Chapter 14
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Iground to a halt, blood thundering through my veins as I took in the monolithic being cutting off my path to my people.
At least seven feet tall, with a wingspan to rival the celestials, this monster stood on two taloned feet.
I dragged my gaze up its powerful calves and thighs, covered in inky black material, continuing past its thick crimson waist, up its wide, ripped chest to its monstrous, feral face.
A humanoid face. His lips pulled back to reveal lethal white fangs as he glared at me with electric-blue eyes.
He was humanoid, but inhuman, and that was the terrifying part.
His attention flicked to the sword in my hand, then whipped back up to my face, gaze sharpening.
Someone screamed my name, but the cries were cut off when several more humanoid monsters landed around me in a circle.
I was trapped.
My throat ached with rage and disappointment. To die here. Like this.
No. Not without a fight.
I raised the sword, which was no longer glowing, and fell into a defensive stance. “Fucking bring it, you bitch.”
He studied me for a long beat and then he made a sound, a rough, raspy bubbling that sounded suspiciously like… a laugh?
Wait, was he laughing at me?
He didn’t give me time to consider the question, moving so fast I had no time to react before he had me hauled up against him, my sword arm stretched out to one side, wrist twisted at an angle, making it impossible for me to stab him.
His grip was steel, his gaze like lava as it tore across my face. Then he dipped his head and sniffed my neck, one long inhale that made my stomach tighten with terror. But that was nothing compared to what came next. Wet warmth bloomed up the column of my neck and horror clawed at my scalp.
He was licking me.
Oh, God.
Oh, fucking God.
I was going to die. I closed my eyes against the terror threatening to claim me and grit my teeth. “I hope you choke on me, you bastard.”
He raised his head and I waited for his bite. Long seconds passed and nothing happened.
I cracked open my eyes to find him watching me, like a scientist would watch a specimen of new insect. There was intelligence in his eyes, a shrewdness I’d missed on first assessment.
Great, so an intelligent monster was going to eat me, probably with herbs and side vegetables.
“Just do it, dammit. Kill me.”
“You want me to kill you?” he asked.
His voice sent a jolt through me, smooth and rumbling like the beginning of a storm, completely at odds with his monstrous appearance and…Fucking hell, he just spoke to me.
“Answer me.” He shook me slightly.
“No. No, of course not. I just thought—”
“That because I look like this, I want to eat you.”
Shit. “Yes.”
“I don’t eat humans, but if you try and attack me, I’ll make an exception.” He leaned in, hot breath fanning across my face. “Do you understand me?”
What the hell was this? What was happening?
He shook me slightly. “Answer me.”
Fuck. “Yes.”
“Good.” He released me and stepped away while I rubbed the wrist he’d bruised.
“Come out, puny humans.” He kept his gaze on me but jerked his head, and two of his minions rushed toward the bus.
I stepped forward. “Don’t hurt them!”
He slammed his palm into my chest, sending me flying back. I hit the ground on my ass, jarring my tailbone, but the sword remained stubbornly in my hand.
Jamie and Bastian appeared from behind the bus, swinging their swords at the monsters. The monsters reacted, disarming them so easily it was embarrassing.
“Your weapons don’t work on us.” The blue-eyed monster’s gaze flicked to my sword when he said it.
But the sword in my hand was different. Bigger, more powerful. Oh, fucking hell. Was I holding an actual celestial sword?
How was this possible?
How was I not dead?
“I can hear your heartbeat,” blue eyes said. “You wonder why you live?”
I reined in my panic. “Yes.”
“It seems that fate has other plans for you.”
“Shemyaza, we should move,” one of the other monsters said.
My attention flew to the speaker, a stocky humanoid creature with horns and a hooked nose. He was shorter than this Shemyaza creature, but built like a tank, wide and thick. He was looking at me intensely too. Studying me in the same way blue-eyed had.
My gaze flicked between them, but Shemyaza’s attention never wavered from me, and when he spoke it was in a softer tone.
“Where were you going?” he asked.
His question, his tone, inquiring rather than demanding, threw me for a moment.
“Answer me,” he snapped.
I flinched and clenched my jaw, biting back my fear and anger. “Wait. Let me think.” Should I tell him? Was that wise? I mean he had just saved our asses from the bat monsters.
He moved a step closer. “Do not make me ask you again.”
“The golden city,” Jamie answered for me.
He was probably coming to a similar conclusion as I had, that they’d saved us, that they could kill us right now if they wanted, and that withholding a destination wouldn’t make a blind bit of difference.
Shemyaza slow-blinked, his attention still on me. “You won’t make it.” His tone was casual nonchalance. “You’ll die. Unless…” He tapped a talon to his chin. “Unless we protect you.” He walked closer and began to circle me.
Jamie tried to push forward but the squat creature shoved him back easily.
I shook my head slightly at Jamie, a warning to stand down. There was nothing he could do to help me right now. All he’d do was risk getting hurt or killed.
“We can get you where you want to be,” Shemyaza continued.
He stopped behind me and my skin prickled at his proximity.
His hands fell to my shoulders, and I sucked in a breath at the contact, going still as his long, taloned fingers curled against my chest. He didn’t apply pressure, simply rested his hands lightly on me, but the threat of power, of dominance, was all too evident.
“Yes, we can help you, for a price.”
My breath shivered in my lungs. “What is the price?”
His warm breath tickled the shell of my ear, and when he spoke, his rumbling voice created a coil of tension in the pit of my belly. “The price, little human, is you.”