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Natalie spent the day at work looking over her shoulder. She barely had any time to look into any of the pieces they had recovered from the site.
Every time a shadow moved past, she wondered if it was the man who was called Axle, watching over her. As much as she had originally feared him, knowing his name had made him seem a little more human, almost bearable. But seeing how powerful he was, Nat knew it was right for her to fear him.
Eric walked over at the end of the day, smiling at her. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost. Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” she replied.
“You sure?” Eric pressed. “I mean, ever since you got back from the cave, you’ve been acting really weird. Are you jealous?”
Natalie turned to the man, knowing Eric was incredibly competitive. The man was always looking to one-up Natalie, no matter what it was they were working on. It wasn’t really a big deal, and she actually enjoyed the workplace competition. They both pushed themselves to be their best.
But right now, her life had been turned around, and Natalie wasn’t in the mood to deal with any of his drama. “I have nothing to be jealous of.”
“Even the fact that I extracted the last complete fragment from the altar before you or anyone else could find it?”
“I really don’t care about that now, I just need to get home,” Natalie replied, walking toward her car. As she looked around the parking lot, she scanned to see if she would find anyone who was watching her. There was a chance that Axle was still around, and she wanted to know.
It was hard seeing anyone in particular in the darkness, considering that there were a bunch of other people heading home from work as well, so finding a single person who was watching her was quite the task.
Natalie started the car and drove to a Chipotle drive-thru to get some food for dinner. Once she had gotten her order, she took the home stretch back to her house.
“Damn, Natalie, what the hell is this?” she said to herself, looking at the bracelet. She wondered what she had gotten herself into, especially with Axle. If he was right, she could get in trouble for asking too many questions. She really wanted to know, but seeing a being that could breathe fire had really put fear in her.
She looked at the house, scared of heading into her own home. She shook off the fear, knowing that she hadn’t done anything wrong. And Axle had promised to come back, so she was fine. He wasn’t going to hurt her. In fact, he was trying to protect her, and she thought it was kind of sweet.
As she ate, she caught herself thinking of the man. Even in those moments where all she had felt was fear, she realized that she felt a strange attraction to the man. His hands were always warm, and when he had touched her lips, she had felt electricity run down her spine.
She shook the thought from her head. Axle was some sort of monster, she couldn’t be so dumb to think of him like that.
Natalie heard a creaking sound behind her, one that came from steps on the wooden board by the floor just inside her door. She let out a breath, knowing she had locked the front door. There wasn’t supposed to be anyone else in the house with her, and the boards wouldn’t creak on their own.
She picked up her phone, wondering why she hadn’t gotten Axle’s number. In fact, she shouldn’t have gone off without him. Natalie could sense that she was not alone, and this time, it wasn’t Axle.
As she lifted the phone up, she caught a glimpse of the figure behind her, slowly pushing the door open. It had two long limbs with three claw-tipped fingers on each. She could tell that it had a small body, a little smaller than a greyhound.
Natalie put her food down and slowly slipped her phone into her pocket, knowing she was about to be attacked. She had to get away from the creature. Making sure it was directly behind her, she grabbed her food and tossed it right at the face of the creature, blinding it.
It screamed, letting out an ear-piercing shrill. Natalie took her chance, running right past it and out to the corridor. As she ran, she heard the creature chasing after her. Quickly, she pulled her umbrella from beside the door and slammed the handle into the side of the creature. The force sent the creature back, but it slowed itself down, pulling its claws against the wooden floor.
She tossed the umbrella and grabbed a baseball bat, wielding it over her shoulder. “Come on, bitch!” Natalie yelled, waiting on the creature.
It charged at her, and she swung as hard as she could. The impact of the bat against the side of the creature sent it into the wall, slamming so hard that it went right through the wall and out the other side. It got to its feet and quickly rushed for a window, breaking the glass as it made its way out of the house.
Natalie stared at the hole in her house, seeing the broken window in the distance. She looked down at her hands, wondering what had just happened, and how she had been able to survive against whatever the hell that was.
Just as she put the bat down to catch a breath, a sound downstairs drew her attention. That hadn’t been the only one of those creatures in the building.
Natalie gritted her teeth. She wasn’t going to go down without a fight. No matter what they were, or how many they were, she would fight to the last.
Chapter 7 - Axle
Axle opened the door with force, prepared for whatever could be behind it. He just did not expect the bat to be swinging right at him, smacking him hard across the face.
Natalie gasped, and then the weapon fell from her hand. Axle groaned from the pain and kicked the weapon away before she could grab a hold of it again. Either she had no idea how much it would hurt, or she just hated him that much.
Frantic, she yelled and tried to hit him, but he caught her fist in the air, gripping it so tight that he only let go when she winced in pain.
“What’s going on?” Axle asked, even though he knew. He was hoping that she didn’t, and then he could cook up some old wives’ tale. But even as he had the thought, something inside of him knew that she was way smarter than that.
