Page 77 of Heartless Enemy
Sure enough, after a few moments, the firelight moved away from the window.
Thudding footsteps came from the stairs.
Chief Anderson was one of those people who were married to the job, so he didn’t have a wife or kids. Which meant that I could be confident that it was indeed the chief himself who came down to investigate.
I unsheathed my knife, flexing my fingers on the hilt as the stomping footsteps drew closer.
Once they reached the living room, I moved slightly again so that there was a bush between me and the broken window.
“What the bloody hell?” Chief Anderson cursed from inside. His voice sounded like it was very close to the window. “Matilda! Thomas! If this is you again, I swear I am going to arrest you this time.”
Only silence answered him.
“And I’m going to arrest your damn mother too for not keeping you in check,” he added in a mutter that seemed to be directed more to himself than to the nonexistent children outside. “Don’t they know we’re in the middle of a bloody war?”
His feet thumped against the floor, moving away from the window and towards the backdoor.
My heart pounded in my chest as I shifted my position yet again.
I resisted the urge to suck in rapid breaths.
The hilt of my blade suddenly felt slick in my hands.
Fuck, this had to work.
Chief Eric Anderson shoved the door open and stalked out, wearing only a pair of underwear and a white shirt. “If you don’t come out this instant, I will—”
Panic shot through me as he suddenly cut off and whipped towards me.
His eyes went wide.
I slammed my knife into the side of his ribs.
A huff ripped from his throat. Shock and pain pulsed in his blue eyes as I yanked the knife out.
With alarm still crackling through my veins, I raised my hand to strike again. I had planned to slit his throat from the side, killing him quickly in one fell swoop. But he had sensed me and spun around before I could get my weapon into position.
And now he was hurt but not dead.
Shit.
I had to finish this quickly.
My hand had barely gotten the blade out when Anderson started bringing his palms together. Making a split-second decision, I abandoned my attempt to stab him again and instead summoned a blast of wind that took him in the chest one second before he could slap his palms together and attack.
He flew backwards, in through the still open door, and crashed into something inside the living room. I darted after him, slamming the door shut behind me to stop the neighbors from hearing the noise, and got ready to summon a lightning bolt.
The door was still vibrating in its frame when a water blast smacked into me, sending me crashing back against the door.
On the floor halfway inside the living room, Anderson was trying to push himself up while also summoning more magic.
Water dripped down from my soaked clothes, splattering on the polished floorboards, as I dove to the side right before a lightning strike zapped into the door behind me. Rolling across the floor, I came up on my knees and threw the knife at him.
It shot through the air, but was stopped by a wind blast before it could bury itself in his chest. The knife spun wildly, smacking into a bookshelf instead and tumbling down on the floor with a metallic clattering.
The moment I threw the blade, I slapped my palms together and summoned a lightning bolt. Since Anderson had been forced to block the knife, he didn’t have time to call up another shield in time.
White light flashed inside the room as the bolt struck him.