I groaned as I felt my burn slowly knit together. The sensation was like a bunch of ants crawling all over my burn wound. It hurt slightly, as it slowly closed shut in certain places. A bright white light was given off, and I was reminded of the Houl when she healed herself. Could I do the same? I placed my hand over the burn but nothing happened. I took my hand off and glanced at the blood covering it. I looked down and found my shirt covered in blood. Killing the Houl had been messy and I needed to freshen up. I was covered in blood from the tussle and needed to clean up. I headed for the lake feeling pretty powerful.

A booted foot smashed into my side, knocking me sideways and pinning me down by stomping on my still tender burn. I screamed. My eyes crossed as a familiar shotgun was held inches from my nose. Greg cocked the shotgun, his hands shaking. I shifted to raise mine in surrender, but Greg held the gun closer, and I stopped all movement.

“I knew that you were something…just not the answer we’ve been looking for,” he said rolling me to my side and tying my hands together with what felt like rope. I struggled lightly minding my burn. While it had healed partly some remained inflamed and open enough to reveal my muscle tissue healing. It was gruesome and I couldn’t figure out what Andromed found sexy enough to do THAT while I had it. Now wasn’t the time to think about that though, as the shotgun pressed insistently against my side.

“Get up! We’ve only got half a day til we reach the settlement,” said Greg as I stood and followed him. After all Andromeda and Donny were there. Hopefully, they weren’t prisoners like me. Why was I always a prisoner? I stood and faced Greg, who’d I once thought of as a friend. He shoved the shotgun at my back.

“Walk, “he commanded. We walked back to camp where I sat in a corner while he gathered everything. Truthfully I could have run, but I needed a way into the settlement with Andromeda and Donny. This was the easiest way for them. I curled my hands into fists. I was stronger. I could still feel the energy from the Houl’s blood coursing through me. It shouldn’t take much to kill Greg but then I’d have no way of finding the settlement or entering it. I’d play my cards close to my chest and act the prisoner for now.

“Up!” waved Greg with his gun as he grabbed my wrists and shoved me up to my feet. He attached a chain to the rope and I was bound even more. He led the way with a flashlight through the dense outcropping of trees and slowly they began to thin. Large Stygian walls jutted from the earth, with dangerous barbed wire on them, and the sweet smell of rot and decay met my nose. Greg rounded the walls hurrying his pace and forcing me into a trot.

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

I groaned as I was yanked off my feet and slammed to the ground for the second time that day. Greg tied me to an outpost like some common criminal and I resigned myself to sitting on the ground again. The smell was stronger here. It overpowered the rest of the smells here. Greg came back and he wasn’t alone. A pretty female held up a lantern to my face. She had dark red hair and blue eyes and wore a strange battle suit made of some gleaming stuff.

“Are you sure about this Greg? It took one down? It doesn’t look like much. You’re taller than it,” she said and I rolled my eyes.

“HE has a name,” I muttered watching as the female frowned.

“It’s cultured? I thought you picked it out of the bog?”

“I came with two companions. Humans. They were new here,” I said eyeing the woman. She seemed the more dangerous of the two despite that Greg held the gun. She had knives upon her and I bet she knew how to use them.

She grimaced. “If they survived the attack by your kind, Houl,” she said.

I sighed and nodded. The fact was that I wasn’t completely human anymore. I wasn’t a Houl either. I was an in-between of the two species for now. It annoyed me to be called a Houl when I wasn’t one. I was made different. If I was a Houl then Jude was a Houl, and he wasn’t considered one. Still, I bowed my head and acquiesced cause what the fuck else could I do?

"Bring it to the holding cells where the other two are being kept. I’m sure it’ll want dinner soon. It can eat them,” she said, smiling before spinning on her boots and turning away. Greg shook my chain once I was untangled from the outpost.

“Get up,” he commanded, lancing his booted foot at me. If I’d had dodged I would have broken the chain and shown I could have gotten free easily a while ago, which would sick the dogs on me, so I let the boot hit my back and pin me down. I winced when my tender healing skin rubbed against my shirt. Greg stomped on my back and I gritted my teeth. He pulled up with the chain, and I arched up. I was being bent in half! I growled. The sound of the shotgun cocking against my back, was all that stopped me from ripping from my chains and killing the damn fool the same way I did that Houl.

“I said get up!”

I know I shouldn’t have, but I was mad. I snapped one of my hands free and tossed him off with my new strength. He crashed into the post, and I snatched his gun. “Do that to me again and I have no problems ending you like I did the Houl,” I smirked showing my fangs. Greg scooted back, his eyes wide in terror. I spun the shotgun, pummel to me, and handed it back to him. “I’ll follow to the enclosure because I still have to find Andromeda and Donny but one toe out of line, and you are my lunch. Now redo my bonds.”

Greg stood and with shaking hands, redid my wrists with rope. He now knew he wasn’t safe, and if these humans tried anything, they weren’t safe either. I had Andromeda and Donny to find, and then we were gone from this place.