by Laken Cane
“Rest, Teagan,” Richard said. “Close your eyes, sweetheart.”
I couldn’t speak.
There was nothing to say, anyway.
They lifted their blades.
Let them kill me. Don’t let them bury me alive.
I whispered a quick goodbye to Sage, and I kept my stare pinned to Richard’s.
“I’m ready,” I said.
Richard nodded and as one, they lifted their blades.
It was my time to die, and I was ready to go.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Then, I saw movement behind the two men.
Mutants.
They rushed over the ground like ghosts, silent and deadly, drawn there, maybe, by my screams or the sounds of the fight.
The slaughter.
And I didn’t warn the two humans. Let the mutants kill them. Let them do what I’d failed to do.
Richard and Caleb spun around, fingers scrabbling for their guns, but too late.
Much too late.
I scooted backward, Lila’s bat held in a death grip.
Two of the orphans spotted me, and voices clicking in some sort of communication I couldn’t understand, they raced toward me.
Somehow, I made it to my feet. I dropped the bat and tried to yank the water gun from its holster, but I was injured, slow, and clumsy, and the mutants were upon me in seconds.
My cut leg refused to support me and I fell backward.
They swarmed me, then. Not just the two orphans. Most of them. All of them, maybe. Richard and Caleb were silent.
Maybe they were dead already, torn to pieces by the group of mutants. But probably, some of the mutants had carried them off to be tested by the gods. I had no way of knowing.
I screamed again.
Don’t be such a girl…
But I couldn’t seem to help myself.
They snatched me from the ground, the mutants, and even through my fear, the clicking of their…voices, or whatever the hell it was, infuriated me.
They’d eat me, of course. They’d feast on me until there was nothing left but clean, white bone.
The bite was shit.
I wasn’t better than I had been.
They peered at me, heads tilting, yellow eyes full of curiosity, and I couldn’t do anything. I was cut, bleeding out, and now that the adrenaline was wearing off, I was in agony.
“Do it, then,” I screamed. “Bastards!”
As though they’d been waiting for permission, they bit.
But not me.
They bit themselves.
Almost as one, they lifted their arms, hands, and wrists to their mouths and bit down. Hard.
Blood spewed, covering me in a crimson, milky tide.
They did attack me then, sort of.
They slapped their bloody arms against my wounds—worse, they pressed their bite wounds to my mouth, and forced their nasty, hot blood inside me.
I struggled. I did.
But I was weak from blood loss, and they…
They were strong. So very strong.
In the end, their blood spurted down my throat, and though I vomited it back up almost immediately, it didn’t matter. They fed me more.
Force fed me mutant blood.
Would I have healed on my own, had they left me alone?
Possibly. Probably.
But the blood wasn’t just about the healing.
The blood was about finishing the initiation.
Knowledge floated in with the blood, but the images were too fast, too alien for me to process.
Then I considered something so horrible, so black, that I screamed and kicked until they lowered me to the ground.
What if that was how they impregnated women?
They dissipated like misty dream creatures.
One moment they were there, clicking, feeding me, holding me, and the next, I was on the ground and they were gone.
I scrambled to my feet, looking wildly around, my heart beating like an angry drum. Everyone was gone.
Why had they healed me, if I was the enemy? Why had they fed me?
I was healed. Almost completely.
I raced across the ground to Lila, then fell to my hands and knees beside her, sobbing. They hadn’t taken her.
They hadn’t taken her, or eaten her, or torn her apart. They hadn’t touched her.
Why?
Maybe they’d known she was my friend.
But it was only because a dead human was useless to them. I knew that. I just didn’t want to admit she was gone.
I let my tears fall, unchecked, as I stretched out beside the girl who’d saved me, who’d died because of me.
Maybe she’d really wanted to die.
At one time or the other, didn’t we all?
I wish I could say she looked at me. That she smiled and told me she’d be okay.
That she was alive.
But she lay on the ground, blood covering her delicate face, her eyes half open and dull and lifeless. The spark was gone.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered.
I climbed wearily to my feet, and for the next couple of hours, I piled rocks on her body. Afterward, I stood at the rocky grave and sang a couple broken verses of Amazing Grace.
It seemed like the right thing to do.
I picked up her bat. It was mine now.
I walked to the bag she’d packed for me and hooked my hand through one of the straps. And then, with the bat resting on my shoulder, my machete in my hand, and the bag looped over my arm, I walked away.
Richard had said I was a hunter, and I was going to prove him right.
A girl had to have a purpose.
First, though, I walked back to the house. I had a dog to get.
I opened the back door and he rushed out, as though he’d been waiting for me.
Perhaps he had been.
I left the town for the first time in two years, and I didn’t once look back.
Maybe I’d find Sage out there somewhere. I wouldn’t stop searching.
And I wouldn’t stop killing mutants.
No matter what I became.
About Laken Cane
The coffee addicted urban fantasy writer Laken Cane lives in Southern Ohio with her genius son, two Yorkies named Daphnis and Lexi, and one Golden named Chloe who rules them all.
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From the author—
Authors need reviews like vampires need blood! If you’ve enjoyed this book, would you consider rating it and reviewing it on Amazon.com?
Thank you!
Laken
Books by Laken Cane:
The Rune Alexander series (Urban Fantasy/Horror)
1. Shiv Crew
2. Blood and Bite
3. Strange Trouble
4. Obsidian Wings
5. New Regime
5.5 Shadows Past (Rune Alexander Christmas short story)
6. Wormwood Echoes
7. The Witch’s Daughter
8. Killing Land
9. Kill Switch
10. Book 10 is in progress
The Waifwater Chronicles. (Paranormal Romance, witch)
1. UNBREAKABLE
2. In progress
The FORSAKEN series: (YA Paranormal Post-Apocalyptic)
1. We, the Forsaken
2. A Cluster of Gods, in progress
As always, Laken loves hearing from her fans! If you’d like to contact her personally, you can contact her through her
various social media sites or email her directly at [email protected]
