Page 38 of Missing Piece
“No,” he said again through clenched teeth.What was wrong with him? Why was he just answering her?He pursed his lips as he glanced at Beth. Her face was taut, her jaw clenched just as hard as his, her black stare darting all over his face.
“Then what are you to him?” she demanded, tightening her grip around his throat.
He grabbed her wrist with his free hand, trying to wrench the bony fingers away from his windpipe. Just as he remembered, she was insanely strong. She had no reaction to his grip. “I don’t know,” he choked out against his will, his vision beginning to water.
“Strange,” she muttered. “What about you, little girl? Who is your master?”
“I don’t have one,” Ophelia deadpanned, still hidden behind the slight space in the cramped bathroom.
In any other situation, the whole thing might have been funny. But Beth still had him by the throat and the child was wailing, its voice distorted and hoarse, almost like it wascrying with two voices.
“Liar,” Beth snarled. She shoved Adam out through the opening, whipping it closed behind her. Adam stumbled forward into the blood-soaked living room, catching himself on the back of the couch before he got a face full of stained carpet. He spun back around towards the sound of porcelain breaking.
“Ophelia!” He rushed back over, fully intending on forcing his way in, but it whipped back open as Beth stumbled out holding the side of her neck.
Blood dripped down the front of her already bloodstained sweater, her face frozen in a snarl. “Fucking crazy bitch,” she spat.
He heard a pained chuckle from the bathroom over the sound of spraying water.Okay, so Ophelia was alive?Beth moved towards him, her fangs bared and bright red. “You.”
“Come back, we’re not done,” Ophelia taunted as she appeared in the doorway, her bloody knife still in hand. Her hair dripped with water, but other than appearing a little off balance, she looked unharmed. Her eyes widened as she looked past Adam towards the stairs. “Watch out!”
It was too late. He was already on the ground belly first before the words even registered in his mind, the wind knocked out of him as the sound of that horrible screeching and clinking metal filled his ears. Two knees ground into his back, but the weight was light, almost like a kid.
He shouted and twisted, trying to get away from the child as it continued to wail and claw at his back, tearing through the thick fabric of his hoodie and into his skin. He rolled onto his side, forcing the monster off him long enough for him to realize he still had a death grip on the switchblade.He slammed the weapon down on the first limb he saw that wasn’t his—a thigh in space-themed pajama pants—and scrambled back on his hands as he tried to reorient himself to the room.
Somewhere in the back of his mind, he could hear the fighting near the bathroom, but he couldn’t worry about that now. Not with the howling child in front of him.Not a good idea to leave the knife in the kid.
Well, not a good idea to stab a kid, but that’s a different issue for another day.
Blood dripped down his back, soaking into the top of his jeans as he continued to put space between himself and the child. It seemed shocked, staring down at the weapon in its leg like it was only now registering that it had been injured. Its pitch-black stare flickered for a moment, flashing a shade of hazel where its irises should be and its fangs, even more than the eight that he had seen in Beth and Vincent, seemed to recede a little. Its dirty hand shaking, pulled the knife from its thigh, letting out a long wail only interrupted by a sob that sounded human.
It dropped the weapon and grabbed at its thigh as blood began to gush out. “M-m-m-m-m,” it sobbed as it tried to cover the wound, its lower lip quivering as red tears streamed down its round cheeks. “I want m-my m-m-mommy!” it wailed.
While the guilt began to stab holes into the very core of his being, the blood running down his back convinced Adam to keep putting distance between him and the child. It seemed like it was temporarily stunned by the injury, but he had a feeling it would switch back to whatever feral little thing it was moments prior. And he needed some space if he wasgoing to make it out of there alive.
How many minutes had it been?
I need Vincent.
“My baby!” Beth screamed as she stumbled into the room, her eyes wide as she zeroed in on the child. Her left arm hung loose at her side, half of her elbow hanging open as though it had been sawed through. She grabbed the child, hugging him close to her chest as she glared at Adam. “How dare you hurt him!”
Adam shook his head as he reached for the arm of the couch to pull himself up. This was too much crazy. And he had spent the last six years hanging out with addicts. “We’ll go, you can stay,” he said as he tried to get up.
Beth grabbed the knife from the ground and flung it at him. Adam dropped back onto his ass as the blade embedded in the arm of the couch he was using as leverage to get back to his feet. “Fucking humans,” she snarled as she released the weeping child. “Only good for one thing, and your blood doesn’t even smell that good!”
Adam scrambled backwards again as the lithe woman approached him. He knew how fast they could move, so she must have been moving slowly on purpose. Trying to scare him. He didn’t want to give her that satisfaction. He locked his stare with hers, trying to force himself to look tougher than he felt. “We don’t have to fight, just tell me what you want,” he said.
She paused, tapping her foot against his right foot first, then his left. “What do I want?” she mused softly, stroking her messy hair. She stomped down onto his left ankle.
Adam recoiled, slamming back against the wall he cornered himself against as the pain exploded through his ankle andradiated up to his knee. He clamped his lips shut, trying to keep himself from crying out in pain and horror. She kneeled in front of him, grinding her heel into his ankle as she did. “I want to take you apart piece by piece and leave nothing but your bones for Bellenger to find,” she whispered.
She lunged forward, her fangs bared. Adam brought his arms up to his neck and face, crying out as she bit through the fabric of his hoodie and her razor-sharp fangs found his flesh. “Get the fuck off of me!” He grabbed at her face, her hair, anything he could grip as she bit him over and over again.
Beth jerked back, blood dripping down her chin as her stare went wide. Adam didn’t wait to see why she stopped, he pulled back his right leg and kicked her square in the chest. She fell further back, her hands clutching her shoulder as more blood bloomed across the front of her sweater.
Ophelia stood behind her, panting and her nose bleeding profusely, axe in hand. For the first time since meeting her an hour prior, there was something that resembled human emotion.
Rage.
