Read Of Blood and Honey (Fey and the Fallen) for Free Online Page B

as if the scream born in his throat was too gigantic, too tangled to get out.
    The scene faded into black and white, and then Liam was watching an old horror film through holes in a mask with a long black nose. The room was smaller somehow, and he wasn’t himself anymore. Someone or something was acting for him—a great black beast whose rage propelled him across the room to Sanders—the guard who had raped and tortured him. The guard who had to be taught that some things, some people, were best left alone. A cloud reeking of ammonia, terror and sour sweat blurred Sanders’s features, blunting its humanity. Two steps. Liam watched the beast shred Sanders’s shirt and then kneel—no squat—one furry knee in Sanders’s solar plexus.
    Trembling and weeping, Sanders finally found his voice. “No. Don’t. Please stop.”
    A savage pant—almost a laugh—puffed foul breath that blew hair from Sanders’s forehead. Sanders raised a fist, but the beast caught his arm with ease and slammed it on the concrete floor. Liam felt bones give way with a sickening snap and was pinned between satisfaction and revulsion. Sanders howled. A talon plunged into the flesh beneath the man’s nipple, the screams changing timbre as flesh blossomed gory gashes. Hurried blows thundered against the other side of the locked infirmary door, announcing the arrival of the other guards. Shouts.
    Sanders let out a high-pitched shriek. “Get it off me! Get it off me! It’s a monster! Get it off! Oh, God! I didn’t know! I’m sorry!” His eyes were no longer focused but round with madness.
    The black beast straightened, standing on its —paws, haunches— the crawling electric pain returned, intensified and then vanished. Liam looked down in shock, reading against his will the crooked letters that had been etched into bleeding flesh. They spelled one word: F—A—I—R—Y.
    I didn’t do that, he thought, backing away from the terrorized guard. I didn’t. It was a—
    “Monster!”
    Wishing he could shut up Sanders, Liam wiped a hand slick with blood against the outside of his bare thigh. Gobs of skin compressed into hard lumps were jammed under his fingernails. Adrenaline jolted through his veins in violent tremors.
    The door slammed open, and the guards swarmed in. Naked, Liam slipped to the floor and cowered against the far wall. A group clustered around the now gibbering, pointing Sanders.
    “Kill it! Mah-mah-monster!”
    Three of the men turned to see where Sanders pointed. Upon spotting Liam covered in gore, they descended upon him.
    And the kicking began.

Chapter 5
    Londonderry/Derry, County Londonderry, Northern Ireland
    4 January 1972
    “Kathleen.” Bran’s whisper rode upon a breeze that sent trash dancing in circles on the crowded street. Broken bottles tinkled, and people held up their hands to keep the grit from their eyes. Then both Bran’s voice and the wind were gone.
    Scanning the area, Kathleen hefted her shopping bags. The folk of Derry went about their business—not having heard the voice or noticed anything strange. Stopped as she was in the middle of the walk, she thought surely someone must’ve noticed something. The flow of humanity merely made its way around the obstruction. One man bumped her and then apologized. Not far away, a group of young people clustered around the front of a business. They held signs that read “End Internment,” “British Troops Out” and “Special Powers Out.” An Army checkpoint at the end of the block bunched traffic on either side of the barricade as soldiers patted down young men and checked papers. She didn’t see Bran anywhere, but as crowded as the street was it didn’t surprise her. On the other hand, the voice could’ve been the result of wishful thinking. It’d happened before. She shrugged to herself and continued on.
    “Kathleen, please.” His voice was more urgent.
    She stopped again and looked around more carefully this time. It was then she spied the