Vixen Hunted
Page 16
"The moment I love and hate. The hunt ends." Tahd pressed the crossbow against his shoulder.
Kit growled low in her throat. The hair on the back of Timothy's neck stood on end.
"For you it ends. I am no one's prey. Not anymore!" Kit crouched and lunged. A knife flashed in her hand. Where did she hide that?
"Cat!" Timothy pulled at the satin ribbon. The strange lamb charged with Kit, and the ribbon slipped from his sweating palm. Too fast. Timothy's mind and heart raced, but his body refused to move.
Tahd cursed and jerked the crossbow away from Kit.
Chink!
The bolt lashed toward the frozen shepherd. Timothy's chest tightened.
No time to move.
He closed his eyes. The air whistled.
He breathed out.
A sickly, wet sound.
Timothy breathed in.
Cat lay in a heap, the dark quarrel thrust into her chest. Crimson stained her white wool and pooled on the street.
Kit grappled with Tahd a few feet away. Her curled hair stuck out in all directions, and her face contorted. Her knife slashed at the hunter. The crossbow lay forgotten on the street. He grabbed at Kit's knife as its point grazed his throat.
Do something! Timothy's body shook.
Tahd heaved Kit away. The knife clattered out of her reach.
"You will be excellent. A hunter like me combined with prey like you will create a legendary line. I might just hunt our offspring myself. At least a few of them." Tahd smiled.
Kit spat blood and crouched. "I will tear your throat out with my fangs. I will drink your blood, hunter."
Crack!
From someplace behind Timothy, red fire slashed. Tahd grunted. His shoulder blossomed crimson.
"Tonight you will answer for your crimes, heretic." A young Jesuit dressed in black extended a smoking flintlock pistol.
"As will you, demon!" Sister Tera stood beside the young Jesuit.
Tahd pulled a knife from his belt with his good hand and lunged for Kit. "Either way, this hunt ends!"
Another gunshot slashed into him. An old, bald Jesuit stood a short distance from Kit, his dark robes merging with the black alley behind him. His silver crucifix gleamed.
"This hunt ends," the young Jesuit said. "Guillermo, take him."
Tahd snarled, his arms hanging useless. The man's crucifix was smeared red, and blood stained his shoulders. He charged the old Jesuit as if to tear the man's throat with his teeth. The old man crushed the hunter's jaw with an oak fist.
The hunter collapsed in an unconscious heap.
Sister Tera stepped past Timothy. She arrowed a finger at Kit.
"And now you, demon!"
Kit knelt on the cobblestones, holding the lamb, its blood streaming on her green dress. Kit looked up, tears flowing down her cheeks. Timothy fell to his knees, the spell that held him gone.
This can't be happening.
"Enough, sister." The young Jesuit laid a hand on Sister Tera's shoulder. "We have Valador."
"She is a demon! I can show you!"
The old Jesuit stepped in front of the nun. The hunter lay limp over the massive man's shoulder. "That is enough, little sister."
"She is a fox demon! Why won't you believe me?"
"The time of demons is past. Men"—Guillermo shifted the hunter—"are more demonic than demons."
"A lamb that…" The young Jesuit drew a cross into the air. "God watches out for these."
Blood. Butchered lambs didn't bleed this much. Timothy crawled through it.
Cat's satin bow and leash blended with her life.
"A lamb doing that is a sign from God, sister. We cannot ignore it."
"It is a trick. Let me go!" Tera said.
Timothy paid little attention to the nun and Jesuits. Cat!
"Our mission is done. If you want to serve, serve. Personal vendettas have no place in the Church," Guillermo said. "Come now. We need to bring this heretic to trial."
Timothy laid a hand on Cat's ruined body. The lamb's dull eyes held him. She bleated her pain, quiet. Kit cried openly.
"You saved us both, my friend." He stroked the lamb's head.
The lamb closed her eyes, heaven in her sight.
She breathed in.
She breathed out.
Timothy hugged Kit's quivering shoulders and let the tears fall.
Evelyn watched her little boy hug the filthy girl.
"Dirty city. Filthy people," she muttered. "I will save you, dirty boy. I will keep this one promise. I will save you and hold you. I will cleanse you so you can enter heaven with me. We can all be together forever. He will keep his promise then. Forever."
Christopher Kincaid spends his time wandering worlds of paper and ink. He sports a negative tan after too many hours in front of computer screens. In addition to having a weakness for good tea and books, he is often found indulging his love for antique video games.
Other Books by Christopher Kincaid
Hunted Trilogy
Vixen Hunted
Shepherd Hunted (Coming Soon)
Memory Hunted (Coming Soon)
You can find more information at
www.ChristopherKincaidBooks.com
And visit Chris’s blog about Japanese culture:
www.JapanPowered.com
Copyright © 2015 Christopher Kincaid
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