“Do you feel like eating?” I asked gently, trying to distract myself.
I began preparing a bowl even if she said no, since I hadn’t eaten yet myself. When she mumbled that she wasn’t hungry, I added a few extra scoops, considering I ate a ton more than her. I then sat down at the table and began working on my dinner while Serenity stared into space.
I suspected she was beginning to feel numb as it settled in that there wasn’t any hope for her friend — her best friend. It was actually kind of amazing how close two people could become in such a short amount of time, but they really hit it off. If it wasn’t for the fact that they looked so different, someone might even think they were sisters by how comfortable they were with each other. As it was, most people would probably be shocked to discover they weren’t childhood friends or something similar.
Unexpectedly, Serenity bolted from her seat, almost knocking over her chair. “I’m going to try to find her,” she announced, not waiting for a reply. “I know I probably won’t be able to, but I have to try. I can’t just sit here and do nothing.”
I nodded to indicate I understood, not about to suggest she do anything different. This case wasn’t at all like the others. Plus, this was good for me too. It meant I could go searching for her sooner without having to worry about my sister wondering where I’d disappeared to.
“Okay,” I said in agreement. “Just be careful…” My voice trailed off. I hoped she wouldn’t be upset that I wasn’t offering to go. On the one hand, I was still in high school, but on the other hand, I was legally an adult now, so it wasn’t like she’d be bringing a kid along.
Serenity seemed surprised by my response though, looking like she didn’t expect me to agree so easily. She then dashed around the edge of the table and nearly tackled me in my chair with a hug. “I will, I promise. I’ll have my gun and mace. I love you.”
“I love you too,” I whispered simply, holding her thin athletic form in my arms, knowing there was a small part of me that meant that more deeply than I probably should.
She gave me a quick kiss on the temple, and then grabbed her things to head out the door.
I ate more quickly when I heard her car engine start and the tires began kicking up gravel in her rush to get on the road.
“Now,” I said to myself, taking my last bite and standing up. “Time to hunt.”
Heading to the backdoor, I allowed myself to fully transform as I stepped outside, my softly glowing yellow irises allowing me to see as clearly in the twilight as if it was the middle of the day. I then took off my shirt in preparation for what would soon come from my rapidly restructuring back muscles.
A second later, and a pair of lightweight bat-like wings burst from my upper back and I instantly leapt into the air to take flight. I had no idea where to even begin looking, beyond the forest, so I just focused on my senses of smell and hearing while flying as fast as I could around the edge of the city where there were still a lot of trees. I was glad my ability to home in on a scent was so powerful, because within a matter of minutes I’d captured Gabriella’s aroma, even despite the plethora of other odors vying for my attention.
She was at least ten miles away, and I could smell that the chase was already on. Her sweet scent was stronger than usual from her sweating, ironically making it easier for me to pick up on it, and it was also tainted with terror.
Just like other emotions, fear had a distinct scent.
“I’m coming for you,” I whispered, quickly changing my trajectory in the air.
While flying was much faster than running, it still took me a few minutes to find the general location of her whereabouts. However, once I was close enough, I could hear her too. She was running as fast as she could, although oddly, as if she didn’t have arms.
I doubted she was sincerely lacking them though, because I didn’t smell any blood. But her breathing was panicked, and I knew her mind was probably escalated beyond words as she literally ran for her life. There was someone chasing her too, running smoothly like they were holding themselves back. I suspected the predator had great endurance, significantly more than his prey.
Quickly dropping into the trees below, I slammed into the ground, dropping onto one knee from the impact before rising again to continue the chase on foot. However, I didn’t have to go far before I was already almost on her location.
Just as she was about to come into sight, I heard her trip and fall hard on her front, coughing and gasping from having the wind knocked out of her. She then abruptly screamed as her assailant caught up to her, crouching down and flipping her over while laughing, like he was having the time of his life.
Enraged, I silently burst through the foliage just in time to see that the serial killer had the tip of a knife just beginning to draw blood on her partially exposed breast. I realized the reason why she couldn’t defend herself was because she had her arms bound behind her back with a series of leather straps, like some kind of weird bondage fetish.
However, between the panicked look in her eyes, the terror as she screamed, the vulnerability of her body — I caught a glimpse of why this bastard was aroused by torturing his victims. It was everything that excited a predator, and I felt ashamed that her vulnerability even excited me a little…minus the panic and terror.
It was time to end this. Now.
Rapidly, in one swift motion, I closed the distance between me and my prey, grabbing him by the throat and yanking him off his feet into the air. In his shock, he reflexively tried to stab me with his blade, but I instead snagged the back of his hand like lightning and shoved the knife straight into his heart with my inhuman strength.
He didn’t even have time to scream before the life was rapidly fading from his panicked eyes, not that he would have been able to make much noise anyway with my grip around his neck. A few seconds later, and I tossed him to the side, his body strewn awkwardly on the ground.
I then focused on the vulnerable girl lying before me, her short red hair strewn against the dirt in chaotic strands. My attack happened fast enough that I watched as her emerald eyes visibly registered that the monster who had been torturing her had unexpectedly been replaced with another. However, instead of screaming, she began crying in devastation.
I could smell it.
I could smell the brief hope she experienced leave her body as she accepted that she was going to die one way or another. She closed her eyes and turned her head away, her beautiful face twisted in grief as she sobbed.
Moved by her tears, I slowly knelt down, positioning myself so that my legs were straddling her thighs, though I wasn’t actually touching her. I then reached out with a clawed hand, my black fingernails dangerously sharp, and gently touched the top of her torn blue shirt.
She flinched from the contact, sensing my fingers. “Please,” she whimpered. “Please don’t.”
Realizing what she must think my intentions were, I gently grabbed her shirt at the chest and pulled it up to prevent her from being exposed any more than she already was. Her bra was missing, likely removed by the perp, but her torn shirt still mostly covered her up. The next biggest exposure was around her waist. She had white jeans on, but they were unbuttoned, revealing her pale pink underwear, held up only by their tightness around her butt and thighs.
The visible skin I could see on her arms and torso was already heavily bruised in most spots, except for her face surprisingly, yet I still didn’t smell any blood on her other than the small cut on her chest.
Deciding to respond, I spoke quietly.
“I’m not going to hurt you,” I whispered. However, despite my words, she began crying even harder, and I could smell that there was just a hint of hope lingering around her again — just a hint, since she knew I might be lying.
To emphasize my point, I concentrated hard in order to force my black fingernails to return to a normal shape. I then slowly reached down and buttoned her pants back up, carefully pulling the zipper to the top. I could smell the hope strengthen, although her fierce sobbing didn’t let up.
I then carefully moved to her side, sitting beside her and cautiously placing my hand beneath her neck, gently pulling her up into a sitting position. Gabriella was still a complete mess emotionally, unable to see through her tear-filled eyes, so I lifted her into my lap and rested her head against my bare chest while I began working on freeing her arms from their bonds.
As the last strap fell to the ground, she slowly pulled her arms in front of herself and let them lay limp in her lap. I wasn’t sure why I was staying at this point. I really couldn’t afford for her to find out who I was, but something about her vulnerability did more than just entice me.
I was beginning to feel an emotion I had only previously felt for my sister, although it was obviously a little different since there wasn’t a complicated set of emotions hidden behind it. But as I held her, I slowly began to realize that I wasn’t going to be able to leave her side unless she asked me to.
Because I wanted to feel that emotion, without the extra shameful stuff associated with feeling it for the wrong person.
‘No,’ I silently chastised myself. ‘She can’t know my secret. No one can.’
Without warning, I slipped my hand underneath her knees and abruptly stood, causing her to gasp. Her entire body was trembling as I began moving, but I ignored it, instead focusing on walking back the way she and her attacker had come. I could smell gasoline in the air, and after walking almost half a mile I found a white box-van parked at the edge of an abandoned street.
Identifying a more feminine smell amongst the others, my nose picked out the scent of lip gloss in the van — I suspected it might mean her purse was there too. With my wing, which was very much like a large bony hand with webbed fingers, I reached out and opened the side door, before reaching inside and hooking the purse’s strap with the tip of my wing’s finger.
Also in this series:
- Innocent Devil’s Harem Taboo Ch. 04 by KaizerWolf
- Innocent Devil's Harem Taboo Ch. 02 by KaizerWolf
- Innocent Devil’s Harem Taboo Ch. 03 - by KaizerWolf