Page 81 of Fanged Desire
The car suddenly jolted violently, swerving hard as something heavy landed on the roof with a thunderousthud. The entire vehicle reverberated at the impact, and the canopy above me dented inward slightly. Cathy let out a sharp curse as she fought to keep the car under control.
She craned her neck to look around, even as her foot pressed down on the gas pedal. Her eyes darted to the rearview mirror, then the side windows. When she glanced through the back window I saw the terror in her eyes. And it confirmed what I already knew wholeheartedly.
There was a tinge of dark satisfaction in my words that seethed through my gritted teeth. “She’s going to tear you apart.”
“Shut up!” Cathy snapped, her voice shrill. She tried to keep her focus on the road, but I saw her glance up at the roof again, her breathing quickening. The car swerved slightly, tires screeching as she overcorrected.
Everything happened rather quickly after that.
My breath hitched and my pulse pounded when a clawed hand smashed through the driver’s window with terrifying force. Shattered glass shot about like daggers and Cathy shrieked – a sound that was equal parts terror and rage. A sound that was cut off abruptly as the grasping hand clamped around her throat.
She jerked against the seat, her hands flailing at the clawed appendage as it yanked her sideways, hauling her part way through the shattered window. The car veered wildly and I braced myself as best I could.
The vehicle swerved again, lurching violently before careening off the road with a bone-rattling crash. I was thrown sideways against the passenger door. My head snapped back, the world spinning, as the car shuddered to a stop. Cathy barely had time to curse before that hand reached for her again, yanked her clean from the driver’s seat, and dragged her into the night.
Dazed but conscious I blinked through the haze, my ears ringing from the impact. The charm’s magic still held me in place, but adrenaline ran rampant through my veins as I tried desperately to see what was happening, to get a glimpse of that hulking, shadowy figure that stalked outside my peripheral. I twisted my neck as much as the charm would allow, and my breath caught in my throat as I glimpsed the Elven woman, pinned to the ground by a winged monstrosity.
Every limb was long and sinewy, fierce talons arching in the moonlight. Leathery bat wings unfurled and glowing eyes burned with a feral intensity. Despite the racing terror burning through my paralyzed body, despite the horrifying sight of that fanged maw drawn wide above Cathy’s stricken face, I recognized her.
I knew it was her, despite the monstrous form she had taken.
Her fangs were bared, jagged and deadly as she loomed over Cathy, forcing the scrambling woman to the ground and out of my field of view. I heard Cathy struggle, writhing in the dirt and cursing in what had to be Elvish, but it was no use. Hunter was too strong, too angry.
For all her scheming, the Elven woman didn’t stand a chance.
That creature was Hunter, I knew it was. But those sounds… It took a good long while for the sound of violent slashing – for Cathy’s screams – to fade into a chilling silence. But the brutality of the carnage I couldn’t see lingered in the air, thick and suffocating. I sat frozen in the car and squeezed my eyes shut, barely able to think past the pounding in my ears.
When I opened my eyes again, Hunter – that ghoulish version of Hunter – turned sharply toward the car, monstrous form casting a long, jagged shadow in the moonlight. Her wings dragged against the dirt, clawed hands flexing at her sides, and her eyes, still glowing that ghastly red, locked onto me.
My chest tightened, breath coming in shallow, uneven bursts. She wasn’t human anymore – not even the version of her I’d learned to call vampire. She was something else entirely, something feral and terrifying. I tried to press myself against the seat, my stiff fingers faintly gripping the upholstery until my knuckles ached from the effort.
She doesn’t recognize me.The thought struck like a thunderbolt. She was too lost in her rage.
Through the cracked window I watched her move toward me, wings rustling behind her like dried leaves. I wanted to scream, to shout her name. But the sound died in my throat, and all I could do was watch as she reached the crumpled wreck. Her claws closed around the car door, and with a terrible screech of metal she ripped it off and tossed it aside.
My breath came short and fast as she leaned into the cavity until that misshapen face was inches from mine. I couldn’t look away, even as my instincts begged me to shut my eyes.
This was it. This was where it ended. I braced for her claws, her fangs, her wrath.
But instead, I felt a soft brush against my neck. Her claws, though sharp enough to slice through steel, grazed me with care. There was a faint tug, and then the charm snapped, the braided cord falling away. Immediately, the crushing hold of the magic on my body lifted, and I gasped, drawing in the first deep breath I’d managed in what felt like eons.
As I slumped over, groaning in relief, Hunter pulled back as though burned, retreating from the car in one swift, almost skittish motion. Her shirt was a tattered slash of fabric, herwings folding tightly against her back like she was trying to make herself smaller. She backed up further, and the roaring fire faded from her eyes.
The car door was gone and nothing stood between me and the night, and the creature that waited outside. I should’ve stayed where I was. I should’ve been scared. Any sane person would have been terrified. But even as the fear prickled at the edges of my thoughts, something deeper urged me onward – a quiet, unshakable certainty.
That monster was still Hunter. And Hunter would never hurt me.
I’d seen her in those fiery eyes, past the distorted, bat-like face and the tearing claws and the beating wings. Swallowing hard, I pushed myself up and climbed out of the car, my legs trembling beneath me. My heart thudded wildly as I took a step forward, then another, my gaze fixed solely on her. Hunter stood still, her hulking body rigid, rippling muscles taunt and twitching.
I refused to look at what was left of Cathy, refused to let my eyes drift to the carnage Hunter had left in her wake. Instead, I kept my focus on her – on the creature standing before me – and my fear ebbed with every step.
I stopped a few feet away, close enough to see the finer details of her wings, the membrane stretched taut over bony notches. Without thinking I reached out, my fingers brushing lightly along the ridge of one of them. Hunter stiffened as I edged closer, examining those spider veins visible through translucent skin.
She didn’t say a word, and for a long, tense moment, neither did I. And all the while those dark eyes tracked my every movement like they had done so many times before.
“These wings,” I murmured eventually, the doctor in me surfacing despite everything. My gaze glazed over the faint sheen of blood on her claws. “These wings – how do you grow them?”
Hunter blinked, a double helix membrane folding over blood-red pupils. But I was already circling her, running my fingers along the other leathery appendage. “You have to let me do an X-ray. I have to see how they connect to your scapula.”
