Total pages in book: 109
Estimated words: 103681 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 518(@200wpm)___ 415(@250wpm)___ 346(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 103681 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 518(@200wpm)___ 415(@250wpm)___ 346(@300wpm)
Fully opening the hatch, Makenna quickly and quietly climbed out before closing it shut. After merely six steps, she halted. She scented them before she saw them. Several humans came out of the shadows, wearing long hooded robes. Some were holding small wooden crucifixes. Makenna sighed at the ridiculous spectacle. If her wolf could have snickered, she would have.
“Move no further, demon!” ordered one of the robed figures.
Yes, they insisted that shifters were a form of demon. Makenna didn’t see the point in correcting them. It wasn’t possible to have a rational conversation with these people. Whatever you said was hit with a quote from the bible and branded “words of the devil.” They were right, you were wrong, they were good, you were bad, they were on the righteous path, and you were on a descending elevator heading to the fires of hell.
“Child of the Devil, you shall be—!”
“Look, guys, I’ve had a really rough morning.” And now this. The basic message Makenna was getting from the universe today was: just go back to bed. She would have done just that if it weren’t for the noise these bastards were making.
“Renounce the Devil!” he shouted as they spread out and began to loosely circle her. “Confess your sins! Repent!”
“I swear I’m not jealous that God only talks to you, okay. In fact, I think it’s unfair that when a person talks to God it’s called ‘praying’ but when he talks to them it’s called ‘schizophrenia.’”
“We refuse to stand aside and allow your practices of bestiality, infanticide, violence—”
“Can I just point out the bible says something about turning the other cheek and loving thy enemies?”
“Silence, demon!” He held his hands up toward the sky. “In the name of Jesus Christ, we condemn you!”
Oh for the love of . . . well, God. Could this get more ridiculous?
Muttering prayers, they each produced little bottles and slung the contents at her.
Apparently, yes, it could.
Holy water. Fan-fucking-tastic. She wiped some of the water from her eyes with her fingers. “Okay. This has gone far enough. You need to—” She tensed as one of the humans produced a black rope net from behind his back. Worse still, the leader took a large knife from inside his robe. A chill came over her, and her heart slammed against her ribs. She’d underestimated them when she’d caught sight of the little crucifixes. It hadn’t occurred to her that they would be armed. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
“Ever seen one of these knives?” asked the leader, eyes swirling with calculation, as he moved a little to her left. He was trying to take her attention off the net, she realized. She shifted slightly, angling her body in a way that allowed her to keep both threats in her peripheral vision.
“It’s pretty, don’t you think?” he continued. “It’s called a wasp knife. Have you ever heard of them?”
No, but it sure didn’t sound good. Her wolf coiled, raring to strike.
“Many sea divers and hunters use them to defend themselves against predators. They have a cylinder of compressed gas in the hilt. Do you know what that means?” He was so confident and at ease, so sure of his power, that she suspected they had done this many times before. “That means that when a person stabs the animal and presses this little trigger, the gas is injected deep into the wound, freezing their organs.”
How fucking charming. Makenna licked her lips, giving the net holders a sidelong glance. They hadn’t moved. But they would; she knew that. She didn’t doubt that she could claw her way out of the net, but being pinned down for just a few moments would leave her helpless against them.
She had no combat training. She was more of a scrapper than a fighter. And she was outnumbered and facing fanatical nut jobs complete with a net and a knife. Not exactly a positive situation. That didn’t mean she’d roll over and take this shit.
“I used it on a bear shifter once. It took him a few minutes to die. But smaller shifters like cougars and foxes tend to die in under a minute.”
She clenched her hands into fists as her stomach sank. Bastard.
“I’m wondering just how long you’ll take to die.” But he didn’t move to find out. Just stared at her with a cruel twist to his mouth. If he was trying to taunt her with anticipation, he was doing a good job.
Her peripheral vision alerted her to movement. The net holders were edging behind her and—
The leader charged at her. The others all lunged forward . . . catching the net as it flew over her head and pulling it down. It was heavier and thicker than she’d expected; the weight of it combined with the strength of the humans took her down to her hands and knees, trapping her. It happened so fucking fast. And here was the damn knife.