CHAPTER TWO

                                    

                                              
The anger, the sheer resentment emanating from Raven Reyes' body was palpable. The guardsman felt it, the prisoners felt it – they felt it, the ones who took her.
                          
She was a caged animal, fighting for her freedom, fighting for her friends. She bit. She snarled. She screamed until her throat burned, until the tangy taste of blood coated the inside of her mouth. The night A.L.I.E. had turned Raven's mind, Raven's anger had not been her own. This was different. This was rage fueled by freewill. This was rage fueled by instinct, a need to fight.
                          
"Son of a bitch, let me go!" Raven yelled, spit flying from her mouth as she yanked on the muscular arm that held her. "Let go of me or so help me God I'll vaporize your –"
                          
To her surprise, with another wrench of her arm, Raven freed herself, pulling and tearing several muscles in the process. Free of one captor. Good. She dropkicked the other. The burly man fell to the floor, tumbling backwards and smacking his head against cold metal. Moving quickly, she pulled a knife from the downed man's belt, a long and sharp looking thing. She looked up just in time to see the other man lunging for her. 
                          
Yes, the knife would do nicely. 
                          
The man, wild-eyed and clumsy, made a grab at her, but Raven managed to use his momentum against him. Laying back, her body propped against her fallen captor, Raven skewered the oncoming man with her blade. By the time he realized what was happening, it was too late. With a grunt and a skin-piercing hiss, he sunk down on top of her, blood splattering across Raven's hands, her body, her clothes.
                          
With hushed breaths, she waited. Functioning on pure adrenaline, she waited for someone to come and peel the dead man off of her. There was no room for thought, no room for doubt. Raven wasn't fighting for herself. If she died, screw the cock-sucking bastards, she would die fighting. 
                          
Raven refused to die a coward.
                          
Within moments, someone approached. Raven tensed, readying her muscles. Her gimp leg wouldn't fail her now. She was prepared, knife in hand.
                          
A woman grumbled, rolling the guardsman off Raven. Without a breath of thought, Raven lifted her arm and pierced the woman's throat. In. Jab. Out. She gasped, stumbled backwards gripping her neck, attempting – to no avail – to stop the bleeding. It gave Raven enough time to get to her feet, to snarl at oncoming attackers.
                          
"Come on!" She screamed, her words raw. Blood, not her own, dripped from her arm, her head, her clothes, her body. Raven turned her head, spitting globs of it onto the skewered man. She smiled like Lucifer would have smiled, staring down any who dared meet her eye.
                          
Men and women alike began to surround her. But they weren't her concern. They were.
                          
Raven, bracing both legs, scanned the crowd – searching. And when she found them, the world stopped. It slowed. Her hatred boiled over. Her vision narrowed. Her legs moved on their own accord.
                          
Right now, nothing else mattered. Only death. Revenge. Justice. There was justice in revenge. 
                          
She was going to kill Orion. For him, she would make it quick, but Kalypso – she was going to slay Kalypso.
                          
One step in front of the other, Raven readied the knife in her hand. She flipped it, warm fluids spinning off the blade, falling to the ground in a steady rain. She locked eyes with them, the man in the uniform, the bitch in white.
                          
She wondered. Would the sheep bleat or roar once sheered? What kind of monster lay beneath the guise? Raven would take pleasure in finding out. She would make it slow, make her suffer. Kill her as she had killed Emori. 
                          
Oh, Raven would make her suffer, make her beg. Bloodlust had taken hold of Raven's heart. Nothing else resonated. Blood must have blood.
                          
Jus drein jus daun.