My breath catches. The man that slid in hovers in front of me with red-tinted eyes and massive horns curling over his head. Chills break out over my body, and I shiver, though that might be from fever and not fear.
“This one is dead,” the horned monster says.
Golden guy crouches beside me, and I meet his eyes. He’s frowning at me. “Not yet. There’s time.” He grabs my arm and hauls me to my feet again, but I have no strength left.
“Are you bringing him with us?” the man with glowing cracks asks.
“Yep.”
“Why?”
“Why not? I can save his life.”
“You don’t need a new pet, Keary,” glowing cracks says.
“You don’t need to come with me,” the man holding me somewhat vertical—Keary?—retorts. “I never asked you to.”
Neither monster responds. Keary shifts until he can get me on his back, then he walks deeper into the crypt. This can’t be good, but, fuck, I’m about to lose consciousness, so I’m not sure it matters why he’s saving my life.
My human body wasn’t made to resist beastly poison. The last thing I recall is a beam of light bursting into flames. I watch them dance until they fade into nothing.
KEARY
A stranger’s life holds no bearing on mine, so why can’t I sit back and watch the show of beast eating man? What the fuck is this?
This human is a big guy—bigger than me—and I’m kind of digging it. It’s not often that I think someone is heavy. I’m not exactly struggling, but I definitely feel his weight. It makes me skip a little when I walk. Kind of exciting to feel his weight.
However, he’s unconscious. That might be why he weighs so much right now. He’s dead weight on my back.
I’m not entirely sure why I saved him. I’d seen him sprint by me when he first ran into the cemetery. He was on a mission to get away from the beast, so he didn’t see me, Notto, or Drystan at all. To be fair, the beast didn’t take much notice of us either as it charged after him.
Humans need better survival training. The only thing you’re going to do by running from a predator is activate their instinctto chase prey. And when you’re as deadly as this thing, it’s not worth the effort.
I suppose the human fascinated me because he knew exactly where he was going. Hedidhave survival instincts, and he employed them pretty well. I think we were all surprised when the beast crossed into the cemetery without being hindered.
It was curious, and that might be why we followed. Beasts tend to avoid the dead. Maybe that’s why humans were so apt to bury so many bodies in a single area. No, that doesn’t make sense. It’s been a while since humans ruled the world, but this practice of burying your dead in a single place spans time and civilizations.
Think of the Ancient Egyptians. They dedicated entire desert valleys to the dead by placing their mummified corpses into temple shrines. Weird.
“It’s strange that the beast crossed into the graveyard,” Drystan says. “Right? Or am I making that up?”
I smirk, not only because he’s echoing my thoughts but also because his mind is strange. While he’s only barely a hundred years old, his memories seem to transcend lifetimes. It’s not unusual for the teko. In fact, it’s quite common. But it makes talking to them fascinating because all those memories overlap until they have a difficult time knowing which events are taking place now, what happened in their lifetime, and what memories are lingering from a past they were never a part of.
“Yes,” I agree. “Either the beasts are realizing that the dead can’t hurt them, or…” I don’t finish because I’m not sure what the alternative is. I’m not even sure why they avoid burial grounds. It’s just something we’ve come to observe about them.
“Why did you save the human?” Notto asks.
And there it is. The question they really want to know.
I enjoyed watching this human survive the beast. It shouldn’t have happened for as long as it did. The beasts are stupidlyintelligent, so they learn and adapt from every encounter. That’s what makes them so dangerous, especially toward humans.
There’s no real reason that I interfered and saved this man. When I saw that he’d been hit with the quill, I should have walked away. My amusement was over.
But… I had a very strange visceral reaction. A disgusting feeling filled my stomach, and I needed to save him. Even now, I know that my time to get this poison out of him is running out, and it makes my heart pound wildly.
Is that… fear? Am I afraid of him dying?
Impossible. Gods aren’t afraid of shit. What does it matter to me if he dies?
