Dark Empathy by Archibald Bradford (inspiring books for teens TXT) 📕

herself out for having sent the untrained bunny into such a dangerous situation.

It was several minutes before Rebecca regained control of herself, holding the operative tight the entire time, their breasts pressed firmly together.

In the silence of the room their breathing seemed to synchronize, and the embrace softened, then heated.

Recognized the potential for a serious mistake, Miranda finally pulled her head off of Rebecca’s shoulder.

But before she could say anything, the Lapine’s lips were on hers.

Wet with her tears, but warm and soft nonetheless.

The kiss ended quickly, though the heated potential of the moment hung over them, the pain in Miranda’s side helped her keep her priorities straight.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have done that, I’m so stupid.” Rebecca murmured.

Miranda laughed as she felt her lips, though she stopped when she felt the Lapine flinch in her arms.

“It’s alright, honestly. It’s actually a common reaction to trauma. And it’s not like I don’t find you attractive, but now isn’t really-”

“I know! I’m sorry, I just… I just want someone to love me. I feel so alone now. The only person I’ve ever truly loved, turned out to be a… a-”

“An evil cunt?”

Rebecca swallowed, then nodded as she smiled shakily.

“And now I’m in an Aegis compound, with an actual Aegis operative. My whole life I wanted to be here, but not like this, never like this.”

Miranda could feel her going to pieces again, and she was glad that she hadn’t released her when the bunny had stolen that kiss.

She allowed time for the monster girl to calm down before speaking again.

“I’m sorry, I should have realized that with all of the wounded… you were holding yourself together well enough with Kala, so I didn’t see how badly you needed to talk to someone.”

“I-I’m okay-”

“The hell you are.” She muttered, finally breaking away from the timid bunny; “With all the shit you’ve been through, you have to see someone. Now.”

Rebecca almost looked ready to panic again at the older woman’s words, but she shifted into confusion when Miranda let out a bitter laugh.

“Fortunately for you, I know someone more than qualified. Let’s go and wake his ass up.”

__________

Lipton Falls was a bustling mining town, east of Greyhaven and northwest of Garland. It had been enjoying a recent boom when rich deposits of copper were discovered in the local iron mine.

But even with its newfound success it was still a small town, and didn’t have much of a night life.

Which is why no alarm was sounded, no warning was given, and no one was spared when a host of Tenebrae, led by a demonic Chimera and a black-faced Amazon, descended on the sleepy hamlet.

The thunder of clawed feet and hooves as the wave of dark monsters poured into the village was soon accompanied by screams.

They moved quickly, spreading out and breaking into several houses at a time and within an hour the only ones alive were the unfortunate monster girls that Evadne was intent on claiming.

Them... and a single human woman, kneeling in shock over the corpses of her two infant sons in the middle of the street.

She had tried to flee with them, but carrying them both she wasn’t fast enough and the poor souls were torn from her arms and killed before her eyes.

Now the Tenebrae swarmed all around her, though they did not touch her.

The dark creatures parted and the shadowy Chimera suddenly loomed over her.

Evadne considered the woman’s grief for a long time, an echo of her own, inflicted so long ago, yet felt keenly every time Jonathan turned a monster girl.

Eventually she knelt at the bereft mother’s side and placed her claws gently on the back of her neck.

She spoke, and her voice was not as it once was: now it echoed with a deep and hollow darkness.

“This is familiar to me. The sense that what you are seeing cannot be real. The helplessness, the hopelessness. Everything that you are feeling was all I knew once upon a time.”

The woman said nothing.

Her world had ended with the broken bodies before her and she couldn’t take her eyes off of them.

Evadne nodded slowly at the non-response.

“You are fortunate, for you get what I was denied.”

She flexed her dark claws and the woman didn’t even whimper as her neck broke.

With a tenderness that stood at odds with her actions, the Chimera lay the woman down with her children and finished her thought.

“You get to die with your babies.”

Chapter 43:Catching Up

Adrian and the Saenga Amazons had been pushing hard to catch up to their quarry, and had closed the gap substantially when they arrived on the scene of one of their recent camps.

But to their great lament, the little grove within the woods had been occupied before the men they were pursuing arrived.

A patch of wild Blomma had lived and played within the same clearing for nearly a hundred years, but they had awoken from their winter hibernation only to be greeted by a group of most unwelcome human visitors.

The overwhelming majority of criminals that had escaped from Bask’s people were either rapists or murderers.

Or both.

It crushed their spirits to look upon the remains of the innocent flower girls the prisoners had made sport of.

The mixed group of Trogs and Amazons quickly spread out to search for survivors, but found only one.

All of the ellow skinned girl’s petals had been forcibly removed, and she had numerous shallow stabs that had sapped her life blood to the point she was barely conscious.

Alcaia and Olena set to work on her, but both soon realized that there was nothing they could do.

“As if we didn’t already have reason enough to hunt these wretched scum to the ends of the earth!” Hila