Chapter 21
Soraya’s mind went quiet as tiny sparks shot through her veins, flooding her body with energy. The shriek echoed into the deepest corners of her subconscious, forcing the hair on the back of her neck to stand on end.
Every cell in her body shouted danger. But that wasn’t going to keep her from her friend.
She tried calling Jesmine back, but it went straight to voicemail. Not good.
Not good at all.
It was like she was on autopilot as the pads of her fingers pulled up Jesmine’s location on her phone screen.
Alkimos was towering beside her, and she could hear his deep voice asking her something, but it was as if he was speaking from yards away.
Ignoring him, she focused on the screen, watching Jesmine’s little blue dot rapidly moving down W Jefferson Street. It was heading toward the entrance to their college, just a couple of blocks from where they lived.
She must be in a car. Whose car would she be in? she thought. None of them owned a damn car.
A large hand gripped her upper arm, but before she had time to snap at Alkimos, a soft, crystal-like sound of ringing filled the apartment. Suddenly, he let go of her.
Already on the move, Soraya headed straight to her room, her ears pounding.
She yanked open her nightstand drawer, pushed her vibrator aside, and reached toward the back to grab the gun she kept there.
She tucked it into the waistband of her pants, then located her running shoes and slipped them on.
It was like she was outside her body, watching her hands and feet take over for her. All the while, her mind stayed blank. Not a thought passed through her head.
“Where is the sluagh now?” Alkimos’s voice rumbled as Soraya stepped back into the living room. He wasn’t speaking to her; his back was turned—his wrist raised to his mouth as he spoke. “What do you mean? Is there more than one?”
A slight shiver ran down her spine, but even his voice wasn’t enough to distract her from reaching the door and slipping out.
“Soraya?” She heard his alarmed voice call out, but the door clicked shut behind her as she took off down the hall toward the stairs.
Her heartbeat pulsed in her ears as she pushed herself to run faster. She was out of the building and on the sidewalk in the blink of an eye. Her feet pounded the pavement as she raced for the intersection blocks ahead.
Her eyes flicked down to check Jesmine’s location. The dot had stopped, straight ahead, just across the intersection.
She was at the intersection, faster than expected, and just as she was about to leap off the curb, a large hand gripped her upper arm, flinging her backward against a hard body.
“Soraya, wait,” Alkimos ordered.
Chest heaving with heavy breaths, Soraya looked up at him, anger bubbling in her chest. “Let go,” she snapped. “I appreciate you saving me, but this doesn’t concern you.” She tried to wiggle out of his grip, but he held on to her.
“Forgive me, but no.” The bastard didn’t even sound sorry—or even out of breath. How did he catch up to her so quickly? She didn’t even hear him behind her. And he wasn’t budging an inch as she gave everything she had to break free from his hold.
After a moment of struggle, she realized she was no match for his alarming causal strength…so she started to shout. “Jesmine!” She looked wildly across the street to see if she could catch any glimpse of her friend, but there was no one in sight.
Alkimos’s large, slender hand clamped over her mouth. A muffled noise of outrage escaped her as she thrashed against him.
“Stop fighting me, Soraya. You can’t help your friend if you also put yourself in danger,” he said, his voice hard and unyielding.
How did he know she was looking for Jesmine?
“I need you to go back to your—” his steady voice broke off in a sigh. His hold on her tightened as her teeth sank into the flesh of his palm.
His blood flooded her mouth, and the moment the taste of him touched the tip of her tongue, Soraya’s mind went completely blank.
Her erratic heartbeat fluttered in her chest, making her tremble as a wave of desire flooded her system.
It was like her whole body was experiencing extreme whiplash as it went from pure adrenaline to pure want.
Her skin flushed and tightened over her bones.
Her lungs felt like they were on fire, and she, and she—
Alkimos sighed as he felt her body trembling against him. “If you waited in the apartment, I could have explained more about what’s happening.” He pulled his hand from her mouth. “Once I bring you to safety—”
“Not without my friend,” Soraya interrupted between panting breaths, fighting the heady, weightless feeling pumping through her. “Please, I need to find her,” she choked out.
His voice hardened again. “Soraya—”
“She’s here. I tracked her here. Please!
I need to know she’s okay.” She hated to beg, but it was all she could do, trapped tightly in his arms. She wasn’t going anywhere without his permission, and—against all logic— she trusted this stranger.
Apparently, all it took to gain her trust was to save her from violent men trying to physically assault her. Maybe it was her newfound kink.
Another heavy sigh left him. “Okay, Soraya. Keep quiet and don’t leave my side.” He sat her down and released her. “You said you tracked her?”
With shaking hands, Soraya unlocked her phone screen, which still showed Jesmine’s location in the same spot it was in a minute ago.
Across the street.
Looking up, she squinted into the vegetation surrounding the gated entrance. Was Jesmine hiding? Soraya took a step down into the deserted street.
When school was in session, the four-way crosswalk was a hub of activity, but with move-in a week away, that meant the campus was eerily silent.
It was only them. Not even a car passed by.
“Soraya—”
“Did you hear something?” Soraya interrupted, not ready for him to drag her back to the apartment, or wherever this dominant stranger deemed safe.
Alkimos fell quiet.
Silence settled around them, broken only by the rustling of trees lining the sidewalks.
She glanced westbound, searching for any sign of Jesmine, but saw nothing. Some of the streetlights were taken over by overgrown tree branches that encased the light between their leaves. Causing flickering shadows of light to dance across the street.
A creeping awareness blossomed at the back of her mind.
Something was watching her.
Soraya stiffened, her gaze darting around. She didn’t see anything, but her entire body became hyper-aware that something—or someone—was there.
“Soraya. Don’t move,” Alkimos ordered, his voice barely a whisper.
That’s when she heard a series of clicking noises coming from where Jesmine’s last location pinged. The clicking barely registered above the rustling trees, but it was there. She was sure of it.
A large object moved out of the corner of her eye.
Flicking her gaze to the left of the gate, where a planter of vegetation sat, her eyes blurred. Blinking her gaze into focus, she stared and stared at the foliage, trying to understand what she was seeing. There was an object deep in the hedges.
Something big.
Before Soraya could fully register the sight, her entire body became weightless as she was yanked back against a solid, unyielding chest.
A high-pitched shriek tore through the air, so loud it rattled her skull and threatened to burst her eardrums. Clapping her hands over her ears, she pressed back into Alkimos, her breath hitching as her gaze fixed on the source of the noise.
A massive figure crept out from the shadows beneath the trees, its movements slow and deliberate. It stopped when it emerged fully onto the sidewalk, bathed in the yellow glow of a streetlight.
At first, Soraya couldn’t comprehend what she was seeing.
It looked like a bush—a tall, hulking bush—standing at the edge of the sidewalk.
Her eyes throbbed as the shape shifted before her, the branches transforming into long limbs tipped with vicious claws, and the green leaves molting into a grotesque patchwork of decayed, rotting skin.
Eyes. The bush had milky white eyes, and they were staring straight at them.
Soraya swallowed as she beheld the face of a creature from nightmares as it continued its slow, deliberate advance toward them. Twigs turned into wicked, sharp teeth set into lipless mouths.
Clicking sounds were emitted from it as it continued to stare at them.
It was a monster.
Its body reminded her of a deformed frog. A mutant, giant frog with a hunched back. That was all Soraya could think as she looked at it. Not even Alkimos’ comforting touch could stop the way her heart flipped, dousing any sense of heady desire she had, and turning it back into adrenaline.
Her heart started to pound a mile a minute as an awful, familiar, putrid stench blocked out Alkimos’ calming lavender scent.
The memory under the overpass flashed through her mind from the other day. When she told Ahvi to run…she knew without a doubt this was the creature she saw lurking in the shadows, staring at her.
The college guy who was murdered also flashed through her mind. The news said he had been gutted, and looking at the monster’s razor-sharp claws, she finally knew how he was killed.
As she stood frozen, all she could do was watch as the creature’s jaw fell open, saliva dripping from the sharp points of its razor-sharp teeth as it let out another wretched shriek.
Soraya tightened her hands over her ears, her heart stuttering, as the monstrosity leaped into the street, aiming right for them.
Alkimos shifted behind her just as the monster prepared to leap again, its gaping mouth hanging open, teeth gleaming in the streetlights—
When a sedan came careening around the corner, slamming right into the monster with a sickening thud and sending it flying up the street.
Soraya watched with shock as it landed hard on the asphalt in a heap of broken limbs.
Mouth agape, Soraya snapped her gaze back to the sedan with its hood bent to hell and engine steaming. The car door groaned open, and Jesmine, out of all people, stumbled from the driver’s seat.
She was still in one piece.
“Jesmine!” Soraya shouted as she pushed out of Alkimos’s embrace and ran for her friend.
Soraya gripped Jesmine, looking her over for any signs of injury.
“I’m okay, Soraya,” she said, wide-eyed.
Soraya felt her body sag with momentary relief when a shadow passed overhead. She snapped her head up and felt her mind somersault at what she saw.
It looked like a man—a man that was flying.
“Alkimos! We will track the sluagh and bring it back to the other side. Watch our female for us,” shouted the white-haired flying man.
“For the last time, I am not your female, asshole!” Jesmine shouted at the retreating…flying…form.
A man was flying.
Soraya’s mind struggled to process what she was seeing. A man soared through the air as if it were the most natural thing in the world, his transparent black wings bearing him on the wind.
An angel. No. Angels don’t look like that. Do they? Dressed in all black with…a sword in hand.
Blinking rapidly, Soraya asked, “Am I dreaming?”
Jesmine looked back at Soraya, who was about to answer her when another shriek erupted behind them.
“Fuck, there’s two of them,” an unknown male voice called from above, as a second flying man soared by. He had black hair.
“Where the hell are they coming from?” The white-haired flying man shouted as he circled back around.
“Soraya, take your friend and go back to the apartment, wait for me there until I return,” Alkimos commanded as all hell broke loose.
Soraya’s gaze snapped to a second mutant frog as it leaped over the ten-foot school gate and charged straight for Alkimos—only to crash into an invisible barrier. The monster screeched in pain as it was thrown backward, colliding with the metal gate.
“Soraya! Behind you!” Jesmine shouted.
Everything was happening too fast. Soraya barely had time to look behind her when a shadow came streaking out from behind the fountain on the corner.
Fangs, milky white eyes, and claw-tipped fingers came hurtling toward her. Soraya instinctively reached for her gun, even though she knew it was too late to fire.
Before the creature could reach her, a wall of dark water crashed down, slamming into the monster. The sounds of bones breaking and rushing water had her taking a step back as the monster washed down the street.
“What are humans doing here?” a cold voice demanded. “Send them away, before we have to clean their bodies off the street.”
Turning her head toward the right side of the intersection, Soraya watched a man with long, clipped strides emerge from the darkness, heading directly for her. When his eyes locked with hers, pain burst behind her pupils.
She clutched at her eyes, desperately trying to keep them from exploding out of her head, but just as quickly as the pain came, it subsided into a pulsing ache. She looked back up in time to see the new stranger stop directly before her.
Without warning, his hand locked around her neck in an iron grip, tilting her face up to meet his piercing gaze.
Her body instantly turned to liquid as she beheld him. His face was that of a cold, savage beauty that made her breath catch. His nostrils flared, and all she could do was watch as his gaze flicked back and forth between her eyes.
“I will be back, Alkimos. Try not to die while I’m gone,” he said in a voice like ice.
Alkimos rang out in response, shouting, “Makoto, wait! She’s my—”
Whatever Alkimos was about to say was drowned out by the sudden sound of rushing wind.
In the next instant, Soraya felt as if she had simply winked out of existence.