Adapt (I)

TJR Garcia © 2020

Boe

At the last minute, I swerve a left-handed turn and rev down an unmarked asphalt road.

Behind me there is a chorus of car horns. In my mirrors, the yellow Merc straightens out of the hard turn and guns toward me.

He might have a fast car, but bikes are better. I smirk, knowing that this is a battle I will win.

We come to a crossroads, and I decide to take a right this time. It leads down into sugar cane fields, turning from black-top to gravel. I know that I can lose the Merc down here.

They follow, but they are losing ground. Their tires cannot handle the old farm tracks. I hook a hard right, down a narrow lane way, checking my mirrors periodically. I make it to the edge of the plot and stop. The Mercedes is nowhere to be seen.

I take off my helmet and my smirk grows. Suck on that, Mercedes!

To my left I hear a strange revving. A low, steady rumble, more like a four-wheel drive. I look down each of the lane ways that follow from where I am. Nothing. The noise seems to be coming from within the paddock of six-foot-high cane stalks. Just as I realize is this, my eyes draw to the movement in the top of the cane.

“Fuck.” I shout.

I throw my helmet on the ground and spin the Kawasaki. The back wheel grinds up the dirt road and I shoot down the adjacent laneway. In my mirror I watch a Range Rover bust out from the middle of the cane.

I twist the throttle harder, but I can’t seem to stay out of the damned potholes. The shiny white Range Rover is gaining on me quickly.

I grind my teeth. I could go straight into the heart of a cane paddock, but I risk hurting myself worse than my pursuers could. Or I could try my luck in the dense bush land that lay just across a grass flat.

I close my eyes. There isn’t really a choice.

I grip the handlebars tight and hope for the best as I floor the throttle.

I silently wish that the bushland was thicker. The Range Rover is gliding through the gaps easily.

The forest is starting to become darker, the trees taller. I swerve through the trunks as best I can, but I can’t keep monitoring the Range Rover behind me as well as finding my way through the forest.

All of a sudden, the front wheel grabs a hidden stump. My bike throws itself straight into the ditch in front of me. I fly over the handlebars, landing on the other side of the embankment. The impact vibrates throughout my body.

And instantly I know that am surrounded. I scrape to my feet and do a three-sixty. I can’t see any of them, but I can feel their presence.

“Boe, is it?”

I narrow my eyes, and out of the shadows emerges his outline. My fist tightens around my dagger.

“Down, puppy dog. I’m not here to fight you.”

“Why are you here then?”

He steps into the light. He is in a fitted grey suit, a stark contrast to what I had seen him in the other night.

Is he here for a business meeting? I wonder sarcastically.

“A question you are entitled to ask, but one that, if you knew the truth about your girlfriend, you would not have to.” He lazily strolls toward me, swagger oozing from every movement. For a fraction of a second, I am a little bit peeved that he looks so pristine. Monsters aren’t supposed to be good looking.

“The truth?” I spit.

He nods. “Yes, the love of your life isn’t as pure as you would hope.”

I narrow my eyes, trying to be patient. But even as I am being ‘patient’ I am watching for his weakness. It would help to know what sort of the Therian he is.

“You are as clueless as you look.”

I growl a little, but I try not to lose control.

“Alright. In the spirit of avoiding mutually assured destruction, I am going to tell you how my race procreates. Nothing quite like a dirty story to lighten the mood.”

I step forward, growing tired of his bullshit.

“Okay, well,” he begins without acknowledging my tension. “One of our best kept secrets is that we can’t mate with each other.”

I stare at him. He looks totally at ease. I can’t find any of his weak spots.

“You see, Boe, Therians usually mate with humans.”

“What?” My attention snaps to what he is saying.

“I know. Shock. Awe. Try to control yourself.”

“Parasites,” I hiss. “Isn’t it enough that you feed off them, but you rape them as well?” Anger boils inside my chest, something that I am used to when I am faced with a Therian.

“See, that is racism. It is, more often than not, consensual. Which is more than what I can say for many humans.”

“Right, they just let you impregnate them with your demon spawn.” I snarl.

“I could say the same about your mother.”

Red tinges my vision.

“Uh-uh.” He holds up a hand. “Are we really going to kill each other before I tell you what is special about your precious Scarlet?”

I grind my teeth. “Spit it out, leach.”

He gives me a smile, his brown eyes dancing with delight at taunting me.

My eyes blaze.

“Alright.” He says, reading the impatience in my face. “Well, it seems that a Therian can also mate with a hunter. It does not happen often, for obvious reasons.” He looks down at his fingernails, picking the dirt out from underneath them. “I am going to let you figure out the rest.”

But I have lost it. The angry fire in my chest is completely overshadowing my rationality.

Three Therians finally emerge out of the shadows. I had known they were there. With deft precision, I slice the throat of one, plunge my dagger into the spine of another, and reef the blade under the rib cage of the last one. All whilst Logan just stands observing.

“You’re better than most. My security is pretty limited, but it would have taken a normal hunter a whole lot longer to take them down.”

I don’t respond, though. The edge of my vision is still a wash of red. I am running on complete instinct.

And right now, I don’t care what Logan has to say. He is a target, and I am nothing but a weapon.

I start toward him, but he doesn’t even react. Once he is in range, I line up my dagger and take my first swing. And then another. Each is met with a lightning-fast block.

“Do you not understand?” He says, almost bored.

I throw a kick in between my strikes, and it seems to break his concentration. I slice through his shiny suit, leaving a gapping whole in the side seam. I almost smile when he angles a stern glare at me. I try to use that lapse in focus to strike into his chest. I hope to pierce his heart, but I barely nick the breast pocket, before I am slammed against the wet forest floor. I feel my dagger fly from my hand, landing out of reach.

“You are good, but you don’t have my skills, nor my abilities. I am twice as strong and infinitely smarter than you.” A wheezing sound escapes me as I try to gain a breath. He eases his knee off my throat, just enough that I can breathe. He has me completely pinned. “Are you going to at least think about what I have said before you make me kill you?”

“What do you want with Scarlet?” I grunt.

“What you want. To claim her to my side before she chooses the other.”

“What do you want with her?” I repeat, just getting pissed off.

“My God, you are thick.” He shakes his head and removes his knee from under my chin.

I get up as quickly as I can. Clumps of rotting leaves and soil fall from my back as I rise up to face Logan.

I stand my ground. Logan could have just killed me, but he hasn’t. So, he doesn’t want me dead. I narrow my eyes. “Just give me a straight answer. What do you want with Scarlet?”

He shrugs.

Another growl bubbles in my chest.

He holds his hands up in surrender. “I have given you enough clues. Figure it out, Boe. Or should I say... Mercury?”

I step forward at the sound of my birth name, but he is already gone: a blur in the wind. Nothing but shoe prints in the dirt and the three Therian bodies remain.

A shrill ring tone sounds from my pocket. I take my phone out, briefly amazed that it survived the crash. I swipe to answer.

“What?” I demand.

“Oh, someone hasn’t been laid in a while.” A low, familiar voice chirps.

“Alex?”

“Congrats, I am your new Page.”

My eyes scan my surroundings, trying to find any signs of Logan. “You aren’t a Page. Seems a little below your pay grade.” I usually speak to Kalum, a Page in training back at HQ. He gives me the necessary information to carry out a mission and I only called him back when the mission is done. Alex is the General of the Recruitment Division and my commanding officer while I am on a recruiting mission. He doesn’t concern himself with something as monotonous as Page duties.

“Well, this mission has been stepped up to Level One.”

“What?” This mission was a Level Five when I left HQ. No way it could have been upgraded so quickly.

“I can’t explain the details. All you need to know is that Scarlet cannot be out of your sight until you transport her here.”

I swallow hard. “That’s a problem.”

“Why in the hell would that be a problem?” His voice lowers.

I chew on my cheek for a second. “Because I am an hour away from her, presently.” I say, reluctantly.

“Make it half an hour.”

I run my tongue over my teeth and look back at the mangled remains of my beautiful bike in the ditch. “Well, I would...” I stammer. “But my bike is a little... worse for wear.”