I blushed deeply, pushing my hair away from my face, considering my path. I didn’t want him to be here tomorrow. I didn’t want to murder him or anyone else, and if he remained here, they would force me to end his life. I stepped on my tiptoes and reached for the arrow. He whispered encouragements, leaning his forehead against my shoulder, which had caused heat to pool in my stomach.
The moment he was free, he slammed me against the ground, stomping on my face. I cried out in shock, sobbing at the red-hot pain that ripped through me while he assaulted me. I turned, curling into a ball as he attacked.
“You actually think I’d kiss your poisonous lips? Ugly little bitch. You are nothing. You’re less than nothing. Your kind deserves to die, and when I bring your head back to my alpha, he will praise me for my bravery, facing off against a monster like you.” He reached down, yanking my head up by my hair. He ripped my shirt open, squeezing my breast while laughing cruelly. “I may take you back whole, and use you for sport,” he chuckled.
I couldn’t see past the blood in my eyes. I didn’t see what hit him, or who landed a kill shot to his forehead. Only that he released me and hit the ground with a bullet through his head, and pink brain matter sprinkled on the forest floor. Blood from both of us covered my face, and I shoved him away from me, righting my torn shirt.
“You are such a disappointment, daughter,” my mother’s distorted voice filled the forest, and yet I couldn’t see her or pinpoint her position. “Get up, Remington.” I didn’t move. I couldn’t.
Sauer grabbed my hair, yanking me to my feet. I sobbed in pain as my bones cracked and a rib pushed through my chest as he snorted. He held me in front of him, and our mother stepped out of the shadows, covered in dark robes.
She shook her head before she slapped me. “You are nothing if you cannot do what I created you to do! If you cannot become what is needed, I will remove your heart from your chest and try again. Do you understand me, Remington?” she asked. I continued to cry and scream. “Stop acting like a child!”
“She is a child, mother,” Winchester whispered, her eyes pleading for me not to say something stupid.
“She’s a waste of resources if we cannot train her to kill, Winchester. Her age doesn’t matter. None of you held back when required to handle an enemy. Remington has failed me and will be punished. Place her in the armory. She will spend six months there, and when she gets out, we will hunt another young Van Helsing for her to murder. The younger, the better, so that she knows no emotional influence can prevent her from our course. Do not heal her, do you understand me?”
“She’s your daughter, mother. Not some criminal in need of a lesson,” Winchester hissed, and Sauer slapped her, causing her head to slam against the tree. She whipped it back, baring her teeth at him.
“Do not speak to our mother that way, Winchester.”
“Meet me in the meadow, Sauer. Any time, any day, asshole,” Winnie snapped, her eyes flashing silver as she glared at him in challenge. He stepped back, the only sign of fear he’d ever shown before our mom. “Come on, Remington.”
Winchester helped me toward the shed that led down into the armory. Once inside, she turned, peering down at my exposed ribs. I looked over her shoulder as Rhys watched us, his jaw hammering wildly, anger pouring from him at the dark memory. It was one of the few times my mother had harmed me, but I’d let a Van Helsing go, one who had intended to rape me, according to my mom. She was trying to protect me. She’d been trying to teach me how vile and evil his kind would be to me if I failed to kill them before they discovered what blood ran through my veins.
“The door will be unlocked tonight. I suggest you run, and don’t stop running until you’re free, Remington,” Winchester whispered, pushing money into my pocket with the E.V.I.E. flyer. “You’re not made for war, no matter what our mother thinks you are. You’re kind, gentle, and I’m pretty damn certain you couldn’t murder a bee, even if it stung you. E.V.I.E. is in Seattle, and you will be untouchable there. Everyone is going to sleep soon, and you’re going to run.” Her hand pushed the rib back into my chest, and I shivered. She slammed her hand against my mouth to hide my screams of pain. “Shh, my sweet sister. You’re okay. Do you understand what I am saying?” she asked, and I nodded. “Good. Call me when you get to Seattle. Once you are settled and accepted into E.V.I.E., you’re going to need to call mother to let her know you’re safe, but you won’t do it right away. Now, look at me,” Winnie whispered. My eyes lifted, and her hand touched my cheek. “You won’t remember what happened tonight. You will block all the bad memories from this place, only remembering the need to run because our mother smothered you. Remington, you’re an amazing girl who has an amazing future creating weapons, but you won’t hunt beings. You know your limits, and that it would hinder others. I want you to make weapons within the protection the compound will provide you. Don’t come back home. You will not leave the base until such a time in which you’re strong enough to fight back, okay?”
“What about us?” I asked, tears slipping from my eyes.
“I’ll find you when the time is right. I’m leaving Washington tonight to return to Paris. I can’t be here when she finds out you’re gone. I love you, Remi. Live, and don’t let her turn you into the monster she wants you to become.”
The scene changed, and I turned, gazing at the child version of me on the porch who wept as a man packed his belongings into a dark-colored truck.
“Why am I experiencing some of these memories as a passenger in my own mind, and others I can watch from a distance, like a movie?” I asked, knowing Rhys was beside me.
“Some memories scar too deep, and only return as nightmares you are forced to watch play out. Others are so deeply embedded into what you have become that you will always relive them as a passenger, through your younger self’s eyes.”
“I’m seeing memories previously lost to me. The fire must have cleansed more than my body when I reset. I’ve never allowed myself to lie amongst the flames for that long.”
Rhys was quiet for a moment, before he shook his head. “You saved a Van Helsing who returned your kindness with betrayal, and yet you still stepped between Cole and me.”
“In my defense, I thought Cole was the Van Helsing and totally planned to fuck him up,” I muttered, turning as my mother entered the scene playing out before us.
Winchester rushed toward my three-year-old self, lifting me into her arms. She whisked me away from my mother to the shadows of the porch. My sister’s eyes held hatred, but who she directed it at, I couldn’t tell. The hate burning within my mother’s eyes aimed at the man loading up his car, oblivious to the child on the porch who was begging him to stay. I inhaled sharply when he turned, and I realized the man was my father.
“Why is your mother’s image blurred, and her voice distorted in your dreams?” Rhys asked, taking in the silver hair and blurring face blocked from his sight.
“It’s a defense spell, so that if someone captured us, mind readers or other beings couldn’t learn that she had survived. She did it to protect herself and us from being discovered by your family and the other alphas.”