He coiled the wire around the fingers of one hand and then did the same for the fingers of the other, leaving a shiny length of wire about a foot long between them. Mia stared in horrified fascination as he brought the wire close to her face, letting her examine it.
“Take a real good look, peanut,” he hissed, grinning at her. “That’s all that’s left of Granny’s piano after I took a sledgehammer to it. It’s just a pile of splinters at the dump now, but I saved a little piece of it. A souvenir, I guess you could call it. A gift from me to you. And now I think it’s time I gave it to you—I really do.”
And stepping behind her, he looped the wire around Mia’s neck.
25
“Stop—this is the place. You must go in at once—the crisis is upon you!” the Goddess said as Storn hovered over the patch of green grass in front of a large white human dwelling.
Storn put down his shuttle at once and killed the engine. He ignored the gaggle of human children who were staring with wide eyes as he got out and ran directly up the steps to the front door.
He tried the door handle once—it was locked. That didn’t matter—he knew what to do.
Turning, he braced both hands on the front door post. Taking a deep breath, he kicked backwards, his hooves connecting solidly with the wooden door. Two more powerful kicks, and the door gave way, falling straight back onto the floor of the entry way beyond with a flat smack!
Storn wasn’t waiting for anything. Ignoring the human children on the corner who were now shouting something about a “goat man,” as well as the large yellow-orange vehicle pulling up in the street, he rushed into the house.
What he found in the next room nearly made his heart stop.
Mia was strapped immobile to a chair and her ex-mate was standing behind her. In his hands he held what looked like a wire. It was wrapped around Mia’s neck and he was choking her with it, pulling it tight so that it cut into her tender flesh and sent rivulets of scarlet down her throat.
Mia was gasping and choking almost silently because something was blocking her mouth. Her lovely face was turning purple and her eyes were beginning to roll up in her head.
The human man who was standing behind her, choking her, looked up and glared at Storn.
“You!” he snarled. “You Kindred freak—how the fuck did you find us?”
Storn didn’t answer because he had no words. A red curtain had dropped over his vision as a fury so pure it wiped out everything else took over him. Dimly, he realized he must be going into Rage—the berserker state of fury a Kindred warrior entered when the woman he loved was threatened or hurt. But words didn’t matter now, only actions did.
He rushed at the human male, a low rumble of fury rising in his throat.
The human’s eyes widened and he dropped the ends of the wire and fumbled for something at his belt.
“Gun,” Storn heard Mia gasp weakly in a voice that was barely there. “Watch out—shoot you!”
Then some kind of projectile weapon appeared in the human male’s fist and it was pointed at Storn. It made a deafening roar and Storn felt something sting him, like an insect biting his arm.
Later he would realize it was a bullet that had torn clean through his triceps. But it would take a hell of a lot more than that to stop a Satyr Kindred in Rage.
With a low roar, he reached the two of them and pushed the chair Mia was being held in out of the way. The human male raised his weapon to shoot again, but Storn knocked it out of his hands. Then he lowered his head and butted the human right in the chest, snorting angrily as he did.
The human male made a sound like, “Whuff!” and stumbled backwards, nearly losing his balance.
“Now, wait…wait a minute!” he wheezed, holding out his arms, as though to stop Storn. “Wait just a m—”
Lowering his head again, Storn took a running start and butted the human again, this time as hard as he could. His horns connected with the human male’s midsection, knocking the wind out of him and throwing him right through the large widow on the side of the room.
Glass shattered and curtains fluttered and there was an audible thump as Mia’s ex-mate landed outside.
But Storn wasn’t done yet. He rushed outside through the splintered front door, bounding into the yard where the male was lying. There was quite a crowd of humans gathered at the end of the grass now, he noticed distractedly. Young ones and their parents, as well as the driver of the big yellow-orange vehicle.