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Chapter Ten
Creatures and Men
The shrieking sounds were so unnatural, they twisted my guts, pulling me apart from the inside. But this creature was different from the last. It manifested the same putrid feeling in my bones, with its decaying features, but it was somehow more human. It approached us running at full speed on two legs. It not only bared teeth and claws but a sword. In its gruesome palm was a blade, solid black from tip to handle. The blade sucked light into it like an endless void.
This creature was armed. Intricate red-and-black armor covered its torso. It was not just a creature. It was a warrior, and this warrior didn’t just want to kill. It wanted to consume.
I tasted his rage as it filled the air. It must be the connection. In some way, I could feel what it felt. The feelings had a taste, a color, a smell, like nothing else. That was what I’d smelled that night near the water, before the shrieks. I sensed what it was. I connected to the creature—its need to destroy.
Its face was taut, with deep crimson tattoos stretched across its cheekbones and down its jaw.
Logan gripped me tighter against him and then pushed us both back against the cave wall. His arms like steel, he held me in place. He didn’t look down at me but turned his back to me, facing the creature head on. Placing himself between it and me.
I tore my eyes from the creature to the ground. Only a few boulders separated us and the creature now.
Grabbing onto Logan’s shoulder, I tried to push him closer to the ridge wall.
He wouldn’t move. His body stood in an impenetrable stance in front of me.
I couldn’t see past Logan’s broad shoulders.
This isn’t your fight, Logan.
“Logan. Move!” The commanding words left my lips in warning.
Logan quickly glanced over his shoulder at me. “What?”
The creature scraped his blade down a pink rock, making black sparks soar from the stone.
I felt the creature. It waited. It enjoyed watching the fear build. It wanted our panic to fill the air.
“Logan. Get. Behind. Me,” I breathed, just loud enough for him to hear.
Please let whatever is inside me be enough.
Logan kept his eyes on the creature, watching the dark embers fly from the pillar. Like flecks of lead, they landed in a black puddle on the ground.
“Charlie, stay against the wall,” Logan yelled before releasing his restraining arm.
Logan lunged sideways, crouching down to the ground. Without removing his gaze from the creature, he slid his forearm into his pack. His long arm vanished into the depth of his bag as the creature pounced onto the closest boulder.
Logan withdrew a long silver dagger as he stood.
The terrifying creature tilted his head toward the sky and howled, sending shrills of fury into the heavens.
The scream was more man than beast. It felt like a calling of one to another. The creature lifted his claws to the sky and shrieked again as he thrust his dark blade in beat with his cries. Then the creature lowered his head, and turned his eyes to me.
It was the same eyes from my dream. Like its blade, his black eyes were a bottomless void. They were not just darkness, but the opposite of all light, of all color. The creature flipped its blade, pointing it straight at me.
Its mouth tilted in a sneer—a devilish black smile. It licked its bloodstained teeth. It was a grin of recognition. This creature knew me. It recognized me from the dreams. It was drawn to me, to the light inside me. It wanted to consume it.
My breath caught in my throat.
Oh, shit. This is bad!
I couldn’t take my eyes from its death stare as it flung itself from the boulder toward me. When its boots hit the ground, I tore away from Logan’s side. If it wanted me bad enough, it would leave Logan alone.
As soon as my back came off the cliff wall, the creature’s chest jolted backwards. The sound of repeated shots reverberated into the canyon. The bangs were not from a small pistol, but from multiple large guns firing in unison.
