Helion Read Online Free Page B

grateful for
your help but if you would just let us go now—”
    “There is safety to be had, human. I will escort you to a
refugee camp for your kind. They are protected from Scourge attacks. You will
be safe there.”
    Helion stopped then, amazed when a surge of terror came over
the woman’s face. She backed farther away from him, shaking her head, her eyes
wide and pleading. He turned to look at his men and saw the same confusion on
their faces.
    “Please, not a camp, don’t force us to a camp, we’d be
better off dead. Just let us go, we have a better chance of survival on our
own, please!”
    The woman was close to having a breakdown. Helion could
smell her terror and anxiety, could hear her heart beating madly. He also heard
the little one squeak in distress, her mother suddenly holding her too tightly.
    With two thousand years of experience under his belt, Helion
was a good judge of character and of a person’s honesty. This girl was
terrified of going to a refugee camp with her own people. But why would that
be? He made a mental note to investigate the refugee camps. Another branch of
Keepers was in charge of keeping their perimeters safe and supplies coming in
but the camps were organized and governed by humans themselves. He’d not given
them much thought other than making sure not to engage the enemy near them, but
if this woman was terrified to go there…
    Now this situation had become even more difficult. He couldn’t
disregard the woman’s terror and potentially send her into another dangerous
situation. But neither was he willing to let her roam unprotected around the
city where other Scourge battalions were scouring for human victims. That left
only one option, though he was loath to take it. He had no time to babysit a
female and her infant but he was pragmatic. The Keepers would soon have this
city secured and with order restored, it would be safe for the girl and her
child to go their own way. Until then… He sighed.
    “Fine, female, if you won’t go to a camp with your own kind,
you will come with us to ours. There you will stay until we secure the city or
find someplace safe for you both. Come.”
    He beckoned again with his free hand, impatient to leave. He
sensed the fighting outside was wrapping up and he was eager to move on to
killing more Scourge. But to his annoyance, the female once again shook her
head.
    “We’ll be safer on our own, we don’t need your protection.
Please just leave us alone!”
    Helion clenched his hand into a fist, the only outward sign
of his temper, but one the woman seemed to observe with fear. It was a struggle
not to be offended once again. She was a small, fragile woman and had nothing
to fear from him. But the taste of her terror was coating his tongue, curling
his lips with distaste.
    “You don’t have a choice in this, female. You will come with
us now. I do not have the time or the inclination to argue with you,” Helion
drawled, frosty with displeasure. He stalked toward the girl, ignoring her
attempt at retreat and the wild glances she threw around the room as though
looking for an escape. There was no escape and best she learn that quickly.
    “Do not fight me. Think of your offspring and behave
yourself,” he said as he cornered her in the far side of the small room. Small
whimpers were erupting from her throat and her gaze darted from his eyes to his
naked blade. He sheathed it, hoping to lessen her terror before grabbing her by
the arm and pulling her with him as he exited the room. Unsurprisingly she dug
in her heels and tried to pull away but he ignored both efforts and gently
dragged her out of the building.
    His men formed a protective circle around the woman as soon
as they exited the building but there was no real need. Helion saw nothing but
huge piles of dead Scourge. So he’d missed the rest of the fighting. That was
no surprise—his men were extremely efficient killers. They’d even begun the
process of stacking and burning and