The Wild Hunt (Downworlder Series, #1)

Chapter Eleven: A Beast Cornered

It was like that moment before a lightning strike, when there is a second of charged silence. The air is static and the smell of wet earth is overwhelming then it comes. Flash! It lights up the world and breaks through matter, splitting atoms apart from each other and exciting the molecules around it.

That's what the wild man had smelled like, and that scent had imprinted itself into my mind. Even as I had ran away into the darkness to the safety of Madam Lao's brothel it had followed me, making me run faster than I ever had before, afraid that I would be struck. I was happy that no one had been there to see me crash through the front door, or else I would have been interrogated without a doubt. I had been able to get back to my room without consequence because it was night, and that meant all the girls were working and Madam Lao was in her office conducting business as usual.

I slammed my door closed behind me as I reached my attic room, leaning my forehead against it as I caught my breath. My limbs were shaking with the excess adrenaline still pumping through my system, my knees were on the verge of buckling.

My window opened in one quick motion, causing a loud screech to pierce through my silent room. I turned around quickly, the light of the moon turning the intruder into an indistinguishable dark shadow. I let out a vicious rattling growl, the beast in me ruffled up from my current state of distress. I was not about to be turned into a human slushee by some psychopath that had some kind of vendetta for purity. It's not like I had chosen to be the way I was. No, I would have gladly remained with my friends and family back on Haven if I had been given the choice.

"Calm down, princess. It's just me." Miles said in a tone that hinted he was on the verge of laughing, but then again he always seemed that way. Maybe he found humor in the most humorless moments or maybe he never saw me as a threat.

"Calm down? Calm down?! Do you have any idea what I've been through tonight?" I flashed him a small amount of teeth as I began to pace back and forth. I rubbed at my wrist where the large calloused palm of the wild man had gripped me tightly. I glanced down, noticing the faint outline of his fingertips on my pale skin.

"You really think I would have let anything happen to you?" He questioned. I lifted my eyes toward his face, noting the serious expression his face as he sat perched on my window sill, hanging half in, half out. I shook my head. Miles was my watchful eyes from the shadows, he had become like a brother I had never known I wanted or needed. He would never have let someone take me if he had something to say about it.

He lifted his chin a bit, "All that matters is that you are safe and that guy shouldn't be bothering you anymore. I'm pretty confident I set him straight but if you see him again, you run away. Don't try to fight him with those defensive techniques that the Pirate has taught you. He had this aura--"

"I know. I felt it." I interrupted him, rubbing at my wrist again. His eyes followed the motion and narrowed into suspicious slits. I quickly tucked my arm behind my back, for some reason the urge to hide the evidence of my run in with the wild man seemed paramount. I didn't want Miles to try and hunt him down, because he'd accidentally bruised me. He would probably only end up getting himself hurt or worse: killed. It's not like this was the first time that someone had bruised me and I doubted it would be the last. I could accept the fact that I had gotten a couple of marks, in exchange for continuing to breathe.

Still, there was something entirely different about this situation. The most curious thing for me was the fact the beast was surprisingly quiet. Normally she would have been irritated by someone grabbing onto me like the wild man had but she had been still and silent. It had only been me who had been reacting to the situation, the fear had been mine and mine alone.