Blood of Eden

Chapter 23

Katherine watched in horror out of the corner of her eyes as the bullet ripped through Quinn's chest, throwing him back violently against a nearby concrete wall. She knew a shot to the heart when she saw one and she knew, as well as anyone, that it meant instant death.

Her heart exploded in pain and grief. She closed her eyes and offered a silent prayer to the Old One's for his soul then took a deep breath, resolved herself, and turned her head slowly to face the hunter.

His eyes were cold, like the silver he used to make his deadly bullets, and Katherine knew that she would probably soon be dead. The bullet wounds in her shoulder and legs would regenerate quickly, in a matter of minutes, if given the time, but time was a commodity she didn't have.

She knew it was pointless but every cell in her body demanded that she not give up even if her soul would have welcomed it. Instinct overtook her. She knew that fighting back wasn't going to work as an option if she wanted to live, so she chose the only other option, flight. Katherine swallowed her pride, and her loyalty to Quinn, and ran.

She ignored the gripping pain that seared through her body as she willed her limbs to cooperate. There was no hope of changing until she could rid her body of the bullets and find a safe location. Katherine could hear the fall of the hunter's boots as he raced after her through what seemed like an endless maze of dark alleys. As she ran Katherine could feel her body expunging the silver even as it burned in her blood, pushing it out of her muscles and simultaneously healing itself. She felt stronger every moment and prayed for the possibility that she would get the chance to heal completely.

Katherine saw her hands fly out in front of her and gaped at them, wondering why she was falling to the ground when escape was so near. Her brain felt fuzzy and confused, and Katherine urged herself to get back up and run. Straining to understand her own actions, Katherine looked down at the crumpled body that she barely recognized as her own, and started to cry.

She was bleeding from over ten different wounds, newly inflicted, by the startlingly large semi-automatic the hunter now held above her prone body. Katherine's system couldn't deal with that much silver, and it reacted as if to an allergen, by shutting down and slowing to conserve energy. Katherine closed her eyes, tried to clear her mind, and push the pain aside. She was the daughter of the Alpha, a warrior to be reckoned with. She refused to die with tears on her face.

Katherine pushed with all of her strength and stumbled to her feet before the hunter. Her eyes were no longer confused or pleading for her life. They were hard and cold, just like his, and just like him, she stood proudly waiting for the inevitable. Katherine heard a gun cock and she closed her eyes.

The sound of the gun firing filled the alleyway, ricocheting off the concrete walls and echoing deafeningly in Katherine's sensitive ears. Katherine felt the bullet rip through her chest and into her pounding heart. She collapsed and waited for the darkness to wash over her and the end to come.

She lay on the cold concrete and let her eyes close. Visions of her family filled her head with bittersweet memories and she couldn't stop the tears that came. She felt the silver of the bullets burn inside her, overwhelming her and she released herself from the pain.

As she slipped into unconsciousness, she heard the roar of a second gunshot echo dimly behind her accompanied by a human scream of pain. With her last ounce of strength, she forced open her eyes just wide enough to see the Hunter's body slide to the ground just behind Quinn whose eyes were staring at her in relief and utter disbelief.

With little effort, he picked her up and smiled down at her. Sleep now, Mia, he whispered inside her mind, you've been brave enough for one day. Sleep.