Hitting the Target

by Evangeline Anderson

  Taking a deep breath of fresh air, Mia set off through the trees to the public part of the park. It was a gorgeous day with the late afternoon sunshine pouring through the leaves and the warm, rich scent of growing things filled her senses. She thought of how different it was here—how balmy the days were and how she never had to wear so many layers of thick, ugly, padded clothing just to keep warm.

  And there was a feeling of freedom too. The feeling that you were all alone with no one watching you, no one spying or listening to every word you said, looking for the least infraction to charge you with…

  Her thoughts cut off abruptly when she heard a rustling sound in the bushes and underbrush to her left where the forest was thick and wild. What could that be?

  The rustling stopped as soon as she noticed it but when Mia started walking again, she heard it once more. It sounded almost like whatever was making the noise was keeping pace with her—following her through the bushes as she walked.

  Mia started walking a little faster. But again, the sound kept pace. By now she wanted to go back to the ship, but she was actually closer to the entrance of the park where the station was.

  “It’s nothing,” she told herself uneasily in a low voice. “I’ll just keep walking—it’s probably just a wild animal. Probably just—”

  “It’s not nothing,” a deep, menacing voice said.

  To Mia’s horror, a man rose out of the bushes, glaring at her.

  “You…who…?” She couldn’t get the rest of the words out—her throat was too dry. She didn’t recognize the man, but he was big—not nearly as big as Trey but much bigger and stronger than her. He was wearing nondescript, dark gray clothing and he had black hair slicked back from his forehead. The expression on his face was cruel…and anticipatory.

  “You’re in trouble, sweetheart,” the man said with an evil grin. “So much trouble.”

  With a shriek, Mia’s paralysis broke and she ran.

  Trey actually smelled her fear before he heard the shriek.

  He’d been on his way from the transport station, arguing silently with his beast, which was becoming very impatient to meet Mia.

  “It’s not fair,” the beast was arguing. “You get to hold her and touch her all the time! Last night you comforted her when she was upset. I should have been the one to give comfort! I am covered all over in soft, warm fur. I could have wrapped myself around her and eased her pain.”

  “If you didn’t scare her half to death first,” Trey countered. “Look, I know you want to meet her, and you will. I’m just waiting for the right time. Besides, at least you got to taste her when I did.”

  “This is true—her honey is very sweet,” his other half admitted with a soft growl of pleasure.

  It was at that moment that a stray breeze from the forest came drifting past his nose and he scented the familiar, bitter odor of fear—Mia’s fear.

  Immediately his adrenaline spiked and the beast was much closer to the surface.

  “Where is she? What’s going on?” his other half demanded.

  “I don’t know but we’re going to find out,” Trey muttered.

  And that was when they heard the faint but piercing shriek—a cry of pure terror and it had come from Mia—Trey would have bet his life on it.

  “Now!” his beast roared, and Trey raced into the park in the direction of the shriek, following the scent trail of fear.

  The nearness of his beast and the speed it loaned him meant he was supernaturally fast. He was inside the canopy of trees so quickly that he would have seemed to be merely a blur if anyone was watching. Thankfully, they weren’t—not many got out for a stroll in the park so late in the day since it officially closed at sunset.

  Along with Mia’s fear scent, he smelled something else—another odor, this one filled with malice and hunger. It was the smell of a predator on the hunt for prey—prey it intends to devour.

  Trey ran nearly noiselessly through the trees, both scents getting stronger in his nostrils all the time, his beast roaring to be let out, saying he would kill whoever was menacing Mia, that he would rip them limb from limb…Trey could feel his hold on his other half weakening but he couldn’t worry about that now—they had to get to the woman they both loved—had to save her.

  At last he came around a copse of trees and saw her. She was backed up against one of the ancient old bota trees—the ones that lived a thousand years and grew a thousand miles, as local legend put it. The vast canopy of the tree’s branches spread out, blocking most of the dying sunlight that tried to filter through the broad leaves. But even in the deep gloom, Trey could read the terror in Mia’s face…and the hunger on her attacker’s.

  He had her shoved against the tree trunk with one big hand around her slender throat and his face was pushed into hers—so close their noses were almost touching—as he said something low and menacing that Trey couldn’t quite catch.

  Not that he was concentrating on what the attacker was saying. He was too filled with Rage—the state of berserker fury a Kindred warrior goes into when the female he loves is threatened—to focus on anything else.

  “Treygar,” the beast inside him growled. “You said you were waiting for the right time to let me meet Mia. That time is NOW!”

  And with a tremendous roar it burst out of him like a laser blast from a pulse pistol. Trey felt his body change…felt the fur flow over his skin and his limbs elongate while his teeth sharpened into fangs and his hands and feet became paws tipped with razor-sharp claws. Then he was a passenger in his own head, being carried along by the beast’s great strides as it sprang at Mia’s attacker.

  Mia saw the beast first. Her eyes grew wide and she gave a breathless, choked scream—all she could manage while the bastard was cutting off her air supply. Her attacker turned his head, following her gaze and his eyes widened in shock and awe as he saw the huge, tawny beast bounding towards him through the gloom.

  The beast opened his mouth in a roar that shook the forest.

  “Mia is mine—ours—and we protect what is ours! You will die—die—for daring to touch her!”

  Trey heard the words in the roar, but he doubted anyone else could. His beast was difficult for an outsider to understand even when he was calm and collected and right now he was in Rage.

  It was clear from the attacker’s face that he understood the intent, if not the words. He let go of Mia and stumbled backwards, his eyes getting wider as he tried to get away. But even if he had started sprinting at top speed instead of fumbling and bumbling around the forest in fear, he still wouldn’t have been able to win his freedom.

  The beast was on him in two bounds. Trey’s other half lunged at the attacker, bearing him to the ground with heavy paws as big as the man’s head. The beast stood on him, letting all his massive weight rest on the choking, gasping man’s chest and roared again, straight into his face.

  “You dare to touch her? I will kill you—kill you—for even coming near her! You will die this day—make peace with your God if you have one!”

  “No…no, please!” the man choked, terrified. Trey smelled the rank odor of urine as his bladder let go in the sheer extremity of his terror. “Please!” he gasped. Please, no! Pl—”

  And then the beast lowered his massive, shaggy head and bit the man’s throat out with one lazy crunch.

  The pleadings turned to gurgles and the gurgles to silence after that. The beast nosed at the attacker, making sure he was really dead, and then spat out the chunk it had torn from his throat and wiped his mouth on the grass, getting rid of the traces of blood around his muzzle. Trey’s other half had no taste for sentient beings, preferring to hunt only mindless animals on the rare occasions they went hunting.

  Now that the threat was neutralized, the red curtain of Rage that had fallen over his vision began to clear and Trey began to come back to himself. A soft, terrified sob behind them reminded him that Mia was still out here and probably scared to death.

  At once, his beast turned to go to
her.

  “No!” he shouted at his other half. “No, she just saw him rip out that male’s throat! She’s going to be terrified of you! Go behind the bushes so we can change back and I can comfort her.”

  But what he got back from the beast was a solid wall of stubbornness.

  “No. It’s not fair—you always get to comfort her. I will be the comforter this time.”

  All of Trey’s shouting and begging and pleading did no good—the beast was determined. He couldn’t force a change either—the beast was too strong in its stubborn determination to let him get even halfway there. So he was stuck, pacing towards Mia in the big body along with his other half, wondering if they were going to give the female they both loved a heart attack.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Mia couldn’t believe what was happening. She remained frozen in horror, the rough bark of the tree digging into her back and shoulder blades, as she watched the huge, maned beast kill the man who had been threatening her with one snap of its deadly jaws. She knew she ought to run but she couldn’t—she was frozen in place and couldn’t tear her eyes off the bloody spectacle.

  It’s a targen—a huge one, she thought, feeling sick. Where did it come from? Oh my God, it’s going to eat him. And then it’s going to eat me!

  Indeed, the tawny targen-creature was so huge it could easily have eaten both her and her attacker and still had room for more. But instead of tearing into the dead flesh of the man it had just killed, the giant targen spat out the mouthful it had taken almost delicately and bent to wipe its massive muzzle on the grass, as though it wanted to clean away every last trace of blood. The move was strangely fastidious—something a person would do, not a wild animal. When it straightened up, it gave the corpse what almost appeared to be a look of distain.

  Then it turned its head towards Mia and looked her straight in the eyes.

  Mia’s heart caught in her throat and she felt cold all over. Her palms began to sweat, and her heart was beating so hard she could feel it in every part of her body at once, shaking her almost like an internal drumbeat that only she could hear.

  The massive targen came towards her, padding silently on giant velvet paws. It came until he was right in front of her. Even though Mia was still standing and it was on all fours, its head was level with hers.

  And still it held her gaze, it’s glowing, golden eyes staring into hers.

  “Please,” Mia whispered, her voice squeezed tight though a throat too dry to talk. She raised a hand to fend it off—though how she could fend off a massive carnivore so big it could eat her in two bites she didn’t know.

  The giant targen moved its huge head towards her hand and for a moment she was certain it would bite the extremity off and she would be left staring at a bloody stump. But to her surprise, it didn’t bare a single tooth at her. Instead it ducked its massive face and bumped up against her palm, almost like a felinis asking to be stroked.

  “You…you want me to pet you?” Mia whispered uncertainly. “Is…is that what you want?”

  In answer, the huge head nudged her hand again and she found that her fingers were moving through its long, golden mane. It had a warm, wild smell that was somehow familiar and as she stroked it a rusty, rumbling sound came from its furry throat.

  It took Mia a moment to understand what was happening—the huge targen was actually purring.

  “Oh,” she whispered weakly. “Good…good kitty.”

  And then it was all too much. The sudden attack…the awful run through the forest…watching her attacker get killed…being confronted with this huge beast which seemed somehow to like her though she had no idea why…

  I must be dreaming, Mia thought distantly. That’s it—I’m sleeping safely in Treygar’s arms and we’re back in the big bed in his ship and none of this is real…none of it…

  Then the world went gray and fuzzy and she felt herself sliding down the tree trunk because her legs wouldn’t hold her anymore. She was dimly aware that the rough bark digging into her mostly bare back hurt quite badly but it was an academic knowledge—a distant reality that didn’t seem to apply to her, somehow.

  I’m fainting, she thought inanely. I don’t think I’ve ever fainted before.

  The huge targen lowered its head and nudged her anxiously, making a distressed rumble in its shaggy throat.

  “Sorry,” Mia tried to tell it, though she wasn’t sure if the words were coming out of her mouth or if she was just thinking them in her head. “Sorry, I can’t help it. I can’t…”

  And then everything went black and she knew no more.

  “Now look what you’ve done—she’s fainted! I told you that you would scare her to death,” Trey scolded his other half as the beast whined uneasily and nudged Mia’s limp shape with its nose.

  “But she liked me—I could tell! She was stroking my mane!” the beast protested.

  “Because she was frightened to do anything else! She thought you’d bite her head off if she refused to pet you,” Trey accused. He knew he probably wasn’t being completely fair to his other half but he was angry and worried about the female they both loved.

  “I didn’t mean to scare her. I LOVE her.” The beast sounded so remorseful now that Trey couldn’t help the twinge of sympathy he felt for the big creature.

  “I know you do—we both do,” he told his other half. “But right now, I’m the only one who can help her. Let’s change back so I can examine her.”

  This time the beast put up no resistance. They changed places at once and Trey found himself in his own naked body, (because of course his clothes and boots had been ruined by the sudden shift) crouching over Mia’s inert form. Luckily, they were deep in the woods, in a private part of the park so he didn’t have to worry about his state of undress and had time to look her over for injuries.

  He checked her pulse and breathing and was relieved to see that both were normal and steady. A quick physical exam revealed that she had some bruises on her neck where the bastard had choked her and a few scratches on her back from the tree bark which he healed quickly and cleanly with a swipe of his tongue. But these superficial injuries were not what he was most concerned with.

  Carefully, he lifted her skirt. A rush of relief filled him when he saw that her panties appeared to be in place and there were no marks on her thighs. So if rape had been the bastard’s intent, he hadn’t managed it before the beast had caught up with him. Trey sighed and smoothed the skirt of her dress back down.

  He was grateful she hadn’t been raped but even though she had avoided a sexual assault, he was afraid this violent encounter was going to scar Mia deeply. She had just been coming out of her shell—beginning to be less like the timid little mouse she’d seemed when he first found her, always looking over her shoulder for the agents of The EYE or whoever it was that she still feared in the People’s Republic.

  Now she would be frightened and mistrustful all over again and who could blame her? How could she ever feel safe again if she couldn’t even come out of her own home and walk through the park to meet him at the station without being attacked?

  Trey felt a surge of anger and wished he could kill the man his beast had killed all over again. Slowly this time because having his throat ripped out was too good for him—too fast a death after the irreparable harm he had done to Mia.

  “Going into Rage again won’t help Mia,” his beast reminded him from within. “Hadn’t you better get her home to our domicile before someone comes by and gets the wrong impression? After all, you’re bare without your clothes—since you don’t have a nice warm fur coat like me. And humanoids are so funny about seeing other people bare. They might think you hurt Mia.”

  Trey had to admit his other half was right. He lifted Mia gently in his arms and walked quickly in the direction of the ship, finding his way unerringly by smell and by the virtue of his sharp night vision, since the sun had mostly set by now. He would get Mia home and make her comfortable. When she woke, he would hold her and try to ease he
r fears. And he would promise her that he would never let anything like this happen again.

  It was all he could do.

  When Mia woke, she was in a darkened room and she still felt dizzy.

  “What…where am I?” Her voice was a croak and she realized that her throat hurt as though someone had been choking her.

  Wait a minute—choking her? Had someone been choking her?

  Slowly, dim images began to form in her mind…a man in the bushes chasing her…catching her and holding her by the throat. He had said something, but Mia couldn’t remember…didn’t want to remember what it was he had said. And then the huge targen bounding out of nowhere, knocking him down, biting his throat out…and then coming over to her but not to bite…to be stroked…petted….

  But that couldn’t be right—it must be a dream. Everything she’d experienced must be a dream. The huge beast in her mind’s eye put the lie to everything else she thought she had experienced. The man who ran after her…the things that he’d said to her…they must all be a dream—there was no other explanation.

  Mia felt a rush of relief at the thought. If it hadn’t been real then—the things he had said weren’t true. They couldn’t be.

  “Hey, how are you feeling?”

  A large shape sat down beside her in the darkness. Mia felt the bed dip with his weight and she gasped in fear, thinking for a moment that the giant targen had come back.

  But the next moment a familiar hand was stroking her hair and a familiar deep voice was murmuring, “Hey now, little one. It’s all right…it’s just me.”

  “Trey?” Her voice trembled and she reached out a shaky hand to touch him.

  “Right here, little one.” He gripped her hand firmly, reassuringly. “How are you? You’ve been out for over an hour.”