Free Obfuscate by Killion Slade Page A

croak out words. “What time—what day?”
    “Relax, it’s all right.” Torchy eased his hands down on my shoulders and gave me a slight squeeze. I winced at the pain and he released.
    “You’ve been out for nearly twelve hours since we left the island, Cheyenne. We’re damn lucky we made it out of there with only the pains we have.”
    “Where?” Remembering it was severed, I reached for my bottom lip and was relieved to learn it was reattached. Faint stitches lined the entire bottom lip.
    I guess they weren’t trying to stuff me and roast me over the fire.
    “We’re are in Phuket. About five hundred miles from the Andamans.”
    I leaned back in my bed. Khaldon and Harris waved at me. My fingers wiggled back at them, and instantly my anxiety lowered a few notches.
    The stench of burned hair permeated my nose and a slight moan parted my lips. How long would it take to grow back?
    I closed my eyelids, still so exhausted from the mission. “There were sharks.” My eyes flew open and I sat up bolt-right. “How did we get here?” My heart raced, and I pointed. “They—they were burning under the water.”
    “We were saved by Merfolk. They surrounded us and the sharks swam away. We have them to thank for escorting us here to this hospital. Would ye believe there’s a specialty unit for supernaturals and their ailments all the way out here?”
    I blinked at him, not sure if I’d heard him right. “Merfolk?”
    “Oh, aye.” He nodded, and then he looked at the rest of the team.
    “Dakota? We didn’t have time—she blew up—” I could barely choke out the words. “She’s gone.”
    “Don’t be worrying yerself right now, lass. You need to tend to healing, ya kin? Be minding yer lucky stars above for these folks over there.” Torchy waved his hand to the nursing staff. “They saved yer vision, and they say after a few more pints of blood, your sight should be fully restored.”
    I looked across the room to Briggs, and the four hospital staff members turned to stare at me. One guy had a deep purple black eye. Another orderly had several bite marks on his arms and hands. The woman, whom I suspected was the disembodied voice, held nothing but disdain on her face.
    Well … maybe they deserved it for not explaining things to me.
    There was nothing more I could do. Torchy was right. I needed more sleep, and the only thing to do was to heal.
    I rolled away from him and faced the wall. Privately, I cried myself into oblivion. I had failed my sister, my family. It should have been me who died in that wretched cave.
    Even through the tears, there was no peace in the escape of sleep. Only nightmares that had plagued me since Halloween.
----
    H auntingly familiar , the creature’s hideous, maniacal laughter crawled a frigid, wet, dead finger up my spine. He forced his hand around my jaw and smashed my lips with his fingers.
    The beast bit into my cheek and chin.
    I kicked, screamed, thrashed, and struggled in vain to wrench away from his vice-like grip. His hand clamped on my face and sent shattering fractures of pain through my jaw.
    Flight or fight. Self-preservation time.
    A guttural wail escaped my throat. I pulled my hands free and gouged his face with my fingernails, trying desperately to dig into his eye sockets to blind him.
    The cretin’s hands gripped like he wanted to rip off my jaw. He shoved his fingers into my mouth for a better hold. I grabbed his hand and pushed his fingers in deeper. My back molars crunched hard. I ground my jaw back and forth, stripping off flesh between my teeth. His blood gushed into my mouth, filling it with hot, coppery spurts. The beast relinquished his hold with a grunt of pain and let go of my face.
    I fell backward, away from him. In an instant, he yanked me up by the arms and shook me like a rag doll. He held me there, panting. Face-to-face.
    Time stopped.
    For a split moment, milliseconds of reality, his eyes softened. Spider web creases around his eyes made him