Chapter 2.

The knife flying towards Maria was intercepted mid flight and it’s course diverted off to the side.

Chaka chaka chaka Chaka Chaka CHAKA CHAKA CHAKA CHAKA CHAKA...

It was only now that I noticed the sound of a helicopter from behind approaching.

Adele didn’t show any sign of hesitation despite the knife’s trajectory being diverted by the sniper bullet and she kept on course towards Maria. Maria didn’t look scared though, it seems she had full confidence that she was untouchable with the arrival of the helicopter.

Adele wielded a knife in her right hand, while her left hand held onto the hilt of the other sheathed knife in a reverse handed grip behind her. She kept her posture low to the ground like a ravenous beast pouncing on her prey. In her mind, it seemed like she had not a shred of fear towards being shot.

Her posture was unwavering, if she was shot, then so be it was what her body language told me.

Bang. Bang.

Two more shots whizzed by my side the instant Adele arrived in front of Maria, ready to plunge the knife in her right hand into her body.

Even before the sound had arrived though, as if by animalistic instincts alone, Adele had released her grip on the knife and twisted her body while pulling out the still hidden knife from behind her back.

With a loud clang the first bullet directly hit the first knife sending it flying into the distance. The second bullet whizzed by where her head was previously positioned. She’d just narrowly avoided it as it skimmed right by her forehead.

Her left hand continued forward, right towards Maria’s neck. Maria had severely underestimated her, she likely believed Adele had been bluffing about being fully recovered. She was wrong though. She probably never imagined a monster with such outrageous survival instincts really existed. Perhaps this was the first time she’d ever been caught off guard like this in her entire lifetime. With her meticulous nature, for her to reveal herself in front of Adele the way she had, I I was sure she had exceedingly high confidence in her sniper.

Everything happened in a flash, like lightning striking the Earth with unstoppable might. The only reaction Maria had enough time for was to open her eyes wide while falling backwards to try and avoid the knife fully slitting all the way into her throat. She simultaneously pulled out a syringe strapped to her thigh and tossed it at Adele. In the same instant that the knife came into contact with the flesh on her neck, a thin red line left in its wake, the syringe she threw out punctured Adele’s left leg.

Maria wasn’t a pushover either, her concoctions were no joking matter. However, Adele had a very robust immune system. She’d grown up all on her own for years, roughing it out in the wild and living off the environment. She wasn’t your normal average everyday pushover psychopath raised in the modern world where dangerous substances were uncommon.

Her tolerance to pain was also unimaginable when compared to others. At least, that was assuming what I’d seen when I had that near death experience with her in the forest was the truth. Before that, I only knew she was insanely athletic. I had no idea about just how ridiculous a monster she actually was. She was a natural apex predator. It had been my lucky day when we reunited for the first time in my old apartment that I hadn’t put up a struggle against her or else I’d undoubtedly be deader than dead, six feet under rolling in my grave right now.

Like really, she anticipated the trajectory of freaking bullets without even looking at the gunman. This wasn’t some sort of action movie, it was reality and those were real live bullets you know! Bullets! I knew for a fact that I couldn’t pull off something insane like that. Her intuition when faced with combat was too high for a little electrical engineer to cope with.

Just being in the line of crossfire left my head feeling dizzy and lightheaded when the sound had arrived. It was so bad that I wanted to pass out from the bullets faster than sound. Yet Adele had been completely unfazed by the shock.

Even when the syringes penetrated her thigh, she didn’t wince in pain like a normal person. However, she was forced to kneel down and pull it out while she rolled inside the room Maria initially tried to exit from, out of the line of fire from the sniper in the helicopter.

“You!”

Maria glared at Adele with a blazing deep rooted hatred as she held her palm over her neck. It was a shallow wound, but the amount of blood leaking out could still be dangerous if it wasn’t treated.

Adele struggled back to her feet. It looked like the syringe was fast acting and quite potent at that for it to affect her. She unsteadily approached Maria who’d fallen backwards into the room Maria’d appeared from.

“Fire through the wall! Kill her at all costs!”

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Several more shots were fired and pierced into the side of the wall of the room they were in, debris was sent flying. The bullets whizzed by around Adele, but they didn’t land on target

Adele got closer to her and I knew if I did nothing, Maria would definitely be killed by her. However, if she was killed, what would we do after that? Maria was someone that couldn’t be touched easily. Her cousins were Reine and Val. Both also terrifying women. Not only that, Maria’s own group would surely track us down.

Killing her now would only immediately seal both of our fates, our deaths would be guaranteed.

If I chose Maria’s side, Adele would kill me off instead.

Both options resulted in dead ends. Then the only choice I had right now that led to a chance at survival was to save Maria, but inadvertently choose Adele.

As Adele struggled toward Maria, I recomposed myself the best I could and ran in between the two of them.

“Wait. Adele, you can’t kill her.”

“What the hell? Are you out of your mind? Why wouldn’t I kill her?”

“Do you seriously think you can survive or get away even if you kill her here?”

“Oh?”

“Dio, shut up, stay out of this. Do you really think she’s going to survive whether she leaves me alive or not? I’ll make sure in either case that both of you suffer through hell.”

I signalled to Adele with my eyes in the direction of the helicopter then winked at her as I turned my back to her. There was one way I could save my own ass here and this was it. Playing both sides, but it would only work if Adele’s survival instincts and ability to read the situation were as good as I hoped.

I bent down in front of Maria and looked her in the eyes. I bent closer to her and lipped out my words. I couldn’t say it out loud, even as a whisper it would have been too loud. With Adele’s heightened senses, I had no confidence that she wouldn’t hear it.

‘Maria I love you, I don’t want you to die. Even if I’m killed by Adele, I’ll ensure that you live at all costs. You are the most important person in this world to me. You can’t die.’

Yeah that’s what I lipped out. A string of lies. Then out of nowhere, a knife slid up from under my arm upward until it rested in front of my neck.

It looked to be effective though. Maria’s eyes widened a bit and her expression turned uncertain like she couldn’t believe she’d read my lips correctly.

“Darling, just what are you saying in secret?”

Those scary words came from right over my shoulder as her arms wrapped around me from behind and her chin rested on my shoulder.

“Could it be you’ve chosen her? Hmmmmmm. It looks like you’ll both have to die then.”