"Ravenous" - читать интересную книгу автора (King Sherri L. - Horde Wars 1 - Ravenousvoto6 (html))

Taking her captor unaware, she swept her foot out and brought them both tumbling to the floor. Cady landed on top of him with a grunt. Wasting no time, she stabbed her hands into the exposed flesh of his throat, only to slam them with bruising force into the hardwood floor as he dodged her blow.

Using his substantially greater mass he turned them so that he towered over her as they struggled. But Cady was in full battle mode and it did not subdue her in the least. Using her knees, she kicked out against him, sending him flying over her head. Grabbing a dagger that she kept sheathed at her booted ankle, she whirled around to tackle her assailant as he struggled up from his position on the floor.

The man managed to shake her loose. Enough to stagger to his feet, at least. With mindless abandon she launched herself onto his back, sinking her teeth into his shoulder. She hung on for dear life as he tried to pry her off of him once more. Growling around the mouthful of flesh and muscle in her gripping jaws, she brought the knife to bear and sank it deep into his side. Hot wet blood spilled out over her hand before she was flung across the room. She had enough sense to brace herself for the impact that was sure to come—only to find herself suddenly plucked from her wild flight in the air by a hand encircling her throat.

He moved so fast! Faster than she could ever move, and she was an enhanced human. Or so she liked to think.

Her nails clawed the hand at her throat, leaving deep, weeping furrows behind. With a menacing growl her assailant brought her back against a wall. Her entire body was held inches above the floor by just the one hand clamped around her throat. Cady still could not see his face, but now she could see his eyes.

They were the same eyes she looked into each time she killed one of the monsters. His eyes were yellow-gold, with bold red rings around the pupils and irises. Though admittedly his eyes were clearer, lacking the bloodshot, glazed look that the monsters sported. In fact, they glittered like translucent jewels from beneath the longest, darkest lashes she’d ever seen.

This man was clearly different from a monster. His skin wasn’t blistered and slimy, his blood appeared to be red instead of inky black, and he spoke plainly in English so that she could understand him. His voice was far too beautiful to belong to a monster. But his eyes were irrefutably alien and so like the monsters’ that she wondered if he were a new breed of the hideous beings.

The thought left her cold and full of terror. If there were more enemies like the one she now faced, she feared she would never live to see another dawn.

In hopeless desperation Cady reached out before her, seeking out the soft, vulnerable flesh that shielded his heart. In her experience, every monster she’d ever faced had each possessed the same mortal weakness. The flesh of their chest cavities was like soft, over-ripe peaches, easily torn asunder to lay bare their hideous hearts. Her legs flailed over the empty space between them and the floor. With brutal force she struck out at his chest.

Only to bruise her knuckles against the hard, firm muscles that shielded his heart.

Oh God, she thought. What is he?

The assailant shoved her more forcefully against the wall, striking her head cruelly against it. Even as her vision dimmed from the blow to her skull she refused to cease her struggles. This must have angered him, because he raised his free hand and slowly brought a single finger to rest against her shoulder.

“Don’t make me hurt you, woman. Cease your fight, and answer my questions; the dawn is almost upon us.”

“Fuck you,” she choked out, lashing out with her fist. She aimed for his nose, but he managed to evade her blow so that it glanced off of his cheekbone instead. Regardless, she felt no small amount of satisfaction knowing that he would at least bear a bruise for her efforts.

“I’m not really in the mood, just now,” his beautiful voice bit out, just before a blue-white blade shot out from the tip of his finger. It stabbed cleanly through the muscle of her shoulder, like a hot knife through butter.

Cady screamed as the searing pain in her shoulder registered to her brain. Her assailant loosened his hold so that the weight of her body rested on the blade that ran straight through her shoulder and beyond into the wall behind her. She was suspended on that keen and wicked pain as he bent forward to breathe softly into her face.

“Do not make me hurt you further, little one.” Was his voice gentler? Did she detect some small regret at his cruelty staining the dulcet tones of his voice? Or was she so consumed by pain that she was imagining things?

“Answer my questions, and your suffering will end. Are you friend or foe to the Shikars? Speak the truth or I will know you lie.”

“I…I…it hurts,” she whimpered. She could not think beyond the pain of the bright blade that pierced her flesh. Later, probably, her show of weakness would shame her. But not now. Now she wanted nothing but to escape from the horrible pain.

“I know it hurts, but you would not cease your struggles. I did not intend to come here and visit harm upon you. I merely wanted answers—answers which you still have yet to give me.” His last words were gritted out and he twisted his finger, causing the blade to bite more cruelly into her tender flesh.

“God! Please!” she screamed as the pain unbelievably intensified. “I’ll tell you anything—anything! Just…just stop.”

“With whom do you side? Shikar or Daemon?”

“I—I don’t know any Shikar or Daemon,” she managed. It surprised her that she could talk at all. Her body had begun to shake and tremble with the waves of agony.

“You speak the truth…and yet you do not. You smell of the Daemons. You are covered in their filth.” His intense, burning eyes blazed a trail down her form.

“You mean the monsters?” Her thoughts were a jumble, but she managed that bit of reasoning before she once more gave in to the pain that drove her. She moaned and writhed against the blade in her shoulder, seeking to keep her weight from bearing down so heavily upon it.