Total pages in book: 117
Estimated words: 109477 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 547(@200wpm)___ 438(@250wpm)___ 365(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 109477 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 547(@200wpm)___ 438(@250wpm)___ 365(@300wpm)
Somewhere in the distance, another pulse pushed at the air. The darkrend was staying close.
“What are those pulses?” she asked as she stood and helped him up. “I thought they were footsteps, but it can’t be moving so infrequently.”
“It’s sonar, essentially.” Tarian grunted as he stood and swayed, better than before but not great. Even if the coast were clear, he wouldn’t be going anywhere. “The darkrend uses it to seek out its prey and assess for danger. It’s supposed to freeze the prey in fear, I’ve heard, but I’ve never seen that happen. Usually, every living thing is running right along with me when its presence draws near.”
“The roar freezes you,” she said, steadying him. “I don’t usually freeze, but…yeah. There wasn’t much about my interactions with it that I’d want to share around a campfire, I’ll tell you that much. I was freaked out and running like my life depended on it. I didn’t even have a thought about fighting.”
“Wise. And just so we’re clear, if you see one again, don’t expect me to save you. In fact, you best be faster than me or I’ll trip you and leave you for dead so it doesn’t catch me first.”
The sparkle in his eyes said he was joking. His smile quickly dulled from the pain, still evident in his hunched lean and stiff movements.
She turned to survey the bed in the corner. “I assume you’re going to deny my advances and force me to stay in close proximity?”
“Exactly, yes. Just more torment to keep you on your toes.” He ambled, his hands curled into fists.
She wondered how bad it actually hurt. How close he’d come to death. Then, a moment later, her world crashed down in a red haze of mind-splitting agony, cutting out the feeling of her legs, twisting her stomach, and making it seem like her spine and ribs were crumbling under the pressure. He was showing her what he was currently enduring. She staggered and fell to a knee, her head bowed as she tried to compartmentalize what was happening.
The feeling vanished, leaving only its memory behind. Her body twitched in the aftermath.
“So…it hurts,” she said lightly, out of breath. Her stomach churned like she might throw up.
“A bit.” He popped the button on his trousers.
“Would you have died?”
“No. Not from the poison, in any case. I might not have made it here to safety. Any number of things might’ve attacked and eaten me out there. You very well might’ve saved my life.”
“Then we’re even. In that, at least. There’s still the matter of my needing revenge for what you did at the Demigod convention all those years ago, and then taking me captive and using me as a toy…”
“My goodness. You’re still mad from all those years ago? You really do hold a grudge.”
“Revenge is a hardy pastime.”
“Indeed.”
They pulled off the dusty top sheet and slept in their underwear, him on his stomach with his arms down at his sides so he wouldn’t take up the whole bed. She stayed on her back, hating to sleep on her stomach, the pain nothing but a dull ache. A large space existed between them, and she didn’t even have time to think about his touch. As soon as she laid her head on the striped, soft pillow, a heaviness dragged down her lids.
She awoke with a start sometime later. Light filtered in through the shades drawn over the small windows. It was impossible to tell the time. Warmth radiated at her side, and the pain from the poison was all gone, the plant having helped and her body handling the rest. A weight settled across her upper belly, a band of heat right below her breasts.
Tarian still lay on his stomach, but during their slumber, they’d each moved, closing the gap between them until his side was against her arm and his arm was draped across her body, as though holding on to her to ensure she stayed near him.
She let her head drift to the side, catching his handsome face, so serene in sleep. So peaceful. All the fine lines of stress or pain had eased away into sculpted perfection. His back rose and fell rhythmically—he was still deeply under.
Nervousness flitted through her. She wasn’t a person who engaged in intimacy like this. She hadn’t had partners over or stayed the night at their places. She hadn’t woken up next to them, their bodies attached to her like a tether. Confusingly—horribly?—she had to admit…she liked it. She liked the feeling of his touch upon waking. Watching him sleep.
That couldn’t be good…right? That couldn’t be normal, staring at someone sleeping like a creeper?
It prowls.
She frowned at the voice. Tarian didn’t stir. He hadn’t said it.
But then, she knew that. The other voice—the presence—didn’t sound like him. Didn’t even sound like a person, really. It was like…an echo of a thought. An abstract drifting in her mind, somehow making sense, but she couldn’t pinpoint why.