Hunter (The Hero Rebellion 0.5) by Belinda Crawford (important books to read .TXT) 📕

blood on his muzzle from when he'd torn out the Control officer's throat.

Her HUD scanned the beast as he lumbered out of his hidey-hole, matching ears and chest-size to the warrant sitting on her biocomp, the one that said this companion was hers to kill. The scanner went to work, looking for the tag in his neck. Her finger crept towards the trigger.

'Patience,' her dad said, as if he could see through the distance and the dark, or read her mind, to feel the fear and anticipation riding her nerves. 'You need to confirm the warrant before the kill.'

She didn't need confirmation; the blood and the bullet hole were enough to tell her that this was the one. The human-killer.

'Patience,' he said again.

Patience.

She took her finger off the trigger. Waited as her HUD continued to scan the 'pard. A second ticked by. Another. And another.

Patience.

The 'pard lifted his muzzle, light gleaming off the slick black of his nose. His nostrils expanded, drawing the scents of the park into his lungs, tasting them.

On her HUD, the scan continued, leaving the thick muscles of his neck, travelling down the long, lithe length of his torso, down his flanks to the point of his tail. Nothing. It started back the other way.

The 'pard paused, every muscle in his body freezing before he reared onto his hind legs and breathed again.

'Daddy.' It wasn't even a word, just a twitch of her vocal cords as new tension gripped her body.

'Hold, little tiger.'

Hold. Hold. Hold. The memory rang in her head, over and over as the fire raged on the other side of the plasglas wall. Heating the floor, the air, her lungs. The sound of it vibrating against her skin, the harsh red core turning the shadows into the pits of Hell and burning everything else.

Hold, little tiger.

'Hold,' she whispered. She counted her heart, the ragged thumps, the rush of blood in her ears. One. Two. Th-Three. Four.

Closed her eyes against the black and red of the Hell-scape around her. Concentrated.

One.

Two.

Three.

Tension left her shoulders, unwound from her back, just a little, just enough that her muscles were no longer trying to rip themselves apart.

Enough for her to seek the place inside herself, the oasis where nothing could touch her.

Four.

Five.

Her heart slowed, not all the way, not to where it should, but a measure of calm settled over her mind. Adrenalin still pumped through her veins, but it was no longer the fire of panic, no longer made her hands shake or her breath come in rasps. And now, as she opened her eyes and took in the Hell-scape, she could peel back the sticky sense of unreality and see.

Really see.

Subria crawled out of her shadow.

Flames still cast the lab in shades of red and black, still made the primitive space deep in her mind scream in terror, but it no longer controlled her.

She stood, just enough to peer over the workbench and through the clear plasglas walls.

Her eyes didn't want to focus, wanted to jump left and right and anywhere but the heart of the inferno waiting outside. She grabbed hold of that part of herself, gritted her teeth and forced herself to see.

To see the fire standing there. Staring back at her.

She found the pistol.

Stood.

Aimed.

Patience, her daddy whispered. Confirm the warrant.

Except there was no HUD this time, no biocomp wrapped around her throat. No warrant. Just Temple on the opposite side of the plasglas, the worm wriggling through his gaze, trying to find its way into her soul.

Her finger found the depression in the grip even as a prayer fell from her lips. She activated the weapon and the barrel assembled itself out of the blackness at the top.

Temple frowned. Cocked his head. His mouth moved, but she didn't hear the words, only felt the stickiness reaching for her.

He wasn't talking to her, and even if he was, the plasglas was too thick for her to hear.

Too thick for sound. Too thick for projectiles.

The panic at the back of her mind still gibbering, Subria moved until she could see the control panel.

Temple's lips didn't stop, and he never took his eyes off her, not even when he did something to the ring on his finger and a holoscreen bloomed above it.

The lab door opened a fraction. Flames leapt, licking at the gap, long orange-blue fingers wrapping around the frame, heat blasting her in the face. The primitive thing screamed, and her grip on it loosened, just for a second, long enough for her heart to leap and a cry to escape her lips.

Hold, little tiger.

Hold.

A breath, a ragged, desperate lunge for the last bit of her control.

She held onto her sanity with the shredded remnants of reason.

The door opened more, and the flames rushed in, pushing the plasglas aside, taking over her vision.

Someone was screaming, the sound loud and high. Piercing.

She stumbled back. One hasty, shaky step, and another. Hands spasming on the pistol as the little bit of sanity left tried to stay in control.

Heat blasted her, boiled the sweat from her skin, seared the hairs from her arms. Roasted her flesh.

A bench slammed into her back. She wanted to crawl over it, wanted to run, wanted to find the closest shadow and hide. Hide. Hide. Hide.

The flames spoke. Words that burned in her ears. Meanings that tried to make it to her brain but pinged off the adrenalin riding her blood.

Now!

The word blasted through her, a shockwave riding all the way down her shoulder, her arm. The pistol cracked.

The inferno paused. Wavered.

Silence. A heartbeat for the deep, ragged sound of her breathing echoing in her ears. The roar of the fire silent.

Her ears rang. And then...and then...

The fire groaned, a long deep sound of pain. It flickered. Fell to its knees.

Subria blinked. Blinked again.

There was something in the flames, a shape, dark and fuzzy at first. Human.

She blinked a third time.

The flames died.

Temple knelt on the cold steelcrete, his dark face ashen, his hand, the one with the ring, clamped to his