Rise of the Mare (Fall of Man Book 2) by Jacqueline Druga

the
flesh back and forth to get it into its mouth, and then as it flew
from the roof, it dropped her body.
    “No!” I pointed out, swung once, and
the Savage squealed painfully, withered into a ball, and landed on
the ground. “Behind you!” I shouted to Wynn.
    Assured he was handling the Savage
that was upon him, I turned to fight another. When that one was
dead. I spun back around, only I was too late.
    Mrs. Watson had risen and lunged at
Wynn. She tore at the flesh between his neck and shoulder.
    Even though he was an Ancient, I
didn’t want to take a chance of killing him. So with the end of the
broom pointing out, I ran fast to Mrs. Watson, driving the end
directly into her head. I felt every inch of it crushing so deep
through the bone of her skull, pulling it out wasn’t easy.
    Wynn was hunched over, breathing
heavily, and black blood was pouring from his wounds.
    “Are you all right?”
    Hands to his knees, head down, Wynn
nodded.
    “Good. I …”
    With a high pitched growl, he lifted
his head. I had never seen or even believed that a Day Stalker
could transform an Ancient.
    Wynn’s eyes turned gray, his face
distorted, and his teeth grew like those of the Savages.
    His mouth was wide and as he lunged,
he ran into the broom. Stuck there, his arms flailed about, mouth
snapping at me. I bellowed out with my strength to rip the handle
of the broom up and through his body.
    For as much strength as I had, for
all my abilities, I was till human. I was tiring, losing my breath.
No amount of adrenaline was enough to fuel me.
    It had to end, however, there was no
way to do so without taking a chance and blasting them all. I had
too much to lose by doing that.
    Just as I had that thought, I heard
my mother scream.
    It ripped through my being and I saw
my mother racing from our home with a Savage attacking her from
behind.
    She stumbled to the ground and before
I could even make it close, the Savage began to tear her apart,
using its mouth and claws.
    I screamed all the way over to her,
watching as the flesh from her back and arms flew upward and out.
My mother looked at me, her hand extended out and then she stopped
moving.
    Her blood drizzled from the
creature’s mouth and he stared at me with a taunting glare as he
chewed on her remains.
    Empowering the stick as a heated
force, I arrived at the Savage and struck down. He didn’t divide or
cut, he exploded. It was more than my concentration of energy on
that stick. It was my energy and emotions projecting.
    I knew my mother would rise within
seconds. As heartbreaking as it was, I wanted to cry out, drop to
my knees and embrace her, mourn for my mother, apologize, tell her
despite it all I loved her very much.
    Though I felt the loss of my mother
deep in my chest, I did not, for a single second, want to see her
rise.
    So I took a stance above her, waiting
and watching for the first sign of return to life. The second I saw
her hand move, forgetting all around me, I drove the stick down
into my mother, ending any suffering.
    Holding that position, I broke
down.
    “Vala!”
    Scream.
    No.
    It was Sophie.
    “Vala!”
    I looked behind me to the house and
realized that wasn’t where her cry came from. As soon as I realized
it was above me, I looked up.
    A Savage had her high in the air,
clutched in its hold, and with my sister screaming and squirming,
the Savage flew off with her into the night.
    That was it.
    That was all it took.
    I stepped from my mother’s body into
the center of the village, extended my arms, and repeated an action
the last Mare before me had done.
    Villagers ran and screamed, chased
and attacked.
    Savages flew about our village in
victory.
    I wanted them all dead.
    I nodded them all dead in one fell
swoop.
    With gut wrenching emotions, I cried
out. It was so full of energy, windows broke, the Savages around me
simultaneously exploded. As I stood amidst the raining guts, blood,
and limbs falling down all around me, I dropped to my knees in