Chapter 9 - The Final Strike
A heavy, deafening gunshot echoed through the lab.
But it didn't come from Thomas’s gun.
Thomas Vance gasped, his pistol dropping from his hand as a neat red hole appeared in his shoulder. He fell backward against the glass console, clutching his wound in agony.
Adrian Blackwell stood in the doorway, his smoking pistol in his hand. His shoulder brace was gone, his dark eyes burning with a terrifying, protective rage.
"I told you, Vance," Adrian said, his voice a low, lethal hum as he stepped into the room. "If you touch her, I will end you."
Victor Valenti, realizing his leverage was gone, grabbed a heavy metal canister of TX-9 and smashed it against the floor.
The steel canister ruptured, releasing a thick, concentrated cloud of the blue gas directly into the room.
"Adrian!" Evelyn screamed, running toward him as the gas rapidly expanded.
Valenti made a run for the back exit, but Adrian intercepted him. Despite his injured shoulder, Adrian’s movements were precise and brutal. He threw Valenti against the steel research table, his forearm pinning the massive man’s throat.
"This is for my city, Valenti," Adrian growled, his fist striking Valenti’s jaw with bone-crushing force. Valenti fell to the floor, semi-conscious, as the blue gas began to fill his lungs.
Adrian turned to Evelyn, his face starting to pale as he inhaled the sweet, deadly compound. He slumped against the table, his breath catching.
Evelyn was there instantly. She grabbed his arm, pulling a syringe of the peptide from her bag.
"Stay with me, Adrian," she sobbed, her hands shaking as she searched for a vein. "Stay with me!"
"I'm here, Evelyn," he whispered, his dark eyes locked on hers with a peaceful, absolute love. "I'm not leaving you."
She injected the antidote.
Adrian let out a long, shuddering breath, his chest rising and falling as the peptide neutralized the cellular damage of the toxin. The color slowly returned to his face.
Around them, the alarms began to change tone.
The blue lights of the police and federal authorities began to flash against the windows of the research facility.
Marcus burst into the room, flanked by federal agents in hazmat suits.
"Get them out of here!" Marcus ordered, pointing to Thomas Vance and Victor Valenti, who were being dragged away in handcuffs.
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Adrian stood up, his arm wrapping tightly around Evelyn’s waist, supporting her as much as she was supporting him.
They walked out of the smoking, ruined facility together, stepping into the cool, fresh desert air as the dawn began to break over the distant mountains of Phoenix.
