Chapter 6
Brir
Blue eyes so bright they almost glowed, blinked at me again. I was looking at an angelic face. All its soft angles were turned towards me while his head lay against the metal mesh of the cage. Black hair, just long enough to curl around his head, was fanned around his face. Straps connected to a large rubber ball kept his jaw wide open. He didn’t make a sound. Didn’t scream. Didn’t move. He just breathed ragged breaths that sawed in and out of him.
As I blinked back, a feeling of serenity enveloped me. It was as if the world had paused just for this moment, for us. The creature in the cage was breathtakingly beautiful. His skin seemed to glow underneath the dirt.
The sight of him, chained and muzzled like an animal, stirred something profound within me. A burning anger rose from my belly to my chest, and I was overcome with an overwhelming need to free him, but there was almost an equally immense need to murder every single human here. I might have done it if I had been more skilled, but I wasn’t a fighter like Merrick.
His eyes never left mine as I reached out and touched the cold metal bars of the cage separating us. His gaze was earnest and pleading.
I finally got my answer about what creature would need so many soldiers to guard it. Chained under the tarp was a naked man. He was a human man, or maybe a previously human man was a better term because he wasn’t human anymore.
His arms and legs were covered in black, raw, rotten-looking scales. Straps kept his legs and tail pinned to the cage’s wire mesh. Spines protruded from his back, and a long, spiky black tail curled around his body. He was lying in a fetal position on his side. The smell of rot and feces coming off of him was intense. I wrinkled my nose in disgust at his treatment.
I stepped back, looking around quickly to ensure the soldiers remained preoccupied. The barn noises still filled the night air. I was thankful that my hearing was so good and that humans were woefully lacking in their senses.
I approached the cage again, focusing on the beautiful creature inside. He blinked at me with those crystal-clear blue eyes, pleading but silent. A lump formed in my throat as I gently slid my fingers into one of the gaps in the cage.
“Shhh…” I whispered, careful not to startle him further.
How cruel could they get, not even allowing him to relieve himself with dignity? The stench was so putrid I had no idea how people even rode in the vehicle with him. My eyes scanned down his body and back to his face again. I felt a pull toward him like my mind was physically drawing my body to touch him. A need to help and to protect overwhelmed me. A shuddered breath left my lungs. A thudding sound drew my gaze away from him. I eyed the barn door, heart beating in my chest. I didn’t know if I could open this cage without alerting the soldiers, but I would try.
I turned back to the man—or monster—before me. The scent of his blood, so enticingly alien yet disturbingly familiar, swelled in my nostrils. I could just smell it under the smell of infection and whatever drugs coursing through his body. I examined him again, my gaze lingering on the spines that adorned his back. They were sharp, like blades of obsidian, yet their alignment seemed rhythmic, almost soothing in their pattern. My eyes traced the scales that covered his arms and legs, gleaming black under the moonlight. The sight was both terrifying and awe-inspiring.
I looked back at the man-monster. What the fuck were these humans doing to their people? His breaths were short and harsh as he panted like a dying creature at the bottom of the cage. Shit, he was clearly in pain.
I glanced back at the barn door one last time, my heart pounding like a war drum. The soldiers were still occupied, lost in their laughter and sense of false security. Good.
I turned back to the creature before me, reaching to slide my fingers along the cold metal bars separating us. His blue eyes widened slightly as I moved closer, but he didn’t flinch or recoil.
“Hold on,” I whispered as his eyes bore into mine. I could see hope flickering there, and it steeled my resolve. I needed to get him somewhere safe, where these monsters couldn’t hurt him anymore.
I stood up from my crouch and pushed the tarp back more, looking for the lock on the cage. The heavy padlock dangled from the top. I gripped it, listening as the humans continued their fucking inside the barn before I snapped it off. The light moaning didn’t stop. I breathed out a sigh before I unlocked his cage. His body flinched as the cold steel bars rattled open, but he didn’t make a single noise.
They hadn’t heard me open the cage. I quickly lowered the edge of the door down towards the ground. Before I could stop myself, I was reaching inside the cage and running a hand down his bare shoulder, making him shiver. The need to feel his skin overwhelmed me. I had never seen anything like this. I ran my fingers down to his hands, which were held by a short chain to the bottom of the cage. His skin was clammy and damp with sweat even though the night air was cool. I didn’t think he should be clammy or this hot.
I reached my hands out slowly and, with nimble fingers, unclipped the gag around his head. I pulled it back slowly to not hurt him.
“Please,” the man-monster whispered. His voice was barely audible. I hushed him. The plea was soft, almost inaudible. My heart clenched as I shushed him, laying my hand gently against his cheek.
“It’s okay, don’t speak. We need to remain quiet,” I reassured, trying to keep my voice steady. “I’m getting you out of here.”
His lips moved again, forming faint words I strained to hear. “Thank… you,” he murmured.
He was emaciated—his skin stretched taut over sharp bones—but he also had raw power. They had chained him for a reason, drugged him probably for their protection. He was a fighter. I could see the bruises around his wrists from him struggling against his bonds, and I could see the fight in him, even in his eyes, as he stared back at me.
His blue eyes held mine, wide and bright, with terror and relief. I entered the cage, my fingers brushing his hot, scale-covered skin. He shivered beneath my touch but didn’t recoil. His gaze remained fixed upon mine.
I couldn’t break the chain with my hands. It would be too loud. I needed to separate the links. I pulled a knife from my belt. The man’s spine curved more around himself, trying to hunch up further to protect himself, but he still didn’t speak. His blue eyes never left me, but his jaw trembled, and his eyes widened.
As carefully as I could, I ran my hand down his arm until I reached out a hand to the back of his, offering solace and squeezing gently. He just blinked at me once, then twice, until he finally slowly twisted his hand in the cuffs as he took my hand in his. His fingers slowly closed around my own. His scales were cold and hard under my touch, but his grip was gentle and vulnerable.
His hand tightened slightly around mine, a silent plea for reassurance. I nodded at him, my heart pounding as I returned the pressure.
“It’s okay,” I whispered, hoping he could hear me. “I won’t hurt you.”
I leaned into the cage, covering his body with mine. I tried to touch him and reassure him gently.
I swallowed anxiously, my heart pounding against my ribcage. Gently, I began to work on his chains, trying to ignore the stench of his confinement as I breathed through my mouth. His eyes never left mine, their blue depths gleaming with fear and hope. His body was tense beneath my touch—a clear sign of the agony he was enduring in silence.
His eyes were mistrustful as I slowly inserted the blade through a link in the chain and spun it to force a gap. The soft sound of the metal bending was loud in the back of the vehicle. I gritted my teeth, trying to keep myself from moving faster so I did not draw attention.
As I worked, I wondered what he must have been through.
Soon, the gap was wide enough for me to thread a chain link through it, releasing his chained hands. With renewed determination, I quickly undid all the straps holding him down. They must have been an afterthought. The humans must have thought the chain was enough. There were bruises on his exposed skin. He had fought back at some point. I carefully navigated his spiked tail and legs through the ropes. There was nothing but raw desperation in those glowing blue eyes, as, one by one. His bonds dropped away.
I couldn’t see how the cuffs were fastened to him at this angle. I was distracted when I noticed his eyes were following my movements. Blue. Such a beautiful blue. Like the color of the rare stones that dotted the walls of my home deep in the mountains. The same stone I had inlaid in my sister Calea’s ring. I just stared at him, lost in their depths. He blinked again, breaking my contact with them.
His pupils were blown so wide I couldn’t tell if he would panic when I tried to move him, let alone if he was even with it. He was still panting as he tried to lift his head. I gently placed my hand under his neck and pulled him forward. He made a pained sound, and I winced.
“Breathe,” I whispered soothingly, brushing my fingertips over his arm, trying to offer some form of comfort amid this madness. I placed my hand heavily on his bare chest. “You have to try to remain quiet. Take slow breaths with me. Match your breathing to mine. You can calm yourself.”
I grabbed his arms and tugged him into a sitting position. A pained yelp involuntarily escaped his lips as I forced his body to move.
“Shh,” I whispered, stroking the back of his neck with my thumb. “We need to get you out of here. Can you walk?”
His eyes flickered with alertness, and he gave an almost imperceptible shake.
I looked around the edge of the human vehicle back at the house rather than the barn. No one moved. No doors flew open. The couple in the barn were still at it. I couldn’t bring Dune close to the humans with guns. If he were spotted, they would shoot at the creature. Lepots weren’t bulletproof like the Ruzugae that Arya favored.
“Bear with me.”
He nodded. His tail swung around and wrapped around my forearm. The barbed end rubbed against my wrist. That thing was a weapon, unlike mine, which I cut short even though it grew back. I leaned over him to examine the spikes coming out of his back. I could pick him up if I were careful.
I cast one last glance toward the darkened house and the oblivious humans in the barn. “It’s now or never,” I said to myself. Trying not to hurt him with my grasp, I started to lift him from the cage.
The sounds of pleasure had ebbed away, replaced by a heavy silence that did nothing to calm my nerves. “I’m going to carry you, alright?”
“Ok,” he whispered back to me.
Moving around so I could slide my arm under his knees and one around his back, threading between two spines, I hoisted him into my arms. His trembling body told me just how scared he was. With an arm under his naked ass, I supported him. He leaned heavily against my body, his deep breaths brushing against the skin of my neck.
I closed the cage again and placed the broken lock into the loop to hold it closed before pulling the tarp back over the cage, just in case someone looked through the windows of the vehicle before I eased the hatch closed. I tried to leave everything as I had found it, which was hard with the naked man in my arms, but leaving everything just as I saw it would buy us a few hours to escape, hopefully before the soldiers found the empty cage. If the guards were to look through the vehicle’s windows, they would be none the wiser. Again, I peeked around the car before moving slowly with the man to the shadows, watching my footsteps to ensure I didn’t make a sound.
The hum of conversation erupted from the house, slicing through the night air like bolts of electricity that seemed to freeze my body. My muscles froze in place when I heard the sound. The man in my arms seemed to hold his breath as his worried eyes gazed up at me. The guards must have finished their little rendezvous. I listened to try to see if they noticed anything. When I detected no alarm, I continued to where I knew Dune was waiting.
It took some time before we were a safe enough distance away that I felt comfortable whistling for Dune. The giant creature came trotting over to me, looking curiously at the human in my arms. When he was close enough, he reached his nose to smell the human, then yanked his head back, shaking it back and forth. He didn’t care for how the human smelled, either.
“Down, Dune,” I whispered, glancing worriedly at the pale human in pain. “We’ve got to get him back home.”
Dune gave a low whine but obediently laid down.
Carefully, I lowered the man to the ground and examined the handcuffs restraining his wrists. Unfortunately, there was no way for me to remove them without causing him pain or drawing attention to our presence. So, I left them on for now. Pulling a blanket from my pack on Dune’s back, I used my knife to cut a hole in the center before slipping it over the spikes running down his bare back. With some effort, I managed to wrap the blanket tightly around his body, still keeping his hands bound together. Then, I maneuvered his arms over my head so he could hold onto my shoulders before settling onto Dune’s back again.
I held the man’s front to my chest, pressing him against me as I told Dune to rise. “Easy now,” I murmured into the silence of the night, holding tightly onto the man with one arm, my hand pressed between two spines and Dune’s reins in the other while I gripped the horn of the saddle to keep us from tumbling off when Dune stood.
Dune’s powerful legs pushed off the ground, and we rocked for a second. The beast got up less gracefully than he usually did.
The man’s trembling didn’t abate, but he held onto me. His fingers were clenching and unclenching on my back, an erratic rhythm that spoke of his frantic fear and discomfort. Countering the movement so we didn’t fall while holding onto the horn of Dune’s saddle, the man’s head was on my shoulder. His face turned towards me, studying me with his eyes. His clawed fingers dug in, but I didn’t tell him to stop.
“Forward, Dune. Quiet, slow,” I commanded the beast. We moved away from the men who had kept the human captive.
I urged Dune forward faster with a gentle tongue click, moving away from the abandoned house and into the wilderness beyond. The air turned cooler as we moved deeper into the forest with every step Dune took. We were heading home.
The ride was tense for the first few miles. Every snap of a twig or rustle of leaves made my fingers twitch for my sword. The human was silent in my arms, save for his ragged breathing.
It didn’t take us long to move away from the soldiers. We headed north towards my bunker. Nothing moved in the night. Soon, I was pushing Dune to run as fast as he could. His giant maw opened, tongue hanging out with glee as his large taloned feet ate up the ground and he finally got to run like he had wanted to for days.
I tried to get us to my bunker before dawn. The man in my arms hadn’t said a word but had fallen asleep not long after I had rescued him. I looked down at his pale, smooth skin. He was beautiful. Angular features decorated his face, made even sharper with the taut skin. He could use a good meal that I would provide for him. I had never seen a human that I favored before. The tingling feeling in my mind whispered that this one was different. He had a certain air about him that drew me in, hypnotizing me in a manner I’d never experienced before. My mind spun with questions, curiosity burning like a glowing ember.
A human. Though, he wasn’t very human-looking now, thanks to whatever they had done to him. I could see faintly in the darkness as my eyes roamed the scales of his arms. His tail was still coiled around my arm, and I didn’t bother trying to shake it off. The warm feeling it brought was something I wasn’t going to analyze right now. The spikes hanging down brushed against my ribs.
We made it over the ridge towards the bridge in Colorado near Rangely, where my bunker was. The humans had built a dam there, providing me with plenty of fresh water. I had pushed Dune hard to get us away from the human military.
The man in my arms stirred. Opening his bright sapphire-colored eyes, he looked up at my face.
“Easy,” I soothed him, my voice soft against the chill of the night. His eyes were wide with fear and confusion, the bright blue of his irises shimmering in the dim moonlight. It was a disquieting hue, unnatural for humans. I wondered what chemicals they had used on him.
“My name’s Brir,” I tried to keep my voice steady and gentle against the night’s turmoil. My feelings were all over the place from the events. His eyes bore into mine, a deep well of uncertainty and fear clenched in my gut while his fingers dug more deeply into my skin.
The man continued staring at me, his gaze never losing its intensity. After what felt like an eternity, he nodded slightly. A small affirmation, perhaps a sign of trust. I felt a warm surge of satisfaction at the small progress.
“I… thank you,” he said, his voice barely above a whisper. His voice sounded raw, and I kicked myself for not offering him water sooner. It wasn’t like he could have drunk anything with that damn gag in his mouth.
I pulled out my water bottle and held it up for him to drink. His hands were still clasped together behind my back by the shackles. I watched as he took a small swallow before his bound hands came up over my head and in front of us, grasped the bottle, and started taking large gulps down. There had been water hanging off the cage, but I had no idea how he had even reached it. He must have had to struggle and cause himself great pain.
His throat worked as he swallowed, and I marveled at the small display of strength.
A strange flicker of recognition crossed his features, and for a moment, it seemed like he wanted to say something else. Instead, he blinked, eyes fluttering shut again. His breathing hitched, and he coughed weakly, whimpering softly when the movement caused him pain. The sound tore at me, but I could do little until we reached safety.
My brows pinched together. “What’s your name?” I tried to keep my tone light. I had been told many times that my surly voice wasn’t pleasant.
“I’m Artemis,” he said, eyes blinking at me, putting his arms back around my neck. I could feel his claws dig into the back of my shirt. I clicked my tongue to signal Dune to move forward again after I put the bottle away. “Or I was Artemis.” He released a deep, tired breath. His claws relaxed slightly from their tight grip on my back but remained embedded in my flesh. I felt a pang of sympathy for him. He was disoriented and in pain. I tightened my hold on him slightly to reassure him and myself. We maintained our quiet conversation, the only other sound being Dune’s clawed feet beating rhythmically against the dirt.
“You’re still Artemis. Nothing can change that. I will keep you safe, Artemis. Rest. We are almost there.” I studied his face. His gaze was haunted as we traveled through the darkened forest, his uncertain eyes never leaving my face. His breath was growing shallower but was slow and calm. I could feel his tremors increasing in intensity.
He blinked those stunning blue eyes at me again. “Almost where?” His speech slurred as his eyes closed again. Whatever they had done to him must be making him sick. I knew humans weren’t meant to be this warm. His hollow eyes told me he wasn’t being fed enough while he was captured. I found it difficult to describe the place we were headed. It was my sanctuary.
“Somewhere safe,” I promised him, even though I didn’t know how safe my bunker would be for a transformed human like him. But it was the only option I had.
He nodded against my chest, his breath still ragged but slower now. The relief at hearing we were heading somewhere safe seemed palpable from his body language. Then, his eyes closed again, his head lolling back. Concern flooded me as I reached up to feel his pulse in his neck. It was there but faint. His tail squeezed reassuringly around my arm briefly before he went limp in my arms once again. His exhaustion was evident; the ordeal must’ve taken a toll on his body and mind. I had no idea what they had done to him back there.
“Run, Dune.” Dune's muscles bunched underneath us before he was tearing down the road. We weren’t far now. I felt the muscles of the giant creature ripple beneath us as he responded to my command.
The wind whipped through our hair as Dune sped unflinchingly towards our haven, Artemis’s form growing heavier in my arms with each passing second. I worried for his well-being and couldn’t help but feel anger rising within me at the thought of how humans could have done this to one of their own.
“We’re almost there,” I whispered, more to myself than to him.