Page 1 of The Harbinger

Chapter 1

Mia

Hungry,achingparasitesburrowedbeneath my skin, just out of reach, gnashing their sharp teeth into my nerve endings. Lightning bolts branched across my burning muscles, and my stomach churned in knots as bile clawed up the back of my throat.

“Hurry.” The foreign man shoved my bruised shoulder, and I surged forward with a quick gate, tripping over the floppy sole partially attached to my second-hand shoes. I braced for impact as his hard shove sealed my fate. The grimy ground in the dark alleyway rushed towards me, my hands catching the brunt of the impact.

Tender skin shredded across my palms from dull-edged rocks as I skidded across them. My body stretched into the plank position, begging what little muscle I still had to hold me off of the pungent stink of week-old urine.

“It’s what you asked for, isn’t it?” He yanked me to my feet, and the odor searing my nostrils vanished, replaced by his woodsy scent.

His bruising fingers sank into my bare arm and dragged me toward a black full-sized SUV where a beast of a man stood at the opened back door.

“I, um…” My chin trembled as I pulled against his painful grip and glanced back in search of Jenny. “I think I’ve changed my mind.”

“A little too late for that,” he said, his accent bleeding through heavier than the micro cuts on my palms.

“I think I’m going to be sick, though.”

My body lurched, pulling my arm from his grasp and towards the shadows where my stomach emptied the beef broth I’d been lucky to be given. I held my stomach as the cramps licked across my tightened abdomen and worked the rest of the food from my belly while voices behind me raised in a language I didn’t understand. Their tones grew discordant as if an argument developed between them.

The behemoth of a man I’d propositioned earlier moved me away from my humiliation with gentle hands, unlike the rabid-eyed man who’d manhandled me through the alleyway and helped me to the back of the vehicle.

This was a bad idea, but desperation gripped me tight and wouldn’t let go.

I needed this.

I wiped my mouth with the back of my filthy hand and pulled my weakened legs into the vehicle, my heart lurching in my chest as he flung the door closed, scowling at the man as he did.

What had I gotten myself into, and where was Jenny?

My arm shook as I braced against the bench, then gave out, causing me to crash onto the cool leather, my damp, sweat-covered cheek sticking to the surface.

I groaned as the monster from within gripped me with an iron fist, whispering in my ear with cravings my body needed most.

Just a little. That’s all.

My thumb moved along the horizontal raised flesh along my wrist I’d liked to use as a reminder of how the abyss could become so dark…

Even though I couldn’t remember how I’d got them or the circumstances that led up to it, it was still a lesson rooted to my core.

I ground my teeth as stabbing pain clenched my stomach, searching the erased crevice of my mind, drawing the inevitable blank.

The back door opened, and the man slid inside. “Take off your shoes.”

I lurched in place. His harsh tone had me pulling myself to a seated position, my brows drawn together. “My—my shoes?”

He gave a curt nod.

“But why?”

It wasn’t like they were worth stealing. And he didn’t need them. The vehicle alone could pay for a few years of food for me and the others.

“We don’t need you running off.”

It was too late to run. And even if I wanted to, my weakened body wouldn’t allow for such an exertion.

There was a slight quiver of hesitation in my chest before I bent over, unlaced my ratty-stained laces, and then flicked my shoes off.

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