must’ve looked like easy pickings due to her small stature. Smiling, she unsheathed the second sword from her back; they were in for a surprise. “Oh, you wanna dance I see. Well then gentlemen, let’s dance.”

Denika advanced on the two men with immense speed, a sword grasped firmly in each hand; being ambidextrous has its benefits. In seconds both her swords touched metal and she was spinning about with them. Both swords were made of a lightweight silver compound which meant that with each strike that came in contact with the enemy’s skin they would cause damage that wouldn’t heal right away, like her current leg wound. Lucky for her she could tell by the sound their swords on hers that this was not the case with their weapons; a definite turn in her favor.

Problem was she needed to go after the primary target, not deal with these two. Not only that, but if Cash killed his attackers before her, she’d never hear the end of it. Denika’s opponents were agile and she felt a sword tip slice her exposed stomach and then an arm, both of which began to heal immediately; the benefit of being both a werewolf and of royal blood.

At this point they’d gotten themselves both behind her. She arched her back and spun around, hitting them with both swords yet using that bend to fuel her flip backwards, planting one foot in one man’s jaw as she brought both swords slamming into the other. The two goons fell backwards, giving her the break she needed so as to head toward the primary target. She sheathed both swords at the same time and bolted at full speed to the right, following the fence, hoping to get closer to the rocks. Problem was they were still close on her heels; too close.

“трахать!” She swore. As strong, agile, and fast as Denika was for her height, when fighting one’s own kind it didn’t change the fact that her legs just weren’t long enough to outrun them without more of a lead.

She veered to the left towards a tree on her side of the fence. Denika ran up the tree a few steps and flipped her body up and over to land behind the two men running after her. While flipping through the air she pulled one sword out and as she landed, without hesitation, she shoved it through the back of the man on the right. She hit a button on the hilt, twisted the sword, and pulled it out, blood and tissue flying out of the hole in the man’s back as he fell to the ground.

The other man was bearing down on her left. Without time to parry back to him or grab her second sword the only thing left to do was to jump up and kick him in the gut with her left leg. Unfortunately this caused the flat side of his sword to smash into her head before he went flying backwards into a tree. Denika staggered backwards, slightly disoriented. He hit the ground but was up quickly and running at her again, sword in hand.

“Goddess I don’t have time for this!” She grunted while dropping to the ground at the last second and swinging her leg to trip him. He fell to the ground and rolled a bit away but not far enough. She too dropped to the ground and just as he spun back in her direction she brought the sword down toward the ground in a hacking motion. With a loud ‘kathunk’ it hit his neck, severing it from his body. Pulling the sword back to her she caused blood to shoot out. She quickly jumped up, wiped his blood from her face and turned to look for Cash.

He wasn’t more than twenty feet from her. One of his assailants was already on the ground. The second had been disarmed, as had Cash, but weapon or no he’d gotten behind Cash and had him in a choke hold. The man was easily fifty pounds heavier in muscle than Cash as well as a half foot taller. If it’d been anyone else but Cash she’d have needed to rush to help.

“Quit dickin’ around Cash, we gotta go!” She yelled. Nothing spurned her Beta on like attitude.

“Do I look like I’m dickin’ this dude?” he grunted out, his hands on the man’s arm, trying to pull it from his throat.

She ran her hand through her dark curls to get it out of her eyes. “Yes, actually it does.”

He rolled his eyes at her and then with a yell he squatted and flipped the man over his head with a spin so that he landed face down in the dirt. Cash spun, grabbed his sword that was sticking out from the ground, and as the man got up to his knees Cash arced the sword in such a way that the blade contacted with the man’s chin, slicing upwards on an angle until it exited the top of his head. He fell over.

“‘Bout time! Let’s go!” Denika yelled. Without waiting she ran at the tall playground fence. As she reached one of the tall wooden posts she planted her hands on the flat top of it and flipped herself over, landing squarely on both feet inside the playground. Trusting that Cash would follow she barreled forward, touching the device on her throat and saying, “We need clean up just outside Heckscher Playground!”

A voice came back in their earpieces, “You got it boss. How many?”

“Four. East side of the playground,” she said.

“Consider it done.”

.......to be continued.......

(I actually have more done but I thought I'd give it in sections... :) Have a happy Monday all!)

Tamsin :) xo