Warrior Fae Trapped (Warrior Fae 1)

Faster!

She jumped down the last four steps, stumbling on the marble floor, and sprinted for the front door. For a way out. Maybe even for Devon. He’d been interested in her safety, hadn’t he? Maybe he wasn’t crazy or high after all. Besides, he was strong. Powerful. Allying with him was the best chance she had.

If she could get to him.

Her bare feet slapped the marble before she jumped down two steps into a den. A shape appeared in the far archway. A flaccid penis waggled between bowed legs, swampy skin nearly white. The thing was cutting off her exit.

A burst of fear exploded deep in her gut. That ember within her, which she’d first felt outside, flared to life again, but this time the heat started to burn through her middle. Electricity zapped down her arms and legs, filling her body. Clearing her mind.

She spun and barely zipped past the creature that had been chasing her. Its clawed hands reached for her, flicking her hair as she passed. A horrible, inhuman screech filled the room.

Mind buzzing with barely contained panic, she thundered down a hallway and burst into some sort of sitting room. Veering right, hearing the breathing behind her, she sprinted toward the next doorway and around a corner.

A claw came out of nowhere, reaching for her face. She screamed in surprise, batting it away and ducking under the other hand, never losing speed as she bolted into the kitchen.

The sliding glass door! Up ahead and thankfully open. All she had to do was get through that door. She was sure of it.

The click-click-click didn’t make sense at first. Until she saw one of the creatures running, trying to head her off.

Faster!

With a burst of speed she didn’t realize she had in her, she raced that thing to the exit.

It reached the opening in the glass at the same moment she did. Claws raked down her arm. Crying out, she veered and bounced off the doorjamb. She staggered, but caught herself, and pushed her way into the night air.

Another creature came at her from just outside. Claws swung at her face. She screamed and dodged out of reflex. Fangs glistening in the moonlight, the thing screeched like a bird of prey. Black saliva dripped from equally black gums.

“Oh God!” she cried, pivoting. A claw raked across her back. Pain made her adrenaline throb.

She jumped off the two steps beyond the door and landed awkwardly on the stone walkway. Her weight took her to the ground, the fall too awkward for her to turn it into a roll. She glanced up with her heart in her mouth, seeing a claw slashing down.

Lightning surged through her body, responding to her fear. A strange power throbbed deep inside her gut. Sweet effulgence flooded her, electricity sizzling down her limbs as she threw her arms up to protect her face.

Like a strobe light with the wattage of the sun, radiance rained down on the swampy creature. It howled in pain and rage, shrinking from the intense glow.

Not knowing what was happening, but knowing she’d gained an advantage, no matter how short-lived, Charity hopped up and surged forward, sprinting down the stone path toward the front yard, desperately hoping that safety was close at hand.

When she was halfway down the path, exhaustion creeping into her limbs, the light blinked off behind her. The night washed back in, cutting down her visibility. Her toe hit a divot and her body lurched toward the side of the house. Bouncing off the siding, she staggered forward, desperate to keep her momentum.

Another screech sounded, the hunter sighting its prey.

Please no!

The door of the fence surrounding the backyard loomed ten feet in front of her, tears of panic and fear making it swim and jiggle in her vision. She was almost there!

Pushing past the fatigue, hellbent on getting through that gate, Charity put on another burst of speed, and then screamed. A fanged face had stepped through the side door she’d used earlier in the night, arms out to grab her.

She threw up her hands again, blocking her face. Her body flooded with hot spice, a crackling sound drowning out the screeches from all around her. Sunlight, weaker now, once again rained down. The sizzle of flesh competed with the bug zapper sound of the light. She had done this, she realized, although she didn’t understand how. There was no time to consider the implications—although the creature ahead of her stumbled back into the house, howling, the one behind her pushed through the light, its hiss trailing her up the walk.

She willed herself onward, trying to ignore the fatigue. Her dragging limbs.

A fierce growl dragged her gaze left.

Loping across the sparkling grass, hair bristling and teeth bared, ran the largest wolf she had ever seen. Adrenaline sharpened her senses as the bright moonlight fell across the beast. Bigger than a Great Dane, it watched her with humanlike intelligence, cataloguing her movements with dual-colored eyes, one pale blue, one dirty green.