ANMELDENLucia’s POVI had Peter bring me a chair as I sat down to listen to their stories.“So Reese made you come here to make sure our women gave birth to strong babies?” I asked Olive and she nodded.Wouldn’t Reese be more interested in making sure that humans did not populate?“So what exactly were you supposed to do?” I asked.“I was to keep watch on their health to make sure they were born on time and–”“So you were to be a regular midwife?” I asked, hesitant to believe her bullshit. “Why did Reese then make you a humanoid?”Ryan’s hand flew into her hair. Before his other hand could touch her, she started to beg.“Wait. Wait. I would also profile and if need be, switch the stronger babies for the weaker ones!”“If you have been doing this for years, someone should have figured it out,” Peter protested. “So many of our babies could not have ended up dead or taken without us realizing.”Olive fell silent, her lips trembling. She had already flinched before Ryan’s hand came down on her bo
Lucia’s POVMy commanders looked at me, waiting for my response.I stared at them for a few seconds before responding. “Keep the city on lockdown. We do not know what the wolves know so allowing our people to move now will be dangerous.”The profiles of the different humanoids were terrifying. Several board members across education, healthcare, defense and finance management.What even baffled me more was the fact that all of these people have been in South City for no less than seven years.One of them had a child my age that grew up inside these walls.Just how long had Reese been planning this infiltration and why had he not moved all this time?“Perhaps the humanoids were still being experimented on,” I muttered. “Idris, check the enter and exit records of the city as far back as ten years ago. These people should have been leaving the city now and then for some kind of maintenance.”Our new head of border defense nodded, his face blank. He was mute, having lost his tongue in a ba
Lucia’s POVForty deceased in one hour.Three soldiers and thirty-seven civilians. And thirty-six out of the thirty-seven had been killed by one humanoid before Ryan found him.There were hundreds of people in that bunker. We had not had a mass funeral of that size in years.My head fell back against the seat. “Our people must get stronger,” I said.“Our soldiers did the best they could at the moment–”“Not the soldiers,” I interrupted Peter. “Civillians. They live in this world too. They cannot be as sitting ducks waiting to die.”Peter fell silent. I knew what he meant.The last time we had tried to implement a city wide defense protocol, the consequences had been disastrous.We had news of dead bodies turning up everywhere even more, shot to death by the guns we gave our own people.Mother flew into a rage and had the murderers killed in a werewolf style public execution. The incident was never spoken of again.“What do you suggest we do?” I asked, my mind racking and still coming
Ryan's POVLucia was waiting for me in front of the house as I dragged our first humanoid back.“Teacher at the high school,” I said, tossing him on the ground in front of her. “Reeks of blood.”She squatted, her hands hovering over the syringes embedded in his back. “How long have you worked in the school?” she asked.He seemed stubborn to answer but before I could move, Lucia stabbed a knife into his back and dragged it down his body.The scream he let out was near deafening.“Answer my question,” she said, her voice blank.“Eight years,” he replied.Lucia stared at him for a second longer before she twisted the knife in his wound. “Why do you smell like blood? How many of my kids have you killed?”“I did not–”Lucia had reached into her jacket and pulled out a syringe. Her hands clenched around the glass so hard that it shattered, spilling the red contents right into his bloodstream.His entire body convulsed before he went still.Lucia crassly dug into his body with her bare hand.
Lucia’s POVBefore the person could run, Ryan appeared in the doorway.“Harriet?” I said as Ryan dragged her by her shirt into the room. When he let go of her, she stumbled to the ground, trying to regain her composure.“I was just passing by,” she argued stubbornly.“If you were so curious, you should have come in,” I said and tossed her a gun. “You want to be the commander of the junior troops?”She looked down at the gun and then at Peter. “No offense but I am not used to being an apprentice.”Peter crossed his arms, glaring down at her. When she was his student, Peter would punish that attitude out of her.“If you can make that shot,” I said, pointing to the hole in the bullseye that Daniel left.She nodded, confident and was about to move towards the target when I stopped her. “From here,” I said, pointing at where she stood.Harriet’s jaw slacked. “That’s over sixty meters away.”Ryan took the gun from her and sent a bullet through the hole Daniel had just left. “Seems very feas
Lucia's POV“He…laughed?”Yes, master, Abbatoir replied me.I literally threw his spy network in Reese’s face and told him that it was crappy and he laughs?“Was there something funny in that letter?” I mused, trying to figure out what was going on. “Did he kill Edward at least?”No, he had Edward treated comfortably as was your request in the letter.Daniel leaned forward, looking between me and the shimmering blob beside my table. “What did they say?”“Apparently, Edward was received in Northernfang like a war hero and given his own suite,” I said, disgruntled.It was plain sarcasm that I had used in that letter and Reese was versed enough in politics to realize that. He was doing this simply to spite me.My jaw tightened. “Guess that his ships sinking was not enough to teach him a lesson.”I got out of my seat, heading to the garden. Jodie sat on the ground, reading, with her wyverns around her. There were vines slowly growing food that were herded into bags by the servants.“Jodie
Lucia’s POVI snapped open the door and pulled him up to his feet with his ears.“Daniel Everton,” I gritted through my teeth. “I was this close to grabbing my gun.”“Ow. Ow,” he cried, fighting my hands off his ears. “Jodie has news. She ate them! The magic ores!”There was a loud crash in the sid
Lucia’s POVThat should have been a clear no.Instead, he thought about it for too long before answering with a “Why?”I watched him as he ran his laps around the field. Never in my life had I been so curious about a person’s background.A slow knock sounded on the door of my office. “Come in.”Jon
Lucia’s POVI tossed this on the table. “Did you know about this, Jodie?”She lifted her head long enough from Daniel’s shoulder to shake it and then returned to sobbing.But there was no way for us to disprove the betrothal that the witches claimed that Jodie had to one of their men.“What do we d
Lucia’s POVAs soon as I entered the seminary, the doors clicked behind me.Four of Amos’ brothers swarmed me on either side and were about to forcefully grab me when I raised a hand to them. “I will follow you on my own.”They looked at each other, exchanging silent glances and moved to grab me ag







