Free Crossfire (Book 1) (The Omega Group) by Andrea Domanski

unwanted visitors, they crept down the
hallway, keeping their bodies as low as possible. They followed the voices to
the conference room halfway down the hall on their right and chanced a look
through the large window above them.
    The intruders had corralled the remaining agents into this large
room and were in the process of interrogating them.
    “Where are they?” the apparent leader asked.
    As expected, none of the agents uttered a word. They were
well trained, and Myrine knew that everyone captured in that room would die
before giving up her location, even if they had known it. She couldn’t let that
happen. She knew, intellectually, that she should leave with her daughter and
hole up in one of her safe houses until she could rally the troops and come up
with a game plan, but she also knew there was no way that would happen. For the
last decade these people had been her only family, and if she had proven
anything during that time, it was that she would do anything to protect her
family.
    Signaling to her daughter to retreat to an empty office a few
doors back, they silently went back the way they came. Once inside the office,
they assessed their situation.
    “There are three armed guards in that room that we’ll need
to deal with quickly and quietly. There’s no telling how many more are in the building
and we don’t want to attract any more attention. Once we have the guards
subdued, we can get the hostages out through the same stairwell we used to get
here, and, hopefully, out the back delivery door.” Myrine was planning this
rescue on the fly, but she knew they only had minutes before their intruders
started using lethal force to get the information they wanted.
    “Our rifles will be too loud, so bring out your blade,” She
instructed her daughter.
    “I don’t have my knife. Your goons took it when they
kidnapped me and shoved me in that little room.”
    “Not that knife,” Myrine retorted. “Your ring!”
    The look of confusion on her daughter’s face told Myrine
everything she needed to know. She held her right hand out in front of her,
made a fist, and closed her eyes. Almost immediately, the ring began to grow.
The small green snake that was once a simple inlaid emerald design, came to
life and began spiraling up Myrine’s forearm, getting thicker and longer as it
went. Its scales shimmered a beautiful green as its head settled to a spot just
under her shoulder. The end of the tail, still resting on what was left of the
ring, sprouted a double-edged blade that measured eight inches in length and
came to a sharp point.
    “Hasn’t your Guardian taught you how to use your ring yet?”
Myrine asked.
    “I guess he hasn’t gotten to that little tidbit of
information yet,” replied Mirissa, unsure why Greco had omitted such an
important lesson.
    “For now, let me do it for you.” Myrine grabbed hold of her
daughter’s right hand, curled her fingers into a fist, and once again closed
her eyes.
    As her ring started the same transformation as her mother’s,
Mirissa’s eyes widened.  “It feels… weird.  Like it’s a part of me,
almost.” When the snake’s head reached her upper arm, it looked right at her
before settling under her shoulder. Mirissa moved her arm up and down, bending
and flexing.  “It moves like it’s liquid. It’s incredible.”
     Once they had a semblance of a plan, if you could call
it that, they headed back down the still-empty hallway to the conference room.
Keeping lower than the windows, they settled on either side of the entrance
and, when set, Mirissa thudded her fist against the bottom of the door.
    It only took a moment for one of the armed men to come out
into the hallway, looking for whomever it was he assumed was there. He looked
both ways down the corridor, failing to look down, and, with the door blocking
the view from behind him, Mirissa stood swiftly, covered his mouth, and drove
her blade right through his neck, from one side to the other. Keeping her