Of Blood and Angels (The Two Moons of Rehnor, Book 3) by J. Naomi Ay Page A

to
the stairwell, which a short time ago he could hardly climb up.  We were all
stopped there because the whole damn thing was blown away.  Two stories were
completely gone with nothing left but a bunch of twisted wire and gaping holes.
    “How the hell are we going to get down two
floors?” Jerry muttered.
    Jerry went with our security team back to
the shuttle for ropes and I can tell you, there was no way I was going to climb
down a rope through what used to be a stairwell.
    “Now what?” I mumbled to Dr. Ron who
looked like he was about to jump.
    “Close your eyes,” he said.  Actually, he
just about ordered me.  So I did, thinking this was a good sign because he was
speaking English again.  At any rate, I heard this strange whooshing noise and
what sounded like big old wings flapping and the next thing I knew there were
claws gripping my arms and I was dropping through the air and screaming my head
off.  I landed on my two feet right at the bottom of the stairwell.  Dr. Ron
was crouching next to me but he had gone deathly pale and was breathing hard.
    “You okay?” I said and he nodded a bit and
started to straighten up, but it was obvious whatever happened had just about
knocked him flat again. 
    There was some more shots fired and I
smelled the carbon of those light swords and that all seemed to revive Dr. Ron
a little bit because he was up and dragging his ass down the hall toward the
fight. 
    I followed him and discovered one of our
guys lying on the floor with a hole in his belly and next to him, a bunch of
civilians in various stages of distress.  Our guy was coughing up blood but
alive enough to tell us there were wounded in the next corridor too.  I had
sealant in my kit and did my best with his wound, leaving a marker on him so
that he could be evacuated as quickly as the next team could get here. 
    I kept my head low as I ran through the
corridors.  Gun shots and laser bursts were flying every which way over my
head.  Dr. Ron was racing ahead of me, not bothering to duck at all and Lord
Almighty, he too had one of those fricking, carbon smelling light swords in his
own hand.  He got to the atrium, way ahead of me, and the door was blocked by a
couple of those nasty Rehnorians.  I don't know if they were planning to let
him in or not but they never got a chance because by the time they were raising
their own weapons, Dr. Ron had already taken off their heads.  I was screaming
my heart out again because there ain't nothing worse than seeing a couple of
heads without bodies rolling on the floor in your direction.  I was standing
there clutching the wall until the rest of our security team came and Jerry
with them.
    “What the fuck is that?” Jerry said,
pointing down at those two heads which were way too close to my feet.
    “Heads!” I cried. 
    He must have figured out right quick that
the only reason I was standing there was because I couldn’t move, so he yanked
me away and I got my momentum back and started running with him again.  We
entered the atrium where a whole bunch of our people were crouched with their
weapons taking pot shots at people and getting shot back. 
    Poor old mud-covered Dr. Ron was walking
up through the middle of this as if he was wearing some kind of laser proof
armor.  He was dragging his light sword at his side and he was breathing hard
but he had his sights set on this guy who was wearing the fanciest damn uniform
I ever saw.  The guy was kind of a skinny runt with brown hair going grey but
even so, it was plenty obvious that he was in charge because he had his arm
around Katie's throat and a gun poked in her ribs.  Other guys were surrounding
them with their own light swords raised like they were just waiting for poor,
sick Dr. Ron to take them on.
    Dr. Ron started yelling something and then
everyone must have figured this was the time to stop shooting and start paying
attention.  The whole room went silent except for the nasty guy yelling
something