Another hiss followed a wet thwacking noise. All at once, numerous rattles went off. I resisted clapping my hands over my ears to dampen the deafening sound while the rattles reverberated all around me. More dirt and rocks fell from the ceiling; they pelted my shoulders and legs as I continued to crab crawl toward…something.
My back hit a wall, and I slid up it as I finally succeeded in inhaling completely again. My hand fell to the gun hanging at my waist. My fingers closed around the handle and froze. I didn’t dare pull it free and start firing when I had no idea where Corson was. I couldn’t take the risk of injuring him. The bullets wouldn’t kill him, but they would slow him down when he needed his speed most. However, I couldn’t stand here and donothing.
Flesh split open with a wet tearing sound I’d heard more than a few times in my life. Demons had a way of ripping people to shreds before tossing them aside as if they were no more than the dolls I’d flung aside as a child. The coppery tang of blood permeated the air. Something or someone had been sliced open. I wanted to scream, not with fear, but with frustration as numerous rattleswentoff.
IsCorsonokay?
My blood thundered through my ears at the possibility it was his blood I smelled and that the ouro could be gulping down bits and pieces of him right now. I opened my mouth to call out to him, but I didn’t dare risk distracting him or revealing my location to the ouro. The snake didn’t seem to have as much of a problem navigating this dark underworld as we did, but right now I didn’t think it knew where I was. That small element of surprise was all Corson and I had going for usrightnow.
Don’t snakes hunt by heat sensors or something? I didn’t remember where I’d heard that before, probably from Randy, but it would make sense if this thing had pursued us with such ease. That also meant there would be no surprise and this thing already knew where Istood.
The rattles abruptly stopped, and then a loud crash echoed through the tunnel. The ground heaved; the wall behind my back quaked. My stomach dropped when rocks and dirt plummeted from the ceiling at a far faster rate. The weight of the debris bore down on my toes as it crept toward myankles.
I’m about to be buriedalive!
All the hair on my arms rose as I waited for the battle to continue or for something more than the rubble to keep piling up around me. “Corson?” I dared to whisper when the debris reached myankles.
I nearly shrieked when a hand fell on my shoulder. “It’s okay,” he murmured. “We have to get outofhere.”
“No shit,” I retorted and immediately regretted being bitchy when he’d savedmylife.
He chuckled, and his hand squeezed my shoulder. Before I could try to pull myself free from the rubble rising up my calves, he rested his hands on my hips to lift me. The dirt clutched at me, refusing to let go as Corson tuggedatme.
The unsettling thought that it wasn’t only the rising debris keeping me in place, but a hand had risen from the grave to drag me into Hell, hit me. I imagined the dead, gray skin of the hand flaking away as it tugged at me with inhuman strength, refusing to release me. The dead coming to life, and hands rising from graves wasn’t impossible after everything else I’d seen and experienced over theyears.
With a sucking noise, Corson finally succeeded in wrenching me from death’s grip. He carried me through the hailstorm of rubble cascading over us and into what I assumed was another tunnel. This one was blessedly clear of a collapsingceiling.
He set me down, and I stepped away from him to wipe the dirt from my hair and clothes. When I was done with that, I took a minute to stabilize my shaking hands. Slowly, above the muted noise of the collapsing tunnel, a dripping sound pierced myringingears.
“What happened?” I whispered when I felt stable enough to speakagain.
“To escape me, the ouro punched a new hole into the ceiling of thetunnel.”
I realized he’d moved and that I was facing away from him when he spoke. I turned toward his voice as his words settled in. That thing had fledhim? I’d seen Corson kill, witnessed his ruthlessness, but now I knew I’d only glimpsed what he was truly capable ofdoing.
“Are you hurt?” Iasked.
He’d moved closer so that his breath warmed my ear. My heartbeat escalated in response to his nearness. The memory of being held close to him earlier rippled across my mind.What would it be like if he turned his head, so his lips touchedmyskin?
“Nothing serious,” he murmured. “Areyouokay?”
I edged away to put some distance between us again. He was a demon, and sexual attraction or not, nothing couldeverhappenbetweenus.
“Fine. What is that dripping noise?” I inquired when I heard a plopagain.
“Ouroboros blood,” Corson replied. “I’m pretty sure I eviscerated it while it wasfleeing.”
Sexy.I wasn’t sure if the thought was as sarcastic as I’d meant it to be though, or if I did find it sexy. Corson was a warrior, and there was something unbelievably sexy about that, but eviscerated snakes weren’t exactly aturn-on.
Then why am I still wondering what it would be like to feel his lips on me?Because my brain had bounced off my skull more than a few times when we’d tumbled into the ouro’s trap, I decided. Thathadto be thereason.
“We should go,” Corson said. “The ouro will take some time to heal, but it will come back for us, and it will be more vengeful whenitdoes.”
“Wherearewe?”
“I have no ideaanymore.”
ChapterNine
