Eternal [HS]

Chapter Eight

Absentmindedly, her body starts wiggling away from him when he gets his bearings and crawls up to her, but she isn't quick enough. Everything moves in .75 motion within her panicked world, and the knife was thrown too far out of reach when it fell for her to reach it.

She reels back one of her legs as she stares up at the man hovering above her with wide eyes and drives her knee up as hard as she can between his legs. He groans in pain but doesn't halt as she expected him to...It's only now that she realizes, as two sharp, pointed fangs poke out from their concealed glamour as human canines, that this person is not a human. No human could run as fast, recover from pain as seamlessly, or pin her down with as much effortless strength.

His hand grips her by the jaw possessively and shoves her head to the side to reveal her neck, the sight of which making a noise escape him that borders on pornographic.

"I hope you taste as good as you look," he murmurs and jolts his body toward her like he's getting off on the fear made visible in her eyes.

Hot, pungent breath clouds around her face with the words he says, making her erupt in a series of coughs and gags, and she mumbles under her breath her final "I love you's" to her parents and brothers before clamping her eyes shut.

This is the end, isn't it? At least she got more time after the initial attack on her walk to the train station. Maybe she was meant to die then, but didn't, and this is fate taking her back into the palms of its freezing, cruel hands.

But the ending she accepted does not come.

The sound she tuned out for her own sanity for the last moment leading up to this would've revealed the slamming front door and frantic voice calling out to her through the chaos. It would've revealed Harry as he shoved the preternatural creature off of her in time to stop its fangs from sinking into her flesh.

Her eyes shoot open, and she has never been so thankful to see this cloudy, dark sky in the entirety of her time spent here.

"The knife!" His voice is strained from where she sees him pin the man down beneath him, his limbs bucking and flailing wildly for escape, "Get the knife!"

She rolls onto her front, gasping for air that can't come fast enough, and scrambles on her hands and knees in the direction of where the dagger flew away.

It lies in the grass ten feet away, which might as well be the farthest ten feet of her life as she rushes for it through her tears and aching lungs. The desperation claws at her from within, urging her forward with the knowledge that Harry's in just as much danger as she is.

It feels like an eternity, although it's only a minuscule few seconds before the weapon is within her reach. And, as soon as her hand gets a flimsy grasp on the blade, Harry's voice floods the air once more.

"Throw it!"

There isn't time to second guess the plan, or worry if it'll hit him instead of land safely in the grass beside them.

There's no time for anything except action when she winds her arm back, dull side of the blade in hand, and throws it straight at him. But it doesn't hit him, nor does it hit the man-creature that attacked her, because Harry reaches out and snatches the knife, as quick as a striking snake, from where it was hurtling at him in midair.

Blood so dark, it's nearly black splatters across his face as he plunges the blade into his heart with an experienced precision she doesn't know whether to fear or admire. The color of the man's blood only confirms what she already knew: he is not a human. If the fangs or supernatural degree of strength weren't enough to convey that, the speckled black liquid sprayed across Harry's face would be.