I only stood there, paralyzed, as the shadow forced Terian to the pine-carpeted ground. It knelt on his chest, holding his forehead with pale fingers. I still stood there, watching, as it cut directly into Terian’s throat with the same, sharp object, sawing through cartilage and flesh above a bucking, writhing body, finishing the job with a methodicalness that bordered on rote. A fountain of blood pulsed up, dark in the moonlight, splattering his hands, face, and chest. Watching it, smelling it, brought bile to my throat in a thick rush.
I was panting, breathing too much, my back against the tree. It felt like all the blood in my body now sat pooled in my feet.
When it finished its task, the shadow straightened as if pulled vertical by steel cables.
“We cannot stay here,” he said.
I screamed. I must have screamed again, but before I could get too far into it, he threw himself forward in a crouch, clamping a sticky hand roughly over my mouth.
“Sleep,” he commanded. “Sleep now.”
The trees, the rain and the dead body disappeared.
Nine by Night: A Multi-Author Urban Fantasy Bundle of Kickass Heroines, Adventure, Magic
5
BARRIER
Time passed. I didn’t know how much.
For a long time, I wasn’t thinking enough, in straight enough lines, to even care.
I didn’t question the motion of the car at first.
It was kind of soothing, even if I struggled finding a comfortable resting place for my arms. A bump in the road brought my eyes abruptly open. Sky through a dirty windshield showed the faint pink and gold of pre-dawn.
The silhouette of a saint statue broke my view. It was glued to the dashboard above an old-fashioned FM radio with silver knobs.
My eyes traveled left, meeting an angular profile framed by black hair matted to a pale neck. Almond-shaped eyes sat above high cheekbones, taking in the road. He had the beginnings of five o’clock shadow. Flecks of a familiar-looking brown stained his shirt, which bulged from a crude, homemade bandage on his shoulder.
Feeling my stare, he turned. His eyes appeared cold even in the morning sun.
I tried to raise a hand...
And the motion of my arm was abruptly stopped.
I stared down at the handcuffs for a full minute before the reality of them penetrated. It struck me that my wrists were bare apart from the metal rings; the GPS was gone. My eyes traveled lower, completing their tour down to my ankles, which were bound with hard plastic, like those tie-binders they used on reality cop shows. Leaning back, I used my weight to try and budge the only object I thought I had some chance of influencing, namely the plastic armrest.#p#分页标题#e#
When it stayed firmly affixed to the door, I looked up at him again, saw him watching me.
His eyes shimmered. I translated their expression as disinterested puzzlement.
He didn’t try to stop me as I continued to test my limits of motion. My whole body hurt; I was bruised, dirty and half-naked under the dog-smelling blanket. My throat hurt, I was so thirsty. My neck had crimped while I slept against the car door. I thought about my mom in a kind of blurred panic. I started to scream, but that got a reaction from him.
“Be silent!” His words and accent jarred me.
When I shut up, his eyes lowered, along with his voice.
“Don’t make me knock you unconscious.” He shifted in his seat, as if uncomfortable, or maybe just hearing his own words. “I would rather not.”
Hesitating, he glanced at my wrists.
My eyes started their waterworks thing. I couldn’t help myself. “Please don’t kill me,” I said. “Mom’s not even over dad yet...she’d never be able to handle this. She might really kill herself, I mean it...”
His gaze drifted out the window. He seemed to sigh.
“Please! Mister, I...” My cheeks burned before I’d even said it. “I was always supportive of seer’s rights,” I ventured. “I was never one of the ones who—”
He laughed, startling me into silence.
Unsure how to go on from that, I was still fumbling with words when he turned, his eyes like two flat stones.
“I do not wish to kill you,” he said. “I am sorry for your mother. I truly am. There is nothing I can do.”
I absorbed his words. I felt the blood slide from the veins in my face when it occurred to me that he really wasn’t letting me go. With the GPS gone, even the cops wouldn’t know where I was, but clearly, they’d be looking for me. I glanced out the dusty windows in a kind of desperation, but only saw a semi-truck a few hundred yards ahead.
When a car began to pass a lane over, I shrieked, banging on the glass.
He grabbed my arm, forcing me around, so that I faced him. The strength behind his fingers made my muscles lock.