Part Two - Chapter 8

The end of Part Two, and the killer is found 8)

I had barely waited for the last rays of light to disappear from the sky. I wasn’t feeling sleepy at all. Lately I wasn’t getting enough movement, the energy kept building up in me, so I needed some action. I got a chance to learn that overwhelming energy was almost as bad as lack of it.

I was in such a hurry to get out of the lake that I almost forgot to check the forest for humans. But that wouldn’t have been too scary, because the area around me turned out to be empty, not a single stranger among those trees. My faith in the fact that the killer had abandoned the Reserve’s territory was slowly growing.

That allowed me to leave Lita alone in the middle of the night. Otherwise, I wouldn’t dare to do it. I was sure there was no danger for her, it was a quiet night.

I wasn’t a dog to sniff out the trace of the ranger’s daughter. That made it harder for me to understand where she was heading. I had to rely on my instincts and the light tracks of her energy left here.

It didn’t seem like humans visited that part of the forest often; the abundance of fallen trees and branches made it difficult to walk. My feet protected by claws and armor were out of threat, but a human risked to break a leg here. What was that female doing in such a place? Especially dressed in nothing but a swimming suit! I had no assumptions, and I had to move on to find out.

I was getting too far from the lake, and I didn’t like it. But the feeling that I was getting close to something important made me continue walking. I could turn around any moment, that’s what I was thinking about to calm myself down.

When I came to a small clearing filled with moonlight, my instincts grew quiet. There was no desire to move forward anymore and no track of energy. That meant that I either reached something or lost the direction.

I didn’t feel like doubting my hunting talent, so I started searching for anything worth suspicion. At first sight, the place looked uninspiringly normal, but I had to try harder.

And I succeeded at this! In all fairness, I found it through an accident. The ground under my feet became surprisingly hollow, every step created echo somewhere beneath me. I bent down and began  to dig through green moss and a thick layer of pine needles. They were hiding a hatch " it was made of fresh wood, thus it was very new, it still smelled of pine sap.

There was a lock on it, but I broke it apart quite easily and threw the pieces away. Nothing kept me from getting inside now.

The hatch led me to a small single-room dugout. It was done fairly well: reinforced walls, nice furniture, food and water supply, ventilation and a system of mirrors that provided a possibility to see the world outside without actually looking out. Someone dedicated a lot of time and effort to creating this place!

I stood still, concentrating on my sensing abilities. I was trying to understand who visited the dugout before me. A female, most likely the girl I was tracking. And a male whom I didn’t know. At least I never stood close enough to remember his energy. Further check left me with little doubt of what these two were doing here.

Honestly, I was disappointed. I was hoping to find something important, something that would help me in identifying the killer. And instead I found a “boudoir” where the ranger’s daughter was meeting her male away from her daddy’s eyes.

There was no need for me to stay there any longer. I had to return to the lake, Lita was all alone there now. She wasn’t entirely helpless, but I trusted my strength more than her weapons, whatever she had with her.

As I was turning around, my tail, which was totally unfit for such narrow places, hit some rag lying on the chair. The feeling of death overwhelmed me the second I touched it, and I almost lost my balance, it was like an avalanche falling right on me!

When I recovered, I grabbed the rag to take a closer look. I was holding a towel " rather old and dirty one. It was soaked in the water from the lake, dry now, but I could sense it perfectly!

It wasn’t the water from the clean part of the lake. The feeling of death was too strong for that. Someone who used that towel was swimming in the middle of the lake, right above the corpses.

I could also sense the slight smell of perfume coming from the towel. In my mind, I could almost see that female taking the towel and putting it on the chair so she could find it easily after she returned. I saw her hands. All of a sudden I understood what made me feel uneasy.

Lita had nicely trimmed nails, always covered with a layer of some shiny stuff. But the female that got her hand into water had long, rectangle and… plastic fingernails. Or rather, pieces of plastic she glued above her own nails. I had no idea why someone might want to do it, and I didn’t care. Another thing mattered more…

I remembered perfectly where I saw such plastic before: on the bottom of the lake. In one of the corpses.

There was no doubt about who did it any longer. The “shadow” of a man I sensed on the corpses didn’t matter. I’d never understand the world of humans. Most importantly, the ranger’s daughter leaving the towel here meant she was going to swim soon.

She was going to kill.

On the territory of the Reserve, there was only one person who could become her victim. And I left that person unprotected!

I darted forward with such force that I broke the hatch on my way. I didn’t even look back, some boards were the last thing I cared about. I was running through the forest with the speed I had never been able to achieve before. I had to jump over piles of branches sometimes, which was an additional trial. But I felt no fatigue, nothing like it. I had no idea why it was happening, where I got that power; even half of that strain in the training center would leave me breathless.

Everything was different today. My heart was pounding wildly in my chest, but not because of the lack of oxygen. I understood that I might be late " or maybe, already was. I couldn’t accept it.

At approaching the lake, I sensed that my fears had been justified. There were strangers by Lita’s temporary house. I was in no condition to identify their number or personalities right this second. The fact there was more than one was enough for me.

I had to be careful. I suppressed my desire to run straight to her through the forest; I continued my way to the lake instead. It wasn’t because of the fear of getting caught, to hell with the mission! But if I moved through the forest, they’d hear me come and have enough time to harm her and prepare themselves for meeting me. Earth was not my element. Water was. I needed it.

I dove into the lake smoothly and pushed myself from its bottom to gain high speed at once. I reached the contaminated half of the pond faster than ever, in a matter of seconds. I didn’t recognize myself in such state, but I had no time to think about what was going on with me. I could sense Lita and three strangers surrounding her. Three!

All of them were close to the lake, so I raised my head above the water to see them. They wouldn’t notice me in any case, it was too dark for it.

Lita was kneeing on the bank which was rather steep and high in that part of the lake. She was breathing heavily, drops of blood were falling from her face onto the short dress of silvery fabric she was wearing. Her long hair was uncombed and tangled. She was probably sleeping when they came for her.

Her attackers were looking confident and pleased with themselves. I knew all three of them.

Standing close to her was the male who was supposed to leave today. Obviously, he didn’t. I was glad to see Lita refused to give up without a fight: the male’s nose was swollen and noticeably bleeding, there were deep scratches on his cheeks. Ha, her nails were sharp after all! The male was holding a middle-sized axe in his hands. There was no blood on the blade so far, and that eased my worry a bit.

Behind his back there were two females whom I expected to see here. One was wearing a dark sports suit, she was holding a knife. The other, despite the cool night, came in a bathing suit, she wasn’t unarmed as well. She preferred a butcher knife, just like her sister.

“Looks like you’ve got nowhere to run now,” the male leered at my watcher, touching the axe blade carefully with his finger. “I have to cut you some slack, you’re the first who managed to run from us! Though it won’t be the only thing I’ll be cutting today. Strong baby! Few men can throw me back like that.”

Funny guy, huh? I wonder if he’d be cracking jokes if I was standing in front of him, not a slim young girl!

“You make a nice team,” Lita wiped the blood from her chin sharply. “No-one could suspect it was you. I believe it’s not your first visit here after all… So the ranger is part of this too?”

“Daddy doesn’t know anything,” the taller of the girls said. She was in the bathing suit now. “He doesn’t know many things. He hasn’t met Ignat before. But he needed to come here officially to meet my parents, so we could explain them how we met. We’re getting married soon!”

“Charming. And what are you going to do on your first night? Catch someone to play with? Or he’s going to make some new holes in you?”

I knew she was afraid, I could feel it. Furthermore, she was terrified. But still she controlled herself well enough to make her voice sound even. That’s my girl… I mean, my watcher. I have the right to be proud of her, don’t I?

“It’s our life!” the taller one shrieked. “And if you think I’m scared by what he does, you’re wrong! Enough of the talking already! Why should I talk to the future piece of meat at the bottom of the lake?!”

“Good point!” the man laughed. The axe’s blade cut the air with a swish. “But it’s alright, we can talk with that one. She’s special, strong girl. Rare breed. Wouldn’t it be nice to make her a little bit quieter?”

“Keep dreaming!” Lita got up, though it caused her a lot of effort. Looks like they hit her pretty bad… They were going to pay. My anger was changing, boiling wrath being replaced by cold and controlled fury.

“What are you going to do? Nowhere to run, only the lake behind you! And you, sugar, can’t swim!”

“Then I’d rather drown!”

He tried to stop her, but failed. Lita jumped forward, into the darkness of the water. It was a lucky move that brought her straight into the depth. I was beside her the following second. At first she tried to fight back in panic, but at least she had enough presence of mind to keep her mouth closed and not let the remains of air leave her lungs. Her kicks didn’t bother me at all, the only danger in this situation was her getting bruised by my armor.

Fortunately, she calmed down soon enough, when she understood who was supporting her. Lita held me tight, even through my scales I could feel her trembling. I had no idea how long she could stay under water like this, so I hurried to carry her to a sandbank.

I discovered that elevation some time ago. It was rather far from the shore and due to its small size only one person could stand there without moving. I helped Lita find it with her feet, now her head and shoulders were above the surface, and she could breathe freely.

She emerged and I didn’t. I didn’t want them to see me yet.

When I was swimming away, she held my hand for a brief moment, and then let go of it in one short movement. I think she forced herself to let go. I felt sorry for leaving her to begin with.

They noticed her; I could hear their voices through the water.

“Would you look at that, the things people do out of fear! Or do you know how to swim after all? One way or another, it won’t help you.”

“Why not?” Lita’s voice was not as even as before, it was shaking a bit, but out of cold, not fear. The fear was gone when she understood I’m beside her after all. 

“You have to return here, sweetie. To us. And if you refuse, Masha will be forced to bring you here”.

“Sounds like a complicated task for someone like her.”

“Hardly. She won local swimming competitions many times. That’s the only thing her father hid from you. But for his own reasons, he didn’t want the cops to interrogate his little innocent girl. He couldn’t imagine she was capable of any of this. If I promise you your death will be quick, will you swim back on your own?”

He was laying, I felt it. And Lita could probably tell without sensing.

“Thanks for the offer, but no! I’m afraid of swimming in this water more than I’m afraid of you. Water… you can never know what’s hiding in there,” Lita said quietly. “Something will catch you and drag you down before you even get a chance to scream. Things happen!”

“Oh just shut it!” The girl whose name was Masha, if I heard it correctly, stepped closer to the edge. “I’ll show you I’m the scariest thing there is in this lake!”

That was a hasty conclusion if you ask me. Now I just had to show her how ironic reality could be.

She dived in gracefully, very good for a human! There was confidence in her movements which only experience can bring. She wasn’t afraid of water; she believed it was her natural inhabitant. That was a mistake.

I gave her a chance to return to the surface, smile happily and even wave at her companions. When she was between the shore and the sandbank, I got down to business. I coiled my tail around her waist and pulled her to the bottom without mercy " I didn’t allow her to inhale enough air. I would’ve been more careful with her if I hadn’t sensed blood on the blade of her knife. I knew whose blood it was. I’m not sure why, but it made my fury rise.

She wasn’t able to see me in dark water, but she fought quite desperately, like an animal trapped. A couple of times her knife, which was almost as big as the axe, slid along my armor. If it weren’t for my scales, I’d be dead, I guess. But those are mere theories. I had my armor, so I didn’t care about her stabs at all. Her trying to kill me with a toothpick would have brought the same result.

I didn’t want to waste my time on her, so I squeezed my tail harder… much harder. I could feel her bones crack. She screamed, filling the water around us with a cloud of bubbles, and grew motionless. I knew she wasn’t dead, but her spine was damaged severely. If my ideas of human anatomy were correct, she’d never fully recover after such an injury.

Just like I wanted. I knew it was cruel, but I was angry with her. The knife that couldn’t harm me wounded Lita and many others " who now lay at the bottom of the lake. Dead.

I brought her unconscious body onto a distant shore, made sure she wasn’t going to drown there and hurried back to Lita.

The air was already full of swearing and threats from that male.

“Where is she? What the hell have you done to her?!”

“I’ve done nothing,” Lita gave him a defiant look. “Why don’t you jump in here and check where she is for yourself!”

“Do you think you’re safe there? Very wrong, baby. I don’t want to make it quick for you, but I will if I have to. The distance between us is not enough to make me miss! Let’s see how you swim with an axe in your head! Right in that pretty face of yours!”

To be more persuasive, he raised the axe above his head, as if attempting to throw it. I doubted he’d actually do it, but I wasn’t ready to try my luck again. It was time to introduce myself.

Clinging to the bank with my claws, I climbed up. It was so quick that while the last droplets raised by me were still falling back into lake, I was already standing in front of the humans. The dim moonlight was enough for them to have a good look at me. And things that I saw in their eyes filled me with pleasure I had never known before, though in the past there were people who feared me.

But it was a different kind of fear. This time, I enjoyed being the creature that brought horror into their souls. I wanted them to feel powerless and weak, just like their victims had probably been feeling.

These two got used to killing their own kind. They were cruel and merciless in it, they enjoyed their superiority. Through this experience they came to believe that all the others were either too helpless or too dumb to defeat them. But now all of their self-proclaimed invincibility was useless, because there was a monster in front of them.

I had long since realized that for the humans who were not familiar with the project I contradicted normal reality. They had been taught that there were no monsters and that humans were on top of the food chain. And I… Fix feet tall, human like in my silhouette, but covered in scales and spikes, my claws sharp and my fangs shining when I bared them. I was a joke nature played on humans, my advantage in strength was so primitive that it surpassed any weapon. I think that’s what made Anton hate me. He wasn’t alone at this!

The girl was the first to recover, but she was far from attacking me. She turned around and tried to flee " very naïve of her. I wasn’t in the mood to play with her though. I caught up with her in one swift movement; my tail hit her on the back of the head. She fell down, turning around in the air and stopped moving, her eyes closed. I wasn’t going to maim her seriously and I didn’t. The worst consequence she’d suffer after this was strong headache. Because the blade of her knife was clean of Lita’s blood.

Now it was only me and the male. I stood between him and the forest, and he turned out to be in Lita’s former position: trapped. He was clenching the axe in his hands, ready to attack me any minute, but he was afraid. Can’t fool me, I’m a monster after all! I’ve noticed before that the cruel humans were also quite cowardly at the same time. Another combination of features I’d never understand.

“Who are you?” he screamed.

Without waiting for any reply from me, he jumped forward and hit me with the axe. It was a clumsy blow, totally worthless. To his credit, he was very strong, thousands of sparkles from under the blade confirmed that. But it was the most impressive result of his attack. I doubted that this blow would even leave a bruise.

The axe didn’t hold such a trial and broke. The blade fell down, and I could hear it enter the male’s flesh with a sickening sound. He collapsed, howling in pain and holding his damaged foot. That disgusted me. Pathetic! I remembered the bodies from the lake and knew what his victims had to endure.

I bent toward him so our eyes were on the same level. At that moment I fully surrendered to my instincts and did what they told me. There was no plan, I couldn’t even comprehend what was happening.

“She is mine,” I pronounced quietly enough for only him to hear.

I had no idea why I said this. He was frightened by my words, while I was confused. Who was that she? Lita? I liked her more than other humans, but not that much! The girl I caught in water? I don’t need that junk! Then who? I gave up and decided to leave it to my instincts. They’ve got a mind of their own sometimes.

The male stopped howling, he looked at me with a silent plea in his eyes. He wanted me to spare him. I know what the fear of death is like, Anton made the feeling all too familiar to me. But I had no pity for this human.

When the sharp spike at the end of my tail went straight through him, the male didn’t scream. He just gasped painfully. His gaze was slowly moving down to his stomach, as if he couldn’t believe that it had actually happened. He, the one who held so many lives in his hands, was defeated.

I didn’t enjoy causing pain " even to an enemy. Perhaps he deserved the torture he imposed on others. But I didn’t want to be the one to deliver it. That’s why I opened my tail fin inside of him. I wanted to make it quick.

That short movement almost tore him into halves. When I was jumping back into the lake, he was already dead. I didn’t care, my wrath was abandoning me. All my attention was concentrated on Lita.

I helped her get out of the water onto the wooden platform, it was better than returning to the bank where the bloody bodies were. She was shaking with cold, and that flimsy dress of hers didn’t help at all. And then I did something I’d never expected of myself: I took the scales off my chest to let her get the warmth from my skin. She hugged me gratefully, while I was fighting the desire to return the armor into place; I felt vulnerable.

“Where have you been?” she asked. There was no anger in her voice, only confusion and pain.

“I… I was away. I got distracted. I know I shouldn’t have. I’m sorry.»

“I was afraid you left me…” Lita said barely above a whisper.

“I couldn’t.»

To my own horror, I realized I was telling the truth. I couldn’t escape, though I had a perfect chance for it. In her current condition Lita wasn’t able to detonate the bombs inside of me. If I decided to kill her at this moment, there’d be nothing she could do to stop me. It looked like the simplest thing in the world: to twist her neck in one swift motion. And then hide somewhere far-far away where humans would never find me.

But I couldn’t. Not because I suddenly became very fond of Lita and not because I had no idea where to go. I just couldn’t bring myself to kill the creature that depended on me so completely and that trusted me. The human whom I’d just destroyed wasn’t helpless, he tried to attack me, he was dangerous. My victory was natural and justified. But Lita wasn’t attacking or even threatening me. Her absolute weakness was her ultimate defense.

It dawned on me that I got myself trapped.

***

When she entered my room, I emerged and sat on the edge of the pool, but didn’t get my legs out of the water. I didn’t look at her so she wouldn’t understand how worried I was.

I knew her bosses didn’t like the fact of me killing a human. The prospect of vivisection became too real all of a sudden. I didn’t know if our mission could be considered failed or not. We found the killer, but… I think I broke too many rules while I was at it.

Lita came closer; I could hear her heels clicking on the tiles. Now she was standing right behind my back.

“Well?” I couldn’t handle the silence any longer.

“You’ll live.” She put her hands on my shoulders. “Sure, many didn’t like it " I mean, the murder. But you didn’t do it for fun or out of spite! After listening to me, the Council concluded you did the right thing. Protecting your watcher should be the priority. Just in case you care, General Semenov is on your side. Congratulations.”

I couldn’t believe my own ears.

“So the mission was considered successful?”

“Yes,” she could barely hide her joy. Though I don’t know why she was hiding it to begin with. “You finished it in record time with brilliant result, and without innocent victims!”

“Speaking of victims… How are the survivors doing?”

“Better than they deserve. The younger sister has a head trauma, so nobody believes the nonsense she’s telling about some beast from the lake that attacked her. The older one’s situation is worse, her spine is broken. Or rather, crushed. She’ll live, but she’ll never be able to walk again. Not like she’d need this opportunity " if they are found guilty, both are in for serious sentences, most likely they’ll serve life. And they are guilty!”

“What if the court thinks otherwise?” My opinion of human justice was predictably low.

“Even so, one of them got a worthy punishment from you. I’m glad you did it, Rey. Although I shouldn’t be telling you this, it’s against the rules.”

I pretended I didn’t hear the rules comment.

“So what did it start with?”

“For Ignat Korolev " with insanity,” Lita answered. “Those people in the Reserve were not his first victims, but he was constantly changing his location, so the police couldn’t track him. He met the ranger’s daughter in a town not far from the Reserve during a swimming competition. I’m not sure what brought them together, but this couple makes me think of the “birds of a feather” thing. They got along perfectly, he was visiting her very often since then " you saw their little “family nest” in the forest. Ignat understood there was no need for him to run anymore, he could do his thing here and still remain uncaught. The ranger didn’t know anything about him, their first meeting happened when Ignat came to the guesthouse, posing as tourist.”

“Why?”

“To meet his bride’s parents. Things were getting serious between these two, they wanted to get married. I don’t think she’d be as violent on her own, but we’d never know. They became one in their desire to kill, figuratively speaking, and even managed to drag her younger sister into this. At the same time they were very careful, the police had no chances of finding out who stood behind those deaths. So the Council thinks this case was worthy of sending us there.”

It was nice to hear something like that, but I pretended not to care. I liked to sound all business-like at that:

“How exactly did the killings happen?”

“Ugly, fast and simple,” my watcher sighed. “They waited for a moment when their victim " or victims " was alone. Ignat hunted on his own in most cases, sometimes his future spouse joined him. Her younger sister had just been asked to join them, my death was supposed to be her trial… initiation rite in a way. At least, that’s what she claims.”

“How many corpses have they got out of the lake?”

I knew there was a team of experts working out there now. I felt sorry for them, even though they were humans.

“Thirty-two so far. Many are impossible to identify.”

I nodded, not knowing what to say. I felt very tired " not physically, in my soul. This mission made me face the ugliest side of humankind. I know not all of them are like this. But right now that knowledge wasn’t helping.

Lita seemed to understand this. I could feel her pull back.

“The management is very pleased with you. Pleased enough to give you two days of rest. Get some sleep, I’ll bring you another book tomorrow.”

I didn’t react. Not like it was necessary.

She went to the exit, but stopped by the door to turn to me once again:

“And Rey… Thank you. Personally from me. I owe you.”