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  Stand On It

  Published by Jan Stryvant

  Copyright 2018 Jan Stryvant

  Copyright Jan Stryvant 2018

  Cover Credits: eBook Launch (http://ebooklaunch.com/)

  No part of this eBook may be reproduced in any form without expressed, written consent from the author. The material in this story may feature graphic depictions of a sexual or adult nature and is intended for a mature audience only. All characters in this story are fictional and of the legal age of consent for any activities they engage in. Any resemblance between characters, places, or things in this story and people living or dead, actual places, or events, is purely coincidental. It's fiction, I made it up.

  License Notes

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be copied and given away, or copied and sold, to other people. Got that? No copying, please! If you would like to share this book with another person, it would be really nice if you purchased an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use, then please consider purchasing your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

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  Jan Stryvant Books:

  The Valens Legacy

  Black Friday Book 1

  Perfect Strangers Book 2

  Over Our Heads Book 3

  Head Down Book 4

  When It Falls Book 5

  Stand On It Book 6

  Shadow

  Dance on a Volcano

  Terry swore loudly and dropped to the ground trying not to scream in pain as Cara stepped on a landmine and was blown six feet up into the air, the shrapnel taking off Terry's right foot just below the knee as it tore up his entire side. He started to reach down to try and grab the stump of his leg in a pain reaction when a hundred and something pounds of Cara, plus another thirty pounds of her gear landed right on top of him, knocking him right back down.

  Both of Cara's legs were gone, one of her hands was gone, it was a miracle that she had any body left below the waist, and she was screaming, loudly, right in his ear.

  Swearing again, Terry shoved her off of him and stripped off her pack and dumped it out on the ground, looking to see what she had. It wasn't much, ammo, food, toiletries, clothing, that was it! No first aid, nothing like that.

  "Dammit, Cara!" Terry growled, "Where the hell is your first aid kit?"

  "I don't want to die, please don't let me die!" Cara was crying and sobbing and shaking on the ground beneath him as her body tried to heal the massive amount of damage the explosion had done to her. Terry was honestly surprised that she was still alive.

  She grabbed him then with her remaining hand.

  "Please, Terry, I don't want to die! Save me, please Terry!"

  Swearing Terry dumped his own pack and started to dig out his own first aid kit. She was going to die, he could tell that. Maybe if the masters had bothered to give them some healing items, he could save her, but they never wasted anything like that on the common foot soldiers.

  "Eat this," Terry said and grabbing one of her ration bars he handed it to her, with as much mass as she had lost, the only way she'd even have a hope would be to consume as much as possible. Grabbing his bandages he started trying to stop her legs from bleeding and regenerating. Or at least try and slow it down enough that it wouldn't kill her.

  Around him the world was going to hell, and it was going there pretty damn fast. Another flamethrower had joined the fight, and it wasn't just the smell of people burning to death that was bothering him, it was the way that they screamed as they died.

  The helicopter that had just gone overhead had also torn up a lot of them, apparently they had silver, but thankfully they'd crashed well away from him. From the sounds of what was coming from the crash, there must be one hell of a firefight going on over there as well.

  He heard a bunch more thumps then, and covering up Cara's body with his own, explosions started to rain down all around, thankfully none were close. Sitting up he looked down at Cara to see how she was doing, and all he saw were her glassy unmoving eyes staring back up at him, dead.

  Terry swore again and grabbing his rifle he started to crawl forward over the ground, when all he really wanted to do was to run away. But he couldn't do that, the masters were behind them. Dropping into a ditch with the remains of what he guessed was the machine gun that had been raining death and bullets down on him earlier, Terry got his bearings. There were two others in the ditch with him, he didn't know either one of them, then again, for all he knew none of his own group was alive anymore. Both of them were as shot up as he was, and were probably just as scared as he was too.

  "What the hell do we do now?" Terry asked.

  "We can't go back... oh fuck," the one closest to him, said and pointed.

  Terry looked and swore as well.

  It was a woman.

  In some strange metal armor.

  And she was glowing.

  And she had a sword in her hands that was one hell of a lot bigger than she was, and she was using it to cut people in two. While she was on fire. Or at least it looked like she was on fire, only the flames were red, and she was laughing as she slaughtered everyone around her.

  But that wasn't even the worst of it. There was a guy behind her, also with one of those large ass swords, and for every one that she killed, he killed two.

  At least he wasn't laughing.

  Terry noticed the other werewolf was looking down the sights of her rifle, back the way they'd come.

  "What the hell are you doing?" Terry asked as the rifle suddenly bucked.

  "Taking those gods damned masters of ours with us!" she screamed. "We're all fucked, well fuck them too!"

  Terry was starting to think that she just might have a point.

  Her pellet must have popped then, and she started to thrash and scream as the silver killed her.

  "Guess she missed," the other guy said.

  "Guess so," Terry said and was just about to climb out of the hole and look for a better place to die when he got struck by a sudden pain deep inside. Damn mages must have decided to pop his pellet along with hers!

  As soon as Cali heard the gunfire outside she went and found Jolene, who was already talking with Peg and Louise. Jolene seemed to be incredibly calm, perhaps the calmest one in the room.

  "What do we do?" Cali asked, looking at Jolene. Cali had figured out the hierarchy among the wives before she'd even become one: Roxy was in charge. Daelyn was next.

  But, Roxy never argued with Jolene. Even Daelyn would listen to what Jolene said. Peg was obviously the type who didn't want to be in charge or have any of the responsibility that came with it.

  Cali knew her place in life; she was a follower, mostly. When something needed to be done, she'd do it, and use whatever, or whoever, was at hand to accomplish her task. That was how she'd been trained after all. Right now, she was a member of her husband's household and that household was under attack. Roxy was outside somewhere, but Jolene was right here.

  "Why are you asking me?" Jolene asked Cali.

  "Because you're in charge, unless I go outside to look for Roxy?"

  "I'm not..." Cali put her finger on Jolene's mouth, stopping her.

  "We don't have time for this. What do you want me to do?"

  Jolene sighed, "Can you use a gun?"

  Cali nodded, "Of course."

  "Go see what weapons are in the house, get one, and find us. Start with the stuff in our room, Roxy should have at least one there. We need to defend the house."

  Cali nodded and ran off to the room, having already kicked off her shoes so she wouldn't make any noise as she ran.

  "How can you be so calm!" Peg asked.

&
nbsp; "You get used to it," Jolene smiled. "And I guess Cali's right. Now, let's start setting up some defenses for when they get to the house."

  "Don't you mean, if?" Louise said.

  Jolene shook her head, "Someone will make it through, they always do. Now, let's go ward the doors and windows. Make sure all the lights are off, and don't get too close to the windows. Then we'll block all the doors except for the one leading out to the back, so we have a way out if things get too busy. After that, the three of use can circle and see about putting a shield up around the front of the building."

  Philo came into the room at that point.

  "Is there anything I can do to help?" Philo asked.

  "Do you have any experience with combat?" Jolene asked.

  Philo nodded, "Some."

  "Go out the back door and find Roxy. What about your friend?"

  Philo shook his head, "Pookas don't get involved in human fights."

  "Fair enough, now go!"

  When Cali came back, armed with one of Roxy's pistols, Jolene put her to work with the cooks who were the only others still inside the house at this point, all of the rest of the people had already gone outside to take up arms in the fight.

  "Shouldn't we be outside, fighting?" Cali asked Jolene.

  Jolene shook her head, "Except for Peg, if one of us gets shot, we're in trouble. We're not lycans, we can't regenerate."

  "Then maybe I should go outside?" Peg said suddenly as she felt a little self-conscious.

  "No, Peg, we need you to be able to circle and put up a good defense against their attacks on the house, especially if they start throwing magic at us. We need at least three to circle."

  "Umm," Cali looked at her gun, then at the others, "do you think one of you could cast some spells on my bullets, so that when they hit, they at least do something?"

  "Good thinking," Jolene said and then looked at Peg and Louise. "I can't enchant. Can either of you do anything?"

  "I can help with that," Louise said and held out her hand, so Cali gave her a small box of bullets.

  Peg and Jolene quickly went around to each of the doors and windows, putting wards on them, as Cali moved stuff to block the front door with the help of the cooks. They then returned to the living room, where Louise handed the box of bullets to Cali and then standing up she held out her hands to Jolene and Peg.

  "I've circled before, would you prefer me to take the lead?"

  Jolene smiled, "Thanks, Lou. Yes, please."

  Joining hands in the middle of the living room, the three of them started the process of forming a circle, as Cali moved over to one of the windows, and started to look for targets of opportunity to pick off.

  Roxy was yelling directions at people as she was running back and forth, organizing the attackers, telling people who to bring ammo to, dragging the wounded back into cover so they could heal. It was insane, completely and utterly insane. The machine guns on the side of the compound that the attack was coming from had all run out of ammo, so she'd moved as many as she could to the rise overlooking them to try and slow down the advancing fighters.

  She heard the next round of mortars go off. There was only one person who knew how to work the mortars, and twice now the people helping them had almost blown themselves up because they had no idea at all what they were doing. She grabbed one of the boys running by.

  "Tell Chet to lay off the mortars, they're too close! Get the flamethrowers! Now go!"

  "Yes, ma'am!" the kid said and took off running.

  Scanning the area, Roxy could see that the enemy was starting to make it into the edge of the compound, again. The first attack had been driven back with the help of a helicopter that had come by low and fast just two minutes and as many lifetimes ago. She didn't see what happened to it, but it hadn't come around again, so she figured it was out of the fight.

  Swearing again, she shot a wolf that came charging around the corner in the face, unloading the entire magazine. When the bolt locked open the body, now without a face, was falling to the ground. Dropping her rifle Roxy grabbed his. They had silver ammo, and damned if she wasn't going to use it!

  She put one round in each of the five people who came around the corner next, probably following him, then quickly pulled his ammo belt off of his body. There were three full magazines left on it. Smiling, she took off after a bunch of the enemy that she saw heading towards the main house, but then stopped and turned to her right, as Maitland and Ruthelma suddenly jumped out and ambushed those heading for the house.

  Both were wearing a type of armor that Roxy had never seen before, undoubtedly something from the land of faerie. They were glowing brightly like they were on fire, undoubtedly more faerie magic, as they wielded huge swords that up until that moment she'd only seen used in Japanese anime.

  Huge swords that moved faster than one would have thought possible as they literally, and very bloodily, cleaved people in two.

  Obviously they didn't need her help, so she went to see who did, running back towards the sounds of the loudest fighting.

  Roxy swore as she got shot three times, one of the shots even hitting her in the head. Dropping down to the ground, Roxy slid across the dirt as her body healed. Pointing her rifle in the general direction of the shots, she just held the trigger down, fanning the rifle back and forth as she returned fire.

  She heard screaming in front of her, so she must have hit somebody. Shaking off the effects of the shots she rolled prone, put in a fresh magazine, and started to pick off attackers with her rifle as they advanced up the hill.

  As soon as the next one she shot cried out from the silver, they all dropped into cover as well, but Maitland and Ruthelma had seen them, and were working their way over in that direction. Apparently their faerie armor was more than able to stand up to the bullets as they didn't seem to all that concerned with getting shot.

  Just there she heard someone yelling something off in the distance, and a sense of dread filled here. It sounded like Sean!

  Jon swore as Sean's body came flying back towards him and the others, limbs waving like a rag doll as his body hit the ground and slid towards them, a smoking hole high in his chest, his clothing all on fire.

  "Shit!" one of the men, Dirk, swore and running forward they grabbed the collar of Sean's fatigues and started dragging him away from the fight.

  "Back to the helicopter!" Jon yelled, "Someone put out that fire! Scott, you and Kev, lay down suppressing fire!" Jon just hoped that they had enough ammo left.

  "I think he's dead!" Dirk, who was dragging Sean called out.

  Jon swore even louder, "Anybody got any healing? We can't lose him! Claudia will kill us if he dies!"

  One of the others grabbed a fire extinguisher as they got back to the wreck, which was starting to burn again, and hosed down Sean, putting him out.

  "I used what I've got on him," Jody, their medic told Jon, "but damned if I know if it'll work. He doesn't feel dead, but I can't take the time to feel for a pulse or anything in the middle of this firefight!"

  Jon nodded, "We need to get out of here, Scott, Kev, you got point. Everyone else, follow and keep your heads down! Maybe if they see we're retreating they'll leave us alone!"

  "His tag's gone! So's his collar!" Jody yelled, "If he gets shot, even once, he's dead!"

  "If we stay here, we're dead!" Jon growled and looked around. "Take the collar off of Kris there," Jon pointed to one of the dead bodies from the crash. Damn, this whole thing was going to hell. At least they weren't attacking the wreck anymore, actually; Jon stood up and looked around. No one was attacking them at all. All the wolves from where Sean had done whatever the hell it was, were digging in, and not attacking anyone.

  The rest had already bypassed the wreckage and were working their way further up the hill.

  "Score!" Kev called out and laughed.

  "What's going on over there!" Jon yelled.

  "Magic users! They're in the rear and I'm picking them off!"

  "Shit! Everyo
ne! Run!"

  Grabbing one of Sean's arms as Dirk grabbed the other one, they took off as Jody brought up the rear, the rest of the guys scattering.

  "What's going on?" Jody yelled, and just then the helicopter exploded, knocking them all down flat.

  "That!" Jon growled. "Some mage's attack set off the remaining gas in the tanks! Everybody! Pick it up! Keep moving! Kev, you still with us?"

  "He'll live," Scott yelled and Jon could see Scott had Kev slung over his shoulder and Kev was taking shots behind them with his pistol as Scott ran.

  "We need to get Sean to a healer," Jody said as she ran along besides Jon.

  "Tell me something I don't know," Jon growled and tried to do a head count on his men. Out of the twenty he'd started out with, he was down to sixteen, plus the pilot.

  Just then Jon's headset came to life. "Wilma one! Wilma two! Where the hell are you guys?"

  "Wilma one is down," Jon called on his radio. "Look for our flares; we're due south of the burning wreckage. We gotta med-evac!"

  "Pop smoke!" Jody yelled from besides him, and everybody started tossing smoke grenades behind them.

  Jon let go of Sean and pulling out a flare and lighting it he started to wave it back and forth over his head.

  "Wilma two, I see you Jon, what's your status?"

  "We need ammo, you need to dump your troops, I got a class A med-evac, and you're going to need to haul ass back to base with him."

  "Roger that."

  Jon watched as their second huey came in and flared just twenty feet away from where they were all waiting. Dirk and Jody dragged Sean into the back as the troops all piled out and started sharing out ammo as the helicopter quickly rose up and raced away.

  "Was that Sean?" Brandt, Jon's second in command asked.

  "Yeah, he did something up on the hill and well, I don't think it went well for him."

  "He looked dead, Jon," Brandt said, shaking his head.

  "Well he sure as hell better not be!" Jon growled, "Or I will beat his ass! Now, come on, we need to see about launching a counterattack."