With the Colonel’s Help: A Pride and Prejudice Variation

I bolted upright to the screaming of the alarm. So fuckin’ loud it was disorienting. My heart hammered at warp speed as my eyes tried to adjust to the dim light.

Hands already in fists, ready to slaughter any motherfucker stupid enough to come around here.

Raven flew up to sitting, too.

Raven who was in my bed.

A surge of protectiveness pummeled me. Rage and possession.

I pushed an arm out in front of her to keep her shielded as I tuned my senses to listen through the blaring of the alarm.

My room was still.

Empty of anyone else other than the two of us.

I was certain of it.

I could always scent out when some bastard was lurking. Could feel it crawl across my skin in a roll of perversion. But I knew well enough someone was nearby. On my property.

The alarm wouldn’t call the authorities. It was only for me. A way to alert me to anyone who dared tread into my territory.

“Wait right here until I figure out what is going on,” I shouted over the blare as I shifted and took Raven by the outside of the arms.

Those eyes were darker than ever, black pools that swarmed with fear. Fear I would do anything to decimate.

I cleared the rage from my throat and dipped down to be sure I got in her line of sight. “Don’t move from this spot, Raven. Do you hear me? I’ll be right back.”

Her nod was frantic, and I pushed from the bed, going straight for my nightstand and to the gun case that I kept in the bottom drawer. I pressed my thumb to the sensor to open it, and I pulled it out, making sure it was loaded and ready as I crept across the room to the door.

Adrenaline thundered as I pressed my ear to the wood, trying to listen through the disorder that reverberated through my house. When I couldn’t feel anything moving on the other side, I cracked the door open and peered out into the duskiness of the great room.

It was that dense hour right before sunrise. When the night felt deepest. The kitchen and living room were covered in a thick darkness only broken by the stars that shined through the wall of windows on the far side.

Anxiety ripping through me, I glanced back once at Raven. She was on her knees on the bed, those inky eyes wide with terror.

My chest squeezed, and I forced myself to move.

A fireball of aggression gripped me by the throat as I stepped out of my room, my gun lifted and my attention sharp as I scanned the area below.

Carefully, I edged down the three steps to the bottom landing.

Stillness echoed back. Zero movement. No sticky aura of some vile bastard waiting in the shadows, though I didn’t let down my guard as I quickly moved to where I’d left my phone charging on the end table next to the couch.

Snatching it up, I turned off the alarm.

Silence cut through the house. As sharp as a knife.

So distinct it was palpable.

All wrong.

Blood pumping hard, I searched the alarm app for what had triggered the alarm.

Downstairs in the garage. The single window on the west side of the building. I was quick to thumb into the camera footage, watching as something busted through the window and toppled to the ground. The second camera caught a hazy figure outside the garage.

Fuck.

I didn’t take the time to drag on my jeans.

I just shoved my feet into my boots where they’d been sitting by the couch, not bothering to tie them as I headed for the interior door that led downstairs into the garage.

Carefully, I unlocked it, cracking the door a fraction so I could peer out. Based on the footage, I was pretty sure no one was actually inside, but I couldn’t be certain.

More stillness.

Sucking in a breath, I stepped through, quick to relock the door to make sure Raven was secure inside.

Gun swiveling from side to side, I edged down the steps, boots quietly thudding on the metal as I descended.

That sticky stillness echoed back. No one inside, and the last thing I was going to do was let the asshole get away.

I jumped into action, running for the regular door on the far side of the garage. I tossed it open to the night.

A chill crawled across my bare skin, a cold dread that sank like a stone to the pit of my stomach.

Someone was out there.

In the distance.

A fuckin’ coward running to a safety I would never let them find.

I took off in that direction, boots pounding the ground as I hunted through the night.

It was my specialty. Sniffing out the demons that lie in the shadows. Dragging them out into the light.

The light, my ass.

It was judgement without grace. No room for sympathy. Karma at her fucking worst. When she was so sick of the depravity, her only goal was eradicating it.

Permanently.

No questions asked.

So this fucker had better run fast.

A foul energy emanated from the west, toward the dirt drive that led between the main road and my house. I used my phone as a flashlight as I ran over the loose gravel, my gun pointed out in front of it.

Not great for visibility, but it was going to have to do.

I pushed myself as hard as I could, wearin’ nothing but my goddamn briefs and my boots, a beast that prowled beneath the darkness that loomed from above.

With each second that passed, I felt it increase—the vile presence that wept.

I was getting close.

I hit the bottom of the hill before it began to ascend, and in the distance, I could just make out the form that raced beneath the swath of branches that stretched over the drive.

The shape of what I assumed had to be a man, but it was too dark and he was too far away to make out any real details.

I increased my pace, my lungs screaming as I pounded across the ground. “You might as well stop, motherfucker. I’m gonna find you wherever you go.”

With each furious step, I erased a fraction of space, bringing us closer and closer. Blood pounded in a violent beat through my veins, hatred so fierce for a faceless man. Didn’t matter who he was.

He’d been here.

Near Raven.

He was going to pay for that.

Finally got close enough that I could see that he was tall and lean, though there was no chance I could make out his identity. I pushed harder, shouting, “Get down! On the ground. Might let you live if you do what I say.”

Probably not, but I might need information. Might need to keep him alive so we could find out who had sent him and what his intentions were.

Our list of enemies was long, and we bore no pretenses that one day one of them might catch up to us.

Dread curdled my insides as my mind raced with who it might be. Dread that he might have found me out, and rather than waiting around for me to come to him to show him his end, he’d shown at my door.

My footsteps echoed through the night, mixing with his as he pushed himself as hard as he could.

“One last chance, asshole. On the ground.”

He didn’t give, so I popped off a warning shot, aiming off to his left. Expected him to scream and drop to his knees.

Not the barrage of bullets that came from out of nowhere. Pings rang through the trees, dust flying all around and making it impossible to see.

And it was me who was suddenly on his knees.

Not even sure what had brought me to the ground.

A second later, I could hear the telltale sounds of a dirt bike being kicked over in the distance, the beelike screech piercing the air as the bastard raced away.

A roar burst out of me when a shock of pain bloomed on my thigh. Disoriented, I shined my light on the spot.

Blood poured out of a wound.

The motherfucker had shot me. I wobbled and swayed, before I fully dropped face down onto the ground.