Page 148 of Mated to Monsters

I don’t want to come out to see him, to go back to bed with a demon that I can’t trust. I don’t know what side of him is real, but either one I don’t want to be around.

“Just tell me what you want and I’ll give it to you.”

His words send another wave of sobs through me. I want to be home. I want my friends. I want to be around people I can trust and not have to run away from some demon in a strange land just to get some peace.

I want Toklys.

And I can have none of that.

“Natalie, whatever it is, we can work it out–”

I can’t take it anymore. His words, his voice, his negotiations, it’s all too much. I feel overwhelmed and I’m growing angrier with every word he spews. I’m about to lose it entirely, and I spin around, one hand still pressed to the cave wall to orient myself, and yell, “Go away!”

Silently, I curse myself. If Kha’zeth didn’t know for sure I was here before, now he does. And what’s worse is I’m starting to see why he was right, why I did need to come back out. He just never said the real reason.

It’s not safe.

I wish I could have learned it a different way, but when the rock beneath my hand starts to move and a massive figure looms over me in the dark, roaring with such ferocity that I have to dig my heels in to be avoid being thrown back, I see that Kha’zeth was the lesser evil this time.

Too bad I picked wrong again.

87

KHA’ZETH

A roar shakes the cavern walls, the rock underfoot trembling with the might of the howler beast lurking within. Natalie screams, the sound echoing back through the cave and sending panic lancing through my heart.

I light up the space, sending orbs of light down the cavern passageway, sticking to the cave walls. In my terror for her, I hadn’t once considered improving the visibility in the space, lest it wakes the howler beasts.

Stupid, stupid, stupid, I think viciously to myself as I charge ahead.

The sounds of talons scraping against rock keep steady waves of terror pulsing through me, my magic whirling around me, rallying to protect me from the threat. I’m not the one in danger, though – at least not the one who matters.

Natalie, with my child in her belly, screams again as I hear the impact of flesh against stone. My heart leaps into my throat, my strides lengthening as I race for her, praying that I get there in time.

I’m too far away to send any magic down the cave- I can’t risk it hurting her. I’ll have to be right on top of the beasts to effectively do anything. I come around a curve in the cave, and time slows.

For a moment my brain can’t make sense of the colors and shapes I’m seeing. Tawny tan, framed by deep crimson and pinned between pitch black and sickly gray, specks of gleaming white and more sickly gray completing the blur of colors. Soft, rounded curves look stark and vulnerable against jagged angles and sharp points.

Then, everything comes into focus.

A half dozen howler beasts line the black, stony walls of the caves, all pacing and chittering and snarling at our intrusion. Natalie is trapped beneath the biggest and meanest of the demon beasts, blood leaking from where her skull met the jagged rock of the cavern floor strewn with white, splintered bones.

The howler beast atop her snarls, too caught up in its bloodlust to notice where I am at the cave entrance. Its whip-like tail swishes in the air, bony protrusions jutting out from its elbows, haunches, and tail, its sickly gray carapace glinting in the throbbing lights I’ve cast around the space.

It roars again, revealing the rows of jagged teeth in the beast’s open maw. Natalie whimpers weakly, lifting her arms above her as if to defend herself from the beast’s looming attack.

Something in me snaps at the image of her prone and helpless beneath the beast.

I let out a roar to rival those of the howlers, sending a blast of deadly midnight blue crashing into the beast atop Natalie. The creature doesn’t even make noise before it’s completely eviscerated into nothing more than a mist of black, putrid blood.

The rest of the beasts whirl on me, launching into action before taking the time to assess the newest threat that’s wandered into their den. I launch another blast at the closest of the howlers, their resistance to chaos magic only defending marginally against the blow.

The beast howls, a wretched, piercing sound that earned the creature its name, as it careens back into the cave wall, blood spurting as it slams against the sharp rock. In no time, it’s on its feet again, the pain only making it angrier and more dangerous.

Out of the corner of my eye, I see a beast prowling toward Natalie, wanting to claim the now unguarded bit of meat for his own. I blast it backwards, using some of my quickly dwindling magic to throw a crackling blue bubble over her, protecting her as I neutralize the herd.

The injured howler beast lunges for me again, joined by another, their teeth snapping as they come within arm’s reach. A tendril of magic lashes out, gripping one of the beasts and using it to slam the other into the ground with a final, wet crunch. The creature goes limp as I let my magic snap the neck of the other.