Big Energy

TYKE

We're heading back to base in one of the unit's dispatcher vans, crammed next to each other on the seats lining the side walls.

Vine and I face each other, avoiding eye contact at all costs, so I scrutinize the officers seated across from me.

One bearded guy sitting two seats from Vine leans forth. "Does it hurt?" he asks, pointing to my bloody torso. I don't know his first name, but I know his second: Asshole. And Asshole has a sly tone in his voice. I could easily punch him in the face, and he'd fly out of the van, leaving a small crater in the metal.

"Tolerable." Not really, but it's what it is.

"What caused the explosion?" Oliv asks with a strange glint in her eye.

"She stole the remote control from me," I say calmly.

"And then, boom?"

"Boom."

Upon my answer, I catch Vine scratching the back of her head nervously. She's been quiet ever since we climbed into the vehicle. I've been trying to stay silent myself, if not for the incessant questions from the fae girl, Oliv, who I first thought was a rookie. The way she clutches her gun, though, it's like she's dying to burn a big fat hole in my chest. Looks like I was wrong about her all along...

Blood is dripping down my seat, and my boots are swimming in it. It comes as no surprise. Getting medical assistance was a forerun wish. Simply put, I'm an orc, and health insurance doesn't cover my kind under any circumstances... I can take it, but damn, it hurts. Still glad Vine got an expeditive stitching session and a bandage in bonus. Normal routine circumstances would've had her repatriated in an ambulance. She was about to, but then she blurted at the medic's face, "I stay with my captain."

My pocket keeps moving, and I prop my hand, trying not to fucking squash Magnus.

"Saw something worth a say?" ask the long-bearded fae. He's glaring at me, a slight sway of the head like one of a snake about to strike, his rifle flat on his thighs as his fingers dance over the trigger way up to the barrel... Everything about this unit reeks of corruption.

"No."

"Sure about that, Tyke?" Oliv asks, coldness slating her tongue.

Fuck. We're having an interrogation.

"You mentioned a throne with a woman?"

I hold my tongue for a few seconds. Vine is holding my gaze, then casts hers to one side, knowing that if she keeps it on mine too long, we're as good as dead.

"We changed our minds and concluded that it was made of stone," I lie. "A statue, nothing less. There was suspicious activity in front of us; we couldn't talk."

"Is that so?" Seems the bearded asshole is the one in charge of our little debrief...

"Yes."

"I heard from one of your New Orc colleagues that you had a small miracle in your life."

"Hearsay," I grate, skin lifting under my suit.

"Heard she's beautiful, too..."

His neighbor sitting between him and Vine chuckles. "And generous..."

Asshole adds, "Fucked by the entire NO SWAT team."

The beast in me is hustling for his blood, champing at the bit to tear his head off.

"Tell me, captain... how does it feel to fuck a whore for free?"

By the God of Death, Asshole's insides are about to go flying.

My veins swell to the point that I can feel my skin pull toward the throbbing blood on my face. Vine's eyes widen as she shakes her head slowly.

I know what they're doing...

"It can only take a whore to fuck an orc like you."

He's dead already. It's just a matter of 'de-breathing' him.

"Negative..." I grit my teeth while my breath bursts into my lungs.

"You like her, don't you? Shame..."

"Shame?"

"You're on a list. I don't think you're gonna make it to your little fae."

"What list?"

"Oh, I think you know."

"I don't." He's within reach...

"We couldn't hear much, but we saw what we needed to see," he adds.

Could snap his neck... it would be easy.

"Was it interesting?" I joke as my hands slowly wrap around the grip of my rifle.

"You guys had orders to shoot on sight," he says.

"She was the informant, and we don't shoot informants."

"You were supposed to take her out. Those were her father's orders."

Mordana's father?

I take a deep breath.

We sway, the van taking a sharp turn, the road suddenly bumpier than usual...

My gaze wanders to Vine, whose chest rises as she, too, notices the shift.

"Taking a shortcut?" I ask.

"Taking a shortcut," Dead-ass says, his black beard covering his grin. Three other cops simultaneously clap the levers of their rifles, and it's confirmed. Vine and I are in a quandary right now.

Time to get our hands dirty.

My steepened glare says it all as I ask, "What time is it, Vine?"

She plays along, flicks her wrist, and uncovers her watch from under her sleeve. "It's noon."

"Already?" The other scumbags can't help but look at their phones and watches...

"No, wait, in three seconds," she says, turning her lip upward.

I wink. "Three."

Like lightning, Vine pulls a dagger from her thigh holster and stabs the officer next to her. Two rifle barrels immediately point at me, to which I'm fast to grab and jerk them upward.

Bang!

I yank them out of these mongrels' hands, releasing my tension as I smash their heads together.

The van doesn't stop. This was probably part of their plan all along.

I set my eyes on the fluffy fuckface. "Easy, Tyke." The little bitch is stepping back, his shaggy beard quivering like a pot of blubber, wings buzzing like ones of a shit fly. "I meant no harm to your girl."

A smile crosses my face. "Sorry, but I'm holding a grudge." I snatch the rifle out of his hand and grab him by the neck before growling at him, "Insulting her was the last thing you'd have done in your life, and now you're my little whore. Wanna know what I do to little whores like you?"

I snigger obscenely. "No? I'll show you." His suit tears as I shove his barrel into his rectum. He's crying, my grin expanding to the pain he's going through—I mean, to the pain going through him. "Wait, you haven't seen the best part yet..." I fire a shot, and the bullet shoots out of his skull, his brains spurting like a volcano. I then fling him like a bowling ball against three of his henchmen.

Strike!

Taking a quick glance at Vine, I find her clinging to a bastard like a spider, gnawing on the tough guy's neck as he slams his back and her against the wall. "I got it!" she shouts, glancing quickly at me.

I grab an aggressively armed soldier and split his forearm in a backbend. He screams, and I sink my tusks into his throat, and these finally serving their purpose, ripping out his windpipe. in the process. And really, that's the whole point of having my tusks...

I roar out in ecstasy at the taste of blood in my mouth. There is so much big energy at play here. Fuck, I'm enjoying this.

I'm watching Vine closely. She's doing pretty well. Even if I'd taken money under the table, I would have never thought it wise to pair an orc with a hand-to-hand combat elite soldier like her, but somewhere, someone did. We must have at least one higher-up in the hierarchy who is betting on us. Vine's been straddling Oliv's shoulders for the last minute, it's proper wrestling, making my belly rumble with glee. She's giving her what could look like a face-fuck, plunging the knife into her neck repeatedly. Blood is flowing, drowned out by gasps and moans. Oh, how I've missed this...

I'm shaken out of my bliss when two of these scoundrels lunge at my back, one stabbing at the wound in my side. I growl and fling my back against the side of the vehicle. Not only do I crush them, but I also capsize the van because I'm a heavy guy.

"Vine, hold on to something!" I yell.

Where am I?

The blur takes time to lift, and when it does... I sigh.

I'm flat on my back, my forehead greeted by the tip of a barrel. Instinctively, I clutch the leg next to my head and snap it at a nice ninety-degree angle. I lift myself up and, because his screams annoy the shit out of me, grip him behind the neck, and hurl him to the ground, smashing his head to bits, pumpkin style.

I look around, taking stock of my surroundings. The back doors of the van are busted wide. I blink to see Vine crouching in the field, clutching her rifle and firing at the driver, who is trying to reach the woods.

Bang!

A dry sound hits the grass with a thump.

I spit some blood and a little relief on the side.

She returns, adrenaline fueling her legs, even though she shouldn't be walking...

"What now?" she asks.

"We run."

"They'll come after us. They'll send another team... They'll find the van, the bodies!" She's panicking, pacing in small loops, and waving her hands like the Giorno's pizzeria owner when her pizzaiolo burns the crust...

I stare at her with a coy smile. "Vine."

The girl turns to me. "What!?"

"What's the maximum depth you can dig with your magic?"

Her smile shoots up. "Captain, deep is my specialty..."

"Then make it to the earth's core."