There’s a glint off her chest under the lights of the plane.
A familiar trinket that makes me pause.
The last son rushes towards me—to do what, I’m not sure—but I can’t pull my gaze away from the familiar trinket around Savanna’s neck.
A necklace that doesn’t belong to her.
Her brother runs into my raised paw, and there’s a muffled scream as I drag my claws across his face.
When he falls, there are only the two of them left.
Two out of fifty men.
Lester shrugs his daughter behind him as he trembles, and I shift for the last time.
Not into Christian. But a smaller frame. A newer face.
One I’ve never seen or used before.
“Where did you get that necklace?” My voice is unfamiliar, but it is a voice I’ve contemplated often—a voice I’ve chosen after 1,435 days of thinking of one.
Savanna’s mouth opens and closes, shaking in fear behind her father, but no sounds come out.
Lester fires his gun, but it only deflects off a hardened body. His lips tighten into a thin line as he begs.
“Please.”
I would be impressed with the strength in his voice if I had the time.
“Not my daughter.”
“Where did you get the necklace?” I ignore him to ask her again and when I step forward, they both step back.
“I gave it to her,” Lester replies steadfastly, but the stutter of his heart gives him away.
“Lie.”
When I swipe my fingers across his neck, sharpened nails tear through his throat and coat my fingers. His blood gurgles across his collar as he falls to his knees, but the daughter doesn’t reach to help him. Her face is pale as she steps back again.
“It’s not yours,” I say evenly as I step across her father’s corpse.
“It—It was given to me—”
“Lie.”
One step forward.
One step back.
She stutters, “I—I thought it was pretty—”
“So you took what did not belong to you.”
With the plane’s wheels at her back she has nowhere left to retreat to.
And when I step into her space, I know the stench of the blood caking my skin makes her nauseous. I know she has wet herself because I can smell it leaking between her legs. Can hear it running between us as she trembles and turns her head away.
“Was the operation yours?”
