Total pages in book: 104
Estimated words: 104141 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 521(@200wpm)___ 417(@250wpm)___ 347(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 104141 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 521(@200wpm)___ 417(@250wpm)___ 347(@300wpm)
She screamed, “No!!!!”
I rose and handed the gun to Reo. “Everyone you ever cared for will die!!”
She turned to me. “O-only if you win, and you won’t.”
“Oh really?” I rushed for her and Hiro, Reo, and three of my Scales grabbed me. They had to drag me out of there. I wanted to choke her until her eyes bulged from her sockets and there was no more breath in her traitorous lungs.
Once out, Reo holstered the gun that he’d gotten from me and spoke to the Scales, “Surround the Dragon until he calms.”
“There won’t be any calm coming from me tonight. Akiro is on the way.” I sneered. “That bitch brought the war to the island!”
“The battle will be tonight.” Hiro ran both his hands through his hair. “He won’t wait until the morning. They’re loading up as many men as they can get and coming our way.”
Another Scale helped Kiko up and out of the bathroom. That was when we all noticed the pinkish fluid soaking the front of her white pants. The fabric clung to her thighs. A thin trail of more pinkish fluid ran down the inside of her left leg and pooled along her feet. The puddle was still spreading.
One nurse looked at it and her bottom lip quivered. "Her water has broken. She is in labor. The twins are coming."
The room went quiet.
The fire was still crackling somewhere in the east wing of the clinic. The doctor was still making his small wet sounds on the bed in the next room, barely holding on.
Hiro's breath was loud in front of me.
Reo went silent.
The twins were coming, and Kiko hadn’t reached full term. They would be early, small, and born in a clinic that was on fire and near probably the only doctor on the island—one their mother had tried to kill.
What a fucked up way to enter this world.
I looked at my brother.
Hiro's face was unreadable. His chest was rising and falling fast. There was blood on his cheek that was not his. His blade was still in his left hand. His eyes flicked to Kiko's belly, to the puddle on the tile, and then to my face. “What the fuck are we going to do?”
The fire in the east wing crackled louder.
I looked at Reo.
For the first time ever, my Roar looked defeated. “We’ll. . .”
I gritted my teeth.
Reo cleared his throat. “We’ll start with the evacuation. We have to get the women and children off the island. All men will get weapons whether they know how to fight or not.”
Kiko began to scream. Her hands tightened on her stomach. Her head tipped back against the nurse as her face crumpled. “I-it’s so much pain.”
I sneered at her. “Good. I hope those twins rip you from the inside out!”
The nurse rushed over with bloody hands. “Is this your first contraction?”
“I-I don’t know.” Kiko cried. “It’s just been pain while I was on the phone.”
Reo turned to the nurses. “Are there any more medical staff?”
She bobbed her head. “The night staff is due to start work in two hours. Two more doctors. Several nurses and techs.”
Reo sighed. “Call and let them know they’re starting their shift early tonight and. . .the clinic will be. . .”
I sighed. “Move the clinic to the Bamboo garden. The massive basement could keep them safe as they deal with the injured.”
Reo blinked and nodded. “Yes. That will have to do. I’ll get Scales to rush equipment there. If anyone goes down during the battle, people can rush them there too.”
“Good.”
Reo looked at two Scales and the nurse. “Go ahead.”
They rushed off.
Stunned, Reo looked at me. “I have a plan for the evacuation. . .just give me a second to remember it.”
Kiko had managed to do something not many people in this world could ever do. . .she’d disrupted my Roar.
This fucking bitch.
All we had prepared for was gone, washed down the drain by one phone call to my father. There would be no time for my men to get any rest. There was no need for the masks nor the Burial Ritual. I’d worked on this island being a safe haven for my people for so many years, and now my brother's and father's men would step their slimy feet onto my mother’s land and dirty it.
“Okay. . .” Reo swallowed, pulled out his phone, and began typing. "We have ten safehouses on the other side of the island. But first, elders, mothers, and kids can be on boats inside the hour if we move now. Your Tiger, Hiro’s mom, Chef Bunzō, the staff, and others can ride emergency helicopters on the north pad.”
Hiro raised his eyebrows. “How many helicopters?”
Reo tensed. “Four.”
“That’s not enough.”
“I hadn’t planned on needing to evacuate the entire island in less than an hour.” Reo continued to talk and his voice reached me through something thick. I could hear the words. I could not yet feel them. I shut my eyes for one second to let the air settle.