A moaning sound brought Nigel out of his thoughts. He gazed in the sound’s direction and Eva was examining him like a cat would a mouse.

“How are you feeling?” Nigel said.

Eva closed her eyes for a moment, then raised a cybernetic arm. He watched in fascination as Eva flexed a metal hand.

“I’m not weak,” Eva said.

Nigel gave her a confused look, but thought he understood her meaning.

“Nobody said you were,” he replied.

“I will be a more effective killer with this new toy,” Eva said in a thick Eastern European accent.

She made a snapping motion with her cybernetic hand. It looked like she was trying to make shadow puppets in the dim afternoon light. There was a brutal innocence about her that Nigel admired. Faced with adversity, she had survived and was the strongest teenager he had ever known.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

“I think we are supposed to sit this one out,” Nigel said.

“Says who? Madam told you to wait with me. You go where I go.”

Eva winced as she covered her cybernetic hand.

She must be in agony, yet she still wants to fight.

Eva opened the passenger door and fell into the snow.

“Eva!”

By the time Nigel left his front seat to check on Eva in the back, she was gone, so he followed her trail. If it had not snowed, he would not have been able to track her at all and she moved a lot faster than he had expected. She was at the chateau by the time he caught up with her.

“Eva, you’re in no condition—”

“Our friends need us, Nigel.”

He couldn’t argue with her logic. He wanted to find Jet and get her away from all of this needless violence. Eva would not stand by and let harm come to her sisters. And neither was he. Shots rang out. The sound echoed throughout the forest. Eva ran toward the hole in the chateau. She ducked as a red laser and a fireball whipped past her.

What the hell was that?

Eva dodged each laser and flame attack with lightning fast reflexes. He knew Eva was fast, but her recent cybernetic enhancement went beyond what he considered the realm of possibility. She stepped into a hallway and disappeared. Nigel made a run for it. The plan was to leap over the crater and into the hallway before whatever show the laser and flamethrower fried him. When he got to the perimeter of the house, he jumped, tripped and fell headfirst into the crater.