20. Less Bragging, More Moving
TWENTY
LESS brAGGING, MORE MOVING
Jack
F uck! Fucking fuck!
The ground zoomed towards us. The monster tried, and failed, to spread our right wing. It hung limp. Pain shot through us. And the ground sped closer, Bullets following.
Fucking shot. Again.
Great fucking job! I snapped . You’d think for all your cocky bullshit you would have been a bit better at this escape stuff!
The monster snarled. Without me, we would have been taken on that rooftop. So shut up!
He clutched Seven tighter, and with an agonizing effort, turned us in the air, curling our good wing around our body.
“Stay small, Blossom,” he grated, cradling her as we tore through the canopy.
I roared out our pain right alongside him, branches impaling our wings, battering our back and legs. Something in the vicinity of our ribs snapped.
You’ve probably killed us, you dickhead! I snapped at the monster.
Shut up and let me protect her!
A final crack, and we free-fell the last several feet. He tucked our legs up, bracing for the—
Aaaaarrrggghhh!
The impact knocked the air from us. We lay in the damp pine needles, struggling to find a breath.
Everything hurt.
Seven was so still, our arms still locking her tight to our chest despite the agony searing us. With an effort, the monster loosened our grip, finally managing to suck a tiny bit of air into our lungs.
“Guess you got shot again,” she mumbled hoarsely. He glanced up at her lying on our chest, her eyes back to that deep brown with a ring of gold.
Lightning to our chest. We winced.
“Fucking bullets,” he groaned.
Seven slid off us, and the monster rolled to the side, using our relatively uninjured arms to push us into a sitting position. Growling through clenched teeth at the pain.
“Well, you didn’t break your spine. That’s lucky—it’s not a fun injury to recover from.”
“You know from past experience?” the monster grated disbelievingly. But something deep inside our chest twisted.
She tilted her head to the side, a tiny lift of one shoulder in a shrug of confirmation.
The monster’s growl ripped from our throat.
What the fuck did they do to her in that hell hole?
“We need to move,” he snarled, tone sharp from the pain. “We need to keep moving.”
We can’t let her go back there. Something we both agreed on.
Seven rolled her eyes. “You’re in no state to run right now.”
The monster snarled at the insult. Another thing I could agree with.
Challenge accepted, woman.
With a sucked-in breath, he dragged us to our feet, taking quick stock of our injuries. Blood soaked our pants in more than one place. Some deep gouges on our legs and back. There was a hot point of agony just beside the joint between our shoulder blade and our right wing. The gunshot wound. Between that and what we were almost certain was at least two broken ribs, it was hard to take deep breaths.
We’ve healed from worse , the monster reminded me, conjuring the phantom sensation of a bullet ripping through our chest.
Not while running for our lives through a fucking forest!
But determination steeled him. Seven’s eyes widened, then narrowed as he straightened, cricking our neck and pushing our shoulders back.
That’s fucking … ouch! I grated.
Just let me get us away from here, then you can come back and be the one to deal with this fucking agony.
Oh, I can feel everything , I assured him.
“Who would’ve thought these rock-hard abs would turn out to be a pretty decent cushion?” he remarked, trying for cocky. I almost laughed when the monster’s dickish attempt at flirting fell flat when he winced as he tried, and failed, to move our crushed wings.
She rolled her eyes at us, completely unimpressed.
“Less bragging, more moving! Baxter’s men will be out here in no time,” she hissed, eyeing our mangled wings. “Can you shift back? Those things are going to be a liability, moving through all of these …” She gestured to the trees around us.
The insane desire to impress this gruff woman burned off the sharp edge of the pain.
Do it , I told the monster.
He snorted . I was planning to.
He blew out what breath we could draw in. With that familiar tingling sensation, our wings shriveled, shrunk, sucked back inside our body.
I cringed at the sensation.
The monster chuckled in our head. Lucky I’m here for when you’re too squeamish, isn’t it?
Fuck you!
“Wings gone, wounds healing, escape is still very much on track,” he said, striding into the gloom of the forest. He looked back over our shoulder, winking.
“You coming?”
“Cretin,” we thought we heard her mutter as she stormed past us.
We get to safety, and I will woo her properly , the monster informed me.
No fucking wooing. We get her to safety, we LEAVE.
Lights flashed, illuminating tree trunks not far from us.
Fuck. Get us the fuck out of here!
“Run!” he grated, grabbing her hand and tugging, ignoring the throbbing pain everywhere as he launched us through the trees.
“Shit,” she gasped, keeping pace beside us as we plunged deeper into the forest. “They got here fast.”
Shouts of ‘Over there!’ called out, and more flashlights burst through the tangle of trunks.
“We’re faster.” We panted, the monster picking up speed. She didn’t let go of our hand. Instead, her long fingers gripped ours tighter.
Together we ran, the forest closing around us. We didn’t have any clue which direction we were running, but minutes passed, and the shouting and flashlights faded, then disappeared.
We kept running. Her hand clung to ours.
The distant whir of chopper blades speeding closer had me swearing inside our head, and the monster swearing with our mouth as he gripped her hand tighter.
“Stop,” he commanded, tugging her under a dense conifer. Her mouth was a thin slash in her face, her eyes wide and almost black. He pressed her back against the trunk, stepping closer.
“Don’t,” she hissed, her palm coming up to press against our sternum, holding us back.
The monster managed a tense chuckle.
“Worried you won’t be able to resist?” he asked in a low voice. The spotlight on the chopper swung past, lighting up the patch of ground we’d been standing on seconds ago.
Seven’s fingers tangled in the front of our jumpsuit, her claws pricking our skin, her breaths jagged. He stiffened, meeting her gaze. The fear in her eyes choked us with fury.
She was terrified of being taken back there.
‘She’s a seasoned pro at this.’
We’ll tear Baxter limb from limb for what he’s done to her , the monster promised quietly. And I wasn’t even sure I wanted to argue.
The spotlight swung away, piercing another part of the forest. And soon, the beat of the chopper blades faded. We stood, silently panting, for another moment until her fingers untangled from our skin and clothes, and she let her arm drop to her side.
“Let’s move,” the monster muttered, taking her hand again and stepping out onto the forest path.
Soon, all we could hear was the crunch of our footfalls in the pine needles and the ragged panting of our breaths.
We kept running. She kept a hold of our hand.
W eak, gray light filtered in through the dense canopy when I realized that I was in charge of my body again.
And that I was alone.
Well, not alone. Seven was still traipsing along next to me.
But there was no monster voice inside me. He was just … gone.
I wasn’t sure when we’d gone from running to this sort of limping stagger through the endless miles of conifers. But it had been long enough that the monster had exhausted his ability to control my body.
And apparently also his ability to be present inside my brain.
What the fuck?
You there? I asked. Wakey wakey!
Nothing.
My brain felt … empty. It was stupid, but I’d kind of gotten used to him in there, forcing his opinions on me.
I glanced down at my hands. My fingers ended in normal, human nails. I pressed the tip of my tongue to a tooth. Standard, blunt canine.
The wings that I’d had no idea I was capable of growing … I couldn’t even feel a tingle in my shoulder blades to tell me that hadn’t just been a fucking dream.
It hadn’t, though. Because I was covered in blood from all the injuries from that fall through the trees to prove it.
And of course, the monster was silent. Gone. Not available when I actually had questions for it.
Would he come back?
If he didn’t, would I ever be able to shift again?
For the first time, I wondered if that might be a bad thing.
I stumbled, my vision blurring. I was fucking spent. Maybe the monster had just tapped out for a nap. How many hours had we been running?
“We have to keep going,” Seven grated, her voice tense. “Put more distance between us and …” Her voice trailed off, or was it that my ears were ringing? I blinked, because for a second, it looked like there were two of her.
“We need to rest. I don’t know about you, but I’m running on fumes. I need sleep. I need …” I needed sleep, a hot shower, and a fucking three-course meal, preferably with the biggest, rarest steak known to man.
My eyes lingered on her long, slender neck.
Some blood would be pretty fucking perfect right about now, too.
She saw me looking, and her eyes shuttered, her mouth tightening. I swallowed down my drool, disgusted with myself. Even more because I couldn’t even pretend it was the monster inside me who was craving it.
Nope. I was just as much of a freak as the beast.
“We can’t stop, we have to …”
But her voice faded, and the forest floor zoomed towards my face.