Chapter 15 #2
But most of all, there was regret for the future she’d thought she was going to have.
Over the past day it had seemed like everything was going to turn around.
For the first time in a long time it had felt like she was actually looking forward to the rest of her life, rather than just merely existing from day to day, working ungodly hours at a job she was pretty indifferent to, no romantic prospects anywhere to be seen…
and now, suddenly, cruelly, it was being torn from her.
And she could cope with that, if her presence here had meant that she’d at least been able to save Max. But it seemed like not only was she going to die, but that she was going to be unable to save him as well… and, well, that was intolerable.
“Max…” she managed to whisper. “Max, I’m so sorry…”
She could hear him yelling something, could hear the furious rattle of chains, but it was all fading into nothingness as she stared into the strange man’s eyes.
They really were an odd shade of green.
Like the tint of my aunt’s Vespa scooter when I was a kid, she thought inanely.
One of his hands remained wrapped around her jaw so tightly that her bones creaked, his nails digging into her skin. The other one shifted to the top of her head, his oddly cool palm resting against her forehead.
“Enough talking,” the man whispered gently –
– and then there was a pull.
The feeling was so strange that Poppy couldn’t quite make sense of it.
It hurt a little, but in a far-off, distant way.
It reminded her of nothing so much as when she’d just emptied her vacuum cleaner and then decided to give the floor one last once-over, but there was nothing left to suck up.
The vacuum would be whirring for all it was worth, but the barrel would remain resolutely empty.
This guy is just like my vacuum cleaner, she thought dreamily, almost letting out a giggle. And I’m the clean floor. Not that that ever happens anyway, because someone has to go and shed cat hair all over it again before I’ve even finished vacuuming.
Poppy was fully aware that she was spacing out, but it was very hard to find the will or the ability to concentrate.
She was getting her brain sucked out through her forehead, after all.
Or her powers, anyway. Maybe that was why it didn’t hurt as badly as she thought it probably should – she had no powers to suck, so there wasn’t really a whole lot going on.
Unless he’s vacuuming up my ability to do account reconciliations, she thought with a sudden pang of concern. I would really rather not lose that.
If nothing else, he was playing havoc with her general mental state. She felt as if her consciousness was starting to gently come apart at the seams, slowly detaching itself from her brain and threatening to float away entirely.
That, at least, probably explained the giant winged lion creature that was currently occupying half of the cabin. Well, appearing to occupy the cabin, anyway. Obviously it wasn’t actually here.
It really did seem quite angry, though, if the way it was roaring and showing off its mouthful of razor-sharp teeth was anything to go by.
“Oh my God, shut up,” Poppy muttered, closing her eyes for a moment. She already had a headache from all this brain-sucking – did she now have to listen to an imaginary lion having a tantrum as well?
To be fair, though, the lion probably had a few things to be cranky about.
After all, it had somehow found its way to Girdwood Springs in the middle of winter, and now it was trapped in a tiny cabin with its enormous wings pressed up against the ceiling.
It was definitely not in a good mood, and Poppy couldn’t say she blamed it.
She took a moment to study the lion more closely. The wings weren’t soft and fluffy like a bird’s – they were more like what she imagined a dragon’s wings would be like, somehow simultaneously tough and translucent. They certainly fit in well with the lion’s current fearsome demeanor.
An image flittered through her mind, memory or imagination – of flying on a different winged lion’s back, the cold wind in her hair, a glimpse of eagle’s wings.
This definitely wasn’t the same lion… and yet, she was glad of it.
She knew that she should be scared out of her wits, but somehow she was completely calm.
This lion wouldn’t hurt her. She knew it deep within her soul.
What would hurt her, though, was dropping to the floor suddenly. She cried out in pain as she landed hard on her butt, the invisible hold on her suddenly released – but then she looked up, and all pain was forgotten as she realized the reason why she was on the floor.
Because the winged lion had the creepy man pinned to the ground, its massive fangs poised directly above the man’s throat. It roared again, deafeningly loud, and Poppy watched with a growing sense of dread.
Not because she was worried that the lion would hurt her – she knew it wouldn’t, for whatever reason. No, it was because she was worried that it would kill that man. She didn’t particularly care about the man’s fate, but she did know that she didn’t want the lion to be a murderer.
Listen to yourself! Of course the lion isn’t a murderer. It’s a lion – killing is what they do. There isn’t a jury in the land that would convict it.
Okay, so she was still feeling a little muddled.
But her mind was getting clearer by the moment, now that she was no longer getting her brain sucked out, and she simply knew that it would be a really bad thing if the lion killed the man.
She didn’t know why she cared so much about the lion’s apparent ability to feel remorse, but she did.
“Stop!” she yelled. “Don’t kill him!”
The lion’s head whipped around in a strangely human fashion, and it wasn’t until that moment that she realized she’d made a request of a fabled beast like it could understand her.
But it had understood her. She was certain of it.
Tilting its head, it stared at her with open curiosity, and she stared back.
Even putting the rather obvious wings aside, it was an oddly striking creature, with bright blue eyes and fur that was more red than brown.
Poppy caught a glimpse of movement as its tail swung about, and – was that a scorpion’s tail?
! She was definitely starting to hallucinate.
Okay, between the avalanche and getting my skull vacuumed clean, today has absolutely been a net loss for my brain cells. RIP, guys.
The lion turned its attention back to the semi-conscious man pinned to the floor beneath it, and Poppy took a moment to just try and get her thoughts together.
Watching the hypnotic swaying of the segmented tail – yep, that definitely came from a scorpion – her gaze was pulled across the room to where Max was.
Or wasn’t.
Her mouth dropped open in horror as she realized that Max’s chains were now empty, and Max was nowhere to be seen.
Which should have been a good thing! Except that she knew she definitely would’ve noticed if he’d made his escape, and also there was no way he could have made his escape. His wrists had been rubbed raw – he’d obviously already made several attempts to get free.
But that means…
The only other option was that the winged lion had killed him.
And then eaten him, given she didn’t see his body anywhere around here.
But even as panic stirred in the pit of her stomach, she knew it couldn’t be true.
She would not have missed Max getting murdered by a giant lion, no matter how much that other guy had been messing with her head.
And she knew that the lion wouldn’t do that.
Still… where the hell was he?!
She looked around the room, such as it was, but there was no sign of him.
No major bloodstains or body parts, at least, which was a relief, but she was still confused as hell.
How had he managed to get free and get out without her noticing?
And why would he have left her alone with a madman?
She knew that he’d left her at the clinic, but this was different.
He’d already saved her life once today – surely he wouldn’t just leave her to die here.
“Max?” she called out uncertainly. “Max! Are you here?”
She didn’t think it would have much effect, but it was at least worth a try. Maybe he was tucked away in a shadowy corner where she couldn’t see him.
It did have an effect, though – but not the one she’d been hoping for. Instead, the lion turned its enormous head again, the look in its blue eyes positively stunned.
“Don’t look at me!” she said, holding up her hands and waving them toward the man writhing on the ground beneath the lion’s paw. “Keep your eyes on the guy! I’m just looking for my ma— for my friend.”
The word mate had been on the tip of her tongue – why, she didn’t know. She didn’t believe in any of that.
… Although, she had to admit, she was starting to believe in giant winged lions with scorpion tails. If they existed, then why not anything else that Margot and Levi had been talking about?
Just concentrate on the current situation, she told herself sternly. There’ll be time for all the rest of that later.
The lion was still staring at her, its brow twitching, like it was struggling to comprehend her words.
Poppy was no winged lion whisperer. She was definitely in way over her head – she needed an expert in magical beasts, and she wasn’t too proud to go fetch a couple of them, even if she’d ditched them earlier.
How she was going to find Levi and Margot, though, she wasn’t sure. Maybe they would still be lurking around the medical clinic in case she came back, or staking out the B&B. If all else failed, they were pretty memorable – she was sure someone in town would know them.
I really need to start asking people for their phone numbers, she thought in frustration.