Predator: Cityhunter

Chapter 10

Pain exploded through Tamara's ribs and chest with an overwhelming intensity, she prayed it would kill her immediately. Instead she suffered every nuance of the blinding pain at its impact. Crying out she opened her eyes against every cell in her body screaming at her to keep them closed and grasped blindly at the iron-like pressure crushing her midsection. The blur of red neon-lights and the dark shapes of colossal buildings whooshing by made her realize just as her hand gripped at the scaled skin pressed against her midsection that the blur of images were going in the wrong direction. The facts poured into her traumatized mind in a single file line: she was being held, she was no longer free falling to the ground, Kian had come back and he had saved her.

Kian! She wanted to speak his name, to call out or say anything but the sudden crushing force of his arm gripping her tightened as air blasted past her face. She felt his abrupt groan of pain vibrate through her body as he tried to take the brunt of the sudden impact that hit them both—but it wasn't enough. Pain like nothing she could ever begin to comprehend enveloped her fully and at once, giving her just a taste of its torture before releasing her into the sweet blissful nothingness she had prayed for.

With one clawed hand and both feet embedded into the side of the glass building, Kian ignored the pain of the lacerations as he looked down at his unconscious mate. Anger, brighter and more explosive than he had ever experienced in all his years raged through him at the sight of her damaged limp body dangling in his arms. With just a glance he could see the multitude of burns on her body and tried not to imagine what she must have endured before she casted herself from her window. Curling his arm upward slowly, he easily hefted her slight weight and brought her closer to him. The urge to hold her close as possible was futile to try and ignore. Something deep within him had roared with gut wrenching fury to run, to jump, to push himself faster across the city back to her place when he left the commander dead from his spear. Each second it took was like the scraping of his bones, hollowing him inside and out. He had to get to her, it was the only thought cycling through his head. Kian had got there just as he looked up to see the small familiar figure falling through the empty air. His body reacted without the need of his mind. Propelling himself forward, he slammed into her just in time, just before he nearly lost everything.

Looking up from her tear-stained sleeping face towards the next floor above them, Kian scanned the properties of the glass. His instruments calculated the weakest point in the glass to strike to gain him entrance. Once inside he would call for his ship and he and his mate would leave this planet. Carefully, Kian climbed.

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Images of yautja flashed across Tamara's mind—or were they more than just her imaginings? She could not be sure. Yautja of all shapes and sizes walked past her as if she wasn't even there—or didn't exist, they just walked tall and proud giving no indication of her presence. Opening her mouth, she tried to speak but nothing came out. She couldn't understand it. Why couldn't she speak? Why did she feel so disconnected from herself and the rest of the world? She wanted to move, she wanted to wave and scream at the proud yautja that passed her by but her body wouldn't respond. It was if she was trapped in a dream. So very tired now, she closed her eyes as she sent a silent prayer to Kian wherever he may be, she needed him to find her. Because if this was a dream shouldn't he be here with her?

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Kian's claws clicked against the screen as he checked the readouts of the sarcophagus. Two more days. In two days, all of Tamara's wounds should be healed. Looking at the large coffin-like structure he stared at her, she was floating peacefully inside the machine suspended in a blue healing gel. With burns covering over thirty percent of her body in various stages of degrees, she was dehydrated, and underweight.