Page 50 of Huntress

It was worth it. Through trial and error, she’d figured out their vulnerable spots. Throat, eyes, armpits, low on the abdomen, and the back of the thigh. All spots that were well protected by teeth, claws, ribs, and spurs. All spots she could exploit to take the damned things down.

Grabbing another pair of bones–a femur and another rib–she faced them. Elsie circled to put herself between the demons and the body of the child they’d stolen, hoping it would enrage them. She wanted them stupid and senseless. It worked.

They both flashed forward at once. Elsie dodged and weaved, keeping one rat between her and the second. She’d turned this into a one-on-one fight. The rat closest to her lunged, teeth bared and ready to sever whatever body part it latched onto.

Elsie raised her hand far above her head, motioning as though she was going to bring her improvised weapon down on his face. He played right into her hands. Teeth snapping upward, he’d left his throat exposed. Elsie shoved white moon magic into the rib, making it strong and sharp enough for the task.

Using every ounce of muscle she had, Elsie slammed the bone into the demon’s throat. Once she broke through the resistance of his skin, it was like using a hot knife to slice butter.

The rat didn’t immediately register what had happened, and Elsie had miscalculated something incredibly important. They were already six feet tall at the shoulder on all fours. When he jerked back onto his hind legs in reaction to her attack, he towered over her.

Scalding hot blood sprayed everywhere, blinding her. Elsie swiped angrily at her eyes and kept moving, keeping the injured rat between herself and the second, always mindful that the third would come for her at any moment. A quick spark of light reminded her that the injured one was the rat with her daggers embedded in his thigh.

The next one came at Elsie in a flurry of attacks. Teeth, claws, and tail all moving at speeds fueled by rage. The huntress took a blow to the shoulder, then her calf, but every movement brought Elsie closer to her goal. The demon with a rib in his throat had hunched over, fingers sliding over the slippery bone, unable to remove it. Death was coming for him, and he’d stopped paying attention to his surroundings.

Elsie stepped on his tail, pushed her other foot against his rump, grabbed the hilt of her dagger, and pulled. She whirled as the next rat’s haunches bunched up, ready to spring at her, but a tiny noise changed everything.

The child gasped, desperately clinging to life behind them. That sound finally brought the male rat crying on the floor back into the fight. The two survivors whipped their heads toward the girl, and Elsie’s heart dropped into her stomach. The male who’d been grieving the loss of his partner crept forward with a savage leer.

She gripped her dagger and darted in, taking on a new level of aggression. She barely registered Mutt’s growl as he stalked after the male who’d targeted the child. Elsie moved in a tornado of attacks, stabbing and kicking, throwing random bursts of magic and fighting off the rat with renewed vigor.

Bigger than Elsie had ever seen him, Mutt descended on his target with a snarl. Teeth flashing, he buried them in the rat’s neck, ignoring the weaker demon’s claws.

The noise was unbearable, but Elsie’s opponent demanded her full attention. She took a blow to the chest that wasn’t enough to stop her forward motion. Slashing sideways, she gutted the female in front of her. She sliced and carved until there was no regenerative ability on Earth capable of putting this creature back together.

The female fell to the ground, entire body convulsing in her death throes. Elsie stepped over her and stumbled over an exposed rock, slick with blood and venom. She couldn’t stop to make sure Mutt was okay, though she assumed from the growling that he was fine.

She rushed to the little girl. Every tiny, ragged breath was a struggle. Elsie fell to her knees. They’d torn the girl apart. Limbs were missing, and pieces of her insides lay next to her on the ground. The fact that she lived to suffer was nothing more than a cruelty. Elsie’s eyes focused on the girl’s hair to avoid the gore. She had the most beautiful auburn curls, matted with blood and plastered against her head.

Finished with the male demon, Mutt slid to her side, hands shaking, eyes hooded. Elsie said nothing about his choice to protect the girl. Mutt acted like he hated the whole damned world, but on the inside, he was a good man.

“Why aren’t you helping her?” he asked angrily. “Help her!”

Elsie bowed her head, long wisps of blue hair falling in front of her face. “We were too late. She’s too far gone, there’s nothing we can do.”

“Wasn’t that the point? Isn’t that why you’re here?” he asked, accusations dripping in his tone.

Elsie swiped a hand across her eyes and peered up at him, tears still shining. “You’re right. I failed.”

She squinted her eyes shut for a second, gathering the willpower to do what must be done, then lowered her hand to cover the child’s nose and mouth.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?!” Mutt demanded. He grabbed her wrist and gave her a look filled with grief and guilt. He’d forgotten to keep a tight hold on his emotions, and Elsie nearly choked on how deep that guilt hit him.

She intimately knew the torment racing through his head. Mutt blamed himself just as harshly as she was punishing herself. Elsie didn’t scold him, nor threaten to break his face if he didn’t let her go. Not this time.

“You have to understand, she’ll keep suffering until she succumbs. It’s better this way,” Elsie assured him. The girl didn’t struggle against her hand. There was nothing left in this husk of a body worth fighting for. She simply slipped away.

“I’m sorry,” Elsie whispered, the tears flowing freely. “I’m so sorry.”

Mutt let her go, his hands falling to his knees. A look of abject horror haunted those beautiful dark eyes.

Once she was certain the girl’s suffering was over, Elsie stumbled to her feet and tripped her way out of the cavern and into the open air. She didn’t stop until she was far enough away that she no longer smelled the rat’s filth. Doubling over, her stomach emptied its contents from their earlier meal.

Mutt did not follow, and Elsie couldn’t blame him. He’d broken his own moral code in there, and in the end, it had amounted to nothing. They hadn’t saved the girl.

Elsie hit the ground, her fist sinking into the exposed dirt. She hit it again and again, tears streaming down her face. It didn’t matter how many victims she came across. She felt it just as painfully raw every time. It was worse when it was a child who’d never gotten the chance to live.

“It’s not fair!” she yelled into the sky, uncaring if anyone overheard. The only one who did was Mutt. He stood at the entrance of the rat’s feeding hole, a guarded expression on his face, while holding her other dagger in his hand.