The slow minute drags right until the beam of sunlight tears across the ground in front of me, carving a burning black line into the concrete. When I release Kaida, it feels like she grows three times her size. Her growl mixes with a hiss as she leaps into the air and lands with claws extended, sinking into her target.
It screams angrily, trying to pull her off. She buries teeth much larger than I’ve ever seen into his neck and tears roughly.
Bile rises into my throat, and I nearly gag when she pulls away a massive hunk of his neck. Blood sprays everywhere. I have only a second to react before one of them comes after me. It’s bulky but oddly arranged. Its chest looks lopsided, one shoulder higher than the other. It’s deformed, hunkered down, and charging me like a bull.
I question a lot of my life choices right now. What had I been thinking, hunting monsters that can turn intothat? What chance did I have? I’m not a blood-thirsty human like those a hundred years ago who hunted and tortured monsters just because they could.
If nothing else, my stomach isn’t built for this kind of gore.
However, I’ve learned one thing very clearly in the last two minutes. I don’t want to die.
Smart or stupid, I run at him as well, but when I get within a couple feet, I drop to the ground. His legs slam into me. It hurts, like logs made of boulders are crushing into my bones. I gasp with the pain, but I don’t let it overtake me.
He does exactly what I hoped he would. He rolls over me, having had his legs taken out from under him. I scramble to my feet and drive my blade into his chest, over and over and over.
After perhaps the dozenth stabbing, I pull my blade back and get to my feet. My entire body is covered in chills as I stare down at this monster. This is exactly the kind of thing we’re told about growing up.Thisis a monster.
I take a step back. Once I’m convinced he’s dead and won’t suddenly lurch to his feet as soon as my back is turned, I look around. Right in time to see Drystan turn into a pincushion and impale the monster who tried to trap him in a bear hug. Dozens of steely blade-like spikes cover Drystan’s body.
If he weren’t already saturated in blood, he is now. The monster who’d tried to take him is instantly covered in his own life juice.
My eyes catch on a slab where there’s a body splayed out. My entire body becomes covered in goosebumps at the hint of what I’m seeing.
Please tell me that’s not a… sacrifice? Before I can convince myself otherwise, my feet are bringing me in that direction until I’m standing over the man stretched out on a stainless steelsurface. His chest has already been torn open, maybe skinned, and that skin has been replaced with flesh that doesn’t belong to a human.
There’s a scaly patch. A fuzzy patch. One that looks gray and dead, textured, like it’s decaying right there.
The skin sewn into his isn’t the worst part. His gut has been neatly sliced open, as if by a scalpel, and part of his guts are arranged outside of his body. He’s bleeding freely, though it oozes more than runs. Based on the way his skin shows all his bones, I have a feeling that he’s very low on blood.
His eyes stare blankly at the ceiling, but his chest rises gently. Falls. I’m shocked to find him still alive. They must have kept him alive to torture him. What else can this be?
I nearly jump out of my skin when something tugs on my pant leg. I stumble backward as a small hand retreats under the table where the man is spread out. It’s not a solid base. It’s not a base of cabinets. It’s sitting on top of a fucking cage, and there are children inside it.
This one has long, snarled, dirty hair and big green eyes. There’s unmistakable terror in their eyes.
I’m shoved forward, nearly toppling onto the gutted man. It’s my own gut-twisted stomach that has me recoiling and shifting awkwardly so I don’t. My body curls, making my head slam into the edge of the table.
White-hot light flashes before my eyes. I’m not quite on the floor yet when something painful presses to my cheek. No. Maybe not presses but slides by. Cuts?
Yep, that must be it. I can now feel blood dripping down my cheek.
I’m pressed up against the cage, and little hands pull me closer. I’m disoriented, so I don’t have the reflexes to pull away. It isn’t until I feel a brush of something just missing my face thatI realize they don’t mean me harm. They’re trying to get me out of the way.
My vision clears, though my head still throbs. Kaida is dragging the monster away from me by his leg, snarling and shaking her head. I hear the distinct sound of a bone snapping before the monster screams in pain and fury.
“Thanks,” I murmur, unsure whether it’s for Kaida or the children.
I need to be better at paying attention to my surroundings. Giving my back to a room filled with monsters set on killing us is just stupid.
Pulling myself up so I’m sitting on my ass, I lean my back against the bars of the cage. My head spins. A throbbing pain thrums through my temple. Fuck.
“Where does it hurt?” a quiet voice asks.
“His head,” another answered.
I don’t get a chance to answer either of them. Cold fingers touch the side of my head, and before I can so much as flinch, a soothing, cool river gently flows through my brain. The throbbing that’s making my vision bounce with each pulse eases until it’s entirely gone. The pain disappears.
These aren’t human kids. They’remonsters. They’re…
