Lifting Wren, I pinned her to my chest. I much preferred to stay and attack, to slice the ouro to shreds and end it, but I couldn’t risk her getting hurt while I battled thebeast.
Wren’s hands shoved against my shoulders, and her feet kicked my shins as I turned and fled down the tunnel with her. “Put me down,” she ordered. “I can run; I canfight.”
Rocks and dirt clattered behind us, the rattles reverberated against the walls as the ouro came after us. Where the silence had been deafening, this cacophony beat against my ears until it became my entire world. Wren went still in my arms before she wrapped her legs around my waist and clung to me whileIran.
ChapterEight
Wren
My mouth went dry, and my fingers dug into Corson’s shoulders as he raced across the ground. That hiss seemed to come from only feet away, but the constricting walls and the blackness threw all sounds off. The ouro could be only inches behind us or fifty feet away. The not knowing was worse than the ouro’s foul breath, which smelled like it had fifty dead skunks trapped in itsfangs.
I should tell Corson to put me down again. I shouldn’t be relying on a demon to save me, but I couldn’t run as fast as he could, and I definitely couldn’t outrun the snake breathing down our necks. I didn’t have so much pride I would put it ahead of my life. Mine may not be the greatest of lives—it was often difficult, terrifying, and bloody—but I far preferred it to the alternative ofnothavingit.
The part of me clinging to my pride was muzzled by the far larger part of me trying not to slap Corson’s shoulders and yell at him to gofaster.
When the ouro hissed again, its breath blew the loose strands of my hair back from my face and nearly set my gag reflex off. Then, something slithered against my face. I yelped before I could bite my lip to suppress it. Bile rushed up my throat when the ouro’s hideous, wet tongue stroked my cheek again. Then, the tongue either retracted or Corson sped beyond itsreach.
“Faster,” I breathed, and Corson grunted areply.
For all I knew, we were running into a dead end, but I was willing to take that chance. Corson’s arms tightened around my waist as he spun suddenly to the side. Unprepared for the movement, my head snapped sideways, and my neck screamed inprotest.
I lowered my head and rested my chin on his shoulder as he ran down what I assumed was another tunnel. His lean muscles flexed against me; his arms held me as if he would never let go while his long legs effortlessly ate away the ground. Air whipped around me and whistled past my ears as he ran deeper and deeper into the earth. I’d been trying to keep track of our steps and turns, but that was all lost now as I held Corsontighter.
A monstrous Hell creature was on our asses, and somehow I felt inexplicably safe clutched in his arms. He wouldn’t let anything happen to me. I didn’t know how I knew that, but once it rooted in my mind, it wouldn’t let go. Releasing me to save himself would be the smart thing to do, the thing most likely to keep him alive. I would have done it to him, but Corson would keepmesafe.
Would I have done ittohim?
I’d done some pretty shitty things to ensure I’d lived this long. I’d killed other humans—they had deserved to die, but their blood still stained my hands—but I’d never left an ally behind or abandoned them to save myself. I’d been tempted to leave a few behind over the years because they were weak or assholes, yet I’d always stayed by their side. I’d nearly died a time or two becauseofit.
Now I realized that, demon or not, I wouldn’t have left Corson behind either. It was one thing to save my skin; it was another to have to live with the knowledge that I’d sacrificed another to live. I never could have lived with thatknowledge.
A loud crash sounded from behind us. The walls quaked, and the debris falling from above clattered against the ground at a faster rate. I threw my arms up to protect Corson and me from the rubble raining down on us. I’d prefer being buried alive to being devoured by an ouro-what’s-it-called, but they were two of the worst possible ways I could think oftogo.
I turned my face into Corson’s neck as more rocks pelted off my arms. The musky scent of him filled my nose; beneath that I smelled the faint hint of fire. I realized that Hell was forever stamped upon his skin, branding him as the demon he was. Before, such a reminder would have caused loathing to coil within me. Now I felt relief thatthisdemon was carrying me away from ourenemy.
When the debris stopped falling, I lowered my arms and gripped his shoulders once more. I was no lightweight, but he showed no signs of tiring. One of his arms remained locked around my waist as his other hand slid up to gripmyneck.
The possessive hold made me acutely aware of how close we were to each other. The increased scent of him battered my senses as his lean muscles flexed against me and I felt the power flowing through him. For the first time in my life, I found myself experiencing an intense sexual attraction to someone, and it was ademon.
I’d hit my head when we fell into the ouro’s trap, or I’d completely lost the last bit of mysanity.
Now was not the time for this, yet I found myself fighting the impulse to turn my mouth into his neck. To run my tongue over his skin and taste his fire-scented flesh as I pressed my breasts more firmly against hischest.
You’re anidiot!
Yes, I was, but my hands had a mind of their own as they flattened against his back. I full-on deserved to be eaten for my stupidity right now, but I still slid my hands a little lower to run them over his shoulder blades. The rapid beat of my heart was no longer just from the creaturepursuingus.
Corson skidded to a halt, pebbles kicked away from him and clattered against something solid. I felt like I’d jumped into a lake in the middle of January as all my desire turned to icydread.
A wall! There is a wall before us! Dead end. In more ways than one!I almost laughed bitterly at my own bad joke, but I couldn’t get enough saliva into my mouth to make asound.
Sweat beaded my palms as I held Corson and gazed into the blackness before me. The rattling had ceased, and no vibrations shook the tunnel. Lying inside a coffin couldn’t be worse than the awful hush that encompassed the tunnel. Then, I felt the smallest stirring of air to myright.
Corson pushed me off him like I was on fire. Unprepared for the abrupt movement, my legs couldn’t catch me in time, and I hit the ground with a thud. My tailbone shrieked in protest, and the air burst out of mylungs.
Scuffling sounded, that awful hiss filled the air, then more rattles went off as I struggled to inhale air into my non-working lungs. Corson grunted; something solid thwacked against something else. Feeling my way across the stone lining the cold ground, I crept back, or at least I assumed I was edging away from the noises. The dark had robbed me of all sense ofdirection.
I would have given anything for a match, for a chance to seesomethingif only for the briefest of seconds.What is happening? Where isCorson?
