Page 75 of Wings of Lies
I’m not scared. I’m not a wimp. I’m not scared.
The mantra was shit against the giant beast shifting forward, sniffing.
The beast tilted its head, sniffing again. I bet it smelled the delicious angel blood running through my veins. I took another couple of slow steps. This time, it didn’t move.
Its gaze pinned me, never once leaving my face as I continued my incremental shuffle. I was just waiting for it to stop playing with me and lunge.
I didn’t have to wait long.
It quickly obliterated the yards between us. I gasped and squeezed my eyes shut. The claw-tearing pain I was expecting turned out to be a long, smelly, wet lick up half of my face.
I didn’t dare move, suspecting this was a twisted game. But when it licked me twice more and whimpered, I relaxed the slightest bit and opened my eyes.
“Does that mean you like me, beastie? Or are you tasting the goods before sucking out my blood?”
The beastie sat back and tilted its head a few more times.
Okay. That had to be a good sign.I hoped.
It rose and butted its wet nose into my hand, whining. It wanted me to pet it.What the actual hell?
I raised my hand against my better judgment to brush the shifting shadows near its ear when it let loose a vicious growl. I scrambled back.
It was going to eat me. I knew it.Why was I always so trusting?
The beastie turned. The vicious growl wasn’t for me but for the blurring figure that shoved me back, making me fall and the beast attack.
I expected obscuring steam and red flames, but the half-hellhound fought like any normal wolf. But it was as fast as Aspen.
They blurred around each other, barely discernible to the naked eye. At moments, I caught flashes of blue fire, heard animal whines, and a couple of masculine hisses. The hisses made me flinch. I hated the sound as much as I hated the whine from the beastie. No part of me understood why. Or why I wanted to intervene to stop the fight in hopes it’d fix the dreadful bottoming out of my stomach.
Reasoning finally slammed back into me when I looked down at my cuffs.Damn it. I needed to get out of here and get them off.
Jerking to my feet, avoiding the blurring bodies of black, I slipped behind a tree and shuffled my way forward.
I screamed at myself to hurry, switching my shuffle to a noisy jog. The fact that I didn’t know where I was going didn’t concern me. Only that I got away from them and the weird pain pushing me to reconsider. There was nothing to reconsider when my mom was out there.
After tripping and bruising my knees over and over, I lost Aspen. Their noises of pain faded to the ominous rustling of leaves and my heavy breathing. Switching directions, I attempted to find the noise of the river after avoiding it. A water source would be necessary until I found someone who wouldn’t kill me or use me when I asked for help.
As the tension left my shoulders, I slammed into a hard, unyielding chest, my bubble of space obliterated.
“Going somewhere?”
Shit.
Chapter
Nineteen
BLOODHOUND AND RUNE
Rune sent me a feeling of panic. I tuned into her sight.
I don’t know how she managed it, but the female had escaped.
Stop her, Rune.
Rune stepped out from the shadows, and the female froze, scared. I didn’t blame her since Rune resembled a Hellhound. The female recently got attacked by them, which we didn’t know untilafterthe fact. It was the price we paid for sending Rune out on missions like this as young as she was. She got distracted easily, slept too much, and had a difficult time listening to commands if it didn’t suit her whims. But we had no choice.
