The Wild Hunt (Downworlder Series, #1)

Chapter Four: Friends in Low Places

My heart was pounding as I stared at the brick of unknown substance in my hand. It smelled like a mixture of chemicals but I had been given orders. After all it was what a slave did, followed orders.

I stared up at the sky for a moment, catching a faint glimpse of what used to be my home. I had been more than thankful when the guards had pointed me towards a stairwell I could use instead of going back into the elevator. I doubted I could have handled being shoved into the small metal box again. The beast seemed more at ease in the open and not caged.

I resented the creature that lingered under my skin. It was the reason I had been taken away from my family, thrown out of my home. I was stuck on this god forsaken planet surrounded by animals and it was all its fault. My eyes started to burn but I fought it back. I refused to cry over it. I refused to allow the beast to have that much control over my emotions.

I didn't know what to do. I hadn't be taught anything about the cities that remained on the downworld. I hadn't been taught anything about the creatures that inhabited them. I knew nothing and currently I was moving probably illegal material through a city I did not know because I had been bought and paid for by a Doyen. What a Doyen was, was something I had no clue about.

I passed by an over flowing garbage bin and tried not to breath in through my now sensitive nose. The city smelled. It was a mixture of unwashed bodies, garbage, sewage, and death. I had no clue how anyone could possibly live in the filth that coated the streets. The further away I got from the towering buildings the worse it got.

Inappropriate words and crude pictures were hastily drawn in spray paint on buildings and fences. I could hear growling and snarls in the distance and the people I passed by either ignored me or they stared at me to the point where the beast snarled in my head, filling me with a wariness that agitated me.

"Fucking mongrels." Someone spat at my feet and I skittered to the side only to be shoved from behind.

"Stay the fuck away from me. Filthy mongrel." The voice that said it was growling and the beast in my head growled in return. I fought it back as soon as I felt it rumbling my own chest. I needed to focus. If the beast was allowed I would probably end up fucking dead because I disrespected the wrong person.

I stared at the gps on the package and focused on following the path that had been set out for me. I kept my head down, only looking up to make sure I wouldn't bum into anyone. The crowds grew thicker as I passed certain buildings but I kept my head down, not wanting to see what illicit things were going on. The very thoughts of the things the buildings might hold made my skin crawl.

"Look at it, looks a right mess. Poor thing." The voice was dripping with sarcastic derision and I glanced upwards, unable to help myself as the beast mad the demand known. Several scantily clad women were staring at me with elongated teeth and dilated pupils and I clutched the package to my stomach tighter.

Don't get eaten.

I thought it had been a warning simply made to freak me out but as I stared at the women, I wasn't so sure it wasn't serious. I felt almost frozen as they looked at me. They looked predatory, hungry.

"Hey, you are a pretty little thing. Clean you up and you would fetch a couple thousand marks a night." It was a woman in thigh high fishnet stockings and heavy white make up with what looked to be a wig.

"For the first few months. Ones like that never stay fresh for long." The one speaking was picking at her skin. I watched as she pulled a scab off and put it in her mouth. My stomach rolled at the action. I watched as vibrant blood moved down her arm and dripped onto the sidewalk next to her impossibly high heels.