Curse of Eternity

Chapter Nineteen

Alys slid across the wet dock and hid behind a pile of cargo. She felt the harbor shake as the creature she fought walked by, its long stumpy feet making indents in the wood. She waited until the sounds of the beast had passed before looking through a gap between the boxes and judging it safe enough to come out.

The flames roared and burned around Alys. She reached up and wiped the sweat from her brow with a bloody shaking hand. That monster was tough. She had tried stabbing, cutting, and even punching it at any chance she found but only came back with sore hands or a now bladeless weapon. The creature's skin was as hard as iron and even harder to break. She reached down and pressed against her side. She sucked in a quick breath and knew something in her was fractured or broken.

Voices cried out and Alys looked over to see the monster climbing onto a boat that was full of people trying to escape. It stood on the deck and swatted people around like they were nothing but toys.

Just as Alys took a step towards that boat she was charged into and thrown to the ground. Pain shot through her chest and side but she held in the cry and quickly shot to her feet. A man stood before her. More than thirty years of age, full belly, and feral eyes that looked at Alys with predatory glee. Well it was focused on one specific part of Alys. She couldn't blame the guy but really? Now of all times.

" Seriously? You're going to waste your time on me when two spawns from some hell are aiming to destroy you're home? How dense can men possibly be?" She circled, the man following her, stalking her like she she was prey.

She heard a symphony of mayhem coming from she ship attacked by the monster. Its sharp cry cut into the air. A second cry followed, this one more avian and graceful. Strangely enough that's the cry that made Alys that sent chills through her body and stopped all thoughts in her mind.

That piercing screams echoed again and Alys was paralyzed for just a moment. That moment was enough for the man to lunge forward and get Alys under him. She groaned as they hit the ground and the wood creaked beneath them. The man held Alys down by the throat with one hand and with the other grabbed the front of Alys' jacket and pulled at it.

At the first rip a quick panic came over Alys and she bucked her hips, sending the man over her head and took in a large gulp of breath as he released her throat. Not allowing him time to recover she threw a dagger. It reached its mark with expert precision. Landing right next to his spine, knowingly slicing the muscle and nerves next to it. The man cried out as Alys walked over. Her throat was burning and she knew he had grabbed her hard enough to leave a nasty bruise, even for the short time he had her.

" That dagger has now rendered your entire lower half useless. Now you can either continue fighting with your arms and i'll just kill you, or you can try and crawl off in which case i'll still kill you. Really, the choice is yours," Anna said as she walked over to him, grabbing his hair and pulling his head up. He tried grabbing her legs and she shrugged and slit his throat. As he began choking on his own blood she flipped him over and stabbed him a few times in the chest. Just for the hell of it.

"Didn't your mother ever teach you that no means no?," she said. The man's last breath escaped his body as a death rattle. It was music to the assassin's ears. As more cries rang from the harbor she began running again. She hadn't found Maliki so she decided to see if she could find Anna.

She ran back to where they had split off and kept going until she saw Anna on the beach with Maliki in wolf form and some woman she had never seen before. Anna and the woman seemed to be talking so Alys ran over to Maliki. His wounds were slowly clotting and healing but he wasn't able to move, and the look in his eyes when he saw her didn't show any recognition so she decided to join Anna. When she reached her she slid her arm through Anna's as a sort of message that she was here and wasn't leaving. Anna seemed to relax a little but was still talking to the woman.