with those of the two nephilim above me. They seem familiar somehow, but I don’t have time to connect the dots because they are hauling me to my feet. I fight back, slashing out with my knives, and I hear one grunt as I hit my target, but then a black bag is placed over my head and I’m disoriented. I’m guided from the room and I feel cold air hit my body as we head outside.
I stop fighting, saving my strength for whatever they have planned. They are silent and I feel the gravel give way to grass under my feet. Suddenly I’m jerked around and my face is smashed into something strong and rough. A tree? Maybe. My hands are tugged around the wide trunk and I growl, slashing with my knives again, but a grunt escapes me when they break both wrists, my knives falling to the ground with an audible thud. My hands are tied, the razor wire cutting into my injured wrists which I can feel trying to knit back together. They step away then, and I can hear their ragged breathing from somewhere behind me.
Grinding my teeth, I tug on the razor wire. It’s tight, but I could cut through my wrists if need be to escape, except I don’t know how long it would take for it to heal and I would be weak from blood loss. Plus, what would I do? I can’t hurt them back, the council would have me killed. It would give them proof that I’m the mad dog they call me.
No, I need to be strong. I’ve survived worse, I can survive this. As long as they don’t kill me, I can survive it. I repeat it again and again, forcing my mind to toughen up and push all thoughts of my mate away. She makes me feel weak, and I can’t afford that now, not if I’m to get through this and back to her side where I belong.
They don’t remove the bag, so I can’t even see them, instead I close my eyes and focus on my other senses. I can smell them, the scent of wings and the metal they are carrying. I can feel their anger and hatred brushing along my back with the force of it. I hear them shifting, their boots crushing twigs even as they try to stay silent, but they can’t stop their breathing or the pounding of their hearts.
“Well, isn’t this fun,” I deadpan. “Do trees make you hard or something?”
“You fucking abomination,” one of them spits, his voice low.
“I’ve heard that before, you guys need new insults, it just sounds like a pet name now,” I taunt. I don’t know why, maybe it’s a habit. I won’t show them my fear, I’ll force their hand, mess with their plans. They don’t get to see my weaknesses, only Dawn does.
“Do you remember us?” the other one questions, his voice breaking like he can’t speak, and that’s when it hits me. I know why they are familiar.
I go quiet and the one with the deeper voice laughs. “Oh, I think he does, so he knows why we are here...revenge.”
“I was a kid, I had anger issues and you guys were assholes,” I snap.
I remember them, and he’s right, they want revenge. They had been saying shit about my mum for days, spreading rumours, calling her a whore, weak, a sheep. They made the mistake of saying it to my face the day I had a fight with my dad over slapping my mum. It was their blunder.
As much as I like to believe the darkness, the madness hiding inside me was created the day they took my wings, I know differently deep down. I was born with it. I’ve always had it. Yes, they brought it out that day, but it appeared one other day before. That day with these two. I had waited for them, attacked them. The one with the ruined voice? I ripped out his throat with my bare hands and put it around my neck like a trophy. Later, I handed it to my mum as a way of telling her they couldn’t hurt her anymore with their words. The other? Let’s just say it’s a good job we can’t have kids, because there’s no way he ever could now.
Afterwards, my mother had been horrified, and that’s when I realised I had done something bad. Something really messed up, something only a monster would do. She