One swipe. That was all that was needed.
Blood sprayed out from a cut around his neck. His eyes bulged, staring at me. His lips moved in silent words that I couldn't read.
The crazy vigilante let me go.
"Mr Wolf?" I hurried to him to try and help but he weakly pushed me away.
His choking noises faded and his eyes slowly dulled as the fountain slowed to a trickle. He closed his eyes and the hand on my wrist fell limp. He was dead.
A shadow moved behind me and my heart began pounding like crazy. I dodged, rolling to the side. I fumbled for my phone to press the emergency alarm button but couldn't find my phone. It wasn't in my inner pocket anymore. Strange. Where'd it go?
I had totally forgotten about my phone and that I could have called for help earlier. Why hadn't I thought to use it before? Why only now after the target I was meant to protect was dead?
My phone was gone now. The murderer must have picked my pocket earlier. There had been plenty of opportunity for him to do so since I had been first attacked. I dug in my pocket for my sap, but didn't have enough time to grab it.
A shadow darted at me. I dodged again and caught the glimpse of black cloth and the slight whiff of chlorine. I tripped over a tree stump that was used as a table or chair or something. A heavy weight thwacked me on the backside, making me cry out. In my attempt to escape, I bumped my head on the corner of a mounted shelf, making me see stars and reel.
The black sleeved arm grazed the skin of my chin when I tilted my head back. In the next moment, I'd been slammed into a wall and then into the floor. My head was held down onto the floor while my body was patted over. My sap and remaining equipment were removed.
The smell of chlorine seemed to be the afternote of some other scent. It reminded me of water filters and algae. Caves and salty seawater.
"I took a liking to you the moment I saw you earlier by the cliff waiting for your team. What a good girl you are to have come so many hours before your team got here," teeth grazed my ear. His words sent me into a mini panic. He'd seen me earlier. He'd arrived after I had and passed somewhere nearby me. I hadn't even noticed. "You're a hidden beauty when you're staring out across the gulf, lost in your thoughts. All mine now. If Tirion felt you were the perfect daughter, you'd make a perfect wife. I'll screw you one day in front of his grave just to spite him," the man said, licking the tears from my cheeks. "It'll also prove to the Establishment exactly what I think of them and their sloppy way of doing things. How did they train you? What was your stupid team thinking, leaving you out here for me like this? A good fight and the good riddance of bad rubbish long overdue really turns me on. I do hope you'll fight me some more. It'll make the conquest all the more exciting."
When I was able to come out of my daze a bit, I fought to escape my assailant's grip. Strangely enough, I felt he was carefully meting out his strength in a measure that wouldn't hurt me too much. Despite his carefulness, he still handled me far more roughly than I cared for. In fact, I felt he was pretty ruthless.
My head was slammed against the floor again a few more times, while those light but hammy fingers explored beneath my clothes. I gasped when they slipped beneath my trousers and pressed a certain button down there. My hips were lifted and something bulging pressed against my buttocks. I could only make weak, flailing gestures. Lips nibbled my ear.
Why did I feel so slow and weak? It couldn't only be the concussion talking, could it? If this man had been watching me searching the house on my own earlier, could the sting I had felt in my arm earlier have been a needle? Could he have drugged me?
Resistance seemed futile against my far stronger assailant. I tried to turn my head to get a better view but I got to knock my head on the hard wooden floor again. Momentary dark spots filled my vision and my limbs fell limp.
I was turned over and a hand covered my eyes. Hot lips caught mine, stealing my first ever kiss. A tongue intruded into my mouth, exploring in excitement. I tasted cigarette smoke and menthol.
It was a surprise to me that kisses could be so pleasant, despite my disgust at being violated in this way. Belatedly, I bit down to express my anger and humiliation but was too slow. He had let me go.
Something was slipped over my head and tightened around my neck to the point of choking me. A sack or drawstring bag of some sort. My wrists were roughly tied to my ankles.
"Until tonight, Little Bluebird," a hoarse voice told me and a tongue licked my collarbones. I felt a needle prick in my arm. "Look forward to it."
A slight rustle of cloth and he was gone. Or I thought he was gone. He might not have left and decided to instead watch to see what I would do. I felt like that might be something he would do. Who knew what a crazy criminal like this was thinking. All I knew was that I needed to escape. Get out of here quickly in case he was playing with me, toying with me before he killed me.
My mouth had gone dry and my heart was still hammering a warning in my chest. My physical senses said he was gone. My mental senses tolled the warning that he was still in the vicinity. I needed to find my phone. Failing that, to get back to the office or to Headquarters to report. In this case, going straight to Headquarters would be best. Mr Holt would be there.
Although I wasn't entirely sure how much time had passed, I knew that getting to Headquarters was my best and safest bet.
I lay there, still stunned and unable to move for a long moment. Then, after what seemed like an age, I managed to free my wrists and then my ankles. With fumbling fingers, I loosened the simple knot he had made with the drawstring around my neck. Staggering upright, I winced at the throbbing headache and sting of grazes on my face.
Blinking and shaking my head, I looked around. My eyes landed for a long moment on the body of Tirion Wolf. He had been nice enough to me while I had been his captive. Unlike most of his other captives, he hadn't harmed me. Except for the occasional slap or warning smack, he had not beaten me to a pulp or tried to rape me as he had done to my predecessors. We had lived in mutual silence except for when he had threatened me or was giving instructions. I had been very obedient so as not to anger him.
Once, he had been nice enough to notice I liked the roasted pumpkin cooked for that meal. He had given me his share without a word and taken the beans I hadn't touched in its place. Nobody had ever cared for me in that way before. Nobody had ever noticed what I did or didn't like.
Seeing him dead made me feel both shocked and sad. Tears fell without my bidding. He was a bad man, but he had been nice to me when I had lived in a world where my value was measured by how much I could earn or how much work I could do for the people around me. My comforts, likes and dislikes had been irrelevant.
I stared out at the gap between the two cliffs and measured it again with my eyes while I tried to find my feet. Forty to sixty metres, give or take. Jumping would be the fastest way across but would I make it? If I didn't, I would die.
It was important to get out of here and escape. I was sure my assailant was still around, playing cat and mouse with me. I wasn't good at running. I wasn't fast. I was only just good enough to scrape past the minimum the assessments required of a city agent. If I ran, I'd be caught. If I tried to creep and hide… well, it was obvious he was even better at stealthy movement than Big Brother or Mr Holt.
He was too strong for me to fight on my own. Once his attention came back to me, I was sure he'd have me and I would be done for. I didn't want to be hurt in that way. Neither did I want to die. Just because I had lived and survived Tirion Wolf, he might still feel I had been contaminated by the criminal and decide to kill me. Even if he had promised the man before he had died he wouldn't kill me.
Desperate times called for desperate measures. I took a deep breath. Fixing my clothes, I backed up into the house for a runway and then made a mad dash for the edge of the cliff.
"No," I heard the hoarse voice call out in alarm.
The shadow raced to meet me but only caught a few hairs that were pulled out of my scalp. My hair tie had gotten lost in the struggle earlier. My feet kicked off the edge of the veranda in the biggest and longest leap of my life. I hoped nobody on the other side would notice me and whatever it was that kept me from being too noticeable would continue keeping me unnoticed.
Otherwise the City Agents were going to have to do a lot of public relations work regarding seeing a lone, bloodied woman flying across the gulf. I'd probably be fined as punishment for shocking the ordinary people in the shopping centre.
It made me wonder. Why had Tirion Wolf built a residence in full view of The Edge where our headquarters was located? People could see and watch him through a telescope or a pair of binoculars. It didn't make sense and I didn't have time to consider it further.