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Dr. Smith crouched in the damp ground of the forest. Water from the rain pooled beneath him. He would have been miserable save for the excitement that bubbled inside his brain. The shadow cat was in the glowing tent just twenty feet away. He watched the twinkle of the flashlight bob around within it. As soon as the light went out, he planned to make his move.

Since his hawk minion wasn’t able to grab the girl or take out her companion, he had to make a move himself. Not only would the shifter add to his collection, but she would also be a valuable asset for his next set of experiments. A girl who could use dark matter within her to bend light. It was incredible. Hehadto find out how it worked!

As if a sign from above, the tent zipped open, and her male companion stepped into the rain, leaving the girl alone in the tent. The heavens smiled down on Dr. Smith. This was better than what he had planned! Instead of having to quietly kill her friend, he could sneak in while she was alone and snatch her up.

Dr. Smith was about to make his move when the male shifter suddenly stopped, inspecting the area around him with his light. Dr. Smith ducked behind the trunk of the large tree he was hiding behind, keeping as still as he could, hardly even breathing. The light of the flashlight lit the forest, shifting the shadows around him. Dr. Smith waited until the light left his area. He didn’t dare move until the man left.

Soon darkness swept around Dr. Smith once more. He peeked out from around the trunk and watched the light recede toward the cliff and the waiting river below. The soft ground shifted beneath his sopping wet boots as he tore through the forest, toward the tent—and the shifter girl—that waited for him in the clearing. He knew his time was short. Soon the man would return. Dr. Smith had a limited time to grab the girl and make off with her.

Ellie heard quick footsteps approaching. She feared the worst. As the flap of the tent opened, she asked, “What’s wrong?” The form silently crept into the tent. “Where’s the flashlight?”

As she asked, she knew the answer. He didn’t have a flashlight because he wasn’t Brett. Her heightened senses alerted her to danger. This mansmelleddifferent from Brett.

Ellie screamed as loud as she could to warn Brett, wherever he was. She hoped he heard. As her yell broke through the still of the night, the stranger lunged at her. Ellie tried to kick, but she was still inside her sleeping bag. Instead, her foot slid off of the man’s leg and shot toward the edge of the tent, kicking out one of the poles instead. The material fell around them. Ellie felt the wet of the rain kiss her through the fabric. It clung to her exposed skin and face. She felt like she was drowning, being dragged under by a damp sail of a ship.

Hands wrapped around her ankles. Ellie was still bound by the sleeping bag. The man dragged her. She was thrust into a mucky puddle of water outside. Her hand tightly clutched the pocketknife Brett had left her. She straightened her back defiantly. “You want me, come get me!” she shouted, opening the blade under the cover of night. Ellie struggled against the sleeping bag, trying to kick it off as it absorbed the rainwater that surrounded her.

Fooled into thinking she was stuck, the man lunged for her once more. She allowed him to pounce, letting him think he had the upper hand as she sank the blade into his side.

The man screamed in her ear. Ellie thought of all the times she’d screamed in captivity as they experimented on her. She remembered how they laughed at her as they strapped her to the hospital bed. Ellie took the rage built up inside of her after months of that. Seeing all their cruel faces, knowing they did not view her as human. She was nothing more to them than an object. Something to be owned or possessed.

This man was no different. Her abilities were something this evil scientist wanted to master, to claim as his own.

No one would do that to her again, make her feel like that again.

She ripped the blade out before sinking it in once more. And then another. She took no notice as her fingers slipped on the handle with the next thrust, slick from blood. The blade nipped into her fingers as well as the flesh of the man.

“Ellie!” Brett’s panicked voice ripped her from her mental anguish, bringing her back to the heavy body sputtering on top of her. Soon she was free from the weight as Brett flipped the man off of her, flooding his pale face with the beam of the flashlight. The assailant’s eyes were open and hollow, non-reflective, all wrong.

Ellie sucked in quickly, about to drive the blade into him once more just in case. Brett caught her wrist. “He’s dead, Ellie.”

She looked up to Brett, finally feeling the cold sting of the rain on her flesh. The cool fingers of water droplets traced multiple lines down her spine as they ran down her back. Ellie collapsed back into the mud with asplat. Her arms flailed out in exhaustion. Droplets clung to her eyelashes, blurring her vision, as she stared up at the black sky. She felt like the last person left in the world, frozen in pain, isolated in her anger. All alone.

Then a gentle hand pulled her up, pressing her into his warm body. Brett cupped her head in his hand, stroking her hair.

“I’m here,” he reminded her, pulling her out of the mental darkness. “You’re not alone, Ellie.”

She melted into him, letting his words tickle her ear and send a tingling electricity down her neck, through her body, toward her heart. Heating her from the inside out.

Brett brushed her matted hair off her face. She leaned her cheek into his palm, drinking in his scent. Ellie tilted her chin up, inviting him closer. Brett’s soft lips brushed hers, as if asking her if it was okay. Ellie covered his mouth with hers in answer. Her body tingled in response as she flitted her tongue around his, feeling the heat of his body mingle with her own.

“We have to get away from here,” she said, breaking the kiss the moment she remembered their situation. She didn’t dare look at the motionless form on the ground nearby. She’d done what she needed to do. That stranger had been after her, and she had to save herself.

“Yes, we do,” Brett agreed. “I don’t think there’s any point in trying to salvage the tent.” He pointed the beam of the flashlight to reveal their soggy mess of a tent, filling up with water, mud, and debris from the forest.

“I don’t think we should go very far in the dark and rain,” Ellie said with a sigh. “We could easily get turned around and lost or twist our ankles on uneven ground. Not to mention any wild animals that might be out there.”

“Maybe we can sleep in the trees tonight,” Brett suggested, looking up at the lush canopy above them.

Ellie glanced over her shoulder at the body. She didn’t know how she could sleep after killing someone.

Brett put a hand over her eyes. “Don’t think about it right now. We will rest up tonight if we can and tell Grayson about it tomorrow when we get to our extraction point.”

Ellie nodded as Brett helped her to her feet and freed her from the sleeping bag. It dripped from his fingers as he picked it up. “It must weigh thirty pounds,” he said with a huff. “Should I hang it up?”

Ellie raised an eyebrow glancing around them at the rain falling and the water dripping from the trees. “I don’t think it can get any drier, but I don’t think it could get any wetter, either.”

Source: www.allfreenovel.com
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