Page 11 of Secret Origins
Both of us stumbled back when I shoved him away from me.
Spinning on my heel, I walked away and left him standing with his fists clenched at his sides. His eyes scorched my shoulder blades until I finally took the first turn that took me out of his sight. He wasn’t far off when he called me stupid. Lack of proper sleep made me act like an idiot. And in my world, idiots died a painful death. Snatching the phone out of my back pocket, I pressed the only person I had on speed dial. First, I needed to look into my own mess before playing a sniffing dog for Fenrir.
He answered on the second ring.
“Myst.” His deep, curt voice cut through my ear drum.
“General, we need to meet.”
“Two calls in as many days.” If he was mocking me, I couldn’t tell. “Does this have something to do with our last conversation?”
“There is a change in the plan.” It rubbed me wrong to let people in, but if anyone could help get Fenrir away from me as soon as possible, it was the General. “You want to know what I know.”
“Tomorrow, twenty-one hundred hours, same place.” He cut off the call.
I stood in the shadows of an ally for a long moment and stared at the phone in my hand until the light of the screen winked out. Was it a good decision to get the human involved in this mess? No. Did I have much choice if I wanted to deal with whatever was hunting me on my own without an audience? Also, no. Humans died every day. Their lives were just a blink of an eye to those of us lurking in the night. It’s what I kept telling myself so I didn’t dwell on things for too long. With a sigh, I shoved the phone in my back pocket and glanced up at the sky. Even in the darkness, I could see thick clouds gathering as if preparing to unleash a fresh torrent of rain on the steaming asphalt.
“What’s with the freaking rain these days?” Huffing under my breath, I stepped out of the ally, blending in with the humans hunched over their phones.
Before I realized where I was going, I was pushing through the doors of the dingy pub. The stale stench of beer and sweat assaulted my nostrils, bringing with it the elusive quiet inside my head. For the first time after leaving this place I could take a full breath. But still I wondered why this place offered a reprieve to all my troubles. Sliding into the corner bar stool, my gaze locked on the bartender. A nod of his head was enough for my shoulders to drop, then I leaned on the scratched wood of the bar while looking around the place. The plonking of a glass next to me turned me to the human who was watching me warily. The rum and coke was placed on top of a white napkin that absorbed the droplets of condensation trickling down it.
“No trouble.” The human grunted, his hands shaking where he was strangling the life out of the towel.
“Nope, no trouble from me.” I offered him a smile that didn’t reach my eyes.
“That’s what you said last time,” he grumbled as he walked away.
When he turned his back and no one else was looking my way, I lifted the chilled glass and rolled it over my forehead. My mind might be quiet in this pub, but nothing could snuff the uneasiness cursing through my blood. It set my teeth on the edge. I’d never felt like prey before and it was messing with my head. I was always the hunter, ready to take a life before anyone knew death was coming. So what, or better yetwhowas after me that triggered all the alarms in my body. I was the boogeymen in this city who had supernaturals scurrying away like cockroaches.
Little did I know, there were scarier things than me moving to town.
7
Ifelt the air crackle with menace the second I stepped foot outside the pub a few hours later. As much as I liked to pretend I didn’t need help, fear clawed at my insides until I found myself running my fingers over the leather bracelet on my wrist. It thrummed on my skin in answer, feeding off my feelings and waiting to be released with anticipation.
“Not yet,” I mumbled under my breath just as the first drop of rain splattered the tip of my nose.
Flicking the collar of my jacket up, each of my steps were slow and measured as I tucked my hands in my pockets, the heels of my boots breaking the silence with each click on the pavement. In the early hours of the night when most humans were blissfully asleep and unaware that their lives hung in the hands of creatures like me, it wasn’t unusual to feel different powers mixing with the oppressing air of the city. Yet, thiswasdifferent. It didn’t feel right.
It didn’t belong.
It was stupid of me to leave the car near the portal, but whenever Fenrir was around, I ended up doing idiotic things. He just had that effect on me, and earlier that night my need to leave him behind had outweighed my concern about where I parked my vehicle. A tremor like ghostly claws raked my spine and forced my feet to falter. The scrape of my metal high heel against the concrete made me flinch and curse up a storm as I tilted my foot up to see if I broke it.
I didn’t.
I did, however, almost break a rib when something slammed into me and tackled me to the ground. The heavy body rolled with me until both of us hit the wall of the nearest building. Sharp claws sunk in my side, shredding my leather jacket and my skin, the blinding pain making dark spots dance behind my closed eyelids. The scent of charcoal and burnt flesh made me gag as I curled into a ball under the asshole tucking my knees to his chest. With everything in me, I kicked out and sent him flying off me, which gave me just enough time to groan and press a hand to the gushing wound before I heard him hit the ground. Instead of sounding pained or angered, whoever it was chuckled, and that really pissed me off.
“Feisty.” The asshole sneered as I scrambled to my feet, yanking on my bracelet.
A thick chain coiled next to me, the thick fog pulsing before forming into the hound. I swayed on my feet, catching myself with a hand on the wall when I listed to the side. The wound started healing immediately, and it burned like a bitch. My eyes watered, partly from the pain and partly from the odor coming from the creature. Fen snarled and lowered his head, inching his body in front of me to protect me. The hound didn’t like me at all. Most of the time, I got the feeling it’d rather rip my throat out instead of save me, but every time I found myself in a shitstorm, he always protected me with his life. I guessed it was a love and hate relationship, which was very similar to all the others in my life.
The creature across from me rolled, but I wished it had stayed down. As he climbed to his feet, my head tilted up until a kind developed from craning it. Easily seven feet, it towered over me from quite a few feet away. Fen’s snarling turned feral as thick saliva dripped from his sharp canines, and the creature glanced at my hound in surprise before giving me a appeasing once over. I said creature because I’d never seen anything like him in my life.
With the body of a large, muscled male, he was intimidating enough without the second set of thick arms jutting out of his torso. His upper body was bare, his caramel, sun-kissed skin swirling with red glowing glyphs resembling lava one might see through cracks in the earth. Half-broken black claws adorned his fingers, his fists clenching and unclenching repeatedly. Luckily he was wearing pants, thought they strained at his groin, which told me he was a little too happy about our collision from a moment ago. Bile burned the back of my throat. His bare feet were actually hooves, matching the two long horns protruding from each temple and giving him the appearance of a bull. None of it scared me.
Not as much as his face.
Shadows blurred his features, twisting and swirling fast enough to make my head spin. Through it all, glowing amber eyes burned too bright from behind the darkness piercing me all the way to my soul. I felt the tug at the center of my chest, the same pull I got when I released Fen from the bracelet. A quick dart of my eyes confirmed no one else was around. I was pretty sure I couldn’t handle one of these creatures, so the last thing I needed was more of them.
