Page 10 of Surviving Hallow Hill
Four
The next morning,Dom flies us down the wall. As much as it’d be nice to stay there and away from this mess Dr. Hyde threw us into, we refuse to be sitting ducks. Staying in the corner is the easiest way to find yourself backed into it with your throat slit and your soul shoved face-first in Lady Death’s river of souls.
Plus, I’m a fighter, and sitting around makes me anxious. Styx, Rue, and Kira are out there somewhere. Safe for now, but there’s still the heavy urge inside me to find them, to make sure they’re safe for myself.
Not that I don’t trust that Rue is being honest, but this might be some savage alpha instinct. Fuck if I know. Sometimes I feel like this new alpha, mind-reading, three-way connection and whatever the hell is going on with me is like puberty all over again: one giant, uncomfortable mess.
“Stay on alert,” Dom snaps, taking the lead, sliding easily down a slippery slope of dirt soaked dark with blood.
It’s squishy on my boots as I step down after him, and I try to keep my mind off the fact that I’m literally stepping on some poor asshole’s guts and blood.
Squish-squish.
Every step makes it ooze, and stenches permeate around us that are so atrocious, I have to force back a gag.
“Why do they have to make this so nasty?” I’ve killed before, but I always make clean blows. This is some Sweeney Todd bullshit. “Are those—are those brains?” My heel has nowhere safe to land and just squashes them anyway.
Sia’s hand encloses over my arm, and he tugs me faster. “Stop fucking looking at the body parts.”
“I can’t help it. It’s morbid and I’m a freak. Is that an arm? Left or right, do you think?”
He sighs like I’m hopeless. Maybe I am, but honestly, it’s just because I’m getting nervous. Usually when I’m hunting prey, I know every intricate detail of their lives, what they are,whothey are, so I have an intelligent advantage.
I know nothing here, and witnessing all this carnage is a sharp reminder that we’re all playing someone else’s game.
“Looks like we’re on the set ofThe Terminator.” Robotic parts littered everywhere among the blood and fleshy bits. The sun is high in the sky and beating down on us fiercely. I squint up at it, wiping the sweat pooling against my forehead and point. “What the fuck is that?”
“Seriously? Can you shut up back there?” Dom growls.
“No seriously, what the fuckisthat?” I stumble to a stop, and everyone else does the same, looking up to where I’m pointing at the black silhouettes circling the sun.
“Birds,” one of the banshees suggests.
“That’s not fucking birds. Too big. Besides, have you seen any wildlife since we’ve been here?”
The silhouettes suddenly stop circling and dive-bomb straight towards us.
Not fucking good.
Sia lets out a curse. “We need to move.Now!”
We start to run and panic sets in. I dare a peek up at the sky and inhale sharply when they come closer, and I catch sight of them.
Vultures.
Half-metal, half-flesh. Their wings are boney expanses with skeletal feathers and mangled skin for underbellies. About the sizes of deranged wild horses, they head straight for us with their vicious mouths open in whizzing shrieks that sounds like shredding metal.
“Fuck! Run, run, run!” Sia tugs me closer, and my legs move faster, but we aren’t fast enough for creatures this powerful. They swoop down low, their bodies colliding against us with a force that sends us all sprawling to the ground.
My palms sink into smelly goo, but I force myself not to think and push myself to my feet, sinking deeper into mud, blood, and guts. My sword is in my palm before I can think of anything else. Before I register Sia’s shouts to look out or the shrill screams of the banshees. A scream that marks death, or the subtle hint of my Lady’s touch.
Then I feel pain.
It sears through my shoulders and down my spine. My whole body arches, and I can’t help the cry of agony that rips through my throat.
“Em!” Sia’s call pierces through the banshees’ screams of deadly premonition.
I open my eyes through the stabbing noise just enough to see Sia rushing towards me.
