“Now!”he yelled.“Over the bed!”
She had far more presence of mind than the usual civilian.Liv scrambled onto the mattress, her knee catching in tangled blankets; she spilled down on the other side, freeing him from the need to keep her defended in the corner.
Now he had some space.If she ran for the door…
But she probably had forgotten the door even existed, at this point.Hisliraikept going, scrabbling across hardwood on hands and knees with little bruising sounds, and fetched up against the dark wooden wardrobe, making a soft hopeless sound that tightened every string in his body as Erik danced, knocking tentacles aside, lunging, one of his boots landing on a rubbery, ichor-spraying, slippery writhing that threatened to throw him if he hadn’t been moving so fast.Superhuman speed was a blessing; he rammed a knife into what he sensed was a direction-finding appendage loaded with dark nerves and was rewarded with a blast of foul air as the thing gave a partly psychic shriek.
Theoneirosflashed, and in that transitory glow the thing was exposed in pitiless detail as it tried heaving through the crumbling wall again.It wasn’t like a juvenileshoggothto attack a temple, even a minor Sons building without a residentliraiand access to the Flame.How the hell had it broken the perimeter?Where was Jake, where was Father?He was making alotof noise, they had to be alerted.
More unclean ichor sprayed, stinking and smoking; he retreated step by step, teaching the thing that the snack it was after had sharp spines and would use them.“Get up,” he yelled, hoping she wasn’t yet in shock or crazed with fear.“On your feet,lirai.”Erik almost barkedsoldierinstead, as if she were Jake on a training run long ago.
That was when he heard the other noises—terrible slipslithering, tapping, inhuman steps, groan-creaking exhalations—coming from the wrong direction.
From the door he’d busted down in such a hurry, and the hall beyond.
Erik’s entire body turned to ice; for a moment he thought he was trapped in one of the Mad God’s nightmares.The temple was not just breached but outright invaded, and the largerliraimwas about to become a deathtrap.He hopped onto the bed, ichor-filthy boots sinking into softness, and was at her side a moment later as the tentacles, many bleeding as they writhed, turned themselves to the work of busily widening the hole in the wall.
Most shadowbeasts weren’t exactly smart, but they were cunning.And robust.
Stone crumbled, and when Erik reached down with his spattered, tainted left hand she grabbed on with surprising strength, her fingers biting hard.He hauled her up again, trying to be careful of her fragility; theoneirosspoke once more, a scintillating gleam describing the thing in pitiless detail.Hislirailet out a short, wounded cry at the sight of cilia-crusted tentacles slithering forward, some hanging by ropes of wet gristle, others painted with steaming, gushing foulness.
“It’s all right,” he found himself saying, though this was the very definition offar from fucking all right, thank you.“It’s okay,” he continued.“I’m here, you’re okay.Don’t look at it.”
“H-hard not to,” she stammered, and his heart hurt.For a moment he thought the beast had flung a spine-dart at him, never mind that it was the wrong species to do so.He snapped a quick glance at her, checking for damage.
Her hair was a soft, glorious cloud, her arms and legs bare.The black tank top and grey boxers she wore to bed clung to her curves, and if he hadn’t been full to overflowing with battle-rage he might have stopped for a moment to consider her state of undress with some appreciation.
Instead, he grabbed her arm and edged sideways, keeping an eye on the tentacles.“Door,” he said, and they were almost there when the firstjana-spider scuttled through and he shoved her for cover.Hisliraiscreamed, landing with a thump in the space between wardrobe’s flank and the wall; Erik was prepared to die fighting when a solid length of silver blurred down, piercing the thing’s fungus-starred carapace.Bulbous red grape-bunch eyes flickered and the spider screeched, mandibles clicking angrily.
Ignatius twisted the broadsword viciously, ripping it free of the floor and tearing unlife from the thing with a muttered, sorcerous word.
Relief was a dirty orange explosion in Erik’s chest, but there was no time.Now he heard gunfire echoing in the hall—Jake, mopping upjana-spiders and whatever else was scurrying out there.Ignatius stepped over the thing’s remains and glanced at theliraihuddling behind Erik, her hands clasped to her head, mouth trembling, her eyes rolling like a maddened horse’s.Father nodded fractionally and moved forward, thin purple ichor slithering down the broadsword’s shining length.
Erik promptly consigned the thing in the window to the realm ofnot my problemand hauled his potential for the door.She went almost willingly, and he had a terrifying desire to laugh.
She’d thrown alamp.At a tentacled horror most normals would go gratefully insane upon encountering.
Good job, beautiful.Just stay with me, and it’ll be fine.The last part was a lie, but that wasn’t why he swallowed the sentence.It tasted like iron going down, no doubt his mouth was bleeding.
The hall was a shambles, splattered with purple ichor and scattered withjanahusks crumble-rotting, sending up curls of nasty steam.Jake put two bullets in the last spider, popping both primary compound eyes before glancing up, his face a feral mask and blue gaze furiously alight.“Garage,” he snapped, his gaze passing down thelirai’s body in a smooth arc, looking for damage.It didn’t even halt at her chest or hips, thank the Dreamers.“Let’s go.”
Theirliraistopped, digging her heels in.
“Come on,” Erik husked, his voice husky-strange after combat yells, and theliraimshook with a combination of the tentacled thing’s keening and Ignatius’s battle-roar, a sound too immense to come from such a narrow, seemingly elderly chest.
It had been a long damn time since Erik had heard that particular sound.Then he realized she was barefoot and the floor was awash with ichor.Shit.
His potential shook her head, wildly, but he’d already sheathed his remaining knife and bent, scooping her into his arms.Liv let out a short surprised sound, and Jake rolled his eyes.
“Fine, take the easy job,” Younger Brother snarled, the fey glee of a good fight still contorting his face.“Let’sgo.”
Not Safe
She was finally,finallyoutside her cage, but Liv couldn’t even feel good about it—and forget feeling liberated, either.Ignatius, gaunt face masked with drying blood and guck, slumped in the passenger seat of a very expensive, very heavy black SUV.Erik, splashed with fifteen different flavors of goop, gunk, and bright stripes of blood as well, was in the seat next to her.Of the three of them, Jake looked the least wounded, but half his face was puffy with dark bruises and he winced uneasily behind the wheel every time he braked or turned.
The engine hummed quietly; she was not just out of her cage but outside the big stone pile as well.But Liv was shaken with the irrational desire to try to run back into the building because the thought of those thingsoutsideand chasing them… well, now she knew why abused pets often stayed in familiar spaces rather than risk escape.
She’d been turned into a goddamn hamster.
