Page 139 of Burn for Her
“Let go!” Dorian screamed at Lena and barreled into his father, tackling him to the ground. The cleaver skidded across the floor. He tried to grab it, missed, and got clocked in the face by a familiar left hook. Dorian’s head snapped back and stars burst in his vision. Blood poured from his nose.
He slammed into his father, dragging him back before he could reach the cleaver. “Kick free!” he shouted at Lena. He couldn’t help her and kill his father at the same time.
Lena flipped herself until her feet hit the ceiling and started smashing her heels into the wood around the eyehook. The wood splintered and cracked. Lena screamed with frustration.
Dorian’s father snagged the cleaver. Shit!
“You never learn, son.” He swung out and managed to cut into Dorian’s thigh.
Fresh pain assaulted him.
The ceiling cracked.
Lena fell.
“Run!” Dorian roared a second before he was smashed in the head with something big. The crack of his skull echoed in his ears. He slammed down on the ground, too weak to flash or fight any harder.
Wheezing, he struggled to gain control. His skin crackled like logs on a fire. The scent of burning flesh wafted into his nose. His body - blistered, bruised, cut, and bleeding - was finally giving out on him.
“Run!” he hissed as he crawled to the first thing he could use to fight with.
Lena didn’t run. She was dragged away instead.
Stryx had her by the ankles and hauled her ass out of the house while she screamed Dorian’s name.
“Let her run.” His father staggered while laughing. “We’re in the bayou. She has no chance of surviving. I’ve got the entire area rigged with traps, and that’s only if the snakes and gators don’t get a piece of her first.” He held his side and sucked in another ragged breath. “Playing hide and seek just got more interesting, boy.” Hobbling over to Dorian, he said, “Too bad you aren’t going to live long enough to see her fly.”
He swung the cleaver down and Dorian’s world went black.
Stryx dragged Lena out of the house with her screaming and thrashing about. She wasn’t leaving Dorian in there with that animal. She wasn’t leaving this place without Dorian, period.
The chains were still attached to her. They rattled and clanked as Stryx pulled her further and further away from the cabin. He looked at her with blood-shot eyes and said, “Get help! C-c-c-can you f-f-f-flash home?”
Lena didn’t answer and just kept fighting to get out of his hold. He didn’t let go of her.
“K-k-keep still,” he jumped onto her and they wrestled across the ground. He wrapped his legs around her middle and squeezed the air from her lungs as his fingers dug into her arms.
Her heels and elbows dug into the wet ground.
They were in a swamp.
She had no idea what he was going to do to her out here in the position he held her in, but when the chains rattled and the weight lifted, she twisted furiously, screaming and gnashing her teeth, until Stryx flashed out of her reach.
Lena scrambled to get up and noticed her chains had been removed.
“Run!” Stryx hollered from twenty feet up in a tree. “Run, girl! You have to r-r-run!” He doubled over, groaning in pain and fell off the limb he’d perched in.
A bear trap clamped onto his leg and he screamed.
Wide-eyed, Lena scanned the ground, terrified of what else lay nestled in the grass. Carefully turning, she couldn’t see anything but swamp, trees, tall grass. Hard to say what hid in all that.
Stryx yanked on the beartrap, trying to free his leg. Blood was everywhere. The scent filled Lena’s nostrils, making her thirsty. Fast movement in the grass to her left. She pivoted. Was it a gator? A rat? Another vampire? A Lycan? A Savag-Ri?
Rolling her shoulders back, Lena clenched her fists and quieted her mind. Detach, detach, detach. Focus on one target at a time.
Stryx panicked as she cautiously slid past him, hellbent on getting back to the shack.
“No, don’t!” he screamed as he tried to catch her. The beartrap prevented him from getting anywhere.