Bevis stood her ground as The Calderone stumbled backwards after a hard thrust kick delivered to her diaphragm area. Bevis inhaled deeply, controlling her breathing and heart rate, her lips curling as she watched The Calderone bend from the waist, resting her hands on her knees, the movement of her chest coming quickly, while her mouth stayed open as she panted, trying to catch her breath. The twinge of a frown between her eyes and the sudden reaching for her back pocket alerted Bevis to something new about to happen. The slow smile on the thin, cruel lips was the confirmation she needed.

"Has your accomplice arrived to back you up?" Bevis asked.

"I don't have an accomplice in anything," The Calderone said, "I have ... minions."

The men around her shifted; some eyes narrowed while others frowned at the woman they worked for.

"I don't think they agree," Bevis said, "in fact, I'd say they viewed themselves as freelance contractors or experts in their field being hired to accomplish something you are unable to."

The Calderone scoffed, but the men's expressions let Bevis know she had hit close to the mark; she smiled as she scanned the area.

"So, are you supposed to keep me busy while the accomplice makes his way here?" Bevis asked.

"I don't have .... an accomplice," The Calderone shouted.

"Of course you do," Bevis said, grinning, "purple flowers in a window against a sky of grey."

The Calderone's head whipped around her cold gaze, clashing with a watchful, steady gaze of Bevis as she noted the hit.

"How do you know about ... that?" The Calderone hissed.

"Yes, indeed," Bevis said, shifting slightly to better view the area, "I could only know that if I was there."

"There?" The Calderone frowned, "What do you mean "there"?

"The stashing place for your .... merchandise, playthings, torture toys, leverage holders ... I think that's how you refer to the young women and children you had your accomplice find and store for you until needed."

Anger flared hotly in the calculating eyes, "Are you telling me that ... you ..." The Calderone scoffed, "... you were the one who took all my ..." she cleared her throat, "... that was supposed to be my birthday gift."

"Wow, you have some strange requests for your birthday," Bevis chuckled, "yeah .... I shut down your birthday present."

"You ..." The Calderone growled, anger infiltrating her entire body as she clenched her fists, "... you took my present."

"So," Bevis shrugged, aware of the slow retreat of the men in the clearing, apparently The Calderone was about to explode, "it was just a present for a madman who didn't deserve anything that year."

The growl turned into a rumble, which continued to a full siren-like scream. Bevis winced a little, but the men behind The Calderone released their weapons, clapping their hands over their ears.

The cry continued into words sounding akin to "you will die for that", but Bevis couldn't be sure. She was too busy taking in every flinch of the approaching attacker and reading every thought flicking through the enraged eyes. She waited.

"He said I was to wait," The Calderone snarled, "but I don't think I will."

Nodding, Bevis raised an arm, her elbow tucked against her waist, palm up, her fingers folded into her palm, indicating cheekily for The Calderone to "bring it on", and she waited.

The attack started with quick driving punches; most were deflected, but a few did get through and landed. However, Bevis learned the fighting style of her opponent, who was pushing her back toward the entrance where Chelsea and Sabra stood. Suddenly, a deadly length of steal sang out of a sheath at The Calderone's waist, glinting in the sun, and the body in front of Bevis swung to the right. Bevis tracked it as it moved toward where Sabra and Chelsea stood. Suddenly, Bevis flipped backwards, landed on her feet and turned into the path of the intent body; as the knife was raised to thrust down, Bevis V-blocked the thrust with her arms as her knee came up into the exposed midriff. She scooped the body to the ground before settling gently back on the balls of her feet.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

The body scrambled to its feet, breathing heavily, and began swinging the blade at Bevis, who quickly ducked the attempt. Bevis landed body blows to the exposed trunk of the body; it grunted and stumbled back, groaning a little, but moved forward almost immediately with another attack from a thrusting angle.

Sucking in her stomach and arching her back, Bevis avoided the thrust designed to end her life and punched into the elbow, drawing a cry of agony from the body. It switched hands and kept coming. Moving back and around, drawing the body away from the tent entrance, Bevis prepared for another attack, bracing her stance against the enraged body running at her. It slammed into her, driving her back and taking her to the ground. Air swooshed out of her as her back met the grassy ground. The body tried to land punches, but Bevis guarded her head expertly while driving a knee into the groin area and dislodging the body from above her. Thinking she was free, Bevis felt surprised as a hand snaked out, grabbed her body armour, and pulled her into a roll, landing the persistent body on top again. The glint of the knife came toward Bevis' face, who held off the drive to impale it in her eye. She was succeeding until a shadow fell over the two women. Taking in the new arrival, Bevis realised the accomplice and her missed meeting were the same, and he had arrived, leaving her at a disadvantage.

Before she could take in ways to defeat both, he added his weight to the driving of the knife heading toward Bevis' eye. She could feel the strain on her muscles and knew she needed to act quickly; otherwise, she would be a dead Death Dealer.

"You started without me," she heard the man whisper, "you're a very naughty girl."

"She was responsible for my birthday present being taken away," The Calderone whined, "what did you think I'd do?"

"Wait for me," the man said but only got a shrug from the determined woman.

Bevis kept the knife heading gradually back, but the extra weight was depleting her strength; she was on her own, and as far as she was aware, she didn't have any backup. Suddenly, the man gasped and flew backwards off the pile, causing The Calderone to glance to the side and receive a quick kicking foot to the face, launching her backwards and slamming into the ground. The knife flew out of her hand, landing in a tree trunk on the edge of the clearing.

Bevis rolled to her feet, looking around for the unexpected help, and found herself looking at a face she knew and loved.

"Mom?" Frowning, she glanced around the clearing as the two attackers slowly made their way to their feet, "What are you doing here?"

"Helping you," Jonoraja said, "remember I said I didn't want this life for you ..." she shrugged, "but you did it anyway, so I'm here to help you against two egotistical maniacs."

"Help me? How?" Bevis asked.

Jonaraga stepped forward, elbow against her waist, arm and hand elevated, offering a hand to clasp, "Mors venalitii in aeternum," she said, sparking surprise in Bevis' eyes, who whispered ", Death Dealers forever" Bevis nodded and stepped forward with the same stance clasping her mother's hand and repeated the words in Latin. Turning to the advancing attackers, mother and daughter waited.

At the entrance of the tent, Chelsea, watching with accumulating dread, shook her head, "I'll be."

"What's going on out there?" Sabra whispered, "What is Jonoraja doing here?"

"Remember how I said one Death Dealer on location was something to be concerned about?" Chelsea replied; Sabra nodded. "Well ..." she sighed, "... we have two."

Sabra frowned at the words before her gaze snapped to the women in the clearing, "How can that be? Jonoraja is a secret keeper."

"Officially yes," Chelsea said, reading the quick succession of texts arriving on her phone, "apparently she was never active but requested reinstatement... a few minutes ago ... she must have known."

"Known what?" Sabra asked.

"About the man's arrival," Chelsea said, her gaze dropping to a new text, "Huh, the female regulator has been disavowed... seems she has been going on assignments like this, but the protectee always dies."

The hairs on the back of Chelsea's neck sprang to attention; quickly, she pushed Sabra behind her, raised her weapon and fired. The shot surprised everyone as the female regulator froze with her gun raised to the head height of where Sabra had been standing before crumpling lifeless to the sandy ground of the cave, a red welling patch on her chest where her heart was located.

"Chelsea," Sabra whispered, "what have you done?"

"My job," Chelsea said, scanning the area for other threats, "read that."

Raising her phone, she let Sabra read the last text.

"Termination orders," Sabra whispered, "she was their leak."

"Yeah, a leak I was ordered to plug," Chelsea sighed, "at least the playing field is levelled now."

Scanning the area again, she met Bevis's enquiring glance and nodded. A return nod was received before her best friend's attention returned to the approaching pair.