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Marinah

“A little gentleness goes a long way,” I ground out between my very human teeth.

I had shifted from Warrior form as soon as we entered the citadel. I couldn’t stand the sensation of walking across the tile floor with three-inch claws jutting from my feet. King always laughed at me whenever I grumbled about it. Of course, he’d had more time to grow accustomed to his Beast form, which stood three feet taller than our human one. And then there was the whole jaw situation. His looked like an alligator’s. Mine just looked monstrous. Add the stiff bristles of inch-long hair that covered my body, and I wasn’t exactly anyone’s idea of pretty in Beast form.

King, very human, made me catch my breath as he wrapped the cloth around my fingers a final time and taped it securely. His head was tilted down as he worked, but when he glanced up, I swear my heart stopped. His incredible crystal-blue eyes heated me from the inside out, making me momentarily forget that my fingers were held together more by sutures than flesh.

“You didn’t complain while I worked on my handy needlepoint,” he teased softly.

I rested my forehead against his, breathing the air he exhaled, absorbing the essence that made him uniquely mine. My voice came out as little more than a whisper. “Because that hurt like crazy, and I was trying to focus on breathing.”

He pulled away slightly, his eyes searching mine with a poignancy that made me ache. Then, he leaned in and took my lips. I fell into the kiss like it was water and I was dying of heatstroke. His taste spread through me, settling into that unsatisfied ache I carried when he was around. We’d been so busy lately, and all we could manage were these short, stolen moments.

A faint squeak from the door, left ajar, warned us we weren’t alone. It was Labyrinth, one of King’s elite guards. His mismatched eyes, one blue, one green, always made me look twice. He was a goliath of a man, and paired with those striking eyes, the combination was oddly disarming. His square jaw, full lips, and lethal presence were typical of Shadow Warriors, but as one of King’s personal guards, he was particularly deadly. Right now, though, he just looked sheepish.

He broke the quiet moment with his deep voice. “Danger, Will Robinson. We can’t find the Hellspawn, and Che’s missing too.” His eyes flicked to mine, and he grimaced before mumbling Ruth’s actual name. Everyone knew I hated it when they called her Hellspawn. The biggest problem was the name fit her all too well. Somehow, some way, the devil or one of his demons had to be responsible for that child, no matter how much her mother denied it.

With a loud groan of frustration, I leapt from the table and bolted for the door, muttering every punishment I could think of for Ruth if anything had happened to Che. King stomped heavily behind me, his footfalls echoing through the hallway. In the forest, he was quiet and deadly but give him tile floors to pound when he was angry, and he became a walking demolition crew. We were both at the end of our patience with Ruth and her endless mischief. Everyone in the Shadow Warrior colony knew she’d be the death of us. Most likely in the most spectacularly unpleasant way possible.

The courtyard provided immediate answers. Ruth’s small motorbike, a gift from Beck, was missing. In its place stood Che’s bicycle. That told me everything I needed to know. Che was riding shotgun. There was no way he’d willingly stay behind.

With a deep growl rumbling in my chest, I left the safety of the citadel, our home away from home, and charged into the unknown.

When I first arrived in Cuba, King had set up the citadel as a cover, giving me an incomplete view of the Shadow Warrior world. It served its purpose back then. Now, it’s our training and medical facility. Axel, our one and only physician, was teaching a select group of humans the essentials of medicine. He helps everyone on the island, but as a Shadow Warrior himself, the warriors alone keep him more than occupied. Add in our human population, and he was completely overextended. Thankfully, with some promising human prospects, he was actively training them in everything from childbirth to setting broken bones. He even traveled the island to attend to those who couldn’t make it into the city. It had turned him into a perpetually tired and cranky man.

He needed a mate, and it was something I intended to fix.

His lack of a love life was what I blamed for the explosion the last time I was injured. A simple dislocated collarbone didn’t deserve his cold, biting condemnation, especially when it felt ten times better after he’d popped it back into place. I was still reeling from the verbal assault, and honestly, he was lucky I didn’t bite his face off. If his mind was on a woman instead of everything else, maybe he wouldn’t be so grouchy.

At least, that’s what I kept telling myself. Between our medical situation, fighting hellhounds, and preparing for war with the US Federation, we were all overextended. King worked nonstop to push my abilities as a Warrior while juggling everything he did as the leader of our people. The man never stopped.

For the first twenty-odd years of my life, I thought I was human, an anxious, fumbling waste of space, if you want to know the truth. I didn’t adapt well to the new world after nuclear bombs and hellhounds annihilated most of humanity, and I was smart enough to know it. My father, through his work with the Federation, kept me alive. That was the only reason I made it.

Today, there was little left of that scared young woman, at least on the outside. I was still learning to control my Warrior body and the full extent of the abilities that came with it. King, my mate, the one stomping and huffing behind me, found it endlessly worrying.

“Where do you think they went?” he asked, his jaws clenched so tightly I half-expected them to crack.

“I’m sure they’re hunting hellhounds, no matter how many times we tell them not to. Che’s mother will kill me when she finds out.”

“Can’t we just put Ruth in front of her and solve all our problems?”

I would have laughed if I thought he was joking, but I wasn’t entirely sure he was. Che’s mother, Maylin, was assisting Axel as his nurse and juggling her six-month-old baby, Boot, while she worked. Che, who had just turned six, was under my care while his mother and little brother were away. “I’ll think of an appropriate punishment for Ruth, but it won’t be turning her over to a death rage even though that might be an exaggeration.”

It still surprised me how much Maylin had stepped up. When she’d asked to help Axel, everyone, including me, had been stunned. She was doing an incredible job, even while toting around a baby. She had become invaluable to the Shadow Warriors. Losing Boot, the baby’s father and one of our warriors, had hit her hard. King brought her into the Warrior family, but she hadn’t truly fit until now. She was finding her place, and while I wasn’t about to mention it, there was a certain Shadow Warrior with his sights set on her. Nokita, another of King’s personal guards, and Maylin would need to figure that out on their own.

For now, King and I had bigger problems. The worry gnawed at me, the fear that both kids could be hurt, or worse, dead. It pushed me onward despite my exhaustion. Over the last six months, hellhound sightings had dropped significantly, but they still roamed the island. And now, two idiotic kids were trying to prove their worth by hunting them.

Ruth was twelve going on forty, with skills that came terrifyingly natural for a human her age. Che, on the other hand, worshiped her and followed her into every harebrained scheme she came up with. Both had lost their fathers to hellhounds, and ever since, they’d been on a reckless mission to kill every last one they could find. The problem was that human children didn’t stand a chance. Hellhounds’ teeth and claws were deadly, and one swipe or bite meant they were dead within an hour.

My hands burned with the need to grab hold of them. They would learn to follow orders, or they’d find themselves assigned to permanent kitchen duty, and not just for the week I punished them last time they pulled a stunt like this.

And what if it was too late? My heart clenched at the thought.

We kept running, our soft breathing blending into the night. King couldn’t resist teasing me about my clumsy footing, even though I’d improved my ability to move quietly, almost matching his skill at avoiding crunching leaves.

“Hellhounds will hear you coming from a mile away,” he said.

I didn’t answer and simply flipped him the finger which still meant the same thing after the apocalypse.

He gave a low chuckle. Despite my progress, King still worried about me. I understood why. I wasn’t fully comfortable with the overwhelming abilities that came with my new form. That’s why I pushed myself to the brink of exhaustion every day. I refused to be the person I used to be, trapped in fear, doing nothing while civilization crumbled around me.

The memories of those wasted years haunted me. I had lived like a robot, too afraid to step outside my cozy little protected box. Now that I was a Shadow Warrior, I was determined to make up for lost time. But self-doubt still crept in, always at the worst moments. Shaking my head to silence thoughts of the old me, I focused my sensitive ears on the sounds around us.

With fewer hellhounds on the island, small rodents like mice were returning in abundance. The hounds had decimated everything they could sink their teeth into, causing a massive decline in our small animal populations. Now the ecosystem was beginning to recover. How long that balance would last, none of us knew, but we were making the most of it. Our food production had doubled, and we were hopeful this year’s harvest would provide more than enough for long-term storage.

A faint noise caught my attention about a hundred yards away. It was something that didn’t belong to the usual hum of nightlife. The dense brush obscured the source, but the sound of ringing metal was clue enough. The dynamic duo had to be close. From the corner of my eye, I noticed King adjusting his leather straps. Before I could object, he shifted.

“You did that on purpose when I wasn’t looking,” I whispered.

King didn’t have full control of his Beast form directly after shifting. It was usually me who changed to warrior form if we needed quick action paired with coherent thought. He glanced at me but said nothing, his towering Beast form now ready for whatever lay ahead. I caught the angry rumble deep in his throat, the one he was trying and failing to suppress. Shadow Warriors had to burn off the Kedorine 5 in their bloodstream before they could do more than hunt down an enemy and kill it. We called it K-5 for short. It was the hormone that allowed us to morph into King’s current form, a nine-foot monster from another planet capable of giving even the most stable adults nightmares.

The K-5 caused irrational and dangerous behavior until the hormone spike subsided. Since the first few months after I became a Warrior, I seemed to be immune to the side effects. We’d worked out a system where I usually went in as Warrior while King stayed in human form. At least when we didn’t have time to burn off the surge of K-5. I mentally shrugged. I wouldn’t get a reasonable explanation for why he shifted until he was back in control. Right now, I had a five-hundred-pound killing machine on my hands, barely able to tell friend from foe. Maybe King was tired of me showing off how quickly I could dissipate the effects of K-5. It wouldn’t surprise me. I’d pushed his limits enough lately, and the poor man had to be nearing his breaking point.

A small scream cut through the air, snapping both of us into action. We charged into the dense brush and found the children battling a large hellhound. It was something King and I could handle without breaking a sweat, but for the kids, it was a fight far beyond their budding human strength. We now had an antidote for Shadow Warriors if we were bitten or scratched. So far, we’d struck out for humans. What were Ruth and Che thinking?

“Go for his neck!” Ruth grunted at Che as she grappled to turn it away from him. Her long red braid whipped left and right as her thin frame twisted and dodged. Her face was set with fiery determination, her eyes blazing with an insanity that didn’t belong to a twelve-year-old. She was about five inches taller than Che, which wasn’t saying much. It was the fire in her gaze that made her seem larger than life.

Che spun, his thin legs looking awkward and uncoordinated. I was stunned when his strike slashed the hellhound’s side, and even more so when the oversized knife in his small hands drove into the hound’s neck, sinking into its throat. If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn’t have believed it. He also had some kind of protectors on his arms that I refused to give either of them credit for. The hound was not even close to dead, but Ruth helped it along with her own show of dexterity as she lifted her sword two-handed and cut into the neck about a third of the way.

She turned, searching the area but didn’t see us. King leapt over her and made short work of the monster. An angry Ruth turned her fiery attention to King, glaring at my not-quite-stable mate. “I had it! You didn’t need to take all the fun out of the fight,” she snapped. She stalked toward him, dragging her enormous sword behind her. The blade scraped against the ground because it was far too heavy for her to handle for more than one or two lifts and strikes.

King’s low growl vibrated through the air, and my stomach tightened. That sound wasn’t a good sign. I moved quickly, intercepting the foolish girl before King decided to tear her in half and make her his next meal.

I snatched the sword from her grasp and shoved her behind me. With my hands raised, I caught King’s burning gaze and held it, drawing his attention to my eyes. His blazing stare locked onto mine, and he shook his massive head as if trying to clear it.

“There, there, big guy,” I said softly. “Children are not on your menu for supper, no matter how good they might taste.” His eyes rolled within his Goliath head, a sight that would have been comical under different circumstances. The movement told me he was regaining control of his beast, faster than usual. Something I would need to question him about when he was calm.

I turned back to the kids, both of whom wore stubborn expressions that made my blood boil. “I’ve had it with your inability to follow orders,” I snapped, my voice rising. “War is not your personal playtime, and you’re making it impossible for us to protect the people on this island!” By the time I finished, I was shouting.

Ruth, with not an ounce of intelligence to spare in her stubborn head, wasn’t backing down. “Give me my sword, and we’ll see who talks big then!” she barked, her juvenile voice grating on my last nerve.

The sword in my hand sailed through the air, and Ruth grabbed it just before it hit her. Predictably, she couldn’t hold its weight for long, because her arms were tired from her round with the hellhound. The tip plunged into the ground, and she struggled to pull it free, her efforts laughable.

“You want a go at me? Now’s your chance,” I shouted at the stubborn little idiot.

“Babe,” King grumbled from behind me.

I didn’t take my eyes off the threat in front of me. “Don’t ‘babe’ me. It’s time to teach this pint-sized turd a lesson.”

“Girl,” he corrected, his voice lower this time.

“I know she’s a girl. I also know I could take her with one hand tied to my big toe. The problem is,” I growled, glaring at Ruth, “she doesn’t know it.” Without warning, I launched myself in her direction. She barely managed to lift the sword before I swatted it away. “It’s too big for you, but you’re too stubborn to admit it,” I snapped.

My palm connected with her face. Not hard, just enough to piss her off. Ruth’s shriek of rage filled the air as she lunged at me. I sent her flying, and her body hit the ground with a thump. I shouldn’t have felt satisfaction, but I did. If anyone deserved it, it was Ruth.

“You’re bigger and stronger; you don’t need to prove it,” King muttered.

Still watching Ruth as she slowly picked herself up, I stayed ready. When she launched herself at me again, I bent low and grabbed her scrawny ankles, flipping her upside down and holding her aloft. Even in human form, my six-feet height gave me the advantage. She struggled wildly, her arms flailing, as she leaned up and tried to land a blow to my upper body. Even with her wiggling, my hold was too tight and she wasn’t going anywhere or doing the least bit of damage.

I looked down at her. Long red hair, like a fire waiting to be extinguished, hung in the dirt. Her dirty face flushed a deeper red, making her freckles stand out even more. “Maybe your punishment should be hanging by your ankles in the courtyard so everyone can see just how stupid and irresponsible you are,” I said. The idea had merit.

“I’ll spit on every one of them!” Ruth shouted, twisting again. It didn’t help her in the least.

“And I’ll wash your mouth out with vinegar if you do,” I snapped back, giving her legs a sharp shake that made her hair sway like a pendulum.

“My mother won’t let you!” she sneered, her red face now edging toward purple.

“Your mother would pay me to take you in hand,” I retorted, lifting my arms and slamming them downward just enough for her head to stop an inch from the ground. I glanced up to find Che staring at us, his eyes as wide as saucers. “Don’t think you’re off the hook either,” I said, locking eyes with him. “You’re under my care while your mother’s away, and you just took at least a year off my life.”

“Don’t listen to her; she’s the enemy!” Ruth screamed, still unwilling to concede defeat.

The idea of slamming her against a tree crossed my mind briefly. Too easy, I thought. Not that I’d actually do it, but this child had a way of inspiring vivid, gory fantasies in my head. Most of them ended with her losing her ability to speak, which would be a massive step in the right direction.

“Che,” I said firmly. “Return to the citadel with King. Ruth and I need some quality time together.”

“Is that a good idea?” King asked, his tone laced with skepticism.

“It’s the only idea I have. If only one of us returns and it’s her, you’ll get your shot.”

King’s jaws opened, then snapped shut. Whatever comeback he’d planned, he wisely decided against it. Maybe he’d finally realized that my patience had run out.

“Che, come,” King commanded, taking off at a slow jog to let Che keep up. Running the boy into the ground would be a good start to his punishment. Che gave me one last look, as if weighing his options, before deciding that his best chance of survival was sticking with King.

When the sound of their departure faded, replaced by the soft chirping of crickets and the rustle of small animals, I let Ruth drop. She landed on her head just inches from the ground, tumbling into a tangled mess of arms, legs, and curses that no twelve-year-old should know. I stepped forward casually, planting my boot on her hair. She swung at my leg, her fists making contact, but I barely felt it.

“This is how easy you are to kill,” I said coldly. “For some reason, you still don’t get that. I could kick your head in right now, and there’s nothing you could do to stop me.” My hand moved to the sword strapped at my hip. It was a gift from King, designed after a sixteenth-century German Mortuary Sword, double-edged, thirty-six inches long, with two fullers to reduce its weight when I carried it in human form. The blade was perfect for removing a hellhound’s head without getting bitten or scratched. I let my fingers brush the pommel, a small, deliberate caress. “Or I could cut your head clean off before you even had a chance to move. Isn’t that what you want?”

Ruth thrashed beneath me, her words spilling out in a frantic, incoherent jumble. I didn’t release her hair, and with the way she was pulling against my boot, I knew it had to hurt.

“I hate you!” she finally yelled; her voice raw with fury when her escape attempts failed.

“I think you’ve said it enough times for it to finally sink in. Want to try something more original?” I asked, sounding almost bored.

“I can kill hellhounds just as good as you!” she spat, defiance blazing in her eyes.

I used my other foot to press against her shoulder, pushing her onto her back. She glared up at me with all the fury of an enraged pit bull. The fire in her eyes still held a flicker of knowledge, but it was fading fast.

“No. You can’t,” I said. Kneeling down, I leaned in close and whispered, “You are human, even if you don’t want to be. Killing hellhounds is dangerous for you because one scratch or bite, and you’re dead. No second chances. The same goes for Che. It’s bad enough you have a death wish, but Che doesn’t deserve to be pulled under by your stupidity. Neither does his mother, who has already lost too much.”

She blinked a few times, and I could’ve sworn she was holding back tears. “You hate me,” she muttered, her voice barely audible.

Whatever demons she was battling ran deeper than any of us had realized. The bigger problem was that her reckless behavior made her a danger to our entire community. For all our sakes, I needed to adjust her insanity. So, I pushed harder. “You gonna cry, little baby?”

“You bi—” she started, her voice venomous.

I pressed a finger against her lips. “That word should never come out of your mouth,” I said sharply. Before I could finish, she tried to bite me. My thumb slid under her chin while my forefinger pressed hard against her lips, pinning them to her teeth. “I’m going to let you up and give you one shot at killing me. It’s the only chance you’ll ever get without retaliation, so you better make it count.”

I bounced back onto the balls of my feet and watched as she climbed shakily to hers. When she stood, I nudged her sword with the tip of my boot, flipping it up, and caught it midair. Tossing it to her, I widened my stance, spreading my arms to expose my chest. “Go ahead.”

“What are you doing?” she demanded, her eyes gleaming with a disturbingly creepy light.

The kid was so bloodthirsty I could’ve sworn she was part vampire. “You want to kill me? Go for it. I’m tired of fighting you.”

Her eyes darted around, and then she hesitated, taking a small step back. “You won’t just stand there and let me kill you.”

“Try me,” I said.

With a scream loud enough to wake the dead, Ruth charged at me. I stood my ground, not flinching as her sword arced toward my throat. The blade stopped a millimeter from my skin. I had to admit, I was impressed by her control, and an idea began to form.

“I could have killed you,” she accused, her voice shaking with anger.

“Yes, you could have.” It wouldn’t have killed me due to how tired she was, but it would have caused severe damage. I placed my hand against the blade, and she didn’t stop me as I pushed it away from my throat. “What I’m wondering is why you didn’t. You’ve hated me since you arrived. Why?”

Her small features scrunched up, and at last, tears began to streak down her cheeks. My heart cracked a little, but I kept my words of comfort to myself. She hadn’t completed the strike, and I needed to understand what was happening in her chaotic mind.

“ She’s weak ,” Ms. Beast whispered through my thoughts.

“ She’s a child ,” I shot back silently.

“ Protect child ,” came her soft reply.

“ Leave me alone, and I will. You’re complicating things .”

For once, Ms. Beast retreated, leaving me to focus entirely on Ruth. “You had your chance. Why didn’t you take it?” I asked again.

She sniffled, wiping her nose with the back of her hand. Her fingers trembled, and she gulped in a shaky breath while looking down at the ground. I stood silently, waiting, giving her the space to gather her thoughts. Her first sentence came out as a mumble, but gradually, her words began to make sense.

“I’m human, and I’ll never be able to fight. Those monsters killed my father and most of the people I loved. I want all of them dead, and no one will teach me.” Her gaze lifted to mine, a flicker of fire sparking in her tear-filled eyes. “You just want me out of your hair. If I died, no one would care.” She sniffed again and kicked at the dirt in frustration.

“Getting a young boy killed won’t endear you to anyone,” I said coldly. Ruth didn’t need to be coddled right now.

“Che’s the only one who understands,” she muttered, showing a deep, painful vulnerability.

“He’s too young to understand. He lost his father, too. Actually, two fathers. He’s still mourning, and he looks up to you like you’re some kind of hero. How will you feel if he dies because of your foolishness?” I asked while trying poorly to hide my frustration.

Her hands balled into fists, and she slammed them against her thighs. “I hate being human,” she ground through her teeth. “I can’t do any of the things you can. I can’t swing a sword and take a head off in one swipe. I can’t run as fast or fight as good.” She threw her hands up in surrender. “My body will never do what yours does.” Her gaze dropped to the ground, and a heavy sigh escaped her lips. Her shoulders slumped, and all the pent-up anger seemed to drain away.

I took a moment to absorb what she was saying and to make a decision. I couldn’t believe the words as they left my mouth. “If you want to train, I’ll teach you how to kill hellhounds.”

She was right; killing those monsters wasn’t something I could do when I thought I was human. Being afraid of every bump in the night was something else I had lived with. This child held none of my old fears.

Ruth’s head snapped up, and I saw something in her eyes I wasn’t expecting. Raw hope ate up her expression, and it nearly broke me. Unfortunately, she had no idea what I was offering, but she was about to find out.

I stared into Ruth’s eyes, my Ms. Beast unchallenged by a child. “You need to think long and hard before you say yes,” I told her. “This agreement will put you at my mercy. Boot trained me in the beginning, and it was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. I won’t go easy on you because that won’t help. You will not be babied.”

“You would train me?” she asked, her voice fragile and heartbreaking all over again.

“I don’t like repeating myself, but yes, that’s what I said.” My eyes narrowed. “However, you haven’t heard the rules yet.”

“Sure,” she said, a touch of defiance entering her voice, and she had to add, “I already know they’ll be stupid.”

I fought the urge to roll my eyes. Even when she’d won, she kept fighting. She was everything I hadn’t been at her age. Heck, she was everything I hadn’t been at twice her age. I took a breath and laid out the rules.

“Number one: Everything I say is important. If the word ‘stupid’ comes out of your mouth in reference to your teacher, we’re finished.”

Her lips pressed together in obvious annoyance. I cocked an eyebrow, waiting for her answer.

“Deal,” she said sullenly.

Argh. I wanted to slap her again, just a tap. “Number two: You’re not the boss. I’ll speak when I want and ‘go on’ when I choose. If you don’t like it, you can take a hike.”

Her hands went to her hips, but this time, she stayed silent. I didn’t count it as a victory yet.

“Number three: You will never leave the walls of the citadel without permission.” I moved on quickly to my last rule before she could object. “Number four: You will follow my orders on everything. The first time you don’t, we’re done.”

Her gaze drilled into me with unnerving calculation, and then, ever so slowly, a smile spread across her face. Her teeth gleamed in the moonlight as she said in a clear, strong voice, “Agreed.”

Great. We’d gone from dislike bordering on hatred, to tears, to poor me, to glee. I had a sinking feeling I’d just been played.