Rebirth in the Apocalypse: Third Time's a Charm



"I mean, I'm not saying that I am crazy or anything, just a bit… off-kilter," I said to the mysterious shooter down the hall of the 29th floor. I was hoping that the other teams were fairing a bit better than we were, but what was the chance we would have other military personnel in this building?

It wasn't fair.

'Go,' I whispered to my pink flame. "But off-kilter in the cute and cuddly way, not the serial killer type way, I promise," I said out loud. I was waiting for the screaming to start to let me know when we could meet this person who has taken up so much of my time. Not to mention the friends with him. But then again, I rarely saw soldiers go anywhere without another member of their team, so I guess I would have to employ the plus one strategy; if you see one, always assume that there is at least one more around.

1…2…3…4….5…. there it is… a loud piercing scream filled the hallway and stairwell as my pink flame found its target.  Standing up, I dusted myself off and walked towards the railing that blocked the hall where we were from the stairwell.  "I suggest that you hurry up and do whatever it was that you were supposed to do. The distraction in the hallway is currently burning. And it is just going to get worse the longer we prolong this meeting," I yelled down at the people who I knew were trying to surprise us in the stairway.

Silence met my statement. "Suit yourself," I said as I walked through the opened door and down the hall where my flame was waiting for me.

I heard a growl coming from Chen Zi Han as he rushed to my side. "You don't do that, Princess," he growled in my ear sending my mind spinning in directions that were not conducive to a hallway with people trying to kill us hiding somewhere.

"Do what?" I asked, seriously confused. The threat from this direction had been neutralized, otherwise, I would have walked into a hail of bullets. Seeing as there was none, I was safe. See?

"You do not walk first through a doorway towards people that want to kill you," Chen Zi Han said as he pulled me off to the side and allowed the rest of the team to go through first.

I chuckled at that thought. "I am pretty sure that I am always surrounded by people wanting to kill me," I admitted as I nodded my head towards the men and woman rushing down the hall to find the poor sap that was standing in a circle of my flames.

Chen Zi Han just let out a low sound of displeasure but did not contradict me. I was sure that in his time as an enforcer with the Red Dragon Syndicate, he understood what I was saying. No matter how hard you worked or how much you got along with the people around you, there was always the chance of being stabbed in the back when you least expected it.

"Don't do it again," he stared at me, his index finger inches from my nose. I jokingly snap at it, only for him to move his finger out of the way so quickly I didn't even see him reaching around the back of my neck before pulling me closer to him. I couldn't move, I couldn't even really struggle, not like I really tried all that hard. My breath was trapped in my lungs as I looked at the towering man in front of me.

He was a freaking enforcer of a criminal organization that did not think twice about snapping someone's neck or shooting them point-blank in the back of the head. The man was almost a foot and a half taller than me, and with his bulk, I was nothing more than a kitten in the clutches of a tiger.

The tattoos that I could see, those on his fingers, hands and neck were practically pulsing with the energy inside of them, drawing me in, begging for my touch. But even with all that, I was not the least bit scared. This man was my knight, my dark knight willing to protect me from the world. How could I possibly be scared of him?

In fact, his entire being called to me, making me want to soak in his essence so that there was always a part of him in me.

He stared into my eyes, a harsh look on his face, but that didn't bother me at all. Whatever it was that he saw on my face or in my eyes caused him to grip the back of my neck even harder, but I only smiled. 

Slowly leaning closer to the man that had me enthralled, I went onto my tiptoes and licked him across his right cheek. "Mine," I whispered into his ear as I came back down to the floor. I looked up at the man, my neck completely exposed as I had to tilt my head completely back to be able to see him.

Once again, his grip on me tightened with my statement, but he said nothing, just continued to stare down at me. It was his turn to lower himself to be able to look me directly in my face. With a quick move, just like the predator that he was, he latched onto my exposed neck and not so gently dug his teeth into my skin.  I gasped in surprise, the feeling somewhere between pain and pleasure as I closed my eyes and let him do what he wanted to me.

As if he was just waiting for my surrender, he released his mouth from my throat as I let out a soft moan of protest. He flattened his tongue and swiped it up and over where he had just bitten. "Mine," he growled down at me as he stood to his imposing height, his hand never leaving the back of my neck.

"Yours," I agreed, not able to look away from him. It was like we were in our own little world at that moment where only the two of us existed. I could still feel my neck throbbing from his bite and I raised my left hand to cover the spot. "Yours," I said again, this time making both a statement and a promise.

"Yours," he said in return, this time a smile breaking out over his face making him look 10 years younger. My heart thumped painfully in my chest at his words, his promise to me.

"If you two are done, we are going to need you," yelled Zhou Hui Fan as he stood with his gun raised in front of an open door in the middle of the floor.

"Some people really like being a lightbulb," I grumbled as Chen Zi Han slowly released my neck with a low chuckle at my words.

"We can continue it later, Princess," he reassured me and his hand slid down my arm to grab my hand. Raising it to his lips, he brushed an incredibly soft, gentle kiss to my knuckles. "We have a whole lifetime."

Grunting because he wasn't wrong, I was still a bit annoyed at being interrupted. It was the first time that I had ever seen him like that and I wanted and needed to see it more. But, the more rational side of me admitted that this was not the right time to be lost in his arms as we were in the middle of an operation, but I was really finding it hard to step out of his embrace.

Still chuckling, he continued to hold my hand and brought me down the hall to where the rest of our team was waiting.

I walked right up to where Zhou Hui Fan giving him a glare before going to look into the apartment building in front of us. "Sorry," he said, sounding anything but sorry. I grunted in reply, still too cranky to form words. I heard him laughing under his breath and I stuck out my tongue.  Stepping through the opened door, I saw the reason why none of the men would go inside.

In the middle of what could only be the living room, stood at least nine swirling columns of pink flames that reached from the hardwood floors to the ceiling. I raised my eyebrows at the sight. Apparently, I would have to rethink my plus one strategy and change it to plus 8, and that didn't even include however many people were in the stairwell trying to ambush us.

"We still have a team on the stairway, right?" I asked, not taking my eyes away from the flames in front of me.

"We do," confirmed Wang Chao as he came up behind me and wrapped an arm around my waist, pulling my flush against his front.

I hummed in reply and leaned against the man. "So, is anyone going to claim to be the leader of this motley crew or are we just going to start killing people? Either way, I don't particularly care," I said, enjoying the feeling of Wang Chao.

"Me," came a voice from one of the pillars. Waving my hand, I reduced the flame just enough to expose his face but not enough to give him the idea that he could get away if he tried.

I felt the man stiffen behind me and I turned my head to look at him. "Li Yi Ming?" came the deep voice behind me. Now it was my turn to stiffen.

"General?" he asked, his voice hesitant as if he didn't recognize Wang Chao. Wang Chao hummed and nodded his head confirming his identity.

Well fuck.