Chapter Eight

Jasmine's POV

A blood curdling scream ripped through the air -and my ears-, pitching just under the level of a dog whistle. I flattened them to my head, flinching at the pain.

Another scream and I was off like a shot before I'd realized I'd even moved. Some instinct was driving me in what I assumed to be the right direction. I followed it without question (which I assure you is not normal), leaving Corny in the dust.

A third scream started to rise before being cut off in the middle.

This girl has obviously never smoked a day in her life to have lungs like that! I couldn't help thinking as I leapt high over a shrub and slid to a stop in a near-silent skid.

I shook grass and dirt clods off my feet and took a good look around the clearing.

I saw what I was looking for standing about thirty yards away and on the other side of a stream. Just the sight made me grind my teeth and give a little growl of indignation, which I managed to startle myself with.

I would have laughed at myself in any other situation.

What had my hackles up was the tall, well muscled red head with his arms around a woman who looked very much like she didn't want to be there. That is, if her thrashing was anything to go by.

As I watched, he tightened his grip around the woman's waist and I glimpsed the hand that was over her mouth before the struggle turned them away. He leaned forward and whispered something in her ear. My money said that whatever it had been, he did not get the desired effect. She tried and failed to wriggle free. Another growl came out of me, this one on purpose, loud and definitely angry.

That was the last straw.

I bolted across the space between us, crossing the stream in a single bound, and pounced on the unguarded back of the man.

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Unanimous POV

It started with me placing a halting hand on her shoulder and quickly progressed to a wrestling match with one arm around her waist to stop her struggling and a hand over her mouth so she couldn't keep that blasted shrieking. I felt something wet slide across my hand and I jerked it away, not expecting such a childish trick. It was not enough for her to get free, but she wasn't done yet.

She reared back and hit me in the nose with the top of her head. I grunted at the impact, half expecting but still surprised by the signature crunch and spurt of blood that marked a broken nose. It was closely followed by a flaring pain from my hand.

Not only has she licked me, but now she's bitten me too! I thought angrily

This woman was going to feel the back of my hand!

It never got around to that.

Before I could do anything, the woman was gone, and my hand wasn't the only thing hurting. I violently sucked in air as what felt like a dozen daggers stabbed into my shoulders.

The extra wait pushed me off of my feet and I feel, my head colliding with a rock with a resounding crack. At least that what it sounded to me as it echoed around my brain. My vision blurred in an out, but I could have sworn I felt an animal nose sniffle my head then mutter, "serves him right". I saw my horse rear before my vision went.

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Genevieve's POV

I ran.

I crossed the stream, automatically scooping Leah up and onto my back as I passed, and ran.

I ran and ran and ran.

It was all I could do to stay up right on legs of jelly. Ghostly screams of fear and pain resounded against my skull, memories of the nightmare I thought I had left behind. They slid across the inside of my eyelids as I ran blindly through the trees.

There was Old Henna, the mid wife that had delivered both Leah and her brother. I had found her propped up in the corner of the hen house, every single bone showing through the thread-bare fabric of her shift. She had been starved to death after delivering yet another girl for the head of the house.

Next came Little Henry, five years old and sentenced to the mines because his parents had abandoned him and he had been caught stealing bread. He died in a collapse three days later.

Juniper, sweet innocent Juniper, was one of the first victims of Master Braden after he came home from the war. I had been only twelve at the time, but I had understood perfectly when they carried her bruised and broken body by to be burned.

All the times I had wanted to cry, scream, and shout at the injustice of the world, but did not for the fear of the whip.

There were dozens of them, creating a never ending flow that was drowning me. They made it hard to breath, my vision grew spotted. My sense of feel drifted and I couldn't even smell rain anymore. I staggered to a stop and my feet came out from under me.

Leah stiffly tumbled free, not making a sound as she hit the ground hard enough to make a grown man cry out. My muscles weren't reacting to the commands to get up my brain was sending them. The trees were blotted out by darkness as I flopped loosely in the dirt. The last to go was my hearing, which took almost a full minute, leaving me to listen to something thumping around before it was replaced by snuffles then a soothing purr.

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Felix's POV

A flurry of activity swept through camp as the inhabitants realized that the woman, Genevieve, was nowhere to be found along with the little human girl.

Tavies found me watching over the baby Jeremiah with orders from Rohm to search for Genevieve myself. The idea was that I follow her scent trail and bring her back before it rained.

They worried that she would not willingly come back with any of the others as they were mostly men. I hoped I could just find her in time, before she contracted pneumonia, and got her back safely.

Her disappearance was anything but timely with us expecting a visit from the Royals any day now.