50. Ree

50

Ree

"No screaming for your manticorid friend, female. Move out of there."

Thivoll was right about the danger. And about the Little Green Men.

Braceaaer really have been accurately portrayed in tabloids. Giant heads compared to their body size, enormous eyes, gray-green skin with a silver sheen, and pitifully weak looking.

Guns have a way of making that not matter.

I slowly raise my hands, then stand up in controlled movements.

I had a gun pulled on me a few months ago when treating a young child's broken arm and I asked one too many pointed questions about how it happened. It's not pleasant, but people who don't shoot you right away are usually after something.

Which means it's best to find out what that is right away.

My throat shifts painfully so I can do just that. "What do you want?"

"A whore with a translator. How inconvenient. Just move."

Well, that answers that question. Typical.

Hopefully he likes his 'whores' alive, so it gains me more time.

I make my way back up the rocks, hiding a glance over to Thivoll with the fall of my long hair. He would have normally heard all of that, but the roaring water must be drowning us out because he's still heaving the chamber across the logs, mostly blocked from my view by the spray of water.

I just need to live long enough for him to look over to my empty hiding spot.

Easy.

"So how do you like to be serviced?"

Their language is an odd combination of clicks and whistles.

"Silently, or I cut out tongues."

What a keeper.

Clearly I need a new strategy. I take one step into the woods and have an overwhelming feeling like going farther is a terrible idea.

I turn to the disgusting hunter.

His giant eyes are glued to my ass, which gives me an idea. I take a step closer to him, telling my suit to recede to its small band. His mouth parts, revealing a green tongue.

"The genali outdid themselves on you."

I put a bit of a bounce in my step and his eyes are transfixed by the movement of my breasts.

His gun is slowly lowering during his distraction. It comes up again as I get close and so I dip one hand down to the juncture of my thighs as I take the last step toward him.

He's letting out a whistling sound and his own hand is straying to his belt when I slash my other hand forward. My claws sweep across the fingers holding the gun, hitting it down and away.

It goes off to the side in a loud retort, but I don't let it distract me.

I slash my other claws toward his neck, but he moves back just enough that I slice across his chest instead. His camo suit parts and green blood flows.

He tries to bring the gun up again but I attack his extending arm.

It gives him an opening to punch me in the face from the other side. My vision blacks out for a moment, his blow much harder than I would expect for someone over a foot shorter than me.

I swipe wildly with my claws, making contact in multiple places.

Then he screams. One I've heard enough times now to know Thivoll found us. The braceaaer drops to the ground, bleeding from multiple wounds.

Thivoll is snarling behind him.

I've seen many thousands of wounds just as bad or worse, but never ones I inflicted on a person.

I throw up all the leaves in my stomach. Then scramble back down to the water, desperate to get the green blood off of me.

I start by plunging my hands into the water, but it's not enough. I wade out into the bitter cold flow and completely immerse myself, bracing myself against a rock, my hands rubbing all over.

Frantically working to remove all the splatter traces.

I hear a splash next to me and open my eyes in the water. My long indigo and orange hair is whipping along the current and Thivoll is wading toward me, then diving under to join me.

Instead of pulling me out, he rubs his hands over my skin and scales rigorously, then massages my scalp.

I can't hold my breath anymore so I get my feet under me and rocket out of the water. Thivoll comes up, but his movements are slow and precise.

His voice is incredibly gentle. "You did so well, my Ree. I know that hurt your heart. It's alright."

Shivers are racking my body as he runs his hands up and down my shoulders and arms, still speaking to me like I'm a wounded animal.

"It's alright. It's alright."

I take a long, ragged breath, then let it out.

He's right. I just focus on what he's saying. It's alright. I shake off my shock and then crash into him, holding him tight.

"Thank you, Thivoll. Thank you."

He chuffs. "No thanks are necessary. You had that well handled."

"I don't want to think about that."

"I'm taking you home."

"But—"

He cuts me off. "We're leaving."

He crouches down in the water and I climb up, the feel of his wet fur against me a reminder that I'm naked. The black suit covers me again, but the thin fabric does nothing to stop the shivers making my teeth rattle together.

I hold on tight as he leaps from rock to rock, then we are back in the forest.

"Did you stash her somewhere?"

He doesn't answer right away and my heart leaps into my throat.

"Thivoll! Is she safe?"

"I let her go when I saw the braceaaer."

My lips feel numb, but I make them work anyway. "You what? W-Where is she?"

"Somewhere down the river, Ree."

I'm shaking violently as I hurl myself off of him.

I ignore the sting of the sticker bush I tumble against and scramble back up, desperate to get back to the river.

I know she must be well out of sight but I have to look. I don't make it another step before one of his arms cage me.

He lifts me and completely ignores my kicks of protest. I just barely keep down my screams of rage, though I don't know how much longer I can manage it if he doesn't let me go.

Something in me is breaking and unless I find her, it won't ever be pieced back together again.

"Stop! You aren't well, Ree. We need to go," he hisses in my ear, his hot breath fanning the still dripping locks of my hair.

"I'm fine. Let me go! I can't leave her."

"I hope it doesn't kill you, but I can't let you."

His voice sounds gutted, but there's no room in my mind for sympathy as long as he's keeping me from what I need to do.

His tail replaces his arm and then I'm shifting around and along his fur.

Before I realize what he's doing he has me pinned against his back, my face buried in the back of his mane and then he's running.

I struggle against the unyielding grip of his tail, just to have it trap my legs against him in addition to my chest.

I sob. "Please, Thivoll . . ."

Nothing.

"Alright. I won't go. Just put me in a tree."

He doesn't respond, and I keep begging him. "I can't leave her. Please!"

He runs faster and faster the more I plead. The more broken sobs that wrack through me.

Eventually I settle down to a sort of trance of trembling, empty numbness.

Images of each of the women keep swimming through me. Being killed. Being raped. Telling me they trusted me and I failed them.

Each nightmare tearing deeper and deeper wounds.

I barely notice when his movements slow, though it's hard to miss when he repositions me so he can scale the cliff to our cave. When he sets me down I glance up at him.

His eyes are wild, his face is pale, and his fur is standing on end. There is something rigid and unyielding about him.

I've never seen him like this.

It jolts me out of my trance, pain surging right back in. This time of a different sort because I know I've harmed something between us.

I'm heartsick just thinking about something destroying our easy companionship.

I'm afraid to look at him any closer, so I screw my eyes tight, but he won't allow it.