Challenged by Darkness (An Urban Fantasy Novel) (Befallen Tides series Book 2) Read Online Free Page B

She couldn’t even feel the presence of someone on the other side ignoring her. London was gone as well.
    A savage crashed toward her, mounting the stairs in an instant. He was little more than meat hanging onto bone. His eyes were white with blindness.
    “Stop!” she demanded, utilizing her compulsion over the beast.
    It kept right on coming.
    Winx threw herself at him. She grabbed him by his ratty clothing and slammed him into the wall. His nails dug into her upper shoulders, and his mouth snapped, but Winx already had a good grip on his head. She shoved it repeatedly against the structure until she heard a gross cracking sound. The already decomposing body didn’t have much left protecting its brain, and soon, blood seeped down the wallpaper as he went immobile.
    Winx let the body fall to the carpet and listened. That had stopped nothing. The rest of the horde was still coming, not too far behind the first, and anyone who could help her was gone. Keaton. Genevieve. Now London. She didn’t even hold out hope that Roy would still be around here.
    How could they all have left her?
    Winx ran up the spiraling staircases, and while the savages’ shuffling gait increased in speed,  she was still faster. The higher she climbed, the more she realized with terror that absolutely nobody else was in the B&B. She was all alone. No humans, no cryptids, just her and the fifty savages.
    Had this been planned all along? Had she been purposely abandoned to be savage bait?
    There weren’t many rooms, but she kept going until she came to a dead end.  Winx tried each door on either side of the hall. All were locked. Her face twisted in rage and tears.
    “No,” she growled in her throat.
    It was over.
    The sound of her feet pounding on the stairs had attracted the beasts. They were making awful panting sounds in their haste to get to her flesh. Winx kept sending mental commands to the savages to turn back, but it was for nothing—they were already being controlled. And whoever was controlling them was strong.
    Sobs began to sputter out of her, refusing to be held back. She was going to die here. The lixyns were gone. Keaton was gone. She was completely alone.
    Winx tilted her head to the ceiling and raged.
    Her yell ended before it truly began. A pulley hung from the ceiling, and Winx’s eyes widened when she spotted it. An attic?
    She jumped.  Her hand was batted the rope, so she jumped again. When the first couple savages cleared the stairway, Winx jumped higher. Finally getting a grip on the handle, she clung to it with all of her weight and closed her eyes. If it was locked, she was dead.
    It took some force, but the latch gave way, and a ladder dropped. Winx gasped with shock as she fell to the ground with the opening.
    She was on her feet again in the span of a second, but the savages barreled toward her. Winx kicked out and caught one in the chest. He went soaring back into his partner. They were back up immediately, arms outstretched in preparation of grabbing her.
    Wasting no more time, she raced up the ladder as more of the killers piled atop themselves.
    A savage grabbed her ankle and tugged, and Winx slid down about three steps. She cried out as scratches and bites pierced her lower body. With a twist, she freed herself. Ascending was difficult, but Winx was strong and in no mood to be killed now that she had an escape route.  She pulled herself over the threshold and crawled back along the floorboards once she cleared it.
    Looking down from her haven, she saw that the savages were an unorganized mess. It was hard for savages to climb anything vertical, but if they could climb stairs, it wouldn’t take them long to figure out a ladder, especially if they were being manipulated by something intelligent. But for now, she had breathing room.
    Winx scooted back until she met a wall and leaned against it. New wounds coated her skin with fresh, warm blood. The bottoms of her feet felt like she’d walked across a yard of