Page 5 of Secret Origins
My body and instincts took over. Like a Tasmanian devil, I swirled around the hunters, kicking, punching, and slicing through every piece of them I could reach. Fen was doing his part, his snapping jaws biting chunks of flesh and bone the moment they got within reach, an unusual obedience emanating from him since he wouldn’t leave the girl’s side. My harsh breath made the air under my face covering hot, as the sterile looking hallways slowly turned into a macabre scene covered in red. Splatters of blood were flung on the pristine walls creating abstract art that satisfied the monster lurking inside me. A humorless smile donned my face, my cheeks hurting from the effort it took to keep it there.
I hated it.
It was over before I knew it, the shouts and screams cutting off so abruptly my ears remained buzzing for a long moment in the sudden silence. Panting, I stood in the middle of a pile of body parts, whatever was left from their white uniforms slowly soaking up the blood from the floor. A thick coppery scent insulted my senses, the covering not enough to protect me from the stench.
The woman whimpered.
It was louder than her screams to my ears.
I was moving before I knew what I was doing. Darting through the open door, I was yanked a few feet inside by the hound’s chain. Taking stock, my eyes flicked around the room, the sights curdling the blood in my veins. A woman with a bloody mess of hair covering her face was hunched over a boy around the same age as the little girl lying unconscious in the hallway. A shifter, judging by the stench of him and the fact that he was twice her size, loomed over her as he tried to drag her away from the child. That was when I noticed the scalpel she had clutched in a white-knuckled fist, which she slashed at the shifter with jerky movements before bringing it back to the boy’s throat.
“I will kill him before you can take him.” Her voice came out low and filled with so much anguish I could barely hear her.
Blue eyes just like the little girl’s jerked up over the shifter’s shoulder, zooming in on me. Her startled gaze widened as she flicked it over my body. Subconsciously, I tried to take a step toward her only to be yanked back by the chain. When all the color drained from her face, whatever was visible of it through the chunks of hair plastered on it, I remembered what I was wearing and that I was probably more terrifying than the asshole trying to take her child. I was soaked in blood and holding a large sword. The shifter very slowly turned to look over his shoulder.
“Fuck it.” I breathed under my nose, and without any sudden movements, I reached up and pulled my hood down.
My hair unraveled and fell around my face, hopefully putting the woman at ease—if anything could put a mother at ease when her child was threatened. It had the desired effect on her, and her body sagged as she listed to the side before catching herself. Though it had a not-so-desired effect on the shifter, who turned to face me with his shoulders bunching up as he prepared to shift. At least there was only one of him, right? The chain tugged on my wrist then, reminding me my movements were limited as long as Fen was connected to me. The one time I actually removed it to set him loose almost killed me. As soon as the connection I had with the hound was gone, I was as good as a mortal. I learned that the hard way.
“Help me, please.” She sobbed, her empty hand reaching for me in desperation, her blood-covered fingers trembling with the effort. “You can have my life, just please save my child.”
I glanced from her hope-filled eyes to the chain on my wrist.
“You are stupid, Myst,” I told myself on a sigh, grabbing ahold of the chain. “You deserve to die.”
“Does Roberti know you are here?” the shifter spat at me, disgust clear in the garbled words he pushed through his growing canines.
The second the chain hit the floor with a clunk, the pain from all the cuts and bruises fell over me as if they’d all just been inflicted. My poor abused body sagged slightly, my knees wobbling on my high heels, and of course that brought a grin to the asshole’s face. Even the sword seemed too heavy, and I had to tighten my grip so it didn’t fall at my feet. Fen yelped from the hallway, and I prayed he stayed there in case more hunters came down here.
“Roberti who?” Cocking my head to the side, I did my best to smirk at the fool but I was pretty sure I just looked constipated. Everything hurt. “You mean the little bitch that hides behind brainless drones? That Roberti?”
“I’ll enjoy killing you.” The smile blooming on his distorted face would be one more thing to add to my nightmares.
“Less talking, more killing, shall we?” My attempt at waving the sword at him was pathetic at best.
I walked toward him like a ninety year old grandma suffering from osteoporosis. How did humans live like this? Lost in that thought, I didn’t see it coming until the woman screamed. My head hit something hard and excruciating pain exploded in my skull. My weapon clattered on the tiles, rolling away from my noodle-like fingers.This is what you get for sticking your nose where it doesn’t belong,I told myself as I lifted my body on shaking hands and knees. I was air born again when a kick to my stomach put me right next to the woman and child. She even tried to shield me along with her boy.
I wanted to laugh.
“Keep the boy safe.” I groaned and sat up. “My life is not worth your worry.”
The asshole cracked a rib or something, but the pain was enough to bring my senses back online. There was always time to lick my wounded ego later, but right then, I had to teach the shifter a lesson. One he would take with him to hell or wherever he was going when I was done with him. Summoning all I had left in me, I stood just as he came within reach, his meaty arms held to the sides of his half-transformed body. Roberti really did a number on these idiots, making them into a mockery of what they were supposed to be. Black veins bulged under his skin, pulsing and fanning out.
“You are one ugly motherfucker,” I told him just as he swung for my head again.
Ducking under his flying fist, I took advantage of his strength, twisting myself around him like a snake. My thighs wrapped around his torso, the thin heels of my boots sinking deep between his ribs. I headbutted him and stars burst in front of my own eyes before we both dropped like rocks on the floor. His pained roar rattled the tipped-over table in the corner, as well as the metal bed that had been pushed to the side when I entered. Not wanting to leave things to chance, my hands found his neck and I squeezed for all I was worth. I didn’t let go even after I felt his breathing stop.
I couldn’t.
“I think he is dead,” the woman murmured from over my shoulder. “Are you okay?”
This time I did laugh.
A crazed, high pitched sound before I toppled on the side, twisting my knee awkwardly since my heels were still embedded in the shifter. My breathing was shallow and all I wanted to do was sleep, which was a death sentence inside a hunter’s compound if I’d ever seen one. It might not be a bad way to go. Doing so much for someone else should count as a good deed, right? Maybe it would wash away a smidgen of my guilt.
A girl could hope.
“How can I help you?” The woman’s face popped above me, her worried gaze wide and frantic.
