BREATH . OF . LIFE . ~ { ReGenisis Chronicles Book I }

Chapter Two [Part 4/5]: Acquisition

                   -Kate Firethorn-

There were about ten of them, faces I could see in the cover of the trees. They all looked on at me, glints from the shine in their eyes or the flash of their teeth as their lips pulled back into a menacing smirk. Nothing quite so menacing as Griffin's voice had been just a moment earlier.

Eight men, two girls. All staring out at us. They were all dressed like anyone you'd see walking down the street, some a little more business like, well off at the least. They seemed ordinary, which made them more scary. 

The eyes looked at me in judgment. I was being assessed and damned by every one of them. Some looked at me as if I were just simply a target to take out of the way. But there were a couple who were more puzzled by me.

One particular set of hazel eyes that belonged to a mousy short haired girl were locked on my face. They weren't as hard or as damning. They still held questions. I could faintly pick up on her natural sea-salt scent, which would have made me wonder if I were going insane if I had the time. She seemed calmer than the others, not calm like a cool killer, just at ease. The only tense emotions coming off of her were subtle and stirred up when she glanced at other members of her team. 

When one went for his gun out of the corner of my vision, we both turned our heads. The girl and I. My eyes flew back to her to see that she was giving the man a scowl. She lifted her hand up and he took both hints and instead simply rested his hand near his weapon. She let out an exhalation, her shoulders slumping forward, slightly more relaxed. I thought I made out from the glint in the darkness that she'd rolled her eyes. 

Another let out a low sort of chuckle next to her. He was huge and had bright gold eyes. His skin looked like the colour of caramelized brown sugar and when he returned to looking forward his face was grimly set. A complete change from sunny to scary as heck in a second. 

The figure that scared me the most was the youngest among them. A well dressed man with a sword in his hand, casually down by his side. Why in this day and age would someone have a sword out with them? I understood for collecting purposes, it was one of my father's hobbies. 

I felt a shiver of memory run through me, somewhere between my home and being cut up by a thug and I winced my eyes shut for a second. 

In one hand I clenched a little red handled penknife even tighter. In the other Griffin's fingers were twined with mine. I could feel his fast beating heart thud into my back where we stood up against each other. His unusual scent had become stronger, marked with aggression and fear. I was pretty sure mine must have too.

The scents around us included one that reminded me of biting straight into a dried black pepper corn, the way it made my nose sting and run as a child. It wasn't that it was horrible, just overpowering. This smell was coming off of a man that Griffin seemed to know.

The others didn't let off anything as sharp.

"Kate," Griffin whispered, then fell silent as he unclenched his fingers from mine and pulled his hand away.

My knees were knocking together, my body trembling. I searched further back for his hand, keeping my eyes fixed on the faces in the trees. He took a step forward, a rush of air spread through the small space between us making me shudder. "Griffin," my voice was desperate.

He didn't say anything more to me. "You set the trap for me, so leave her be."

Jake, the one who smelled like sharp black pepper, laughed. "She's too lovely. Besides you won't talk unless we have some leverage. Perhaps the prospect of us torturing her eternally in front of you will motivate you? Others have died that way." I could hear the smirk in Jake's smooth voice, but he almost sounded sarcastic.

I gasped, holding my hand up to my mouth.

"A stupid mistake that was." Griffin's voice was quiet, a rumble running through him. "You know well enough what became of those responsible. You were there, we both watched it happen." 

"Torn to pieces as revenge." Jake muttered, he sounded contemplative for a second. Grieved almost. 

"It would be ironic if you suffered the same fate for revenges sake." Griffin's voice hit a low growl that sent another judder through me. The note that scared me the most was that he was being dead serious, somehow I knew there was no lie in these words.

A moment of silence, breath not breathed by our apparent nemesis. It had been stolen away. "Why is she so important to you, other than that addictive scent? You don't even know her." Jake sounded sceptical.

I froze up. He had a point. He didn't know me from Adam. Which made me wonder about how trusting I'd been of him, too. 

"Who she is or how well I know her doesn't matter. Life," Griffin paused, a twinge in his voice for a second, "Innocent life, is important. To give her up to death for my own sake, that's something you would do. But you fail to see that it goes against every fibre in my body." His voice was still firm, but I found a softness beneath it that calmed my hearts thrum a little.

"Of course, you and your chivalry. Is that why I had to clean up two men that you killed without thought or restraint. Ended them as if they were nothing?" Jake's voice became amused, darkly so.

I turned my head to see over my shoulder, my eyes widening. Jake was a good looking sort of man, the kind I'd expect to see plastered on billboards advertising the perfect close shave. But there was an icy cruelness to his eyes that told me his beauty didn't go any deeper than his outward appearance.

"I gave them a quick end. I can be monstrous, yes, but I only deal monstrously with monsters." Griffin admitted.

I could feel myself getting increasingly scared, I wanted to turn and hug into him, hide my face from those staring in at me from the trees. Only he'd said to stay back to back with him, to trust him.

"Interesting that you admit that." Jake chuckled quietly. "Are you ready for her to become a monster, too? I see you gave her your old knife, the one you stabbed me in the hand with. Are you ready for her to take a life? Is she ready for that?"

I swallowed a hard lump in my throat, glancing back again to see him holding up his hand. A white scar barely visible in his palm.  My mind raced with the thought of killing someone, would it really come to that? Could I actually do that. I felt my stomach turn over at the prospect of it. 

I stared towards the knife and found my hand unfurled, letting it drop, without my giving it the order to. It hit the damp leaves sending up dust around it.

I did the first thing that instinct told me to. My feet started to move, adrenalin pumping through my body, fuelling my legs. I broke into a run, this was my life, running. Always running. This time my lungs took air in easily, my legs didn't ache so much and I seemed to push the ground behind me much faster.

I kept going even after I thought I'd passed the faces, even after I believed I'd gotten away. I couldn't trust that I was safe.

Now I didn't feel as if I was simply running for my life. I actually felt myself coming alive, the adrenalin igniting in my chest. When I thought I'd hit my top speed, I surpassed it. The world whirred by me dizzyingly. Only I didn't feel dizzied by it. I felt safe, as long as I kept moving nothing could touch me. I would not trip this time.