At that moment, a sixth, much larger nemin seems to appear out of nowhere. It looks much the same as the others, though there’s more muscle on its wiry arms and legs. It turns its alert gaze from the forest to the five nemins in front of me.“What’s the argument? I’m hungry. Let’s eat.”
The nemin who slapped the other one quickly explains the situation. When it’s done speaking, the larger nemin seems to consider me.“We can’t risk a curse,”it finally says reluctantly.“Our hollowing may not survive. We wait for another to kill the human before we feast.”
The nemin who had suggested this plan prior, looks pleased, and on the bright side, I’m thinking I’ve bought myself some time. That the nemin will leave me alone for a while. At least, until some other monster comes to finish me.
Before I can even mentally celebrate, the nemin who got slapped goes for my feet again.“You’re all being selfish! There’s no curse,”he spits, and opening his mouth wide, he bites my big toe.
That’s right, hebitesit. I’m not laughing now. His fangs sink into my flesh, and a searing, burning agony stabs into me. It’s like something is attacking all the nerves in my body at once, and I scream. The sound pierces the forest, and I’m sure I’m imagining it, but the trees seem to shake around me.
As the scream continues to rip from my lips, the nemins cover their ears and stare at me in horror.
Chapter Ten
~ Galen ~
Ikeep my gaze focused on my treasure as the unsuspecting nemins surround our mate, and I’m surprised at how much restraint I need to stop myself from sending my shadows to her aide. The pests circle her, taking turns tasting our mate with their disgusting little violating tongues.
“Think we overdid it?”Thane asks, no doubt referring to how we let our poor mate think we’d left her. I feel horrible about it now, but I tell myself we’ll make it up to her later.
“No,”Knox replies coldly.
We’re no longer using our shadow power to mask Shade’s voice, but we’re still keeping our own conversation private, and ensuring that we and our bonded animali, are cloaked from the creatures of the wild forest around us. My shadows carry the large cage that’s resting close by, and Raith is a few paces from me. Thane and Knox are across the clearing, hidden in the trees, the four of us creating a box surrounding our mate.
Kazer prowls behind Raith, his paws silent as he pads over the ground, pacing back and forth, but Arizak remains completely still, his attention solely fixed on Shade.
“Can we save her now?”Raith’s agitated voice sounds in my ears, echoing my own thoughts.
“Not yet,”Knox replies.“We need to wait for the leader of the hollowing. They won’t try to actually eat her until he arrives.”
“I’ll cut out their tongues after this,”Raith snarls, rubbing his thumb over the hilt of his sword.“Then I’ll feed them back to the nemins seein’ as they’re so fuckin’ hungry.”
“We need the nemins for the games,”Thane growls back, though he sounds just as pissed off as the rest of us.
“Perhaps, we could simply take out the biter nemin,”I suggest.“The hollowing will still be able to hunt without him as long as we have the leader.”
“Sounds pretty damn good to me,”Raith says.
No one else replies for a long moment as the others consider my proposal, and Shade’s laughter sounds across the clearing.
Eventually, Thane replies,“Agreed.”
A small thread of satisfaction goes through me, but it does nothing to ease the irritation as I watch my mate at the mercy of the nemins. Other times when we’ve done this in the past, it has always been a grim affair, usually one that left our bait dead, but tonight I struggle to watch the creatures fuss over their prey. With every fibre of my being, I want to enter that clearing and tear the little creatures apart for even daring to touch my mate. This was a fucking terrible idea. We probably should have used one of the more troublesome students we’ve been keeping an eye on.
Shade’s laughter gets louder, and I sense as more creatures stir in the forest, awakened by the sound. They’re all curious, but they don’t show themselves. No, they wait, watching to see what will happen.
“I can’t take this much longer,”Raith says, squeezing the pommel of his sword tightly.
Around Shade, the nemins speak in their musical language, making a string of whistling and tinkling noises.
“We need to act soon,”I agree, and it’s not a suggestion. We’ve waited long enough as we’ve watched the creatures tormenting our mate.
“The leader still hasn’t shown himself,”Thane reminds us, but frankly, I don’t give a bloody damn. We’ll just have to come back another night with fresh bait and try this again.
I’m about to move from the trees and carve through the nemins with my power, when the creatures all become completely still. They stare at Shade in surprise as she…communicates with them, their musical language flowing easily from her perfect lips.
I wonder if I’m imagining it, but Raith is the first to comment.“Did she just fuckin’ speak to the little buggers?”
We all stare in silence as our mate converses with the nemins as if it’s completely natural.
