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My eyes flit between my mirrors as I careen backwards, to watching the sides, looking for Alex, or something like him.
It doesn’t take long to spot it.
He’s an ugly bastard, but it isn’t Alex. Upright, it looks like a dog on two legs, but a short snout, the ears are low on the side of its head.
It blends with the other dogs when it drops down and I lose track of it while watching the trailer winding behind me.
“Fuck! Cap! Tell them to shoot! Kill that fucker!” It’s crouching on the upturned side of the jeep, wrenching the door open. Another flurry of gunfire knocks a dog back, but another takes its place.
The guard gets ripped from the vehicle. They’re dragging him through the street back to where the horde had appeared from. The half-breed reaches in, and when he straightens, the horizon tips sideways. Gravity loses its hold on me as I see Dani’s limp body being jerked from the open door.
“Don’t shoot! Don’t shoot her!” he yells into the radio.
My heart is ripped from my chest, and is bouncing on the back of the massive creature carrying my wife through the throng of writhing dogs.
Chapter thirty-four
ALEXANDER
Icanhearthescreams of my dogs as the helicopter hovers nearby, releasing troops onto a nearby building. The fighting draws nearer as the sounds of the chopper fades into the distance. Gunfire and howls of pain punctuate the morning air. Into the alley near my domain the battle finally wanes, a lone survivor neutralized.
A signal from me has them dragging the spoils for my inspection.
Her mangled arm dangles beneath her. My dogs stretch her legs, delicate ribbons of flesh threading into their snarling mouths.
The blood pools in a shimmering dark mirror, rippling with her heavy breathing. Dark accents mark the thickened edges, the clots decorating the uneven areas of the floor.
Her defiant jaw I find intriguing. This woman who recklessly charged in, fighting to the end, and now she will succumb to me. I will show her.
Her scent is palpable. Hot. Musty. Cigarettes. But, I cannot scent her fear.
Interesting.
I want her fear. Tasting her sweaty flesh, the smooth skin of her cheek rolls under my rough tongue.
The simmer of a growl stirs unbidden from my bowels. Her adamant rejection of fear perplexes and infuriates me.
Grabbing the dark hat frees her hair to my claws. A white shock within blond pushes from where it was nestled.
I know her. She was once mine. My most prized possession.
“Hiya, Alex,” she sneers. “Bet you didn’t expect me?”
Hot weight of betrayal settles into my limbs. Memories of a night so long ago flicker in snapshots, the unexpected attack, the pain I felt at her loss, the sorrow of searching the streets for her. Finally, agony as fire ripped through my head before everything went dark.
She caused me to lose years. Years of beauty and symphonies of pain that she denied me.
Anger boils a sulphuric geyser until I cannot contain the roar that flutters the marked hair I once coveted. The fear that was missing now shows its pale face, a grimace at the realization she has lost.
Another pack of my dogs return victorious. One of the traps I have set seems to have worked.
Ignorant humans, creatures of habit. Sticking to the main roads in their travels. They still aren’t learning that my communication network exceeds theirs.
Parading their spoils before me, I send the four men to be held in the adjoining building for later meals. The unconscious woman has the familiar ticking sound that sends her into the pen my queen loves to attend. Her choice of past times is fraternizing with the breeders.
Now for this one. My soured prize. The rotten apple I had once thought golden. She will not stay.
Twice I’ve caught her, but only once will she escape.