Free Cloaked by T.F. Walsh Page A

pointy blade wildly in my direction.
    “The police know what you’re doing. They’re on their way.” Damn, I wished my voice didn’t tremble.
    He halted for a split second, a frown deforming his mouth. “Get the fuck outter here!”
    I crouched and tapped the ground for a branch. I found one the length of my arm, half the thickness, but it would work.
    Sam grunted and marched closer with hurried steps, his weapon by his side. I swung the branch, whacking him on the side of the head. The wood snapped apart in my hands.
Oh, fuck
.
    He didn’t even flinch. “Bitch, I remember you now. Sticking your nose in my business.” He thrust his arm forward, and the burning sting of metal bit my arm.
    I recoiled, but he slashed the air between us, catching me on the cheek and the side of my neck. The cuts stung, and a whimper escaped my mouth. Maybe my urgency to face him alone without a weapon was a mistake.
    I stumbled farther away, clutching my neck, and seized another stick off the ground, but this one was barely a twig.
    “Why give a shit if a few animals go missing? No one noticed until you got involved.”
    “I care, fuckhead. And you’re going to pay.”
    A scowl warped his expression.
    I slipped into the woods behind the house, allowing the night to conceal me.
    “You’re not going anywhere.” He retreated a few steps and picked up something from his tree stump. “I grew up in the Carpathian woods and know them with my eyes shut.”
    “Me too,” I said, my voice low. The breeze brushed across my face, filling me with his perspiring and leathery scent … The same one I picked up at the institute and zoo. Behind him, the light from the back of the shack glowed and Sam’s burly silhouette loomed as he approached.
    Get the knife out of his hand.
Out of the full moon, my strength wasn’t superior to humans, but I had no intention of running away.
    Using the sliver of moonlight piercing the trees to guide me, I slunk deeper into the woods. The forest grew darker and denser with each step. Footfalls closed in behind me. I darted left, and an overgrown shrub brushed against me. I crouched down, not making a noise.
    Twigs snapped nearby.
Go past me.
    After a few more paces, the steps halted close by my side. Darkness shrouded everything, and only the faded glow of the house in the far distance provided any kind of direction. I couldn’t even see my hands in front of my face. Didn’t matter.
Remember your training. Listen.
    The swish of air sounded, and before I could react, a thunderous blow whacked against the side of my skull. I grimaced and fell into the bush as a splitting pain cracked across my forehead.
    Sam clasped my ankles with iron fists and hauled me out of the tangle of shrubs. The rough terrain scraped across my flesh as my blouse scrunched up my back and gathered under my armpits. My head rocked back and forth from the foliage. The blistering pain intensified. He dragged me out in the open.
    “Shit happens when you get involved where you shouldn’t!” Sam’s voice rumbled.
    My arms sprawled outward, patting the ground for a weapon or to leverage myself away from this psycho.
    “No use trying to find a weapon.”
    How the hell could he see anything?
    He dropped me. I scrambled backward. When a punch connected with the side of my face, I collapsed. The hit reverberated through my whole body. I cupped my cheek and unleashed an agonized scream.
    Labored breaths infused with the scent of stale beer danced across my face. “No one will hear you.”
    The heaviness of Sam straddling my hips pressed down. My fists swung out but connected with a hard object on his face. The bastard was wearing goggles … Probably infrared. My fingers grasped the glasses and yanked them upward while my other fist collided with his head. I tossed the goggles away.
    “Bitch.” Sam gripped my wrists and scooted up my body. He shoved my hands under his knees on either side of me, and the iciness of metal pressed to my throat.