“You’ll just end up captured or dead,” I growled, stomping over to him. His jaw ticked in agitation. I pushed into his space and he immediately put his hands on my chest and pushed me back so hard I toppled to the ground.
“What the fuck!” I snapped, jumping up. His need to fight me continuously was pissing me off. We were in this together.
For a moment, self-consciousness flashed in his eyes then he buried it down, his mask of apathy snapping back into place.
“You go find Brandon but you don’t get a say in what I do.Wearen’t anything,” he said. I was silent for a moment, anger roiling inside me as it all clicked into place.
I got it now. He was being immature.Scared. He knew things were changing between us and acting like a child because caring for others freaked him out. Well, I didn’t have time for bullshit like that and I wouldn’t get pushed around and attacked because of his fucking underdeveloped humanity.
I popped up off the ground and stomped closer.
9
Mothman pulled back his arm and a moment later his fist met my cheek. My head jerked to the side and I tasted blood in my mouth as rage boiled inside me. My true self shivered to life.
“Get over yourself,” Mothman said in my head, his deep octave and scratchy tone slashing at my brain. I spit out blood and then leapt at him, seeing red. His wings came out and he lifted off the ground as I latched on, my sharp talons sinking into his arms.
“Motherfucker,” he grumbled as his wings continued to beat, lifting us farther off the ground and into the night sky. He attempted to throw me off him but I reared towards him with sharp teeth. He punched me again. I dug my talons in deeper, going through leather to meet flesh.
“You drive me fucking crazy!” I hissed through my teeth as he flinched his face away from my mouth. He grunted and shot up higher until we were way too high for me to land anymore but I was more concerned about trying to beat the shit out of him.
We fought in the sky. I had to wrap my legs around his waist so I could remove my hands and punch him in his face.
His head snapped to the side as my fist hit his jaw. I felt a rush of excitement as blood spread over his teeth and he grunted in pain. My tongue darted over my lips. He rubbed his jaw and nodded, then punched me again. I began grabbing at his coat, trying to scratch him. We started to spin. He made a grunt of disapproval as we tumbled through the dark sky.
Suddenly I didn’t know if we were going up or down, my sense of the earth lost as we scrambled to beat the shit out of each other.
“Fuck!” He barked in my head and I looked up, which happened to be down. His hat dropped from his head and went into the trees we flew over. We were headed towards the earth but a river was close. I smiled and tugged on his jacket, trying to steer us to the water.
“Let’s see how you do in my domain,” I hissed. His eyes widened in panic a moment before we crashed into the water. I inhaled the freshwater, released my legs from his waist, and wrapped my arms around him to make sure he didn’t get away. Two glowing red eyes aimed at me in displeasure as I smiled a wide mouth of teeth, unhinging my jaw to show him the capabilities of pain.
He frantically began kicking at me. I could tell he was getting desperate for air so I released him with a shove, sighing as the fight left me. Instead of swimming, his limbs flailed widely. He tried to kick up but I watched as he slowly descended deeper into the river, the massive fabric of his wings pulling him down.
“Caspian!” He cried in my head, reaching for me. That’s when I realized he couldn’t swim. Not only that but his wet wings weighed him down so he could only sink instead of float up.
“Cas—” He pleaded and I heard desperation and fear. I shot at him as fast as I could, wrapping my arms around his body. He didn’t make getting to the surface easy. He flailed in panic, gripping me too frantically, clinging, trying to climb up my body and making me sink some.
I growled and snapped at his face to try to get him to calm down. Then I powerfully moved in the water. He was fighting me too much to swim straight to the surface so I had to get us to the side of the river and then climb up the beach as fast as I could, worried about his lung capacity. He wasn’t struggling anymore and by the time we broke the surface I realized he was limp.
“Fuck!” I barked, dragging him out of the water, just his water-logged boots still in the river. I looked down at him unmoving and panicked. “Shit, shit, shit.” I eyed his mouth, then went to my knees. I bent over him, trying to find a nose but there was nothing. Was CPR even going to work? I looked down at his chest and didn’t see it expanding. I swallowed and started to go in for mouth-to-mouth.
He jerked once and then regurgitated water right in my face. Some splashed in my mouth and I lurched back then shoved him on his side so the bastard wouldn’t inhale his thrown up water again. He threw up more water and groaned face down in the dirt.
“You’ll live,” I grumbled. “You just threw up in my mouth,” I said, spitting on the shore, trying to get the taste out of my mouth. Deep, scratchy laughter resounded in my head, making me wince slightly.
“What’s so funny?”
“You threw up on me before. We’re even now.” He rolled on his back and looked up at the dark sky.
“Fuck,” I breathed out, flopping on my back next to him. Adrenaline was coursing through my veins, making me jittery. My nerves were fried. Ava was back with the cult and we were attempting to mildly kill one another. I put a hand over my eyes and gave out a laugh. We were ridiculous. My laugh came out choked.
“Are you alright?” Mothman asked. I turned away from him so he wouldn’t see me trying to control my sudden panic.
“What if Ava isn’t okay?” I asked. I couldn't believe we had to leave her behind. Mothman shifted and I stilled as he looped an arm around my waist.
“What are you doing?” I snapped.
“It’s called comfort,” he huffed out. Comfort. He was trying to comfort me. Oh, what the fuck? I didn’t know how to handle this situation between us. Mothman was surprisingly warm despite being completely wet. No one had ever held me like this before and the only person I’d ever held was Ava. Ava who was back with the cult.
