Chapter 4 #2
They lunged for me as lightning brightened the world. I screamed, expecting teeth and claws. But in the darkness that followed the flare, something gleamed silver, and the two creatures in front of me lost their heads.
I stared, dumbfounded, from the headless bodies to the man swinging the sword that had decapitated them.
He spun and sliced the air, taking another head, and through the barrage of rain and the whirlwind of action, I caught sight of a face, pale as the moon, hair as silver as its rays.
His eyes flashed, so frosty blue they were almost white.
The other monsters screeched, their faces smoothing out into blank canvases, bodies losing their stolen forms. The world slowed, the edges of the landscape blurring. Every graceful twist and arch of my savior’s body was emphasized as he spun and sliced, circling me until all the mimics were dead.
Someone screamed in the distance, forcing the world back into regular motion. The ground trembled as more figures rushed past us—men and women in black combat gear carrying silver swords.
Hunters.
The icy prick of rain ebbed as if cowed by their arrival.
I was going to be okay. Relief left me weak and cold. Thank goodness I was already on the ground. Otherwise, I was sure my legs would have buckled.
The Hunters ran at the mud men, who had finally caught up with us.
But the mammoth, earthen monsters exploded into smaller creatures, swarming the Hunters.
Several howls cut the night, and the silver-haired guy’s jaw tensed. “Get up,” he said to me. “Now.” His tone was as cold and sharp as his blade.
I stood slowly on trembling limbs. “Thank you.”
His eyes flinched, and his gaze darted over my features, leaving a scathing trail across my face and a block of ice in my belly. What was his problem?
He turned away, seemingly unconcerned by the fight going on several feet away from us. I followed his gaze to find three large beasts of fur and claw bounding toward us on all fours.
Seriously? Another attack?
I backed up, ready to run, but silver-hair grabbed my arm, his grip so tight the blood around it pulsed.
“Hey!” I tried to shake him off, but he held me tighter.
“We have it under control, Drayven!” he called out. “Take your mutts and leave.”
The beasts came to a halt a few feet away, and the largest of the trio, a beast that looked like it crawled out from the pits of hell to stalk nightmares, spoke.
“Our sector,” he growled, the sound like a precursor to an attack.
Drayven had to be a Therianthrope. A shifter. I hadn’t met many of his kind, but I’d come across a few.
“Fine,” the silver-haired guy said. “You want the kills, then you can have them, along with this.” He pinched my arm harder, shaking me slightly before shoving me toward the beasts with enough force to send me falling to my knees in the mud before them.
“What the fuck?” A red wave of rage bubbled up my throat. “What is your fucking problem?” I scrambled up to face him, but his attention was fixed on the Hunters and the mud men. “Hey, I’m talking to you.”
My scalp tightened.
“You’re hurt,” the beast behind me said. His voice was gravelly and abrasive, yet somehow managed to be soft at the same time. “Your head.”
Shit, I’d forgotten about that. “It’s fine. I’m fine.”
Hot breath kissed my nape sending a shiver down my spine. “It’s still bleeding.”
I reached up to touch the wet bandages. “Shit.” I turned to him. “How bad is…” Moss-green eyes flecked with gold stole my words and my breath.
He lowered his massive head and studied my head wound. “You will need stitches.”
“Uh-huh…” What the fuck was wrong with me? “I mean, yes. We should do that.”
He chuffed, and a warm, sweet mist coated my skin.
“Get her out of here,” silver-hair snapped. “She’s caused enough chaos.”
I’d almost forgotten about him, but I turned to face the fucker now. “What is your problem?”
His red slash of a mouth curled in a sneer, and his straight dark brows dropped low over his eyes. “If you don’t know the answer to that, then you’re dumber than you look, Onyx.”
Hell no. “No dumber than a guy who makes assumptions about a person based on nothing more than their family name.”
“You don’t belong here, and if it wasn’t my oath-given duty to save you, the stain of your bloodline would have been wiped from this world tonight.”
I’d heard worse in my lifetime, but for some reason, his words stung. Like hell would I let him see it, though. “Oh, gee, well, fuck you very much.”
His chest vibrated in a warning growl that made my stomach contract with fear, but I stood my ground, chin up. “Back off, Silver.”
His eyes flared and he opened his mouth to speak, but the beast, Drayven, beat him to it.
“Enough. The night is young, and the forest is alive and hungry for blood, now that it’s had a taste.” He glanced at my head, to the wound I’d forgotten about. “I’ll take Onyx to the Academy. Jay and Brek will stay and help with cleanup and neutralization.”
“Good.” Silver boy raked me over derisively. “The sooner this Petitione is over, the sooner we can throw out the trash.”
“Who are you calling—”
He walked away.
“Wanker!”
“She’s got that right,” one of the other beasts said. He was smaller than Drayven by about half a foot, his fur a silvery gray with darker patches streaking down his face and muzzle. Spiky spines ran down his back, and his tail was a thick, hairless appendage.
“Come,” Drayven said to me, his tone a soothing growl. “Climb up and hold on.”
His back was five feet off the ground. “I’m good. I can walk or run. Whatever.”
“Run?” Spiky beast chuckled.
“Yep. Running is my forte. How do you think I got away from the mud men?”
“Mudarks?” the other beast said. “They’re not very fast.” He was only a fraction smaller than Drayven, his body all sleek muscle and sinew, his fur a white gold that gleamed in the moonlight.
I was not going to allow him to belittle my escape. “Those mimics were fast, though.”
“Fine, I’ll give you that.”
“You were lucky,” Drayven said. “But I don’t rely on luck, and it’s not a request. Get on and ride me.”
Spiky beast’s snort sounded suspiciously like a laugh.
Drayven’s head whipped his way, lip curling back from his fangs in a warning snarl, and the other beast quickly dropped his head.
“Sorry,” he said sheepishly.
Drayven’s gaze slid my way, and I quickly tucked away my smile.
“Come on, Jay,” sleek boy said. “We’d better neutralize.”
“Thank Luna I drank a lot earlier,” Jay said.
They loped off toward silver-haired dude and the other sword-wielding Hunters, toward the mess of limbs, mud, and blood.
Drayven lowered himself, waiting for me to climb up. I did so with very little grace.
“Grab my fur and dig your thighs in to grip me,” he instructed.
Oh boy, I could go in so many directions with this one, “Sounds like you get ridden often?”
His body vibrated beneath me in what sounded like a chuckle. “Not as often as I’d like,” he quipped, making me warm to him even more. “Hold tight. Head down.”
I barely had time to comply before Drayven lunged forward and we were in motion.
Faster and faster, until the world was a blur.
I closed my eyes, my heart beating in sync with the rhythm of his stride and the impact of his huge paws on the earth.
Long minutes passed, but not nearly as many as expected, before a low-grade hum filled the air and my scalp prickled.
His stride slowed. “We’re in a safe zone.”
I slowly raised my head to the star-speckled sky peeking down at me from behind the violet haze of the wards.
The path was wider here, smooth flagstones bordered by lush woodland that echoed with the sounds of nighttime fauna.
It led to a magnificent stone arch, so high it seemed to reach for the moon, the glowing runes decorating its surface winking like fallen stars.
Beyond the impressive structure rose a red and gray tower, riddled with windows that watched us like a multitude of curious eyes.
“Is that the Border House?”
“Yes.”
“Is that where radio messages from the tram go?”
He was silent for a beat before replying. “They do.”
“Right.”
Drayven’s sigh vibrated through me. “I know what happened. Talbot overheard the operative on the com and questioned him, and when he realized what was happening, he alerted the on-call Hunter teams.”
“And if he hadn’t overheard, then I’d be dead.
” Saying the words out loud released a wave of horror, because now that I was safe, the enormity of what had happened, what could have happened, hit me.
I gripped Drayven’s fur tighter, waiting for the dread to pass.
As much as I hated life most of the time, I hated death more and would never willingly embrace it.
“Are you all right?” Drayven asked softly.
I was safe. I was alive. I had hope. “I’m fine. What were those mimicking things that attacked me?”
Silence stretched for several beats. Was he going to push me on my state of mind or answer my question?
“Echoes,” he said finally. “That’s what attacked you.
They have no identity of their own, and so they crave it.
They would have stolen yours, leaving you faceless and forgotten.
But their acquisitions never last, and they’re soon back, craving more.
But…I’ve never seen them attack in a pack like that before. ”
“Where are they from?”
“No one knows. The forest here is alive with Horrors and Echoes. A hot zone of monstrous things drawn to this land.”
“Do you know why they’re drawn here?”
“Unfortunately, no. But it makes it easier to contain and cull them, keeping the outside world safe.” We continued in silence for a few seconds. “You were lucky today.”
“Yeah, I’m beginning to realize just how lucky.”
“I’ll make sure your wound is tended to before you’re sent to Bramble Tower, where you’re to be housed…if they let you stay.”
If. That was the big question. “Does everyone know about the Perculiari Petitione?”
He chuffed. “News is currency at Nightsbridge, and this particular snippet has been traded often the past few days.”
Great. Everyone would know who I was, which meant I’d have to watch my back—just like in the old days before I’d taken on the name Denton.
Mother had argued against it, of course.
She’d been a proud woman, like the women before her, stubborn too.
Determined to live with our name and show no shame.
But pride didn’t put food on the table. It didn’t stop your house from being vandalized, and it certainly didn’t encourage friendship.
And I could be just as stubborn as her when I wanted to.
As we grew closer to the arch, I spotted several ravens flying around the top of the tower. They wove in and out of windows before vanishing into the night.
“I heard about your mother’s passing. I’m sorry for your loss.”
My throat tightened. “Yeah. Well, she was sick for a long time. It was a mercy.”
“Maybe for her, but for you… You must miss her terribly.”
I hadn’t expected a Therianthrope to be so empathic. I’d learned that they were primal and gruff, both in and out of their beast forms.
“What are you?” It came out blunter than I’d planned, and he was silent for several beats before replying.
“I’m barghest.”
His breed of Therianthrope was rare, only a handful of packs left in the world due to their natural habitats being sold off and built on by large Haematophage corporations.
I’d already figured out that the silver-haired dude was a Haematophage of some kind, but if I was going to add him to my shit list, then I’d need a name. “What was the silver-haired asshole’s name?”
“Sterling Damascus,” he said flatly. “Lead Hunter for the Haematophage teams.”
He continued to speak, but the blood pounding in my ears drowned him out. I knew that name. Had dreamed of facing him one day.
“Onyx? Your pulse is racing.”
I swallowed past the dryness in my throat. “I’m fine.”
I was also a fabulous liar.
“No. You’re not. But I understand if you don’t wish to speak of it.”
“Thanks.” The arch grew closer as I wrangled my emotions back into the neat little boxes I’d created for them. “Why aren’t you bothered that I’m an Onyx?”
“Why should I be?”
“I don’t know. Most everybody else is.” Aside from Chester, of course. He was the first to not give a shit.
“I’m not most everybody else,” Drayven said gruffly.
But Sterling Damascus was.
A dhampir from the most powerful vampire bloodline.
Practically a royal.
He was also the bastard who’d murdered my father.