“You make the most exquisite sounds when you’re hurt, Xariana.” Pain washed through me, stealing my strength as I drifted on a sea of agony. “That’s it, let me in.”
I slammed my mental walls shut and doubled my fight. I wasn’t dying like this. I wouldn’t go silently into the night while this sadistic prick got off on hurting me. I ignited my power, sending needles of red-hot pain to my assailant. He hissed, which was the only indication he’d felt my attack.
Blinking, I swallowed the bile that was trying to escape my lips. I crawled away, unable to stand as the world swam around me. My vision blurred, threatening to turn black as consciousness abandoned me. Dark, velvety laughter filled the forest, and my strength waned as twigs broke the skin on my hands and knees while I tried to retreat.
The creature yanked my hair once more, forcing me to grab onto it to prevent it from being ripped out. I touched his hands, and he hissed at the contact. Shocks rushed through me, and then something else, something foreign, collided inside of me. The being released me abruptly, but the pain in my spine continued. It was as if poison was rushing through my skin, burning the tissue in its wake.
I heard feet crunching over the vegetation of the forest floor behind me, alerting me that he was following my clumsy attempt to escape him. I’d never lost a fight, and I didn’t intend on doing so today. Reaching into my waistband, I withdrew my gun and turned back toward the direction of the noise.
Nothing was visible inside the wooded area other than trees. I squeezed the trigger, firing blindly around me. A grunt sounded, and I watched as blood dripped to the ground in front of me. My eyes rounded, and then he slammed me into the dirt, hard. My head bounced, causing my teeth to clatter together. The body that landed on top of mine was solid and unmoving as an elbow pushed against my throat, preventing air from reaching my lungs.
“That wasn’t nice. Now was it?” he purred angrily.
My eyes swam with stars, blinding my vision. One of the creature’s hands moved to my stomach, pushing nails through the flesh on my hips. I opened my mouth to scream, but no sound escaped. His heated breath fanned my cheek, and then just as abruptly as it started, it ended.
“Run, little hunter, before I change my mind and end you here and now,” it growled through a multilayered voice.
Turning onto my hands and knees, I forced my abused body off the ground, moving away from the unknown creature. Unfortunately, I didn’t make it very far before the pain became too much, and my legs gave out as everything swam around me.
When I came to, I slowly blinked at the sight of my jeep. Rising again, I grabbed my head, fighting the agony and dizziness as I fished through my pocket for the keys. I opened the door and shook out of my backpack, sliding it onto the passenger seat.
Lowering the driver’s visor, I stared at my battered face in the mirror. I looked like I’d fought an entire pack of wolves instead of one. Whatever attacked me, it had merely been playing with me. If it had wanted me dead, I’d have been so.
Dialing the guild’s number, I struggled with the nausea swimming through me. Then, reaching down to my stomach, I lifted my shirt to look at my wound, discovering wispy black swirls of what appeared to be ink.
Starting the jeep, I leaned against the headrest, hearing my father’s voice coming through the speakers.
“Xari? Is that you?” he sounded worried. I hadn’t been checking in over the last week. Instead, I’d been entering my coordinates, allowing him to track my movement that way.
“Hey, old man,” I muttered through the debilitating pain.
“Where the hell have you been?” he demanded, not bothering with small talk.
“Oh, you know, around,” I whispered, smiling as he swore violently.
We had an agreement, one that I’d never broken until recently. Shit had changed, though, and I’d changed, too. My father was forced to play devil’s advocate between my ex, Micah, and me, and I’d lost. I didn’t envy him playing referee, but in the end, I’d chosen to leave, and he had to accept that as my employer and father.
“Dammit, Kid. Get your ass back here, now. The supes are acting strange, and we’ve got an unprecedented number of attacks happening here. I need my fucking hunters back at base, and I need you to pull your head out of your ass for a minute and see the bigger picture.”
“I’m coming, but I won’t be staying. You can’t ask me to stay there with Micah and—her,” I muttered through clenched teeth. “I was attacked on a hunt, so I’ll head in to get patched up. After that, you can assign me elsewhere.”
“Xariana, I need you here. You’re my fucking daughter, dammit. Get your ass home, and we’ll discuss this. How badly hurt are you?” he asked, pressing the phone to his shoulder as he shouted orders to someone beside him.
“I’m not sure,” I admitted. “I don’t even know what the fuck attacked me, but it kicked my ass. If it intended to kill me, I’d be dead, Dad. Have Bali ready for medical to check me out, yeah?” I swallowed, putting the jeep into drive before pulling onto the road.
“He’ll be ready to receive you, Kid.”
I cut the call to focus on my driving. By the time I reached the city, the sun had gone down. Traffic was near zilch, and there wasn’t a pedestrian in sight, which had my hackles up. I pulled in front of the guild, peering through the jeep’s window, noting that the entire block was dark, as if there was a power outage. Exiting the vehicle, I moved toward the gate to slip past the wrought iron fencing, but a whoosh of otherworldly power erupted around me.
My father turned, staring at me as his mouth opened to yell out in warning. Only, it never escaped his throat. Vehicles exploded inside the gates, imploding as metal crunched and screamed in protest.
Icy fingers of dread wrapped around me, and a shiver rushed down my spine. I glanced about the courtyard, staring at the lifeless bodies littering the ground. The air grew even thicker with power, and then everything moved in slow motion.
Beings appeared from thin air, surrounding my father as a pair of startling amber eyes locked with mine. Silver hair wafted in the wind, and all sound was sucked from the world. Slowly, I started toward the creature as if drawn by an unseen thread. My hand lifted to touch the gates, but then the sounds came rushing back as another explosion ignited beyond the gate.
I watched in horror as my father vanished, and the rest of the vehicles inside the courtyard erupted. My body jerked, thrown backward by the blast before I slammed into something, and everything went dark.
Chapter Two
The sound of machines beeping brought me back to the surface. An intense ache laced through my head, and I groaned, trying to sit up as someone gently pushed me down, forcing me to remain in place. I screamed past the red-hot pain that burned through me at the wound in my side. Lifting my hands, I fought to remove the ones touching me, too sensitive to handle them on my flesh.
“Xariana, stop fighting us,” Noah’s stern tone brushed my mind, and I rounded my eyes on him. “We got you, Xari. You’re okay,” he promised.
I struggled to remember what had happened. My right side was on fire, and I could feel the fever ravishing throughout my system. The amber-colored eyes of the being that stood beside my dad flashed in my memory, and I turned to Noah, fighting the fear that threatened to swallow me whole.