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

The first breath was magic, filling her from the inside out. On the second, she surged to her knees, came face-to-snout with the ruc-pard.

Eyes the colour of obsidian met hers, and Subria fell.

There was no gravity, no time, no cold, no blood. Fear and adrenalin dropped away, leaving a curious weightlessness, a sense of waiting and… something else.

Discomfort rippled through her chest, a stretching on the inside of her ribs, gentle at first and then stronger, verging on the edge of pain. There was a new space next to her heart, or maybe in her heart, as if something were trying to make a new home. Then a knocking, reverberating through her chest, reaching out with silver fingers. Behind it... she didn't know what it was, but it felt like someone saying 'hello'.

Subria jerked back into her own body, surging to her feet, putting as much distance between herself and the ruc-pard as she could.

Her chest still rang with the knocking, and the space behind her heart was still there, cramping her lungs, shortening her breath, but it had stopped growing, stopped trying to send tendrils of… of emotion through her body. But still...

The 'pard rumbled, cocking her head to the side, her eyes beckoning Subria closer, promising... promising... she didn't know what, but it was huge, life-changing, like everything she'd ever wanted and hadn't known. Like destiny.

Subria leaned forwards.

Darkness descended on four sleek wings, sucking in the light, only to flash it out again from talons and fangs. Erberos snarled, the sound slicing through the air, sliding into her ears, a knife so sharp there wasn't any pain.

The 'pard flattened her ears and backed away from the wan-adder with a snarl of her own, bloodied lips pulling back from bloodied teeth.

'Venere.' The sound of her name, the familiar voice scratchy and threaded with pain, broke the tension, snapped Subria's gaze to the dark shape slumped against the wall.

'Instructor Bayard.' She was at the older woman's side in moments, Erebos clinging to her shoulder, the ruc-pard a shadow in the corner of her eye.

The instructor's head and shoulders were propped against the wall, the rest of her sprawled on the floor. Subria bent to help her up, but Bayard pushed her hands away.

'No time.' Grabbing Subria's jacket, Bayard tugged until her lips brushed against Subria's ear. 'He's gone for the gene banks. Stop him. Follow the sound.'

The fingers in Subria's jacked loosened and fell away as Bayard lost consciousness.

CHAPTER FOUR

She stalked the hallways alone, pistol gripped in both hands and pointed at the floor, steps smooth and slow.

Follow the sound. Instructor Bayard's last words shivered in her memory.

The sound vibrated in her skull until she wasn't sure if it was in her ears or in her bones.

It led her deep into the bowels of the Farm, past the stables and through heavy doors left ajar, into a barracks filled with narrow hallways and more people slumped over chairs and workbenches, others sprawled on the floor. She checked them all, stopped to feel the pulse in their necks, even though the urgency of Bayard's command ran through her head, made her skin tight with the need to move.

Stalk and check and stalk again. At some point the lights changed, the bright daylight replaced with the demonic red glow of emergency lights.

The tension in her shoulders became a ball of dread.

On her shoulder, Erebos flexed his claws.

The corridor branched, and she paused, debating which way to go. Both branches looked the same in the eerie emergency glows, filled with shadows as impenetrable as Erebos's hide. Tension grew out of the nerves crawling up her back, ran down her arms in sweaty rivulets.

Follow the sound.

Subria skirted around the corner, pistol still held low, back to the wall.

Follow the sound.

The ache of her teeth, the pound of blood between calcium and flesh, lessened with every step, the awful screech in her eardrums going with it. Subria hadn't realised how much it hurt, how tightly she'd been gritting her jaw, until the pressure eased. For a handful of steps, it was blissful. Then: Shit.

She was going the wrong way.

Subria spun, slinked back the way she'd come, boots still silent on the plascrete, heel gliding to toe, always aware, always watchful. She imagined her daddy slinking along beside her, remembered the last time he'd taken her hunting; the quiet in and out of his breathing through the comms in her ear.

'Heel and toe, baby girl. Mind the debris, but keep your focus on the 'pard. Breathe easy, heart slow, hand steady. He'll smell your fear if you let him, hear your heartbeat if it rises.'

Except there was no 'pard to stalk. The 'pard was back in the foyer, watching over her classmates, and that thought… that thought made her shiver, brought the nightmare closer to the surface. Her gut curled in on itself, her breath came in short, hard jerks, and the deep gurgling scream filled her ears—

Subria pushed it away, focused on the sharp stab of Erebos's claws, the ache in her gums, the screech vibrating through her skull, pounding at her ears, louder and louder with every gliding step down the corridor. Slowly, painfully, the nightmare, the scream, retreated.

Erebos growled, scales warm on her neck, driving a wedge of darkness between the nightmares and her.

She kept going. Heel and toe. Heel and toe.

The hallway changed, the space narrowing. Still dark, but the red glows on the walls were getting closer, becoming a funnel, until the glow was all around, distorting the shadows, making them shallow where they should have been deep. What was this place? The hallway was long, she could have reached out and touched either side without straining. There were no outlines of doors, no darker shadows to suggest other hallways, only the red shadows and the ache in her jaw to lead her on.

A plasglas door, planted in the middle of the hall, standing open. She hesitated, wondered for a moment if this was