Chapter 97: Fiercely Night
Danielle still had her hands on Theo’s chest when the silence outside was finally ruined.
A loud burst of noise ca through the villa like a lightning striking stone.
All the windows shook and glass trembled..
Theo snapped his head toward the door. "Get down," he breathed in a voice that did not belong to a man in love. It belonged to a man who had lived most of his life on battlefields.
Another explosion of noise ca from outside.
Frank ran down the hallway with a scream that made Danielle jump. "They found us! They found us! The silver n are here."
Before Danielle could ask who, the entire villa went dark...
Every light vanished like it was so sort of magic...
Theo grabbed her hand and pulled her down behind the couch. She landed hard against him. His bare chest pressed against her back. She could feel his breath against her hair.
It was like a man forced his pulse to obey him.
Frank threw himself behind a marble pillar and whispered with a shaking voice, "They have rifles. I saw three of them at the gate. I think they ca from the back garden too."
Theo kissed the top of Danielle’s head so quickly she barely felt it. "Stay quiet," he ordered. "Don’t run or scream or even move from ."
Danielle wanted to say she was not a child.
But her throat was too harsh.
First, they all noticed that so dark shadow moved outside, and then another, and then three.
Soone’s steps pressed into the gravel...
Danielle could hear her own heartbeat. She tried to hold her breath so it would not echo in the room.
Theo kept one hand on her shoulder and the other near his gun. His body had changed. Every muscle had turned into iron.
Frank signaled with two fingers. "One outside the kitchen window. One on the roof and one at the back door."
Theo nodded. "They will not expect to fight shirtless."
Danielle almost laughed in disbelief but the mont swallowed the sound. Theo kissed her hair again, this ti longer. "Look at ."
She turned her head slightly. Their faces were centiters apart. His eyes had fire in them, not anger but the fire that said he would die before letting her be touched.
"You stay here," he whispered. "You are not leaving my sight. If I fall, Frank takes you. If both of us fall, you run straight through the back tunnel. You rember where it is?"
Danielle nodded even though her body felt frizzy, ’what tunnel?’
The first window shattered with a really loud crack.
A bullet dug through the armchair and tore the cushion into smoke and feathers.
Danielle covered her mouth at the sa ti.
Theo rushed with impossible speed.
He pulled her close, rolled with her across the floor, and hid her behind the thick bookshelf.
Then he rose in one smooth motion, grabbed his gun, and dove behind the pillar with Frank.
Another shot echoed.
This one hit the wall and left a white scar on the stone.
Theo leaned around the corner and squeezed the trigger once. The shot echoed into the night and soone outside stumbled with a cry.
Danielle covered her ears...
mories of past dangers rose like ghosts inside her.
n running...Fire...
Her sister screaminh....
Her own heart breaking.
’Sister? I had a sister...?’ Danielle’s eyes widened.
Theo saw her expression.
He thought it was the fear he saw in her eyes...
And it changed everything in him once again.
He hushed to Frank, "Cover the back. I will draw them out."
Frank nodded and ran silently toward the corridor.
Theo stepped out of cover.
He did not look like a human man anymore.
He looked like sothing created to end wars.
Another shot fired from outside. Theo dodged it like he had expected it.
He fired once, twice, three tis in response.
Soone shouted.
Then Danielle heard a fall.
But a new set of footsteps ca from the roof..
"Danielle, stay down! Do not look."
But she looked anyway.
A dark body jumped from the roof and landed near the fountain outside the glass doors. His mask shined like dull tal.
He aid his rifle at the glass.
"Theo," she whispered.
Theo pushed her back with one hand while he fired again. The bullet hit the railing near the intruder, forcing him to jump aside.
Two more shadows moved near the garden path.
Another trio of rifles was raised.
"They are too many."
Theo kept shooting. "Then they should have brought more."
His voice was deadly calm.
The intruders tried to push forward.
But every ti they took a step, Theo drove them back.
Frank returned to the room and shouted, "Theo. They are leaving. They are retreating."
Theo fired one more shot into the air. The last shadow ran. The garden grew quiet. Only the broken windows shook from the sudden silence that followed.
Danielle stayed still for a full ten seconds before she crawled out from behind the bookshelf.
Her knees were weak and breaths were wild, but she forced herself to stand up anyway.
Theo stood too, and Dani saw how his chest kept rising with deep, controlled breaths. He lowered his gun.
His eyes scanned the area for danger. He checked the windows and the corridor. He checked the shadows.
Only then did he look at her.
Danielle ran to him... and he caught her really hard.
As if she were the only thing in the entire burning world worth holding. His arms wrapped around her shoulders and her waist at the sa ti.
Her face pressed against his bare chest, and she could hear his heartbeat.
It wasn’t stable anymore, but really fast.
"Theo," she called his na.
"I have you," he murmured into her hair. "I have you. I have you."
Frank stood near the window and watched the last silver people flee down the hill. "They ca this close to killing all of us."
Theo looked up slowly. "No. They ca close to dying."
He pulled Danielle even tighter.
She closed her eyes. "Why did they leave?"
Theo brushed her hair with a trembling hand. "Because they learned sothing tonight."
"What did they learn?"
He rested his forehead against hers.
"They learned what I beco when soone tries to take you from ."
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