by K. C. Hamby
She shakes her head, seemingly shaking the nerves out, and I hear the silver beads in her two strands of dreaded hair clink together. Her eyes drift over to me and I smile encouragingly. Her lips tilt up ever so slightly and she rolls her shoulders back, leaning closer to the mic.
“So, um, this is called ‘Wild’,” her shaky voice announces. She takes a deep breath and flawlessly tells a story with her memorized words.
“I threw my bones to the wolf, wanting something in return, but all I got were lonely howls at a moon that wasn’t me,” she breathes, and my face grows hot. This is about me. Her voice rises and falls as she articulates and weaves our story into the mic.
“It was something I couldn’t see, and you couldn’t do anything but flee when I tried to be your mate, your friend, or even just another body to howl with you so late at night so you wouldn’t be so lonely, but only…you wouldn’t let me. You were fighting it, igniting a fire in me I didn’t know I had buried down deep. I wouldn’t sleep without thinking your name or if I was to blame for the situation I was in, wrapped in a warm blanket of solitude that would only constrict when I tried to find you and break free. It was suffocating me, and I was gasping for air that could be tainted with even the slightest scent of you.” She moves her arms around, punctuating her words with her hands. I’m so mesmerized and astounded she felt this way. That I made her feel this way.
“Finally, the coiled blanket released me and pulled both of us from the dark woods of mental monsters and despair. We were no longer lone wolves searching for a match to our pair, you were there pulling me into the light of the moon. That’s when I realized you weren’t howling for her; the moon I mean. You were calling for me, using her light to see; to guide your lonely soul to arms that could hold you like I can; a soul that can match the wildness in you and run in the dark right along with you.” She locks eyes with me. “Well, baby. It turns out, I’m wild too.”
She stops speaking and just stares at me with want and…love? The bar breaks out in snaps and Nina smiles and bows her head once before leaving the stage and striding over to me. I stand and catch her lips with mine before she can say anything.
“You are amazing.” I pull back and gaze at her. She grins so wide and I want to love her for the rest of eternity just so I can see this smile.
“I did it,” she whispers.
“You did and I’m very proud of you, Nina.”
Fiery hair gets back on stage and concludes the night with a poem of her own, but I tune her out and focus all my attention on Nina. We file out of the bar with people who were obviously only there for the poetry and I catch sight of someone familiar. I stop in my tracks and look at the figure leaning against the wall outside of the bar. She’s small and ginger-haired with thin, smiling lips, talking to her friends, but I don’t pay attention to them.
I walk in her direction, not knowing exactly what I have planned, but going with it anyway. I hear Nina calling my name behind me in a confused voice, but I’m too honed in on this girl. I walk right up to her and stand there, staring like a moron. She turns her head to me with uncertainty in her deep brown eyes.
“Uh, do I know you?” Tilting her head to the side, her brows furrow at me, confused.
“Tonya.” I hear Nina walk up behind me. “You’re Tonya.”
“Is that a question?” I shake my head and decide to stop being weird. Her friends are giving me strange looks. I cut my eyes at them.
Ah, fuck it.
“You may not recognize me, but I remember you. I wasn’t able to tell you my name last time we saw each other.” I stare into her dark, fresh mud colored eyes and I’m reminded of the name I gave her: Hope. Her head jerks back in surprise and tears brim in her eyes. She moves closer and reaches toward me. I can sense Nina tense and I smell protectiveness in her scent, but I don’t stop Tonya from doing whatever she’s going to do. She pushes my hair behind my shoulders and covers my eyes with her small, cold hand. She gasps and jerks it away like I’ve burned her.
“Oh, my god.” She covers her mouth with both of her palms and sobs. “Oh, my god,” she whispers and suddenly throws her arms around me, and I almost fall over from lack of anticipation. “Thank you. Oh, god. Thank you so much!” She pulls back, and those tears are now streaming down her clean and healthy face. “You’re my hero.”
“Nah,” I reply, tears welling. “I’m Fal.”
***
After a teary goodbye from Tonya—okay, and me—Nina and I set off in the direction of her apartment. It’ll take us a little while to get there since we are walking, but my spirits are high. I can’t believe I saw her again.
I don’t know why I did it. I just needed to. She’s alive and healthy. Because of me. It’s not like we were best friends, but something about her made me care for her. I didn’t realize how bad I wanted to know how she was until I saw her again. It makes me feel less monster-like and more kind-of-okay-person-like.
Nina is still exuding protectiveness and a hint of jealousy has mixed with her scent. “So, who was that?” It sounds like she’s accusing me of something, but I know she’s not trying to. She crosses her arms over her chest and waits for a reply.
“That’s Tonya,” I say lamely.
“Yeah, I got that much.”
“Nina, she’s one of the five girls,” I whisper. Her face crinkles in concentration and then her eyes nearly pop out of her head.
“Holy shit, no way!”
“Yeah, I don’t know why I did it. I just couldn’t believe it when I saw her. It makes me believe what I do isn’t all terrible.”
“Of course not, Fal. I’ve told you you’re a hero. You’re definitely mine,” she coos, and pinches my side. I giggle, sounding like a little child.
We grow silent and that’s when I realize the street we are on is deserted and deathly quiet. It’s decently late, but not late enough for a street in Seattle to be empty. This is unnatural.
Hair stands up on the back of my neck and my senses go on high alert. My eyes dilate, looking for the danger I can sense in my bones.
Nina opens her mouth to say something and I cover her mouth and pull her to a stop against a brick wall of a building. I hold my finger up to my lips, indicating for her to stay quiet. Her eyes are wide and full of terror and confusion.
I turn my full focus back on the street and push Nina behind me as I scan the area. I hear something—or more like someone—in the alley we just walked by.
Someone is coming.
I push my chest up against Nina and press her as close to the wall as possible. “Listen to me,” I whisper harshly and she nods eagerly. “We are about to be attacked.” She digs her nails into my arm. “Do not run. I can’t protect you if you run. Stay against the wall behind me. If someone grabs you, fight them.” I drill my gaze into her eyes, trying to make her understand the severity of the situation. She nods quickly, determination covering her face. “Text Ash our location. Nothing else. Do it, now,” I command and turn around, pinning her to the wall once more. She sends the text and I pull my knife out of my boot as soon as a Poacher comes around the corner, ready for a fight. My canines extend, but I’m not afraid. I’m in control and I’m about to unleash the wolf on her ass. I snarl in warning—sounding vicious like the Alpha female I am—at the blonde-haired woman. Her hair is pulled up in a tight bun, showing off the double scythe tattoo on the back of her neck. She’s older, maybe in her forties and her dark, brown eyes are filled with malice.
“Ah, there you are, Reaper,” she sings in a haughty voice accompanied by a smile straight from Tartarus.
“Move along, Poacher.” I growl, the words are filled with venom. Nina tenses behind me and I growl again. “We aren’t here to make friends and I’m not in the mood to play nice.” She raises an eyebrow and pulls a sickle from a holster on her side. I snarl so loud, it echoes down the empty street.
“Good. Neither am I.” She lunges at me full force and slices the sickle through the air. I dodge to the side and stay low.
She sends the sickle whirring toward my legs. I jump over the curved blade, land, and front kick the bitch in the gut. The air leaves her as she doubles over. I turn the blade of my knife to the sky and shove it into her stomach with a grunt. I yank the blade out and push the woman to the ground and turn to find another, younger Poacher coming at Nina. Nina balls her fists and protects her head, waiting for an opening to strike the girl. She lands a blow straight on the Poacher’s face and I hear her nose snap like a twig.
I go to help her, but the Poacher I stabbed grabs my ankles, making me fall on my stomach with my face smacking the ground.
I am about goddamn tired of my face being marked up.
I flip myself over and yank a foot out of her grip. I plant a solid kick to her face and bones snap, crackle, and pop all over her head. But, she keeps grabbing me! She’s yanking at my leg, trying to get some traction and pull herself on top of me. I plant another kick on her forehead and she falls over, dazed and bloody.
I crawl on top of her and plunge my knife into her throat. She gurgles something that kind of sounds like “burn in hell,” but I’m already up and running to Nina who is trapped between the wall and a sharp knife held by the Poacher.
Nina manages to pull her leg in between them and kick the Poacher off her, landing another solid blow to her face with a left hook. The Poacher stands up, wheezing from the kick and stumbling from the hook and, before I can stop it—uppercuts Nina in her stomach. I snarl and lunge for the Poacher as Nina doubles over, but the Poacher is yanked away from her.
I turn to find Ash dragging her away as she screams in defiance. He grabs each side of her head and twists hard, breaking her neck and killing her. She crumples to the ground and I squat in front of a red-faced Nina, brushing her disarrayed hair out of her face.
“Are you okay?” Her eyes are as glazed over as doughnuts. She doesn’t answer me, but instead turns her attention to Ash.
“How did you get here so fast?” Her voice is husky from the blow to her stomach. Ash looks up from the body on the ground and his hair falls in his eyes. He looks simultaneously deadly and pissed off.
“I was in the neighborhood. What the hell happened?” He aims the question at me and I sigh, wiping the blood from my face, courtesy of the cement.
“I don’t know. We were walking back to Nina’s and the one I was fighting,” I point at her over my shoulder, “comes out of nowhere. I get into it with her, but I guess she was just a distraction so the other one could grab Nina. I don’t think she was expecting a fight.” I smile at Nina, but she’s got a faraway emptiness to her eyes.
“I’m impressed.” Ash laughs awkwardly, but Nina doesn’t react. He cuts his eyes to me in a concerned question.
I shrug. “Ash, that woman kept coming. I broke every bone in her face, but she didn’t lose any strength. They are getting stronger somehow,” I whisper as I remember the blow to my head in the alley last night. His eyes become angry and he throws a muttered ‘fuck’ into the air.
“Look, I’ll clean up here. You get her home and let me know if you need anything. We can talk about this later.”
“Thanks, Ash.” I help Nina up and gesture for her to start walking. She stays close to me and keeps quiet the entire walk back to her apartment. Twenty minutes of tense silence lingers between us. She doesn’t touch me once, which sends my mind into a downward spiral. She’s seen me kill someone. What if she doesn’t want to do this? This is what terrified me. I know she said it was fine and she was okay with who I am, but she hadn’t seen it in action until tonight. I wouldn’t blame her if she decided she couldn’t handle this after all. I probably looked like a crazed murderer or something from her nightmares.
When we step into her apartment, I lock the door behind us and beeline for the bathroom to clean the blood off my face. She probably needs a moment to herself and looking at the blood all over me probably won’t help calm her down.
I clean the cuts and apologize to my scar for the hell it’s gone through recently. I glare at my bright amber eye and milky gray one as the glow behind them fades. I’m rationalizing with myself, wanting to prepare myself for the worst, but I don’t think anything could get me ready for Nina telling me she doesn’t want to be with me anymore. I take a deep, rattling breath and walk out.
I find her standing in the kitchen staring absently at nothing. I unhurriedly walk up to her and pull at the hem of her shirt. Her eyes focus on me. “I need to look at your stomach, Nina.” Remembering the Poacher hitting her is enough to make my blood boil, but she took it like a champ. She nods her head and I pull her shirt up.
I hold in my growl. I don’t want to scare her, but her stomach is bruising already. Are those Poachers shooting steroids or something? I stand straight and grab Nina’s shoulders. She’s back to dazed mode. “Nina, look at me.” She focuses her blue gems again. “Are you okay?”
“No, Fal. You don’t understand.” My heart falls to the floor. “I’m okay with what just happened. I’ll admit, I’m a bit stunned to see someone be…uh..well, you know.” She gestures to her stomach, “I’ve been hit before. Granted, probably not that hard. But I’m fine. Because of you.”
Uh, what? “I don’t understand,” I whisper, affirming her accusation of misunderstanding.
“I knew I would be okay because you were there. I trusted you.” She grabs my hands and squeezes. “I do trust you.” She breathes like it’s obvious.
I squeeze back, but then fear creeps into her eyes. “I wasn’t scared at all. Okay, maybe at first.” She ducks her head. “But, now I’m terrified for other reasons.”
Oh, goddess. No.
“What are you afraid of? You know I’ll protect you from anything.” My voice cracks and Nina shakes her head. I think I may pass out.
“You can’t protect me from this, Fal.”
“Please, Nina. What is it?” She tilts my chin up. I didn’t realize I was staring at the floor.
“Fal, I’m in love with you.”
I suck in a breath of disbelief and my heart seems to stutter for a moment. Her body shakes and a single, lonely tear escapes the corner of her eye. I place my hands on both sides of her head and wipe the tear away with my thumb. Understanding clicks. She’s scared I won’t love her back.
“Oh, Nina,” I whisper and my voice quakes. “I love you. With everything I have. Oh, goddess, I love you.” She smiles so beautifully as more tears fall, but I think they are the good kind and also, they may be contagious. Tears of my own snake down from my eyes.
She leans forward and kisses me and every bit of love she has warms in her lips. I pull her closer, causing a fire in my soul to explode, leaving me burning for her. She pulls back and stares at me as if asking ‘did you feel that, too?’
The fire is going to take me down if I don’t do something now.
She reaches back and flips off the lights. We are immersed in darkness, but I can see just fine. I can make out every freckle, every soft line, every wild hair falling around her blush-colored face. Her eyes are different though. It’s as if they are glowing and burning with need and desperation.
I need her.
My lips slam into hers, and I taste her tongue on mine, wanting more and more and more. I moan quietly into her mouth and grab her waist, picking her up. Her legs wrap around me while I slide my hands beneath her shirt, caressing the satin-like skin on the small of her back. The kiss never breaks, even though I have no idea what I’m doing. Instinct takes over and I carry her over to the bed, tenderly lying her down. I crawl on top of her as she moves to put herself fully on the mattress; I don’t want to stop touching her. I press my full bodyweight down, pushing our bodies together. Her heart beats fast against my chest.
Nina grabs at my shirt and swiftly pulls it over my head. My hair falls to one side as I look down at her chest rising and falling beneath me. I wrap my arm around her waist and pull her off the bed, taking her shirt off and throwing it to the floor before I can overanalyze what I’m doing. Goddess, she is beau
tiful. Her pale skin calls to me. I softly kiss the spot where she is bruising from the hit and she arches her back, pushing herself against me.
She grabs my neck and flips me over on my back faster than I can react. The soft sheets rub across my bare lower back, causing tingles to creep up my spine as well as other, unexplored places. Nina pulls my face to hers and seizes my mouth with her pouty lips and sweet tongue. Her hands trail down my stomach, leaving burning skin in their wake. She unbuttons my jeans and pulls them off gracefully. I try to do the same to hers, but I’m fumbling because the nerves are catching up with me. She stands on the floor and takes them off herself and I blush, raking my eyes down and up and up and down, taking in her curves and lack of clothing.
She crawls back on top of me, straddling my hips, pushing hers down on me, making me moan and go crazy with need. She pulls me up with promises of her tongue dancing across mine. She swiftly puts her fingers beneath my sports bra and tugs it over my head in one, fluid motion. Her breath, her lips, her tongue touches my bare skin and goosebumps explode all over me. She pulls back, catching me in her gaze and reaches behind her back agonizingly slow and unclasps her bra, pulling it off and dropping it to the floor. My eyes drop lazily over her body, finding more freckles mapping a path I want to travel down.
I sit up and pull Nina on top of me, her legs locking around my waist as I embrace the skin of her neck with my lips. A moan escapes from her mouth, making me move down to her chest. I nip at her gently between hard kisses as she rubs her fingers through my hair. My tongue drags across the peaks of her breasts and she digs her fingernails into my back. She presses a hand on my chest, forcing me to my back on the soft sheets and she untangles her legs from my waist.