The Chaos Order (Fanghunters Book Three) Read Online Free Page A

him. Oh my god, I just killed him! I just killed him! The realization set in fast and hard. I just killed someone! Christ!
    “Dominic!”
    The shout snapped him out of his fugue. His eyes flicked open; Vincent was standing in the roof doorway, struggling to hold Trixie up.
    Putting dead mercs on the back burner, Dom jumped to his feet and raced over to Vincent and Trixie, just as Mack began bringing the helicopter down.
    “Take Trixie,” Vincent said once Dom reached him.
    “I killed him!” Dom blurted as he took Trixie from his hands.
    “It was either you or him. You tried your best to save him.”
    Somehow Vincent’s words were calming. A coolness overcame Dom’s frenzied mind. “I suppose...”
    “Trixie’s your priority now,” Vincent reminded him.
    Dom nodded. That was true. He looked down; her eyes were closed. Her body flopped in his arms, just as she muttered something incoherent to herself. Dom spun back around; Mack had landed on the roof. The helicopter rotors created a blast of air that pushed Dom’s sodden hair from his brow. From the pilot’s seat, Mack gave him a tentative thumb up and a puff of the cheeks. Dom nodded in return before dashing across the roof, his feet splashing. Vincent followed up, scuttling through the rain. He went ahead and slid the helicopter door open. Dom leaned in, throwing Trixie down onto the back seat. She hit it with a loud moan. “Sorry, Trixie,” Dom said before he slung her legs down so she became upright. She slumped in the seat like a rag doll.
    “Get her belted up,” Dom ordered, helping Vincent into the seat next to her.
    Vincent grabbed the belt and pulled it tight across Trixie’s lap. “We’ll be home soon, my dear,” he said to her in a soothing voice. Dom jumped into the seat opposite him and slid the door shut. Now ensconced within the chopper, the pounding rain was muted.
    “Thanks for coming back, man!” Dom shouted over his shoulder.
    “No problem,” replied Mack. “But, this storm ain’t making things any easier.”
    “Think you can you get us back to the mansion?”
    “I’ve survived worse. She okay?”
    Dom flicked his eyes toward Trixie. Her head was lolled forward, her lips muttered something, but it was exclusively for her own ears.
    “No, not really,” Dom replied. “We gotta get her back home quick.”
    Mack took a swig of his canteen. “Okay, strap yourselves in!” He fired up the rotors and the chopper rumbled into life.
    Dom threw his belt across his body, just as he caught something out of the corner of his eye.
    The roof door burst open and more Blacklake came filing out.
    “Look out!” Dom screamed. A rasp of gunfire rang out, followed by hollow metallic clangs that were way too close to home.
    “Hold on to your butts!” Mack shouted before he put the throttles on. The rotors went into overdrive and the helicopter shot upward. The wind then took hold. They yawed away in a terrifying arc. Dom’s stomach twisted and turned like he was on a roller coaster. “Oh crap!” he shouted against the pressure, clutching his seat with all his might, his eyes shut. The chopper bobbed on the air as if they were a boat on a stormy sea. At least out at sea they had the slim chance of swimming to survival; up here, one mistake and they’d be toast.
    Dom’s stomach veered off to the left alongside the helicopter, which, with the aid of a gust of wind, swung across the air as if giant hands were manipulating it with strings. The bile in his stomach swished around, turning him green. Opposite him, Vincent released a small gasp.
    The helicopter then juddered in a fit of turbulence, the rain beating against it in a hellish rhythm, smearing the windows, making them impossible to look through.
    “Oh god, don’t let us die,” Dom moaned.
    There was another round of gunfire, this time more distant. Mack swayed viciously to the right, just as a few metallic pings sounded out somewhere beneath Dom. “Holy crap!” he shouted, his