Enticed by the Satyr (Kindred Tales)

Storn ignored them all. He jumped onto the chest of the man who had hurt Mia and began to stomp and trample as hard as he could. Blood spattered and bones crunched under his hooves and still it wasn’t enough. The Rage had him and Storn wasn’t going to stop until the one who had threatened his beloved was dead…dead…DEAD!!!

“Enough, warrior!” a loud, female voice shouted in his ear. “Enough—you must take your female and go while you still can! Before the humans stop you!”

The Goddess’s voice stopped Storn and snapped him out of his Rage as nothing else could have. As the curtain of red cleared from his vision, he began to take in his surroundings.

“He’s killing him! The goat man’s killing him!” one of the young ones was shrieking as he pointed at Storn. As he looked around, Storn slowly became aware that several people where pointing what looked like communications devices with small screens at him. In the distance, he could hear sirens wailing. Storn didn’t know what the sound meant, but it seemed ominous and it also seemed to be getting closer.

He jumped off the broken body of Mia’s ex-mate and whirled around to go back in the house.

“Stop him!” a man shouted. “Somebody stop the freak! He trampled that guy and now he’s getting away!”

Storn ignored him and luckily, none of the humans seemed inclined to come after him, no matter what the man was saying.

Running into the house, he found Mia still strapped to the chair. She was slumped forward, only her bonds keeping her from falling out and landing on the floor, and there were more trickles of blood running from the thin red line where the wire had cut her.

Remorse stabbed Storn in the heart.

“Oh Goddess, Mia!” he gasped hoarsely. “What have I done? How could I run after that bastard when you were hurt in here? Oh, Goddess, forgive me!”

The stuff binding her to the chair was some kind of strong adhesive. Storn ripped it apart and lifted her out of the chair. He cradled her in his arms, close to his bare chest, and her head lolled limply on his arm.

Feeling another burst of fear and anxiety, Storn carried her quickly but carefully out the broken front door and towards his shuttle, parked on the front lawn.

“Hey! Hey, you—hey buddy!” someone shouted. “You can’t go—you killed a guy! Hey, leave the woman alone!”

It was the human male who had shouted that the other humans should “get him” Storn realized. Ignoring him, he put Mia in the shuttle, swiftly strapped her in, and then climbed in himself.

Just as he got the pilot’s side door closed, another Earth vehicle—this one with blue and red flashing lights on top of it—pulled up. It was the source of the wailing siren he’d been hearing, Storn realized. The sirens cut off but then two human males in uniform jumped out of the vehicle. They pointed weapons that looked like the one Mia’s ex-mate had used at Storn’s shuttle and shouted for him to get out.

Storn ignored them. He grabbed the steering yoke and yanked it upwards, shooting his golden shuttle into the blue sky. Dimly, he could hear a popping sound—the distant sounds of the human males discharging their weapons. None of their projectiles hit the shuttle however, and in less than a minute, they were out of Earth’s atmosphere and on his way back to the Mother Ship.

Storn reached for Mia and found her pulse—it was weak but it was there. He breathed a cautious sigh of relief.

He just hoped he could get back in time to save the woman he loved.

26

“She’s going to be okay.” The human Doctor named Olivia had a tired look on her face as she came out of the operating room to talk to Storn. “She came this close to having both jugulars severed by that damn wire…” She held her forefinger and thumb a tiny distance apart. “But you got to her in time. I think she’s going to make a complete recovery.”

“Thank the Goddess!” Storn ran a hand through his hair and over his horns as sweet relief rushed through him. “I was so afraid I was too late! I should have brought her up sooner, but I went into Rage at the male who was hurting her,” he confessed hoarsely.

“For which, we do not blame you, Brother,” a voice rumbled behind him. “Unfortunately, you went into Rage in front of an audience and the humans caught it all on their communications devices.”

Storn turned and saw a big Beast Kindred with golden eyes coming towards him.

“Oh, Baird—please don’t be too hard on him!” Dr. Olivia said quickly. Stepping forward, she put herself between Storn and the Beast Kindred. “The woman he saved is the same one I told you about before—the one whose husband punched her so hard he gave her an orbital fracture!”