Not at the hands of this freak.
The fucker’s eyes smirked at me like he knew I wasn’t a threat to him, even hovering over him wielding heavy duty metal.
Think, Talia.
How could he possibly be so confident? He should be doing something to keep me from interfering.
I’d punched the expression right off his face, if I thought it would accomplish something other than breaking my hand. It made a thought finally click. I’d shoved him. Granted it didn’t do anything, but I was able to do it.
And other than a little man-handling, he hadn’t taken any action against me. In fact, I hadn’t been his target at all earlier.
Why? He was clearly stronger and faster. I was a threat to his home. He should eliminate me.
All the times I’d pissed him off, and he’d basically walked away, suddenly made sense. I couldn’t hurt him any more than he could harm me.
That left a lot of questions on why and how, but that wasn’t important. Getting Drew out of this is what mattered.
I hadn’t failed. I needed to pivot.
Tossing the flashlight to the side, I straddled on top of the monster’s back. He bucked back, surprised I sat on him, and almost flung me off.
Drew screamed since the monster never let him go. Skin ripped off his thigh like it was nothing and hot, wet blood spurted over all my face and chest. All I could smell was thedistinct tang of metal. Bone crushing reached my ears, and I had to forcefully hold my stomach down.
Not now. Survive now. Cry later.
I aimed for the monster’s nostrils, but each time he jerked his head back, redirecting all my focus on simply hanging on. It wasn’t until the third try that I jammed a finger in each nostril, all the way up to the third knuckle.
He attempted to blow air out and panicked when he couldn’t inhale. Immediately forcing him to release his hold on Drew’s leg, and threw his weight back with enough force to send me flying through the air.
I sank for a minute, before the force of a torpedo slammed past me. It felt like running into a wall, and all my air came out in a slew of bubbles. I could assume that was his way of telling me how much he appreciated my stunt.
I swam for the surface and back to land as Shannon pulled Drew further away from the edge. Something knocked into me, but I couldn’t see through the water.
It was him.
I waited for him to try again, let him get close, and wrapped my arms around his snout. He picked me up above the water.
“Fuck off,” I told him.
His response was to slam me into the water in a way that made every inch of my body scream in agony. He went still in the water beside me and grunted as if he was the injured one. I wasn’t sure why, but I didn’t question it.
I knew an escape chance when I saw one.
Once I was back on dry land, it took the edge off my nerves. I rushed to Shannon to help her. “It’s not enough.”
Because now he was pissed.
“I know.” She whimpered.
I ducked under Drew’s other shoulder, and we carted him away deeper in the trees. Even though I knew that wouldn’treally help. But if we continued this in the water, we were done for.
Besides, if I died by drowning, I was going to personally haunt everyone.
Drew was in shock, muttering unintelligently to himself and didn’t help carry his weight at all.
“Talia!” a deep guttural voice echoed and bounced off the trees, shaking something deep within me. The natural swamp sounds went silent as if not even the birds wanted to be heard. I smothered the gasp under my hand, and Shannon froze in place. If there had been anything on my bladder, I would have pissed myself. “You can’t hide from me, Witch.”
Somehow that was worse than his feral silence.
