Chapter Eighteen
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VICTORIA WAS IN DEEP shiz. Or she had been before the huge blond guy had arrived.
She’d moved from house to house, taking down a few of the loons.
Night would fall before too long. She was hoping to slip away once the sun went down.
“Yeah, that’s not gonna happen,” she told herself, peering out the window in search of a fresh target.
Her senses told her the big guy who was shooting her enemies for her was the same being she’d sensed before. He’d mouthed something at her, but she’d been too distracted by the humans to figure out what he’d been trying to say.
More vehicles had arrived, bringing fresh reinforcements. Victoria sensed two groups running towards the front and back of the house. “Shiz is about to get real,” she said grimly.
Her sickle was gripped in one hand and a large knife was clutched in the other.
She darted into a bedroom and quickly opened the window.
Doors burst open, guns fired and people screamed in pain.
She snickered as she escaped from the trap she’d led them into.
“The fudging idiots just shot each other,” Victoria said as she ran for cover.
A man popped up in front of her and she rammed the knife into his chest. He fell, tearing it out of her hand. Someone fired and agony slammed into her when a bullet tore through her left side. “Son of a biarch!” she shouted.
A roar of pure fury came from within the house she’d just vacated.
Victoria glanced over her shoulder to see the blond guy dive through a living room window.
He rolled when he landed, then sprinted at the man who’d just shot her from behind.
Dropping his rifle and pistol, he tore the hapless dude’s head off with his bare hands.
“What the fudge?” Victoria said, shocked and awed by his strength.
The warrior turned towards her, holding the dripping head. “My cambion,” he said in something like satisfaction, holding the head up like an offering.
“Uh, you keep it, dude,” she said, backing away like he was a rabid dog that was about to bite her. Taller than her by five inches, his clothing strained to contain his bulk.
“Mine,” he insisted, reduced to one word speech now.
“Yep, it’s all yours,” she agreed, ducking when the bullets began to fly again.
“You’re mine,” he corrected her, ignoring the deadly projectiles. He was undeniably hot, but he was also batshiz crazy.
“I don’t think ow!” she exclaimed when a bullet grazed her ear. She winced as the wound in her side protested when she jerked in reaction.
Once again, her gigantic protector roared in fury. His sky-blue eyes zeroed in on the woman who’d wounded her. She was leaning through a window of the house Victoria had been hiding in, readying herself to take another shot.
Dropping the head, the hulking guy sped over to the house and yanked the human outside.
He smashed her into the ground, then stomped on her skull.
Victoria decided she’d had enough fun for one day.
Leaving him to mop up the rest of the now demoralized townsfolk, she sprinted away from the small town.
She ran for a few miles before stopping.
Unzipping her thermal jacket, she lifted her t-shirt to examine the injury.
“Rapid healing, just like a werewolf,” she said, unsurprised to see the blood from the entry and exit wounds were slowing to a trickle.
Her ear had already healed. Victoria had always healed quickly, so this came as no surprise.
The sounds of battle had faded after leaving the town behind.
Victoria found herself worrying about the fighter.
She could no longer sense him, but her gut told her he was still alive.
“How did he find me?” she wondered out loud.
Was it just a coincidence that he’d turned up just when she’d needed to be rescued?
“He’s so hot he’s practically on fire, but the dude offered me the head of my enemy,” she mused. “One of my enemies,” she amended. “Clearly, he isn’t normal, but he’s ridiculously good looking.”
She knew she was rambling to herself. Her face was flushed, her heart was racing and it wasn’t from sprinting. There was an undeniable attraction between them. They had a weird chemistry, but he was an alien. She was almost sure of it.
“So much for my plan to find a nice, quiet place to spend the night,” she said as her heartbeat began to slow. She was a safe distance from the freeway in a rural area. Plenty of farmhouses were scattered around. Choosing one, she walked towards it, keeping her senses on full alert.
Cows mooed in the fields as they headed for their barn.
Their udders were full and they sounded miserable without anyone left to milk them.
Victoria found piles of clothing in the bedrooms when she did a quick search of the house.
“Raptured,” she figured, spying fillings and a metal rod that must have been inserted to repair a broken bone lying on a bed.
Victoria stripped off in the bathroom and washed herself with bottled water. Her muscles rippled as she wiped her wound clean. “I’ll be as good as new soon,” she said, twisting from side to side to test how well she was healing.
Studying her upper half in the mirror, she hated how gaunt she was getting. Her face was thinner and there were hollows beneath her cheeks. She needed more than just canned fruit. She needed protein.
“I could go a big, juicy burger,” she complained, knowing that was an impossibility. It wasn’t like she could slaughter one of the cows and grill it. She’d already checked the pantry to see a wide variety of food on offer.
Returning to the kitchen after getting dressed, Victoria ate potted meat, making a face that she had to eat it cold. She immediately felt better, which indicated she definitely needed meat as well as fruit and vegetables.
She headed to the living room and saw trophies lined up in a cabinet.
“Someone’s an archery champion,” she figured.
A few photos showed a kid growing into a teenager, grinning proudly as he held his bows and trophies.
“A bow could be useful,” Victoria said with a pleased smile.
Guns weren’t her style, but she was good with a bow.
One of her foster mothers had taught her how to shoot one when she’d been a kid.
She went hunting in the boy’s bedroom and found a case under his bed. Opening it, she found an expensive compound bow and a quiver full of arrows.
“Bingo,” she said in satisfaction, shouldering the weapon and returning downstairs.
She was still rattled from the battle and wanted to stay close to the exits.
Her backpack, duffle bag and weapons were within reach.
Curling up on the couch, she drifted off into a light doze, ready to leave at a moment’s notice.
Her doze deepened into full sleep and she dreamed she was back in the small town again.
Victoria watched herself sprint away, then froze the scene to move closer.
Her rescuer had just stomped on the woman who’d nicked her ear.
He was watching her flee from the scene with an expression she could only describe as devastated.
“Shiz, now I feel bad for leaving him alone to wipe them all out,” she said guiltily.
Stepping up until they were mere feet apart, Victoria examined his face closely. It was rare that she had to tilt her head back when dealing with others. Some of the male wrestlers were this guy’s size, or bigger, but not by much.
“Fudge me, this dude is smoking hot,” she murmured. Shifting her gaze to his eyes, she was glad to see they weren’t tinged with red.
For the second time in her life, someone she’d frozen in her dream broke free from her control. His eyes focused on hers and he spoke. “Mine,” he said in profound satisfaction, as if he’d just claimed her forever.
Victoria jerked awake and sat up with her heart pounding again.
“I don’t belong to you, buddy,” she denied shakily.
He had to be the same type of alien as the dude who’d called her his offspring, yet they seemed so different.
She didn’t feel the same sense of evil coming from the hottie. If anything, he seemed noble.
“Yeah, right,” she said with a snicker. “He’s my knight in shining armor come to sweep me off my feet.”
Lying back down, it took her an hour to calm down enough to fall asleep again.