I threw myself at the man that I thought was my best friend. Now all I knew was if my life and Sophie’s were going to remain in our hands, Zack had to die. All these fuckers did.

The gunshot went off into the ceiling and I was forced to endure the intense agony of the muzzle noise. My eardrums burst and I was deaf for a brief few seconds as blood leaked from my ear.

I didn’t let up though and kept him from getting enough time to right himself. Honestly, I wanted to get a strike into his neck but he moved quicker than I expected.

The entrance door was closed so Sophie had thankfully gotten away. Brent tried to get past me to go after her while I was entangled with Zack so I sent a head-butt his way. He stumbled back while clutching his nose and I just grinned.

The others inched to move but Zack spoke up.

“Forget her!” he yelled, “she’s gone.”

I was able to wrap my arms around Zack and tackle him to the ground. Unfortunately, I was only able to get about two hits in before I felt a sharp searing pain in my back.

“Shit!”

Brent had recovered and stabbed me so I returned the favour and elbowed his crotch. Once I heard him double over, I struggled for the goddamn knife in my back.

While I was distracted, Zack threw me off of him as he pulled himself back up. As I was pulling the blade out of my back, Vince was already shifting.

Once the knife was out, I was slammed into the corner by a gust of Felix’s wind. I was only just able to resist it and move when a claw snatched me up, bringing me to the muzzle of a pissed-off coyote.

He forced me to my knees and held my face to look at Zack.

“How could you be so stupid?” Zack accused as he laid a punch into my face. “Why would you fuck up so epically?”

His second question was succeeded by a nasty blow to the head. Shit, I now got how much Zack used to hold back when I messed around.

“You turned on me first remember,” I reminded him as I spat out a glob of blood at his feet.

My blood ran hot and I could feel my veins going into overdrive but my shift didn’t take. Since I couldn’t rely on my ultra instinct, I would how to wait till the right moment.

Vince obviously wasn’t amused as he cuffed me on the back of my head. Felix moved to close the blinds which were actually for the best.

“You know she sent me a recording right,” I dropped. “You and your pet dog talking shit about handling me.”

“There was more to it?” Zack shot back.

“She sent me a nearly one-hour recording.”

Zack nodded like I was a simpleton who was struggling to grasp the basic English language.

“The topic of you goes beyond a dumb conversation,” Zack attempted to explain. “Other things were talked about, we analysed shit.”

“Fuck you.”

Zack gestured for Vince to pull me up and once I was on my feet, I was handed an L in the form of a blow to the stomach. Despite tensing and readying myself, I still had the wind knocked the hell out of me.

“Fuck me? When were you going to tell me that she knocked Brent out huh?” he fumed as he leaned in and clutched the back of my head.

“There’s still a chance that we can get to the girl,” Felix advised as he peeked out the restaurant window,“she might be hanging around still watching.”

“No matter,” Zack dismissed. “Even if she still hanging around, she’s not going to be sloppy enough to allow herself to be singled out.”

The half-orc then looked down at me as he shifted into his fantasy self. I guessed he was still waiting for me to answer the question but I didn’t.

There was nothing to say and I was done negotiating.

“You chose the wrong fucking side dipshit.”

I just chuckled and shook my head at him.

“You were the one who told me that I could do whatever I wanted,” I mocked.

Zack’s expression fell a bit and the sincere look didn’t fit his menacing half-orc face at all.

He pulled back and aimed his pistol at the crown of my head. I just stared down the barrel of the gun and flicked my gaze to his face occasionally; none of it was going to make me lose my composure.

“This doesn’t have to end badly Niko, there’s still time for you to make a smart play,” Zack proposed. “Just tell me that if she becomes a problem, you will handle it. I’ll let you go right now and we won’t come after you once you’re out of here.”

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“No.”

Zack blinked, more so because of how quickly I shut down his proposal. I wasn’t going to stop there.

“The moment you chose to kidnap my actual friend and then point a gun at me, you killed any chances of you and I ever resolving this.”

Realisation dawned on Zack as he slowly leaned his head backwards. It was the truth and I had made my choice, the best choice I could see in front of me. I took a swing and missed, he wouldn’t get Sophie, she was too smart to get caught now. While the man I thought I could rely on more than anyone else was about to kill me.

To Zack’s credit, he seemed mad remorseful about all that was happening, his grimace even looked like he was swallowing an extremely bitter pill. Honestly, I wasn’t sure what I felt right now towards him or maybe I just felt nothing.

Vince let me go as Zack readied to shoot so I closed my eyes but then the room erupted into chaos as Jessica came in her shifter hybrid form and clawed at Brent’s neck. The pointy-eared prick tried his best to clamp down on the blood so he didn’t offer any resistance as he got taken to the ground. Not that that would have helped because while she was an unstoppable force in action, he was just a very movable, barely useful object.

Instead of the surprise stunning everyone in the room into inaction, Zack had the opposite reaction and the adrenaline seemed to keep him on his toes. He quickly aimed his gun and shot her in the shoulder, the force of the shot not only blowing parts of flesh off but also shook the restaurant.

Despite the commotion, I still had enough awareness to consider what the people outside might hear what’s going on. More importantly, my mind went to how I could take advantage of the situation.

I shot up reached for one of the stools off to the rack, grabbed it by the seat, and struck upwards as I clocked Vince under his jaw. The stool of the seat broke off with the impact and before I could follow up, I was interrupted when a rabid Jessica nudged me while clawing at Zack. This was followed by something extremely wild, I could tell that under the blood on her shoulder was still a very exposed wound.

I had never seen Zack so panicked in his life even though he dwarfed his attacker in both height and mass. A low growl caught my attention and I turned to Vince who was already dashing me to the side to get to Zack.

With some serious effort, he tried pulling on Jess who was doing her best to rip Zack’s face off with her teeth.

Eventually, with a violent tug, Jess was pried from a grateful Zack but she soon found something to gnaw on; Vince’s furry arms. The were coyote snarled in rage and Jessica was tossed off to the side.

I imagined that she would jump back into the fight and I could take Vince from the other side based on seeing how much of a thrashing she could take.

Felix got involved though to my annoyance and shot out a continuous gust of wind to make it difficult for her to get up, let alone move. I knew what I needed to do while I still had a piece of stool, I hit Vince in the face not just once, but twice making him lose his balance.

After he was taken care of, I charged for Felix like a quarterback and crushed him into the wall, the sound and feel of his bones breaking accompanied with the impact.

All that came from him was a weak whimper before he died.

I turned to see the state of what things were like now, both mine and Zack’s eyes fell on Vince recovering from my hits and then on the pistol he dropped.

We dove for the gun, Zack got his hand on it first but I wasn’t that far behind. The both of us grappled for the weapon as we got to our feet, bullets flew occasionally and I put great effort into directing them away; our struggle was that intense.

If I gave even a centimetre then my head would have been blown off or I would get taken out by a pissed-off Vince who was going to pay me back the cheap shots I had sent his way.

Zack knew that I was getting the upper hand so the fucker switched it up by taking out one of my legs. I was now lying tangled on the side of the floor that Vince was on, so I was inevitably waiting for him to claw my eyes out; it never happened.

Instead, there was the sight of Sophie running her fingers into the back of an exhausted Vince’s head as Jess pinned him to the ground.

“That’s right, just go to sleep,” she soothed, “You will not wake up until I tell you to.”

The shifter’s eyes flashed with anger for a nanosecond before they got more docile and then fully closed. His body started reverting as well, his muscles shrinking and fur retracting into his skin.

“It’s over Zack,” I growled as I forced the gun out of his grip. “We’ve taken out your whole crew. You’re all that’s left.”

I pushed Zack off of me by clocking him in the jaw and got to my feet to aim the gun at his head.

“Damn,” he muttered as he got up to his feet, “didn’t see this coming.”

He had a look of annoyance more than grief as he nursed his jaw and looked around the room at the state of things. Then as if I had just spilled some water, he looked unconcerned.

Zack then moved to go round the bar and I instantly brought the barrel up to stop him from any further fuckery.

“Easy, I just want to get a drink,” he said not pausing and grabbing a bottle from below the counter. “You could at least let a man have that before you kill him.”

“It never had to go down like this,” I cursed as Zack absently poured the new bottle of whiskey into the glass.

The label looked especially fine, so it might be something vintage. After his glass was half full, Zack came up from behind the counter to observe the carnage.

He even smiled from behind his glass at the sight of Brent’s horrific death grimace.

“Nah bro, it was definitely going to go down like this,” Zack admitted, “sooner or later. Looks like I wasn’t wrong after all, you will absolutely annihilate anything and anyone who gets in your way.”

His eyes swiveled to Sophie.

“I genuinely never thought it would be me.”

Zack looked sullen again and then turned his eyes to Jess.

“Who and what are you?”

“No point in a dead man knowing that,” she growled.

He nodded as if that was only fair and then he fixed his eyes on me again.

“If you’re quick, you should be able to dump our bodies in the freezer and it won’t take that long to mop up the blood,” Zack advised which made me blink. “The stuff we took is also in the staff room so go ahead and help yourself to it.”

I thought it was some type of hoax to get my guard down and when I noticed I quickly took aim like how Zack had taught me.

“'We’re always in the shit, the amount just changes’,” Zack recited. “That’s how you say it right?”

“Close enough,” I said, allowing a small chuckle.

“Yeah, well you’re neck-deep in it now. The shifters are going to get to you sooner or later, I just hope you made the right decision when the time comes. How much shit do you want to be in, Niko?”

“Shut up,” I threatened.

“I’ll stand over here, less mess,” said Zack offered, moving into the hallway; I followed him. “If the werewolves don’t get her, then the other dragons that find out about you will. They’ll take her apart and anyone you surround yourself with.”

With that piece of information, Zack finished the rest of his drink and sighed with pleasure.

“Good luck Niko.”

I squeezed my eyes shut for a good number of seconds as my body trembled, my thoughts fighting for a place to fit in my mind.

My eyes then opened as I had made up my mind.

“Thanks, man.”

I pulled the trigger and ended Zack’s life.