Ka'Cit's Haven (Riv’s Sanctuary #3)

As the Niftrill turned to run the other way, Ka’Cit’s hand was already drawing a throwing knife from one of his pockets.

The knife went through the air, slicing through the silence to lodge itself into the Niftrill’s leg, but it wasn’t sharp enough to penetrate Niftrill skin; it merely took the Niftrill down.

“Intru—!” The Niftrill began to scream, but Ka’Cit was upon him in a second, dragging the Niftrill to his feet and clamping a hand over the Niftrill’s mouth.

He pulled him backward, kicking open a supply closet and pulling the Niftrill along with him into the darkness of the small room.

“Where’s the human?”

The Niftrill didn’t answer, he only began struggling to release himself.

“Look, friend, we can either do this the hard way, or we can do this the easy way. I, for one, prefer the hard way, but I’m not sure you would like that.”

The Niftrill struggled again.

“Hard way it is.”

The Niftrill stiffened then and stopped moving.

“Thought so. Now, where is the human?” Ka’Cit released the Niftrill’s mouth just enough to hear him speak.

“In the upper sector.”

Hmm, that’s where he’d thought Herza would put her.

“Listen, Niftrill. You are not my enemy. I am only here for the human. I’m going to let you go in the next few seconds…but if you raise an alarm…”

He left the rest unsaid, and the Niftrill jerked his head in compliance.

But no sooner had he let the Niftrill go than the henchman grabbed an object within the supply closet and jabbed it towards him.

Ka’Cit caught the object with one hand, his gaze barely darting to it.

“Really?” he asked, and the Niftrill’s red eyes widened a little. “I try to be nice and—”

A sigh made his shoulders sag as Ka’Cit drove his fist forward, connecting with the Niftrill’s hard outer skin.

He didn’t know why he’d bothered to be nice.

The suddenness of the blow was enough to make the Niftrill sag and, in the next second, his body fell to the floor.

“Phek,” Ka’Cit cursed and flashed his hand in the air.

Rule number one, never fight a Niftrill with your bare fists. It was like hitting rock.

His gaze fell to the Niftrill. The henchman would be out for a few minutes at least. Enough time for him to find the human.

But, for good measure, Ka’Cit secured the Niftrill’s hands to a pipe within the closet.

Taking the smoke canister from his pocket, he peeked through the door.

There was a little thrill he could feel at the base of his spine—a little excitement.

He wasn’t quite sure where it was coming from but it was there, and as the smoke canister slipped from his fingers and rolled down the corridor, the gray cloud beginning to fill the air, Ka’Cit allowed the feeling to simmer.

Time to go get that human.

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