Note: Okay, if all goes to plan this will be the last chapter, unless I get bored or my muse trips off on his own for a while. Anyhoo, big thank you to everyone who has been so patient with the spelling and sporadic updates! Hope this is to your satisfaction! (Please don't forget about Fetch!)
Craaaaazy – lol, no Lynaes is not Joss' brother! Sorry to cause confusion. Thanks for all your reviews!
Joss had been holding her own against Lynaes. He was relentless and his dangerous long arm too often kept her out of range. Fortunately, the damage to his left leg impeded his movement and she was able to out manoeuvre him; darting in and out to launch swift single attacks before retreating once more.
The patronizing smile had fallen from his face and his now fought with a nasty grimace. There was a long tear down the back of his shirt that matched an identical one on his scrawny liver-spotted back. Joss had scored a few good hits but at no small cost to herself.
She had discarded the long coat when the fight had begun in earnest and was now sporting a deep gash spanning the width of her shoulder blades. Realising that she was tiring and beginning to slow; through a combination of fatigue and blood loss she now retreated to the other side of the roof. Arching her back, wincing, she tucked the long knives into her belt and caught her breath.
Lynaes also took advantage of the brief pause to dab cautiously at the wound on his leg. He was losing blood.
Joss shook her head to clear her vision, there was nothing else for it; Lynaes' strategy was to keep her too far back to fight properly at close quarters. Where tactics were a failure, brute strength would have to suffice.
Her opponent watched as Joss switched back to her most formidable form. The huge tiger in front of him snarled and bore two-inch, snowy white, canines, it hunched, powerful muscles poised ready to pounce. Lynaes calmly, as though this was what he had been waiting for, reached under his shirt and produced a hand gun.
The black metal shone in his hand as he raised it to level the barrel at his would-be attackers head. She crouched, ears flat against her head, powerful muscles poised like springs, pistons. There was a split second of stillness as Lynaes aimed and Joss took the predators mind into her own. A tigers body was not built for tactical fighting, it knew how to react immediately on instinct and pure innate skill, far quicker than she ever could on her own. Lynaes, in her sights, became a wildebeest, prey.
Joss, in his, became just another victim.
The eerie silence that had descended upon he roof top was shattered as, in a deafening cacophony of sound, Joss launched herself forwards. Back legs propelling her through the air in a heart-stopping roar that echoed off the surrounding buildings. Reverberating in the streets.
At the same time, Lynaes squeezed his hand on the trigger, releasing first one round, then another. The two missiles shot towards her as she shot toward him.
He had raised his aim high when she had left the ground but had over guessed it, the two rounds, meant for her heart buried themselves deep in the broad striped shoulders.
Joss' roar became a snarl of pained surprise as a shard was knocked away from her left shoulder blade. Slamming into Lynaes she threw him from his feet and the pair of them sailed through the air before landing heavily on the other side of the roof.
A huge clawed paw swept down, raking across his ribcage. Lynaes retaliated with his own claw and the two were separated again, both snarling at the other, both bleeding profusely.
The tiger feigned and bore its teeth, Lynaes held one hand to the wound on his torso and wielded his claw at the air between them. They were both exhausted, wounded but now Joss had the upper hand; the tigers body was much better equipped to deal with these injuries than her human body was. Of course, Lynaes still had the gun, held, apparently forgotten in his hand.
Logan stopped running as he heard two gun-shots and an echoed roar a few blocks over. Nearly there.
Memories and flashes of nightmares swept past Joss' golden eyes as she willed herself to lose her temper. It had occurred to her that killing Lynaes now might not save her life – she was hurt bad and a pretty long way from help.
So what? There was no chance of backing down now, she'd been preparing for this for years.
Lynaes kept his eyes on the figure in front of him. She had grown far more skilled than he had anticipated, a flash of panic welled in his gut, he suppressed it. Ill-conceived bravado, she was going down. He'd been waiting for this for years.
"Come on then, handsome." Joss taunted. "Lost something in your age?"
"Mercy." He replied menacingly and moved forward, she matched it.
A flash of movement, yellow skin and striped fur. Blood sprays and fur flies. Pink eyes lock with golden. Snarls, bellows and gun-shots. Thudding, scuffing, a splintering sound and suppressed cries. Flesh tears, blood spills, bones break and tears drop to a soundtrack of inhuman noises.
Then silence……………………..
A movement, dragging and stopping. Rasping, wet breathing. The sound of a blooded, choked cough and a shuddering groan.
Eyes open and observe the other, motionless, missing parts.
She rolled onto her back and grimaced as wounds stretched and grew, and taking a deep painful breath inclined her head to watch Lynaes. His eyes were following her movements but his own body was frozen. From her distance, Joss moved the fingers of one hand in the hint of a wave.
The pink eyes glazed over and turned to glass.
Logan tore through the door onto the roof, claws extended.
Joss allowed herself a small smile and closed her eyes to conserve the energy it took to take another breath. They didn't open again.
Nothing flashed before her, she saw no bright light. Just eddying darkness as it closed in over her head.
Bye bye then. xxx