Read Online Mauled by Destiny [Tales of the Citadel 17] by Viola Grace - Free Book Online

elsewhere, she gripped the man by the neck, and he dropped to the ground. She whirled away before anyone noticed, and when shots were fired to the spot she had just occupied, she kept moving.
    And then there were two.
    “Come out, come out, or I will kill this one. You don’t want an innocent death on your hands!” Damn. I will step forward. They might shoot, they might not. Priina shifted to her skin and armour and spoke. “I am coming out.”
    The two survivors pointed their weapons at her as she stepped out. Body armour and lank hair were their primary features.
    One of them was holding a young priestess by her hair. Her eyes were serene, but her hands were clenched together.
    “Let her go.” She extended her arms to indicate that she wasn’t armed.
    “Where are your weapons?” The man who was free jerked his gun at her.
    “With my partner. He is around here somewhere.” She shrugged and lowered her hands.
    The priests of Universal Harmony were looking up at her with desperate hope.
    “We want the freedom for our members, or we will continue killing these priests.” The one holding the young woman jerked her hair, and her serenity faltered as pain flared in.
    “That is not going to happen. You can’t have them free. They are being held by the rules of your own world. If you want to kill innocents to free your companions, you have a seriously skewed perception of your place in the universe.”
    “Stop where you are.” His hand shook as it pointed at her. “Where are the rest of my men?”
    “Dead or really badly hurt.” She shrugged and kept advancing. “Some folk in the universe are predators, some are prey, but if the prey is lucky, some are defenders.”
    She smiled brightly and kept pacing toward him. “Guess which one I am?”

Chapter Eleven
    P riina felt the impact of the weapons on her suit and used the momentum to kick up and away from the blast path. In midair, she shifted to her beast form and landed behind the man with the hostage.
    Her claws shredded his hand, and her arm around his torso cracked his ribs. She ripped the gun from his hand and broke his fingers to keep him from finding another weapon.
    The other man was dead on the ground at Rhanos’s feet. Two alive and seven dead. Do you think we could have done better?
    Rhanos shook his head. We were authorized to kill them all.
    Fair enough. Are we assassins then?
    No, you said it yourself, we are the defenders who are strong enough to take out those who prey on the weak.
    “Excuse me, miss?” The man in the high priests robes came toward her.

    She shifted and helped the young priestess to her feet, not looking at the man. “Yes, High Priest?”
    “Abbot Wayling.”
    “Abbot then. What may I do for you?” She smiled softly at the young woman, and the priestess gave her a watery smile before she burst into tears.
    “We would like you to leave our abbey as soon as possible. We do not condone violence within our walls.”
    Priina looked at him and cocked her head. “I beg to differ. You did indeed condone violence when the men began to pick you off one by one. I can smell the blood of two priests here in the hall.
    You condoned that violence, did you not? You did outnumber them by over fifteen to one.” The abbot blinked in surprise. “We were outgunned. We do not believe in violence. There was nothing we could do.”
    “Universal Harmony means that you have to accept the low points with the high, pacifism and violence, death and sacrifice, death and life, attack and defend, these are all opposites reflected in nature. A group of herd beasts with no herder to keep track of them soon dies out from predation.
    Accept that we are the herder to keep the predators at bay.”
    “You are the predators.” The abbot blustered.
    “I beg to differ. My mate and I are both in the presence of a large group of herbivores, and yet, you will not find any of your priests or priestesses consumed, which is a hard thing for a predator to do, by