Page 69 of Calico Descending

Nails scrape across my hips, as he yanks my pants down, but I don’t bother to look. I can’t.

On the other side of the post, I hear the slap of skin over Neela’s muffled screams, and the moans of her rapist.

I open my eyes to Cadmus, rocking across from us, twitching, as he looks off in the other direction. “Help us,” I whisper to him. Two days ago, he would’ve been strong enough to take on a dozen of these men. Now, he just looks small and weak. “Cadmus!”

His rocking pauses, and with a twitch, he turns toward me. The first time he’s made eye contact.

In my periphery, the bearded man is springing himself free, stroking his cock while he stares down at my exposed lower half.

“Cadmus, help us.” The words push through clenched teeth, and I blink away the tears in my eyes, bringing the clarity I notice in his stare to sharp focus.

The man in my periphery falls on top of me, and taps what I presume to be his tip against my belly.

“Cadmus! Help me!”

The Alpha snaps the rope binding his arms, and in one swift movement, no more than a blink, he’s holding the man on top of me by the throat. I dare to turn my head in time to see the man’s beard tear away from his face, splashing blood across my chest and stomach, exposing the bloody flesh and bone of his bottom teeth. Eyes wide, he lets out a stiff moan, his body probably lost to shock. In the next second, his neck is snapped, leaving a sharp piece of spinal column sticking through the skin, with his head tipped too far against his shoulders.

I don’t see what happens to the man on top of Neela. All I hear is her scream, and the gurgling sound in the man’s throat in between. Cadmus snaps our binds loose, and I scramble to pull up my pants.

With tears in my eyes, I kick out at the dead body that nearly violated me just moments before, and when Cadmus reaches down for me, I allow him to lift me to my feet. It’s then I turn to see the other man lying on the ground, beside a long stretch of meat that looks to be his throat ripped out. I look back to Cadmus, whose dilated pupils and occasional twitch tells me he still isn’t right.

Whimpering beside us, Neela shivers, weaving her arm into mine and breaks down into a sob.

“Shhh. We still have to get out of here,” I whisper. “The others will be coming soon.”

As if he’s just become aware there are others, Cadmus turns away from us, his movements slow and curious as he walks toward the entrance of the tent.

“No!” I grab for his arm, but he shakes me loose. Instead, I duck behind Cadmus’s massive back and follow him out of the tent.

“How the fuck did Pansy get loose?” What must be the smaller man with the gun manages the one question, before the signature sounds of tearing skin tell me Cadmus has done something horrible to him. It seems to get the attention of the other men, who shout at the Alpha, commanding him to get on his knees.

I peek around his body, as a group of men approach him, far more than a dozen, and when they draw their guns, I step in front of him.

Every muscle in my body is wracked with the kind of fear that numbs the senses. I don’t know if these men would shoot right through me for Cadmus. All I know, is I won’t let them execute him after what he did back in that tent.

Breaths heaving, I stand against him, waiting for them to attack.

“Move away from him, girl,” the leader says, staring down the barrel of his gun. “I will not hesitate to put a bullet in you, too.”

Cadmus lurches behind me, his muscles tense, and the growl in his throat tells me he’s spoiling for this fight. Perhaps unaware, in whatever alternate version he’s seeing right now, that we’re entirely outnumbered and outgunned.

The men move in closer, and I scan the crowd to see most of them are holding guns. Cadmus might fight through a few, maybe even lessen their numbers a bit, but he’ll never kill all of these men on his own. And if one happened to put a bullet in his head, it’ll be over.

A distant sound serves as a momentary distraction, and when a few of the men turn around, I know they heard it, too.

“I’m not going to tell you again. Move the fuck out of the way, or I’ll blow your head clean off your shoulders.”

Another sound echoes through the mountains, and I pick up on the distinct pitch of it.

The screeching of mutations. More than one, even though I can’t see anything through the darkness.

There’s only the flash of white that draws my attention back toward the leader, and in the next breath, his head is severed from his body. The translucent creature tears away bits of his remaining flesh, shoving it into its mouth.

The other men shout and scatter.

Cadmus bumps into me from behind, and seconds later, he’s no longer there. He joins the melee, grabbing one of the fleeing marauders by his shirt, before punching his fist through the man’s spine.

The mutation doesn’t seem to bother with him, as it scampers after another victim.

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