Chapter 47 #3
Scarlet could just imagine the look that must have come over her face because Haviss suddenly looked smugly self-satisfied.
“Told you,” he chuckled. “You should always listen to your-”
The lights cut out, halting him mid-sentence.
“A power outage?” Scarlet asked, her eyes trying to adjust to the starlight that was coming in from the window. The room was pitch black aside from that. She wished that the night shields would simulate a moon for extra brightness.
She saw the vague, shadowy shape of Haviss getting to his feet. She heard him sniffing cautiously at the air. Ratchi were hunters who used their superior sense of smell to track. She sat still, quiet, like her movement might somehow disrupt his senses.
“What is it?” She asked when he finally stopped.
“I don’t know.” His shadow turned. It was a bit easier to make out his shape now. And she found, when he turned to her, that his eyes glowed in the low light. Which was definitely something that ticked a primal fear box in the back of her mind.
She ruthlessly shoved it down as she got to her feet. “It’s a power outage. We should just wait here. I’m sure they’ll fix it in a moment.”
“Scarlet, you don’t understand. There are emergency generators on all compound properties in case something goes wrong. Our work is too important to be interrupted. The generators should have already come on.”
An icy tongue of fear licked up her back, but she shook her head dismissing it. “I’m sure it’s nothing. You can see in the dark, can’t you? Let’s just go my clinic and-”
The glass of the window shattered, exploding inward. Scarlet screamed from a combination of fear and pain as a hundred tiny shards struck her back.
Beside her, Haviss roared. The familiar, terrifying sound shook her to the bone and her mind completely blanked upon hearing it. It was like all her old fears about the ratchi suddenly came rushing back and paralyzed her in place.
That deep, vibrating rubble with just a hint of a hiss. That scent so unique to the ratchi. The gleaming of his eyes in the darkness. The roughness of his scales on her arm when he suddenly grabbed her.
She screamed, thrashing against his hold.
He moved her behind him, putting himself between her and the two, horrible, familiar abominations that came crawling through the windows.
Those weird, tub-shaped bodies. So big. So awkward.
Haviss charged at them, claws bared, mouth open. The larger of the two figures leaped to the side, drawing him away. The shorter one rushed around the sofa.
Scarlet, too late, finally broke out of her frozen state and tried to turn and run.
A hand grabbed hold of her hair and jerked back, yanking her clear off her feet. She had just hit the ground when that thing was leaning over her. Scarlet smacked at their black suits, but her blows did nothing.
The creature effortlessly lifted her up. One hand around her throat, squeezing.
Scarlet choked, struggling to draw in air as she clawed at the thing’s hands. Their suit was too hard for her fragile nails to dig through.
A sharp, high pitched, short roar drew her eyes.
The shadow that was Haviss was dropping to the ground. She didn’t see what happened to him, but his body was spasming and the other creature was holding up a blade. She could see something dripping off the surface that gleamed in the starlight coming in through the broken window.
The creature stepped over Haviss and approached her.
Scarlet redoubled her efforts. To no avail. The hand around her neck wasn’t tight enough to strangle her completely, but she also couldn’t get away.
The creature lifted the knife and Scarlet was certain she was about to feel it plunge into her chest. Her belly. Her head.
But the thing put it away.
And, instead, pulled out a small injector.
Not unlike the one that must have been used the night she had been abducted from Earth.
She was being abducted again.
The incredulous thought was accompanied by a renewed flash of strength as she tried to kick away the approaching thing.
They caught her flailing leg in the air and held it up, leaving her balanced on the toes of one foot, the hand still clenching tightly around her neck.
She struggled but could do nothing as the injector was pressed against her thigh.
A sharp pressure was accompanied by the soft hiss of the little tube. The medicine was warm as it bloomed in her blood.
No!
In the corner, Haviss wasn’t thrashing anymore. Had he been seizing? Was he dead?
Tears filled her eyes as the medicine began to work.
She fought it even as her limbs grew weak and heavy. Her vision began to gray at the edges as her head spun.
She wasn’t fully unconscious yet when the creature released her throat. She crumpled to the floor, distantly feeling the bite of more glass shards.
The other creature, the one with the injector, leaned down and picked her up. She ordered her limbs to move. To resist. To break free.
They didn’t even twitch as the beings rushed to the window.
No…
The world was dark and fuzzy.
Her last coherent thought was grief for Haviss’ loss and longing for Havali.
He would find her.
He was always watching her.
He would…