by M. O. McLeod
29.
Raptored
Santino had done this. These creatures were just like him: deadly fiends from hell with an appetite for humans. Kurma had seen Santino with some other guys dragging her brother off. Allie was hurt, Kurma had seen that too. He had yelled out in pain as that thing had bitten into him. She’d wanted to cry; she’d wanted to protect her brother but hadn’t. She’d wanted Allie and Inis away from her so she wouldn’t turn them into what she was, but all she had done was let something far worse get a hold of Allie. She’d done everything wrong.
Kurma’s body floated with the crowd as people ran out of the club and onto the streets. She was dazed. People were being attacked; everyone was screaming; the streets were alive. She needed to find Inis. She had to warn him about Santino, tell Inis what he had become, but she had lost him in the crowd. Kurma had lost everyone; her mind was all over the place. She never should have come out, never left her family’s side. Tears finally broke through, and Kurma fell on the curb, blinded by her grief. How could Santino do this to her? First he tried to kill her, now he was going after her little brother. Kurma wiped her eyes. If he was going to go after her family, he would have to go through her.
Kurma got her balance and stood up, sniffed, and wiped the tears from her face. She had to find Santino and put an end to this. She wanted her brother back in one piece. She would do whatever she had to.
“Kurma!” Rimselda screamed. She ran out of the crowd’s current and pulled Kurma to her. “We’ve been looking everywhere for you. It’s time to go. Something’s happened.”
Kurma shook Rimselda’s arm off of her. “I have to do something first,” she said with a dull voice. “I have to get my brother back.”
“Chelsea said she saw a swarm of guys attacking people outside the club. We have to go now!” Rimselda pleaded. “We can find your brother later, alright?”
“No,” Kurma yelled. She walked off without Rimselda. All she had to do was follow the noise and that would take her where she needed to be. Follow the stench that was Santino. Kurma remembered the smell of his blood when she had stabbed him in the bathroom. She didn’t care about the screams, the people crying, the police who attempted to stop the turmoil, the car accidents, the assaults, none of it. She walked on with a mission, a duty; she had to see this through. She couldn’t be with her family at the moment, but that didn’t mean that she wouldn’t try to protect them. Allie wasn’t dead, but he was hurt somewhere out there with Santino, and she would find the both of them if it was the last thing she did.
Rimselda watched Kurma walk away by herself. She didn’t want her to go out into the night like that. She nervously stomped her feet.
“You guys!” she yelled out to the girls, who were hiding behind a flower cart. They all inched around the front to hear Rimselda.
She stood in the street, unaware of the mayhem around her. “We can’t just let her leave by herself.”
“We don’t even know what’s going on with her,” Jackie said. “I say we get out of this mess before we become somebody’s dinner.”
A Phantom ran by and took a swipe at Chelsea’s head. She ducked away just in time. The Phantom kept on running.
“Did you see that?” squealed Chelsea. “Almost took my head clean off.”
“We saw it, Chelsea.” O’bellaDonna chuckled.
Rimselda wasn’t leaving Kurma and that was final. She started running after her friend and yelled back, “I’m going with or without you guys.”
O’bellaDonna ran after her. “Raptors rule!” she screamed.
Jackie felt her arms itch. She wasn’t scared at all; she liked the adrenaline, kind of like stealing a car. “Babes, you coming?” she asked Chelsea, then ran from the cart and jumped over a couple being mauled by a Phantom.
Chelsea didn’t have a choice. Everybody was gone, and she wasn’t trying to stay behind like last time. She bounced around for a bit to psych herself out, and then ran off after her friends screaming, “Here I come!”
