dart to the man behind me, warning him, but it only makes the man laugh again. The current in my body finally stops and I hang limp. Cries leave my throat as Mishal falls to the floor and they kick and punch him. I hear a bone break and scream for him, thrashing as much as my weak body allows in the guard’s grip.
Instead of tazing him with the prod, the man starts beating him with it, and I scream harder, anger racing through me as I fight in the guard’s grip. I manage to turn around and my weight drags us down with me on top of him. He grins up at me, flipping me before I can react, and I freeze. He is stronger than a human…how? Is he like us? That strange glowing from under his shirt catches my attention again, but when he licks my throat I gag and start to fight. The sound of bones being broken and flesh tearing only makes me fight harder.
No, no, no, no, I chant in my head. It even blocks the sound of Nyre’s infuriated roars as the man’s hand traps mine to the floor and he roams my body with his other one, touching, feeling, and pinching. I dart my head forward, head-butting him, and he screams as I hear his nose crunch. Blood gushes down onto me from it, but he keeps his grip on me so I turn to the side and rip out a chunk of his arm with my teeth.
The guard backhands me hard, my head smashing into the concrete and ringing, but I refuse to be beaten again, I refuse to be raped again. I refuse to lie here as they hurt the man I love again and again. No more. I turn to face the guard and he flinches at whatever he sees in my gaze, his hand stilling on my breast. Lunging forward, I knock him back as I tear out his throat, pushing my body through the agony to try and move.
Blood spurts into my mouth, but I quickly turn to the side and spit as much out as I can, ignoring the gurgling of the dying man underneath me. Getting to my wobbly feet, I kick his body and turn to the others to see them still beating Mishal, but all I can make out is a bloody body on the floor that’s no longer moving. I let out all my rage, all my pain, hopelessness, and grief, and scream. I scream long and ragged, and the two men freeze and turn to me, blinking when they spot the guard on the floor.
My scream cuts off and I growl at them, gnashing fangs. “Who’s next?” I yell.
“The fuck?” the big one asks.
“Kill her!” the other one screams, as they both rush at me.
I notice a flash of movement from Mishal and look towards him to see his eyes flicker open—completely golden and green. Nyre. My grumpy dragon.
The big guy hits me like a linebacker, throwing me back into the wall, and I groan at the crash, my bones rattling in my body, but I refuse to go down without fighting. I charge forward, head low, and throw him back and dodge the incoming lashes from the prod, moving as fast as I can, but I can feel myself slowing down. Slowing from the lack of my mate’s blood and the poison I can feel racing through my body.
I’m a fraction too slow, and a prod hits me in the back then a punch hits me square in the face and I go down hard, convulsing on the floor from the volts as bile comes from my mouth, black and red from the blood eating away at my insides.
Dabria! I hear both of them scream my name in my head, but I can’t even blink or think, trapped in the cycle of pain and fire.
Eventually, the volts stop and only then do I realise I have closed my eyes, they slit open to see the big guy’s fist coming straight for my face again. It hits me hard and I black out for a second before I choke on my own blood, my head turning to the side as I spit it out, my stomach refuses to let anything stay down.
They watch as I push myself up, getting to my knees before them.
“She’s stubborn,” the big guard comments and laughs. “That will come in handy. It’s more fun when they