Excerpt from Beg for Mercy by Shannon Dermott
Excerpt from Beg for Mercy
Before any one of us could say anything, a tall girl, clad in a taupe leather vest and animal print painted-on pants with golden tones of blond hair hastily pulled back in a braid, materialized in front of us. She was a vision to behold, appearing out of thin air.
“Where is he?” she demanded.
I’m sure my eyes were wide because she focused on me. Her golden eyes burned into me like fire. I had a moment of choice, to fight or flee. “Who?” I asked boldly, surprising myself.
Her eyes narrowed into slits when she spoke, mimicking the shifters with her stance. She gave no notice to my tone with her arms folded across her chest. “The rat fink who cheated on me with my sister,” she said coolly.
“Bernadette,” a voice said behind me.
I whirled around as did Flynn who’d been standing beside me. Sebastian was poised directly behind me. He was gorgeous, dressed in a charcoal shirt and dark wash jeans. He stole my breath away just by the sight of him. My heart rate leaped more than it had when the mysterious girl appeared in our path.
I turned back around when the girl, Bernadette, began to speak again. Her arms were no longer folded in front of her. Instead they were extended in front of her. “Rat,” she said sternly. Her eyes were on fire. “How could you kill my sister?”
Lightning fast, her hands were a glow in fiery orange orbs. Revving up, like a pitcher in a baseball game, I noticed Flynn move for the first time. He began moving forward with timid steps. Even though things were moving quickly now, I caught every detail that happened. I felt arms come around my waist and darkness begin to invade my eyes. I knew what was about to happen. Before the obscurity overtook my vision, Bernadette’s attention was on Flynn. I had a moment to see her blast him back with a fiery ball before I’d been transported elsewhere. I had no way of knowing if he was okay.
I didn’t even let Sebastian speak, “What the hell? Take me back!” I yelled. With the trees still surrounding us, I knew we were still in the woods but that wasn’t my concern.
“I just wanted to make sure you’re safe,” he said calmly holding out his hands in a gesture of peace from my wrath.
“Flynn could be hurt,” I exclaimed.
He nodded and a moment later he was gone. I hoped he was going to get Flynn because if he wasn’t he wouldn’t have to worry about Bernadette. He would have to worry about me. With life and death an issue, I’d found who I was. I was a fighter not a flighter.
If the events of the evening weren’t scary, I might have laughed when Flynn and Sebastian reappeared in an embrace. They looked at each other for a second before separating rapidly. I scrutinized Flynn. He appeared to be okay so, I had to assume he was.
“What the,” Flynn began to say when a voice boomed out from not far away.
“I know you’re there Rat. You can’t hide from me.” I recognized that voice even though I’d only heard it once. Bernadette had found us just that quickly. I saw the glowing balls of fire in the distance. Sebastian came to me at that moment.
“I don’t want to leave you, but I think if I do I will draw her away. I’m sorry for this. I’ll be back to check on you as soon as I can,” he said in a whisper before disappearing from my existence.
His assumption was wrong. “So you’re the girl he’s with now,” Bernadette said from about thirty feet away looking at me.
Yes, he’d most assuredly been wrong. She hadn’t left. Crap. So, I answered her with an emphatic, “No.”
She hadn’t waited for my answer and it was too late for me to react. I stared like a deer in headlights. A glowing ball of heat was already headed my way. Flynn saw it before I did and his reflexes had been better than mine. I was on the ground with him on top of me when the orbs soared passed. The burning ball of flame narrowly missed him with the slight exception of a burn on his right arm. The orbs blasted bark off the tree they hit that was behind us.
Bernadette was closing in on us now. This time it would be impossible for her aim to miss. Bleakly, I thought it would be a great time for Sebastian to make a reappearance. A bright light like a car’s headlights shined through the trees casting a white glow onto her. For whatever reason her face grew pale, then she dissipated.
I shifted under Flynn’s weight turning to see what made the illumination, but it was gone. Besides being in the woods, I wasn’t even sure where we were. There must have been a road nearby and the beam of car lights somehow frightened her away. I couldn’t fathom why car lights would frighten her but I wasn’t going to knock the gift horse that saved us. What I hadn’t expected was the figure to appear through the trees.
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