I didn’t need it. I’m fully in control of my baser desires, I told myself. If I was being honest, my being able to hold off my own needs was a point of pride. I only broke down a couple times a year and pulled out a vibrating aide to help me release the sexual tension I’d stored up.
The moment I entered the basement, I knew something was wrong. My arousal evaporated instantly as I dropped into my body, coming into the moment. My hand automatically gripped Bob’s hilt. The energy of the room was wrong. It pressed against my bones like a heavy cold cloud. Something crackled in the darkness, a lethal power that could destroy me. My mouth dried and sweat popped out on my forehead, fear flooded my instincts, forming a sour patina on my tongue.
Every nerve-ending shouted at me to back right up into the open elevator and leave. The fragility of my humanity was all too real right now.
“Xander?” I called out. The word came out hoarse. The air grated against my throat with something toxic and raw.
Something panted in the shadows of his cage. But whatever was making the sound couldn’t be Xander. It didn’t sound human, it sounded like an animal. My eyes tracked the movement of the something in the cage. The outline was so much bigger than Xander’s.
Oh my god, had something gotten in? Had it hurt Xander?
The elevator doors closed behind me, and I took a couple steps into the room. He had to be alright. He couldn’t be dead. Not until I killed him anyway.
“Xander,” I tried to call out again, but it came out even weaker than last time.
The thing inside the cage growled; it was a guttural, menacing tone that emerged from the depths of what had to be a monstrous throat.
Goosebumps broke out on my skin, and ice chilled straight to the marrow of my bones. My adrenaline pumped so hard and fast; I could barely take a breath.
“Xander?” This time it was a whisper.
“Get out.” The words ground out like gravel. Then a deep monstrous cry of pain pierced the air. Each sound made me recoil as if I’d bitten on tin foil.
Jesus, it wasn’t some new beast, it was Xander in there. I neared the bars, a half inch of my fear melted away. “Xander. What’s happening?”
A strange cackling laughter cracked through the air like a whip lashing against my senses. “He’s crazy. He’s crazy. He’s crazy.”
I could barely discern it was his voice. The pitch shot up and down like a roller coaster. “Eat his heart. Wet his lips. The trees aren’t happy. The trees aren’t happy, so we are all angry here. We are blacks and reds and blues. All of us here.”
My instincts ripped me in two. I was painfully aware of how much danger I was in. If I valued my life, I’d get the hell out of here. I’d go find Timothy, or Grim maybe. But the other half of me couldn’t. His pain, his power was palpable. It grated against me like course sandpaper, but Xander was the one at the epicenter.
Xander's growls and monstrous cries tore at my soul, but I couldn't leave him like this. I forced myself closer to the cage.
His rambling cut off suddenly.
Soft whispers began. All the hairs on my forearms stuck straight up as if someone were speaking directly against them.
“She thinks, she thinks she can. She thinks you won’t. She thinks you won’t, but you will.”
“You will do what?” I asked, carefully. If he came closer, I could kill him and stop whatever this was. Help carve a piece of his power off and release him from this madness.
The whispers layered like a hundred demons, scaring me even more. “She thinks you won’t eat her up, yum yum, like a dish of meat in the bowl where the tongue licks and ticks and licks.”
I didn’t understand. Maybe there was nothing to understand, but I kept thinking if I kept him talking, I could crack the code.
“Xander,” I tried to keep my voice from shaking. My hand wasn’t nearly as steady. “I need you to come to the bars so I can. . .help you.” I had to get through to Xander, to break through the madness and reach the man I knew was still there. The thought of killing him in his current state made my stomach churn, but it was a necessary evil. I would do anything to save him, even if it meant taking his life.
He whined out the words like some metal machine, “The blade doesn’t like my blood. The blade doesn’t want to bite me.”
“Xander,” I said softly as if speaking to a child. “Please come here.”
A cackle of laughter filled the air, and I had to resist covering my ears in protection. Then it stopped.
A creature slammed into the bars, bursting into supernatural blue light. My mouth parted in a silent scream as my chest seized up.
It was Xander, but not. I recognized only a trace of his likeness. His body had expanded into a massive eight-foot monster. His skin turned into black lava rock but cracks in it revealed a supernatural blue glow that also radiated hatefully from his eyes. Slate gray hair flowed upward as if underwater, defying gravity. The azure glow wafted off the top of his head and surrounded his body like an aura. The power was electric, painful, and I had to close my eyes against the burn.
My skin sizzled.
