Chapter 36 Creature of the Night
~ MELEK ~
I was almost too late. I whipped between trees, desperate to sweep her up and climb her into the sky and away, but my cursed senses were still scattered by the blow from…
whatever it was that Lucifer had used to pluck me out of flight.
By the time I located Yilan, she was sprinting straight for the cave—where she’d lead the hounds directly to the army.
“Yilan!” I roared, barely reaching her as she scrambled for the rocks and ferns that guarded the cave mouth.
She whirled, eyes wide with fear, and her shock and relief crackled in the bond.
I dove straight for her, but flew over the back of the hound to reach her a mere second before it did.
‘Shroud!’ I screamed at her through the bond, just in case it could help, but she sobbed and threw herself at me, shaking her head as I turned to face that fucking creature.
‘I can’t. I’ve tried. I’m used up, Melek—or they’re blocking me somehow. Something… I can’t get a grasp on the dark!’
I stood with my back to her, facing the approaching hound, my skin crawling as it prowled towards us.
The hound locked eyes with me and hesitated, its eerie countenance gleaming in the dim moonlight.
Hunched like an over-large hyena with broad, steeply-sloped shoulder blades, that protruded so sharply it seemed they should break through the skin, and a thick neck that thrust its angular head towards the earth. The hound’s muzzle was narrow and curved down, like an eagle’s beak.
And yet, it moved with preternatural grace, its massive paws silent as it stepped, each digit tipped in an inches-long talon that gripped the dirt, but was equally capable of tearing the muscle from a bear.
Its pelt swallowed light—slick and oily black, each hair long enough to hang from its body, shot-through with veins of silver.
Yet, its eyes glowed, as if all the light absorbed by its body was fed to those strangely wide, golden irises, while the deeply black, circular pupils expanded when it focused on me.
A growl so deep it seemed to rise out of the earth puttered in its throat as it approached—tipping its head and opening its mouth—a gaping maw of razor sharp teeth—to taste the air. Its nostrils flared like a dog’s scenting the wind.
The thing hesitated, and lifted its nose higher. I realized it was confused by my appearance—Nephilim were not prey to a hell hound. Yet, here I was. It tried to scent past me, but sank back on its haunches as if preparing to leap.
Hands raised and ready, I snapped my wings wide open, praying I could obscure its sight of Yilan until she had time to run into the cave mouth and be barricaded with the others.
I prayed we weren’t too late.
As I reached for Yilan in my mind, the hell hound paused, tilting its head, and its piercing gaze raked my body.
I sensed its confusion, it’s uncertainty about my soulless state, when it scented a soul nearby. I knew it wanted Yilan.
I half-crouched in front of the cave mouth, Yilan perched on the rocks behind me, her heart fluttering against my back.
“Melek—”
‘Go,’ I growled at her through the link, because this fucking creature’s ears perked when she spoke.
‘I’m not leaving you.’
‘Yes, you are. He’s stopped because I’m Neph, and he knows I don’t have a soul.
He’s still looking for you, though. So you’re getting in that cave right now, and running as fast as you can to where they’re barricading the tunnels.
I left less than an hour ago. They’ll still be working.
You warn them and get these tunnels blocked—’
I cut off with a grunt as the hound flowed toward my right wing, attempting to slip past me to Yilan.
Pinning her to my back with one hand, I darted aside to block it. I stumbled on the mossy rocks, but remained upright, and kept my center of gravity low as the creature hesitated again.
‘Yilan—’
I should have known it was too smart to give up so easily.
The moment my gaze slid a hair to the left, it struck—jaw wide to reveal shining, curved fangs, talons unsheathed and wickedly sharp.
I had a blink to make a decision, but knew the moment it got around me, Yilan was dead.
So, I blocked its leap with my body, swinging my arms wide to make myself as large as possible—and took a raking set of talons to the forearm.
I snarled in pain as my flesh was opened—but there was no time to nurse the wound, or even react to it. The moment its talons entered my flesh, the hound retreated.
For a breath, I thought it had recognized my soulless state and was shying away—to devour me would be to kill itself.
Instead, its eyes brightened and it backed away only a few paces… then dropped its chin almost to the ground, gaze pinned on me and mouth still open, saliva dripping from its fangs.
I saw its intention a moment before its pupils contracted, and I shouted at Yilan.
“Run! NOW!”
She gasped and scrambled back, as I threw myself towards it, filling that gaping maw with my forearm, and a roar of rage.
I expected the pain. I expected the blood—but when those teeth slid into my skin, the world shrieked. My head jerked back so hard I felt my spine shudder. My limbs jolted, and a scream ripped from my throat to pierce the night.
A burning, searing pain began where its teeth locked on my arm, but it traveled through my veins to the center of my chest where something deep within me yanked hard, then tore loose. I felt this thing suck at me and realized… it was devouring my soul.
I was struck dumb, body quivering, shivering with pain, unable to move even as I pleaded with God not to let me go this way—and a split-second later my mate clambered up my back, and struck.
With a grunt and a hiss, she threw herself over my shoulder, plunging a blade straight between the creature’s eyes, burying it to the hilt.
The howl that tore out of the hound’s throat made my head spin.
Moments later, I found myself half-sitting on one of the mossy rocks, my arm clutched to my belly, Yilan’s arm thrown over my shoulder, her hand clawed into my chest to keep herself in position, as we faced an agitated, dying hound, snapping its teeth and shaking its head, trying to rid itself of the blade.
‘Well, at least we know you have a soul, now,’ Yilan sent weakly.
I would have spluttered a laugh, almost felt relief as it backed away, tail lashing. But then, belly half to the ground like an angry cat, it crouched and those eyes locked on us again.
It wasn’t dead.
And now it was pissed.
I forced myself to my feet, throwing Yilan back off me, spreading my wings as wide as they’d stretch, ignoring the pain searing through my chest.
‘Go, Yilan! Please!’
‘I’m not leaving you here!’
‘Then we are both going to die—we can’t win this. The moment he closes those teeth on either of us—’
The hound darted forward again, but its movements were jerky, and it slid to a halt, shaking its head—then dropped its muzzle to the ground and I watched in horror as it clawed at its own skull, hooking talons under the hilt of the blade, then pinned it to the ground as it pulled itself off the steel.
It took one, wobbling step backwards, then blinked.
Then its eyes focused again. Directly on me.
It bared its teeth with a menacing growl, as saliva dripped from its lips.
I waited, praying this was a final gasp, then the thing would die—but even though it was clearly uneasy, it didn’t move away. And… it didn’t bleed.
What… the fuck?
“Yilan, get out of here!” I hissed, shoving her off my back to get her moving, and raising my bleeding arm—sure enough, its eyes followed the movement of that limb. It eats souls. That’s what fuels it—but the human blood… the taste of humanity, that’s how it finds us.
‘Melek—’
‘You have to go. I have the best chance of overpowering it.’ That was bullshit. The hounds had to be handled by multiple Neph to keep them contained, and even then they often wreaked havoc when they got loose, until they’d devoured a soul or two. ‘Now, go. Warn the others.’
‘I’m not leaving you!’
‘Yilan, you MUST!’
We both went still. I was caught in the gaze of death just feet away. The hound began to pace—but only two or three steps before it would return, barring any progress I could make unless I turned my back and ran into the cave.
I wouldn’t run though. As I kept my eyes locked on those deadly claws and fangs, my mate’s warmth appeared at my back. Her palm planted between my shoulder blades, her head resting on my spine.
‘I love you, Melek,’ she whispered in the bond, and the same part of me that had screamed when the hound struck, now ached with grief.
‘I love you, too—and I will see you as soon as I’ve dispatched this… thing.’
She nodded against my back, but I felt the choking despair rising in her. ‘I’ll warn them all. We’ll barricade everything but enough space for you to squeeze through—’
‘Absolutely not. You get in there with the rest of them and make sure every possible exit is closed. You don’t let a soul in after you.’
‘But—’
‘Yilan, I’m going to beat this thing, then I’m going to fly. I’m going to warn Jann and Diadre about the hounds and—’
Yilan gasped. ‘Jann—Diadre told me—‘
‘I know. There isn’t time, but trust me… it’s all part of the plan.’
‘You weren’t there when—’
‘I mean it, Yilan. He’s settling down for another pounce. I have to fight. Go. I’ll fly to safety. Just make sure you’re behind a thick enough wall that this thing can’t reach, and warn the others. Lucifer is coming—’
I heard the snap of wings before I saw the shadow from a body in flight, passing overhead.
The hound, still pacing, cowered suddenly, whining as it shrank.
‘Yilan, GO!’
She didn’t argue. One moment she was there, the next she was gone.
But an ocean of love and care washed through me as she disappeared.
I prayed the cave’s shadows would be deep enough that she could find the strength to shroud in it.
As the hound whimpered and backed away, I moved forward and aside, praying Lucifer didn’t know there was a cave behind me.
A moment later, Lucifer himself landed on the dirt, with a boom that made the forest shudder. He caught himself, then straightened, his head down. He gave a single, sharp command and the hound crept away, whimpering and cowering.
Lucifer raised his chin, his eyes—ablaze with fury—locked on mine. He took two steps to stand at my toes, meeting me almost eye-to-eye.
Then a shriek of pain in my head and everything went black.