Ian froze. His eyes met those of his sister’s. Zyra looked back at him, her eyes wide, silently pleading with him to help her. Please, Ian. Don’t let them do this.
Ian looked at her, then looked at Shane. Slowly, painfully, he lowered his eyes to the floor. He shook his head, stepping back, completely giving up the fight to save his own skin.
Zyra’s heart sunk. She closed her eyes for a second, and bit her bottom lip. The last affection she had for Ian shattered in that moment. His cowardice was the final nail in her heart. From now on, she would consider herself without family.
Hans let out an evil, mocking laugh as he began to pull Zyra harder. "Do not worry Ian, we will take very good care of her. If we like her, maybe we will keep her around for daily relief."
The others laughed, while Ian flinched.
"No!" Zyra cried. She would bite her own tongue and die first, before allowing that to happen.
Lita chimed in from the sidelines, waving a hand dismissively. "Oh, just don’t fight it, Zyra! It’ll be over sooner than you know it. It’s okay, really. After all, your reputation and honor are already ruined in the country anyway. What’s a little more? Being a kept prostitute is better than having no protection at all in this world. It is dangerous for weak women like you to rely on themselves."
Zyra’s heart sank into her stomach. She could not believe this. These men were about to rape her, and her own brother was turning a blind eye just so he could survive later. The servants were just watching like this was normal and Lita was telling her to accept it. This was a terrible fate.....just like burning her alive on a pyre. Perhaps, even worse.
Behind her, she heard the other ex-fiancés laughing, their voices jovial and disgusting.
"I get first dibs!" Michael called out.
"No way, I called it," Clifford argued. "Let’s bet on it. Who goes second, third, and last?"
"Help!" Zyra let out a terrifying scream, her voice echoing off the high ceilings. "Somebody help me! Aunt!"
The humans in the house did not come to her rescue. They just blocked out the sound of her screams. Some people even closed windows and doors.
But her half-life beast did not ignore her screams.
The tiny snake wrapped around her wrist suddenly uncoiled like a snapped spring. It opened its mouth shockingly wide, and two needle-like fangs slid out, plunging deep into the fleshy meat of Hans’s hand.
Chomp!
Hans froze. Then, a second later, the toxins hit his bloodstream.
"AAAAARGH!" Hans let out a guttural, blood-curdling cry, instantly letting go of her hand. He collapsed to his knees, clutching his arm as his veins began to turn a sickly shade of purple.
Right at that exact moment, a strange, digital-sounding chime echoed loudly inside Zyra’s head.
[Beast bonding system activated.
[Beast has successfully protected its soul mate.
[Current Resonance is at 1%]
Zyra blinked, stumbling backward. What the hell was that?
She was too panicked and occupied to even figure out what the voice in her head was talking about. She didn’t care. All she saw was Hans convulsing on the floor, foaming slightly at the mouth, while Clifford, Lita, Michael and Shane screamed in panic, rushing forward to tend to him.
"He’s poisoned! Get a doctor!" Clifford yelled, losing all his smug composure.
"This is my chance," Zyra whispered.
Adjusting the heavy strap of her travel bag, she didn’t look back at her cowardly brother or her useless foster sister. She turned around, ran, grabbing her case along the way. Zyra pushed her legs, pumping every bit of strength she had into them.
She hopped straight into the car that Hans had drove over. It belonged to his father, and he drove it around often to show off with his friends. It was not uncommon for him to leave the keys in the ignition.
Luckily, he had done the same thing today. She started the engine, hit the gas, and drove away before anyone could stop her.
But her fiancés were not ready to let her go, not after what had just happened.
The moment the tires of a car screeched down the driveway, Lita pointed a trembling finger in the distance and shrieked at the top of her lungs, "She’s getting away! Stop her."
That set off a bomb. Michael, Lita, Shane, and Clifford abandoned the foaming Hans on the floor, their faces twisted with rage. They scrambled toward the driveway, sprinting like madmen. Micheal and Shane jumped on the back of the Thunder Hawk, Micheal’s half-life beast.
Clifford and Lita leaped onto the back of a motorcycle, which belonged to Lita and she started the engine.
It was a desperate, chaotic chase. The expensive car barreled down the narrow streets of the town, completely ignoring traffic laws. The Thunder Hawk, newly hatched, without much control, struggled to find balance. It swerved onto the sidewalk, smashing through a street vendor’s fruit stall, sending apples and oranges flying like colorful bullets.
Lita took a shortcut through a narrow alley, scraping the expensive paint of her shiny motorcycle against the brick walls and flattening a row of metal trash cans with a deafening clang.
"Get out of the way!" Clifford screamed at people, like a maniac as they tore through a crowded market street.
Ahead of them, a poor middle-aged man was sweating as he pushed a wooden wheelbarrow overflowing with sacks of grain and cucumbers. He didn’t even have time to look back before the front wheel of the motorcycle clipped the front of the wheelbarrow.
CRASH!
The wooden cart swerved into a wall. The cucumbers flew everywhere, and the poor man was knocked heavily to the ground, clutching his bleeding knee and groaning in agony.
Lita and Clifford were filled with too much rage to help the old man. She tossed a few blue energy stones at him, then drove right over the spilled grain, leaving the injured man in the dust, her eyes locked entirely on the taillights of the stolen car.
Up ahead, Zyra was sweating bullets. Her heart was beating so fast it felt like it was going to burst out of her chest. The moment she checked the rear-view mirror and saw the motorcycle and hawk closing in, absolute desperation washed over her.
"Are you kidding me? Why can’t they just let me be?" she panicked, gripping the steering wheel. Was this going to be a fight to the death?