16. Mia

MIA

Ifell hard on my knees and was kicked hard in the ass by Wyre’s powerful legs. I sailed forward, my face sliding across the hard wooden floor, the splinters snapping off and burying themselves in the soft flesh of my cheeks.

I rolled to one side, instinctively putting myself out of range of any further attacks.

I hastily got to my feet and turned to look at Rivvac perched on the creature’s limbs, grunting at the struggle of holding him down and pinning him in place. Sweat dripped down his face after just a few moments, dousing Wyre’s dirty vest.

One vicious blow landed on Rivvac’s unprotected body after another, each one enough to put me permanently in the hospital. Rivvac grunted but absorbed them.

The life slowly left Wyre’s body, but Rivvac didn’t release him until long after Wyre had made his final death struggle.

“Blade,” Rivvac grunted. “Hand me… the blade.”

I didn’t know which blade he was referring to and I doubted it mattered very much. I reached for the one Rivvac had forced Wyre to release just a moment earlier.

As soon as it was within his grip, he snatched it from me. He immediately hacked at Wyre’s body, not with vicious uncontrolled animal outbursts, but with calculated slices at the dead man’s limbs. He severed key tendons and muscles, preventing him from launching further attacks in case he was only playing dead.

Once Rivvac was done, he threw himself back, the blade still clutched in his hand. He stared at the dead creature on the floor, its blood reaching only the nearest floorboards. It slipped between the cracks of the removable floor and filled the hiding space beneath his shack where his fortune should have been.

Rivvac panted, out of breath, and slowly looked over at me.

I scurried over to him before I even knew what I was doing.

He wrapped his powerful arms around me, clutching me close. I couldn’t help but weep.

“You came back for me,” I cried. “You came back!”

“Of course, I came back.” I could hear the smile in his voice.

The tears stung when they reached the nicks at my throat but I took no notice of them. I only clutched Rivvac closer, as if I pulled him any harder into me, I would have consumed him.