Like hell I would. Making up my mind in an instant, I opened the door quietly, slipped out and slid it shut behind me again. It wouldn’t be opened by any other than me. I wouldn’t let Faye down.
Energy pulsed through my body, crackling on my scales, and jumped from spine bump to spine bump like it was doing a skipping game down my back. I loved it, out here I wasn’t fighting my demons, oh no, I unleashed them on my opponents. They never saw the Kirin coming.
I was power. Untamed. Untethered. Power. Righteous Anger. The Peace Bringer.
The first man, who hadn’t called out but only inched closer in the shadow of the large poplar overshadowing my roof, had his throat slit silently. Only a soft gurgling told the night that the Kirin had come for him. “Shit, was that Donal?” Yvar asked under his breath, clearly listening on tenterhooks. “Shut up, I need to listen,“ Dogan hissed at his crony. “But—“ The rest of Yvar’s sentence disappeared in the darkness.
I pulled him off his feet, stealthily, don’t even bothering with my knife. I let my claws protrude, broke through his ribcage and tore his frantically pumping heart out by the roots. Flinging it behind me, there was a flicker of understanding on the man’s face. The tiniest moment until his body realised that a vital part was missing, that it was in pain and then. Nothingness engulfed him.
My left felt warm and slippery with Yvar’s blood. I lived for that feeling, it elated me, carried me a few steps towards the broad-chested Dogan, the last man standing. Yeah, he should have sent an army.
He had his gun pointed at my face. Stupid man. Shooting me in the face would only slow me down, it wouldn’t stop me. Nothing could penetrate that thick skull of mine, literally and figuratively speaking.
“You shouldn’t have meddled with the Guardian,“ he snarled, cocking the weapon. I never bothered with guns, but that sound never failed to make me smile. The moment between them training their weapons on me, feeling in control and realisation hitting them was my favourite about my calling. The vulnerability, the downfall of the ignorance of even the biggest and baddest monster. Ugh. Willing my cock to keep out of this, I took half a step closer, hand relaxed around the handle of my knife, the other clawed, blood softly dripping from my talons to the dried grass under my feet.
“He will make you pay, asshole,“ Dogan didn’t sound quite as cocksure as before when he said it. “And you know what? I will make that bitch pay for what you did to Yvar and my brother,“ the last word came out as a low brutal growl. “I will use her, taint her,“ Dogan was working himself into a frenzy. I let him talk, they were always granted last words. Over my dead body would he lay so much as his pinkie on Faye. “And then she’ll be sold to the highest bidder. They will rip her witch cunt to shr-
Dropping my knife I was at his throat one hand gripping his shoulder, and sneaking my other arm almost lovingly around his head. I felt his skull crack as I crushed it between my forearm and biceps, then strands of muscle and sinew tore under my grip as I ripped his fucking head off before he had a chance of firing his pitiful gun at me.
Dogan, or what was left of him, fell to the ground in a dull thud. I stood for a moment, grounding myself to quieten the hurricane inside me. I needed to obliterate my tracks before I could see to Faye. She was safe for now. Behind my house were vast forests. Woods in which a body, or three, could disappear easily.
Dogan’s body was closest to my house so he had to go first. I hoisted him up over my shoulder, grabbed his head by the mop of hair and ran. I lay him to rest in a patch of moor I knew. I had scouted and mapped these woods, every square foot of them.
Yvar went next and I briefly wondered if scientists in hundreds of years would excavate them, wondering about their fate. Donal, much lighter now, thanks to the blood loss, I dropped in quicksand. The bacteria in it would take care of his body for me. Saying a quick prayer to the Mother and thanking her for the joys of nature, I stood in the dark forest for a minute or two. Feeling calm after having done the work I’d been born to do. Then I turned.
Sprinting back through the darkness I prayed the guardian hadn’t sent an army. In my stupidity, I hadn’t even checked for more people before leaving the house, and Faye, behind. But my home lay dark and quiet under the poplar swaying in the night breeze. I sensed just one presence. Her.
