Chapter 9
CHAPTER 9
K aliah screamed until her throat went raw. She’d never been a fan of horror movies because whenever she watched them, she thought the people in them were stupid for standing around while the killer took out other members in their group. Yet here she was, paralyzed in fear as this animal…no man…whatever it was, feasted on Nicole like a cut of meat.
The worst part was knowing that she was probably next if she couldn’t get her body to move.
“Come on!” Amy grabbed her wrist and yanked.
Kaliah nearly stumbled but she managed to gain her footing and ran. Amy pulled ahead and dropped her hand. But Kaliah tried to keep up as best as she could. She ran, ignoring the pain in her legs and her burning lungs.
What the hell was that thing back there. It wasn’t like any animal she’d ever seen before. It was shaped like a human but it was covered in fur. It had long claws and huge teeth. It was something made of pure nightmares.
Whatever it was, she didn’t want to be caught by it.
Just when she thought her legs would give out on her, the howling sounds in the background seemed to multiply. They were coming from all directions.
Amy how gotten so far ahead of her, Kaliah lost sight.
She was all alone and the monsters were closing in. Her heart beat so fast it felt as if it would burst from her chest.
“I didn’t come here to die,” she whispered to herself. “You have to keep moving.”
“Little rabbit…” A graveling voice called from beyond the trees.
What the entire fuck?”
The muscles in Kaliah’s legs screamed in agony but she pushed herself to go father.
“Little rabbit…I smell you.” Again that graveling voice echoed through the woods. It was a terrifying mixture of man and beast.
She glanced over her shoulder which proved to be a gross miscalculation because she tripped over a tree root and fell to the ground face first.
She always thought the women in movies were careless for falling down in the midst of a chase but now here she was on the ground. When she attempted to pull herself up, she cried out from the pain in her ankle.
Fuck. She wasn’t sure if it was twisted or broken but either way she couldn’t afford to stick around to nurse it.
“I hear you breathing, little rabbit…” The voice was eerily close.
Ignoring the pain, she hobbled as fast as she could. Tears coursed down her face. She grew nauseous because it hurt so much but her only thought was survival.
A hand fell on her shoulder and she released an ear splitting shriek.
“Kaliah! It’s me!”
She turned to see Amy.
“Amy! How did you get behind me?”
“I must have gone in a circle but I think we’re surrounded. Those girls…the ones with the Rs on their foreheads…they’re all gone. I saw one of those creatures ripe the head of the girl with the bright red hair. It popped off like a doll. What do you think they’ll do to us when they catch up? I don’t think there’s any escaping.” Amy seemed to grow more hysterical with each word.
“We can’t give up. The water sounds close by, maybe we can swim our way to safety.”
“Little rabbit…I’m coming.”
“Let’s get the fuck out of here, there’s no time.” Kaliah attempted to run again but her ankle refused to cooperate. She hopped as fast as she could and once again Amy overtook her.
Kaliah didn’t get far when she was tackled from behind. This time when she met the ground, all the air whooshed from her lungs temporarily paralyzing her.
Something straddled her back and grabbed a handful of her braids with one hand and wrapped a clawed hand around her throat.
She wanted to cry out but fear keep her scream stuck in her throat. Kaliah squeezed her eyes and braced herself for a death swipe. The monster tightened his grip on her throat temporarily cutting off her oxygen and then loosening his grip.
She gasped for breath. “Please…just…make it quick.”
“Make it quick? I have no intention of doing that now that I’ve caught you.”
Just her luck to be captured by someone who liked to play with their food.
She wiggled beneath him in earnest but her attacker was too heavy.
He grunted and leaned over here until she felt his hot breath against her ear. “You keep doing that and I won’t be responsible for what happens next.”
He grinded what felt like a very large, stiff erection against her ass and to her horror, he ran his tongue along the shell of her ear.
This couldn’t be happening. The thought of being mauled to death was scary enough but Kaliah hadn’t counted on something far worse happening.
“What are you doing? Please stop. If you’re going to kill me, just do it!”
“Kill you?” He released a gravely laugh. “Oh, I have something much more interesting in mind.”
Before she could ask him what he meant he bit into her shoulder.
Kaliah screamed as loud as her sore throat would allow. If by some sliver of a miracle she survived this, she’d have no voice in the morning.
Tears stung her eyes from the hopelessness of her situation.
“You taste even better than you smell.” He licked her spot where he’d bitten. His weight was suddenly removed as if someone had yanked him off of her. Kaliah managed to roll over to see what happened.
Three hairy beastmen slightly smaller than the one who’d attacked her, surrounded him and appeared as though they were going to attack.
She wasn’t sure what was happening but she was no fool. She’d use this opportunity to escape. Kaliah crawled to her knees and hobbled to her feet. It hurt like fuck but she didn’t look back as she hopped away as fast as she could.
The snarling sounds of wild animals fighting, sounded in her ears.
“Run as fast as you can little, rabbit, but I will find you!” her attacker called out.
She hoped to God that wasn’t true.
Colt jumped backward, barely missed getting disemboweled as Dale Hendrickson, slashed his clawed hand at him. He’d expected trouble for this night’s hunt per Rolf’s warning.
The second the sirens sounded, he knew the Hendrickson would come for him and his brothers. He and his brothers decided to find the source of the scent before the Hendrickson’s and mark her. They’d decided that since Leland was the fastest, he would track her first.
Zeke was the strongest of the three so they knew several of those fuckers would try to gang up on him so Colt wanted to stay close to him for support.
Rolf had 12 remaining sons and they had their own group of sycophants who did whatever they said. It was the very reason Colt was up against 2 of them at the moment while Zeke fought 4 at once.
It had been a long time since he’d been involved in a fight and his reflexes weren’t as quick as they once were but his beastly instinct was sharper than ever, especially with the scent of his chosen still lingering in the air. His only thought was to fight through these obstacles and get to her.
One of his opponents grabbed him from behind. “Die, mother fucker,” he growled.
As he was being restrained from behind, another adversary barreled toward him with claws and fangs bared.
Using the grip on his arms to his advantage, Colt raised both legs and delivered a kick to the snarling man’s chest. It sent him flying to the ground. He then slammed his head backward into the nose of his captor, producing a loud crunch.
The other man released him with a pained howl. Swiftly, Colt turned and gouged his eyes out. A stream of blood splashed his face and the other man clutched his face and screamed in agony.
Even with his opponent’s loss of sight, Colt knew that he was still dangerous because of a sharp sense of smell. He quickly brought his foot down on the other man’s head with such force, he caved the scull in.
Colt didn’t have a chance to relish in his victory when Dale came charging at him again. This time he threw the entire weight of his body at Colt sending them to the ground.
His hands went around Colt’s neck. Those feral red eyes flashed with a malevolent gleam of murder. “You Black brothers are finally going to get what’s coming to you.”
The hold on his neck was so tight Colt couldn’t respond or breathe. In a desperate move to free himself, he brought his hands up and slapped them over the sides of Dale’s head with so much force, blood oozed out of his ears.
Dale cried out and clawed into Colt’s chest.
Colt grunted in pain, but thankfully Dale’s claws didn’t go deep. He balled his fist and issued a heavy blow to his opponent’s stomach, followed by a slash across the face. Dale, momentarily stunned, gave Colt the opportunity to push him off.
He jumped to his feet and delivered a vicious kick to Dale’s ribs. Dale, however refused to surrender. He rolled away when Colt, jumped to his feet and attempted to kick him.
He charged again but Colt was ready for him this time. He sidestepped Dale and tripped him, sending him hurtling back to the ground. This time Colt jumped on his back. He grabbed a handful of Dale’s hair and slammed his head into the ground over and over again.
Dale squirmed and struggled beneath him trying to break free but something carnal and frightening woke inside of him and all Colt wanted was blood. He kept slamming Dale’s head into the ground even when the other man’s body twitched and stopped moving altogether.
“Die! Die! Die!” Colt growled, angry that he’d been put in a position to kill and straddle the line of animal and human. He hadn’t been this angry since his parents were killed. But now, all he saw was red, even as Dale’s face shattered a little more each time it made contact with the ground.
“I think he’s dead.” Zeke’s voice penetrated his haze of rage.
Colt slammed Dale’s head a few more times before his senses slowly returned to him.
“Shit.” He rolled away from the corpse and slowly stood up. Colt glanced at his brother and noticed he was covered in blood. He looked past Zeke and saw three headless bodies. The heads were scattered across the ground. “You okay?”
Zeke nodded.
“Weren’t there four of them?”
“One of them ran away.”
“That may mean trouble later,” Colt said more to himself than his brother.
But Zeke grunted a response. “We’ll handle it.” Suddenly he stiffened.
“What?”
Zeke raised his nose to the air and sniffed. “I can’t smell her anymore.”