My blood has left a trail, but it’ll be too dark for someone not as good as me to follow it. I smell sweat, blood, and a mingling of random scents as we quickly approach someone… or a group.
“That’s her?” some girl scoffs. “That was too easy.”
Wouldn’t be if I was fully functional, bitch.
“The others?” a man asks.
“They’ll escape. They had three or four go savage, and they were all level sevens. Our men never stood a chance against them, but we acquired the target, so mission accomplished,” the man holding me says in his baritone, scratchy voice.
Please be safe, Jase.
Throw her in the car. She’s bleeding all over the damn ground, and that'll draw attention to our trail,” that same girl says in disgust.
A low humming sound rattles in my ears, almost like the secret music electricity plays to the attentive listener. It grows louder, but it seems to be evading the ears of my captors.
I feel my body loosely dangling over this beast’s shoulder as we near the cars. Then I feel the hum growing louder to a static crackle. I look up just in time to see streaks of purple crashing down, and the woman I hadn't seen until just now screams out as she drops to the ground while convulsing.
My body falls with a thud against the mud, and I cry out as my gashes burn from the grit entering my gaping wounds. I look over to see the men pulling their weapons free, but that purple energy shoots out again, and it surges through the eyes of the other two men before they gargle out cries of pain. Their bodies fold, convulse, and shake like the body of a headless snake.
I try to crawl away, my tattered clothes sounding out in a ripping tear as I struggle. I want to scream for help, beg for someone to find me, but the pool of blood in my mouth only allows me a whispered gurgle.
Then I feel arms wrapping around me, scooping me up from the ground, and I fold into the bridal style carry as the steamy scent of melted chocolate and dark cherry rushes my nose.
I shouldn’t feel safe right now, but I do. I shouldn’t feel like clinging to this dark knight, but I do.
I look up to see a black mask covering the face of what is hopefully my rescuer. His hooded sweat jacket is zipped to his neck, and his hair is completely hidden from my groggy sight as his black hood tucks it away.
The leather gloves on his hands feel smooth against my exposed skin, and he puts me in the front seat of a car before taking the driver’s seat.
“Who… are…”
That’s all I can get out, but he doesn’t speak right away. He cranks the car and slams it into gear while slinging dirt behind him and driving like hell away from the dying eyes of my captors.
He pulls up a pack of blood, and he rips it open with his teeth before handing it to me. I almost cry I’m so happy to see it, and my shaky hand takes it from his as I gulp down the diluted blood.
It’s not human like most packaged blood though. It tastes… different. It’s not like my full blood’s blood, so it has to be hybrid.
I feel some of the wounds closing up, creating a more tolerable pain level, but there’s still so much left to heal. It will at least give my body enough help to start healing on its on.
“Who are you?” I ask as the breaths rush my lungs.
“What part of don’t go on this mission didn’t you understand?” the familiar accented voice asks.
“It’s you,” I gasp, my body tensing up instantly as panic takes the place of hope.
“I’m not sure why you’re acting so scared right now. I’ve done nothing but try to save your bloody life, and here you are bleeding to death because you refused to heed my warning.”
“It’s hard for me to trust a phantom,” I growl while sliding closer to the door, carefully weighing my options of opening it and praying I’m healed enough to run.
He reaches over and pulls me back to the seat, his warm touch electrifying my skin in an unexpected way.
“You can run. I won’t stop you. But you won’t see what you need to if you do,” he says, and now I get sick.
Can he read minds too?
He doesn’t answer my inner thought, but that doesn’t mean anything.
“Well, can you?” I bark.
