Just One Bite Volume 4 Read online

  I think it amuses him that I am not afraid like most people, smart people, are. His face changes when he looks my way and to me he is perfect. The second day after the rescue as he was tending my wounds I was still a bit woozy and called him my bear. He gave me a full smile, eye twinkling, dimple on his right cheek and all. That smile changed everything. Even with my debilitating shyness I decided from that day on I would make him smile every day. I don’t talk a lot but when I do it is for him and that smile.

  I am not shy because I am afraid even though I have been afraid for so long it seems normal. It is just that I would rather be invisible. This is really funny when you think about it. I am a Mutja. The world prefers to call us mutants, freaks, prey. Our term is Mutja and it is not our choice to be one. Sometimes between the age of sixteen and nineteen people develop a mark, or a brand, a death sentence really. Along with the mark comes a talent or ability. Overnight we become freaks, we become hunted, we become outcasts.

  Those with people who love them find ways to make it to Sanctuary, a free city state for Mutja and outcasts of all sorts. Those with nothing start running. Some of them make it, some don’t. Most don’t even know where Sanctuary is because no one ever dreams of becoming Mutja or facing social suicide by asking. My mark showed up on my cheek on my sixteenth birthday. Happy birthday to me. I have been on the run ever since. No idea where I was going or how to get there, just go. I was running and dreaming of being free, and being able to live again, when the Hunters found me. I had given up all hope until Bear found me.

  Because of Bear I have hope again. Bear is a Mutja like me, but so much more. Bear is a Runner. Bear is a Mutja willing to leave Sanctuary and live back on the outside. Bear finds Mutja’s on the run and helps bring them home. Staying one step in front of the Hunters, risking everything, trying to help others live a life that he would never have and they would never get if he didn’t find them. Bear has been helping me run and we are in the last town before Sanctuary. I should have known it would be the hardest, the most suspicious, and the most prone to being full of Hunters. The hope Bear had rekindled was on the edge of going out. The bounty for free Mutja is high, but in these border towns the price is our lives.

  My talent is invisibility. You would think having the ability to turn invisible would be not only amazing, but very useful. For me it’s awkward to say the least. It seems my invisibility is linked to my emotions. I have no physical control of what part of me turns invisible. The most embarrassing is when my head blinks out. Because my life has been full of luck it happens nearly every time Bear looks me in the eye. Think of it as extreme blushing. He always grins a lopsided smile and then brushes his hand against my invisible cheek. Somehow his touch calms me and I blink back.

  Part of me is always invisible because part of me is always feeling. Luckily it’s just me and not my clothes along with me. It’s an arm this moment, a leg the next. Really I don’t notice it anymore because I try to stay as covered as I can.

  I felt Bear squeeze me and tap a code onto my shoulder bringing me back to our current crisis. Bear has been teaching me to survive and part of that is communicating without talking. Over the last months I have learned numerous silent signals. Bear finished tapping and I knew what he was going to do. I nodded that I understood. The night had been pure insanity since being ambushed heading for the safe house Bear normally used in this town. But running is something I understand and I was prepared.

  The next instant the crates we were hiding behind flew forward crashing into the hunters. Yeah, Bear’s Mutja talent is telekinesis, moving objects with is mind. The grunts of the Hunters were enough for us to know they were surprised and off their feet. This would buy us only a few seconds but I was already running. I was lifting my skirts with one hand and holding the cloak from flapping in the other. We were running fast and silent. I felt Bear behind me pushing me with his presence. I’ve run a lot in my life and as Mutja running is second nature. With Bear I’ve learned running is better when someone has your back.

  Bear guided us down one street and towards another. I trusted he knew where he was going. The streets aren’t exactly safe but they are safer than that alley full of Hunters. I turned and glanced at my Bear as we sprinted down yet another side street. The footfalls of our pursuers getting more and more quiet. I love him, but more I trust him. I have never trusted anyone before and I know that whatever comes I will never leave him. Where he goes I go, even running over ice caked cobble streets. Maybe it’s a Mutja ability, or just friendship, but he always knows what I need at any given moment. As we are running to find a safe place to catch our breath he turns his head, gives me one of his smiles, and winks at me. That is when I know. We are going to be okay. One last sudden pull on my hand and I’m pressed tightly once again into his arms. He has found us a spot under some rickety stairs.

  “Here,” he growls in my ear as he catches his breath. I look up into his face, my favorite face, not knowing if he could see me and every emotion I felt blazing through my eyes. I reached up and moved a strand of hair out of his good eye. The hair I reached for moved and I felt the heat of his forehead against my fingers, but there was no hand to be seen. He unerringly grabbed my hand, which had yet to make an appearance, and brought it to his cheek. My hand reappeared as my fingers melted into his grip.

  “We are going with Plan B, See See,” Bear whispered over my nose.

  I smiled into his eyes. His name for me always makes me smile. It is short for “Now you see me, now you don’t.” Bear gave me that name while I was recovering from my capture. Emotions were flashing through me faster than ever before. Fear, comfort, anger, pain, and hope caused me to literally flash in and out of being invisible. Bear would hold my hand whether he could see it or not and whisper. “Don’t be afraid, I see you.” It would calm me enough that he could change my bandages or limp to a safer location. The names just stuck. He was Bear and I was See See. Our given names didn’t matter in the Mutja world anyway.

  Bear listened intently for several minutes before his posture gave away that he thought we were safe. “We wait here for full dark. Then we are moving to the hovel district. We can find an abandoned shack or house to get a little sleep in. We will jump a caravan to get out of the gates in the morning. We can’t risk going back towards the safe house and giving it away.”

  Maybe it was the emotion of the day or I maybe I was feeling bold. To be this close to the end and to have everything on the edge of falling apart again was too much. I grabbed his arms, opened them up, and snuggled right into his lap. I don’t know what I was expecting but his tight grip holding me in return surprised me. He arranged our cloaks so we were covered and hidden from view. In the warmth of his arms and with his breath caressing my ear I fell asleep in minutes. Sometime later I woke up to humming in my ear. I smiled in the warmth of his chest. I know he felt me smile because his chuckle followed a moment later.

  “See See, it’s time to move.”

  Bear hugged me tight and tipped my chin up so I could look him in the eye.

  “I see you,” he whispered.

  Then light as a feather he kissed me slowly on my lips. I was stunned and shock combined with a host of other emotions washed through my body. Bear gave me one of his smiles and then helped me to my feet. His grasp on my hand never wavered as we painstakingly made our way around town in the darkness. Bear moves like a shadow in the twilight, the darkness, and the dawn. He is almost invisible, and that always makes me smile.

  We made the poor district in short order. The change in the streets, buildings, and overall atmosphere was tangible. It just happens the poor district is the side of town closest to Sanctuary. As we were approaching and searching a series of empty houses to find a place to sleep we heard the distinct sound of Hunter boots. We froze and eased back into the darkness between two buildings. They searched one of the empty buildings across the street in silence. When they didn’t find their prey they came back onto the street, closer to us, and started talking.<
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  “The male is the one we want.” The voice was like a knife to my heart.

  The other one turned and asked, “What about the girl?”

  “I couldn’t recognize the female but hey, any two for one is worth it. Captain says they will go to ground until they go for the gate. A bonus to the one who captures the tele-freak. I want patrols throughout the night, all through town, everywhere. The guards on the gates have been alerted to search every caravan.”

  They passed right over us and entered the house on our other side. We held our position motionless. What were we going to do now? The gate was the only way out of this hole. I turned my head and looked at Bear. He tilted his head and reached for my cheek. Yeah, I was a bit of a mess. I opened my hands up and sure enough they weren’t to be seen either. The Hunters were moving to the next house down the line and Bear tapped my arms.

  “No fear. Trust me?”

  “Always” I whispered.

  He took my hand, or at least what was at the bottom of my sleeve, and we crept out from between the buildings. Experience told me we weren’t making a sound. My heart told me everyone could hear us.

  The remainder of the night was one run and hide after another. We were ducking in and out of buildings as patrols constantly circled the dank houses and alleys. Every time I thought they had us Bear found a way through the net. The city slept in silence as we played a game of life and death on the streets. We didn’t speak another word the rest of the night but every time there was light enough to see each other we connected. Over and over he would mouth, “I see you.” And I would caress his hand and face every chance I got. I needed him to understand that I was with him even if he couldn’t really see me.

  Finally the wall of the city was in front of us. The stone on this side of town was rough and unfinished. No one cared about looks here, only function. The stone rose over twenty feet high and wide enough for three men to walk abreast on the top. Without a rope, just trusting Bear to find grips in the stone, we began working our way up. The muscles in my hands and back were aching and stretched thin as we approached the top of the wall. Bear stopped and signaled me to climb up beside him. I did, and then just held on for life trying to calm my breathing as we finished this insane escape.

  Bear reached over and tapped “Stay. I look,” on my left hand.

  I nodded understanding. Not that I could have moved at that moment anyways.

  Leaning against the stone as tightly as I could I prayed not for the first time that we would make it another moment, another hour, another day. After what seemed like hours but was more like minutes I felt a hand on the top of my head. I looked up and in the pre dawn light saw the fall of a hooded cloak and a hand stretched out to grab me. Trust, love, and everything I never dared to dream of was reaching out to me. I grabbed his hand without hesitating and was slowly pulled up the last couple of feet of wall.

  When I was safely on top I saw a soldier lying a few feet away in an unnatural position. His neck was obviously broken. I nodded the necessity of it, kill or be killed. Bear grabbed the guard’s belt pouch and knife. Then stood up and opened his hand towards me. I reached out and instead of letting him lead me I swung myself into his arms. He held me in a deathly tight grip for a second before letting me go. I leaned up and despite not knowing if he really could see the love in my eyes I kissed him. It was long and passionate. When it was over I mouthed against the cold wind whipping us on the wall how much I loved him.

  Then he stepped in close and opened to me and we kissed with all our hearts. There against the crenellations of the city wall with a murdered guard lying at our feet. Funny how desperation makes anything work. A moment, an hour later, we released each other and then without another word began to go down the outside of the wall. Twenty feet below us was freedom and tomorrow. Those final moments of praying the growing light didn’t give us away, a patrol didn’t see us, a relief for the dead guard above didn’t come, that our hands didn’t slip, or that any of a hundred things that could go wrong were the longest of the whole dark night.

  As the sun started to rise over the city a cry was heard high on the walls. Bear tightened his grip on my hand as we ran but it didn’t matter now. It was way too late to catch us. The sound of the soldiers cries were soon drowned out by the chirping of the morning birds and the sound of the river that was the border of Sanctuary getting closer with every step. I smiled wide and held up our hands to the light. Both were visible and tightly connected. I turned my head to look at my future. Something I have felt but never believed came rushing through me. Hope. He must have sensed me looking at him and gave me his smile. Before he could speak I said, “I see you too.”

  Human

  by Sarah Gilman

  Rhea sat down in an alley, prepared to spend her first night as a human in the cold behind a dumpster, but a smile remained on her face. Demon, no more. Human, at last.

  “Hello.”

  Her body jerked. She knocked over a bag filled with cans and jars, the clamor loud in the narrow alley. Straining to see in the darkness, she brushed her messy curls out of her face and focused on the faint outline of a tall, human figure standing near the dumpster.

  A mugger? “I have no money.”

  “I’m not here to steal from you.” His voice chilly, he stepped closer. Headlights from a passing car silhouetted the man for a brief moment. He stood between her and the street, dressed only in blue jeans.

  A set of folded wings with thick, silvery feathers framed his body from head to toe.

  Oh, shit. A mugger would have been better news.

  Rhea scrambled to her feet. Without the protection of the dumpster, the frigid breeze hit her full force. She shivered in her black shirt and pants, her only possessions left from her previous existence. “You’re an angel.”

  “Yes.”

  Only the demon hunters would trudge into an alley and speak to a former resident of hell. A shudder wracked her spine. “You’ve come here to kill me?”

  “Yes,” he said, his voice calm. “You may be flesh and blood now, but your soul is still that of a demon.”

  She grounded herself in a fighting stance. Had she still been a true demon, she could have seen clearly in the dark and fought him with hellfire. Now she possessed only the body of a freezing, weak-from-hunger human. “Think what you want. I wasn’t looking for redemption.”

  “Then why did you become human?” A hint of curiosity shaded his voice. If he hadn’t intended to kill her, she would have thought his mild tenor pleasant.

  “Freedom. As a demon, I was a slave.”

  He shook his head. “Leaving hell must have been…well, hell. I will give credit where credit is due. Bravo.”

  The praise would have meant more, but light from another passing car glinted off a blade in the angel’s hand. Too bad humans couldn’t see him, not that they could help.

  Her mouth went dry. She could see him, and he had sensed her presence. What if she still had some demon in her, after all?

  She had no desire to discuss her personal issues with a demon hunter, but perhaps his interest would keep her breathing. “There is a demon I need to kill.”

  “That’s my job.” He lunged forward and seized her by the hair. She thrashed and clawed at his skin, but he held her tight against his chest. The tip of the blade dug into her back below her left shoulder, stinging, aiming for her heart.

  “The master demon, Rancor.” She struggled to breathe under his crushing grip. “I know where to find him.”

  “Liar,” he said, but he didn’t drive the blade any deeper. “No one knows where he is. He even evades my ability to sense your kind. I’ve hunted him for years.”

  “I was supposed to join his harem and mate with him tomorrow morning.” Acid rose in her throat.

  The angel pulled the blade out of her skin, but he didn’t let her loose. “Where?”

  “Don’t insult my intelligence,” she said into his shoulder. “First, you need to promise to let me live. Angels
can’t break promises, right?”

  “That’s why we rarely make them.” Curiosity returned to his voice. “Why would you want your intended mate dead?”

  “Would you want to be number seventy-eight in a master demon’s harem? I was born a demon, but I’m also a woman with self respect.” She struggled in his unrelenting grip to tilt her head and meet his gaze, colorless in the dark. “He’ll be able to sense me, even though I’m human now, so I won’t be truly free until he’s dead. I have to find a way to kill him. You want him dead, too. Help me.”

  The angel released her body, but held her wrist in a crushing grip and yanked her toward the street. “Letting you go is out of question. You’re going to lead me to Rancor. If you cooperate, I’ll consider leniency.”

  That’s a start. She stayed quiet as they hurried down the deserted sidewalk lit by flickering neon signs and the one street lamp that had escaped vandals. After several blocks, they closed in on the waterfront area. People laughed and mingled in front of brightly lit restaurants, bars, and theaters. Under the functioning streetlights, she got her first good look at her captor’s face. Framed by mahogany hair, his blue eyes narrowed when he glanced at her.

  Cold, hungry, and exhausted, she dragged her feet, but the angel forced her forward. The scent of the ocean filled the air. The saltwater can’t hurt me now that I’m human…right? She shuddered.

  The angel kept going until they reached a large hotel on the water.

  “There’s a credit card in your pocket.” The angel met her gaze and dropped her wrist. “Purchase a room. Do not misbehave.”

  Rhea eyed the exit beyond a group of chatting tourists, but she lacked the energy to run. Not that she would get far. She did as she was told, and a few minutes later, she swiped the keycard and stepped into an elegant room. The angel crossed the space and stared out the window at the ocean. He reached over one shoulder and scratched the arch of a wing.