Hidden Rage: Kindred Tales

“I’ll shut her up for good in a minute,” the first one snarled. “Thought we might have a little fun first, though. You ever tried spiking a mammalian slit?”

“I heard they’re all wet and soft and squishy inside,” the second one protested. “Not dry like they oughta be. Fuckin’ unnatural!”

“Yeah, but it might be fun to try,” the first one said, giving Bobbi a lecherous look. “C’mon—let’s do her before we cut her throat.”

“I say we cut her throat first,” the second one said, wincing as Bobbi began screaming again. “Gods, she’s loud! If you wanna try her slit, lemme knife her so she don’t scream bloody murder the whole time you spike her.”

He was just raising his knife when someone new entered the alley.

It was hard for Bobbi to see who it was exactly. Saurous was far from its sun, so the outside light was a weak, watery gray. The weak light meant that the alley was quite dark, even though it was only late afternoon.

But whoever had come into the alley with them had glowing eyes with flames dancing in them.

Dragon! she thought, her heart leaping. It must be him!

But was it? As the person advanced, they seemed to grow even larger than the big Kindred. They were dead quiet but she heard a rustling sound, as though somewhere a pair of vast wings had just unfolded. Suddenly, it was even darker in the alley as though those same wings had somehow blotted out the sun.

The two goons hadn’t noticed the newcomer up until now—they had been too busy planning how to rape her and kill her—or else kill her and then rape her lifeless body, she thought with a shiver. But when the light was blotted from the sky, they both looked up at the glowing red and yellow eyes above them.

And then the being spoke.

“Mine,” it growled and Bobbi thought again it must be Dragon—it sounded like his voice when it got that odd, double echo in it—as though someone or something else was speaking through him. But though Dragon was tall, he wasn’t that tall. The glowing eyes were nine or ten feet above them and what about the wings that seemed to be blotting out the sun? What was that about?

“D-dragon?” she gasped hoarsely. Her voice was almost gone from screaming. “Is…is that you?”

“Whozat you’re talkin’ to, girly?” the first Saurian demanded, shaking her.

“Yeah—what the fuck?” the second attacker asked. And then he got a better look at the glowing eyes and repeated his question in quite a different tone. “What the fuck?”

“MINE!” the thing in the alley roared.

There was a swift motion in the dark and then the second thug was snatched up and lifted high in the air. Choked gurgles came from his scaly throat and then a patter of oily green Saurian blood rained down on the dirty pavement. Something had impaled him, Bobbi thought numbly. Was it a silver knife blade…or something else?

Whatever it was, it was covered in blood and sticking out of his back as he dangled in the air like a rag doll.

“Holy fuck!” the first Saurian gasped. He dropped Bobbi’s arm and took a step backwards. “Look, you can have the girl!” he exclaimed, and actually gave Bobbi a shove towards the glowing eyes, which sent her stumbling to her knees. “You can have her!”

The attacker who was impaled in midair, dropped to a heap in the alley and then the glowing eyes advanced again. Whatever it was rushed over her and Bobbi felt a wind, as though invisible wings had stirred the air around her. The force of their motion pushed back her hood and whipped her hair all around her face as though she was caught in the middle of a whirlwind.

Looking behind her, she saw that the Saurian who had grabbed her was being held in the air as well.

“Look, I said you can have her!” he was babbling. “It was nothing personal! Just a job—just a hit! I only took it ‘cause I was low on cash. Please, you have to understand—”

And then the thing—whatever it was—ripped him in two.

Bobbi watched numbly as his top and bottom halves parted ways, torn in two at the waist as though the huge thug was as flimsy as a paper doll and the thing holding him was a vengeful god.

“MINE!” the thing roared again and dropped the two, still-quivering lumps of flesh to the bloody pavement. Then it turned and Bobbi saw its huge, lantern-like eyes were fixed on her.

Oh God, she thought as they came towards her. Oh, no…oh, no, no ,no!

“Please!” she gasped, holding up an arm, as though to try and ward off the monster. “Please—please don’t hurt me!”

The glowing eyes seemed to get closer to the ground and when the voice spoke again, it had lost the wild double echo.