Dark Creations: Dark Ending (Part 6) Read Online Free PDF Page A

captor.  He’d taken her and tore off into the night.
    Though the beast had raced, the trip seemed to have lasted forever.  She’d passed out intermittently as he’d galloped through woodlands, scaling rocks and brush as he skirted the lake.  Each time he’d leaped or lunged to avoid an obstacle, his teeth had dug deeper into her flesh.  The pain from it, along with the stabbing pain produced near her spine as she was jarred and jerked about like a ragdoll, had made her cry out and nearly vomit.  Losing consciousness off and on had been a merciful godsend, for when consciousness returned to her, her thoughts had swirled, ebbing and flowing around ghoulish, nightmarish images; her new reality.  
    That nightmarish reality worsened tenfold when t he beast had stopped unexpectedly during their journey.  He had dropped her to the rocky ground and rolled her with his muzzle back and forth, as if he were toying with her, playing with his food.  He’d licked her bleeding wounds, quivering and shaking violently, and hovered over her, his enormous jaw poised to clamp down.  His eyes had held no mercy, just hunger, and she’d been certain in that moment that he’d kill her, that she would never see another human being’s face again.
    Melissa saw faces now, though she was not sure whether they could ever be considered human by any definition.  She knew they were tools, instruments of murder, despite looking human enough.  They were made of flesh and bone, breathed air and walked and talked like every other human being.  To anyone else, they looked like a group of exceptionally attractive men dressed identically who just so happened to be heavily armed henchmen of humanity’s apocalypse. 
    “What do you have, dog?” one of them offhandedly addressed the Hunter carrying her. 
    The beast released her and she dropped to a floor below, not outdoor terrain.  She realized she was indoors, inside a house, but there was nothing homey about it.  Last she checked cozy homes were not complete with weapon wielding drones intent on murder. 
    With their intentions in mind, Melissa considered running.  She did not know where she was or how she would possibly slip past all of the guards, but knew that if she stayed, she would die.  She felt her muscles bunch and twitch, preparing for flight.  The Hunter beside her, as if sensing her thoughts, leveled his amber eyes at her, warning her not to even think about it. 
    Her shoulders slumped in defeat.  The beast would maul her before she ever took a step or a shot were fired.  She was trapped. 
    When a nasally voice whined from just beyond the doorway of the room, she felt dread unlike any other scuttle across her skin like innumerable insects moving at once. 
    “Stand down, dog!” the nasal voice commanded as soon as he stepped into the room.  “Filthy beast,” he spat disdainfully. 
    Th e Hunter put some distance between them, but not enough for her to feel comfort of any sort.  That, and the fact that Franklin Terzini stood before her, made her feel as if comfort were something she would never experience again.  The Franklin Terzini that stood with his chest puffed out and his shoulder blades joined uncomfortably was not the Dr. Franklin Terzini who had created Gabriel, but his clone, the one who’d sent team after team to storm the homes of innocent people and murder them.  She had never laid eyes on either the original or cloned Terzini, but knew she was in the presence of Lord Terzini, nevertheless.  Thick, black hair and beady eyes the color of coal combined with his small stature and pallid complexion resembled the vivid image Gabriel had painted for her over the years.  But it was not his appearance alone that had revealed his identity.  The crazed look in his eyes had.  The overly rigid posture of a man who never doubted himself for a second helped as well. 
    His wild eyes roamed over her body then rested on her face.  She knew that her hair was