Page 19

“Please, wait,” she begged, before she dropped her head and held her elbow. Her stance appeared defeated, and almost... hopeless? “I know you want me to leave, but you saw what happened last night. That’s what awaits me every night, whether it be this coming night, or the one after that, or even after that. I’ll be travelling for weeks if I go around the mountain. I’ll be alone, and the area is infested with Demons.”

Her features tightened, and orange darkened in his sight as little droplets collected on her glittering eyelashes.Don’t cry.Don’t make this harder than it needed to be.

“If you don’t help me, my only option is to pray I don’t die before I make it to the villages south of here.”

Steeling his heart, Nathair folded his arms. He hoped it conveyed that he wouldn’t be moved from his decision.

Her lips tightened, her eyes narrowed, and she tsked as she turned her head to the forest. “You’ve shown that you can be merciful to someone in need. That, despite what you are, you do have a heart and compassion for another being.”

Nathair’s arms loosened, and he tilted his head.I’ve never had a human speak so fondly of me or my kind before.Yes, he did have a warm heart, should he so choose. He could be understanding and sympathetic. The fact she’d seen this in him already was quite startling, and quite touching.

It wasn’t enough to subdue his determination.

“Y-you’re probably wondering why I don’t just go to the other human villages nearby, but I... can’t. If I do, I’ll just be taken again, or people will get hurt if it’s discovered they harboured me. I’m alone, and I’m... scared. I know you have no reason to help me, or anyone else, but I’m begging you anyway.”

Shaking his head, Nathair sighed. He crept forward, picked up her bag, and handed it to her.

Leave, female. There is nothing I can do for you.

Even though she took it, she only fisted it in one hand and stomped her foot. Her pretty features twisted up beseechingly towards him.

“Please don’t make me leave,” she yelled, before she ran her free hand over her hair, pushing down the loose strands. Nathair released a soft growl, and his orbs flared red in annoyance – weak annoyance. “If you make me leave, I’ll likely die. I’m only twenty-one, for pity’s sake! I want to live. My people deserve to live. I’m so desperate that I’m asking you, aDuskwalker, for help! Do you even understand how insane that is? But here I am, trying, because I have no other option.”

I don’t want to help you!Because helping her meant bloodthirst, death, and sorrow. The humans had never been kind to him. They had been cruel as they shoved him with blades and called him foul names.

Nathair shot forward and released a resounding hiss.Why should I help such horrible creatures?!

The female gasped, stumbled back, and fell onto her round backside. He held his breath as he slithered above her, then leaned around her on straightened arms.

He pulled a memory fragment to the surface. His sight blackened as he let it take hold, let it swim in the forefront of his conscience, while battling to keep his own mind present.

An argument between two human males played out, one in which would shortly morph into physical blows. They argued over cheated coin, one a villain and the other a victim.

But Nathair only needed one second of it, and he opened his maw just before it played out.

“Get out!”he roared, echoing the voice from within his mind. It shook out of him, quaked, and the voice in which he spoke with was not his own, but the human’s he was borrowing.

He shut his mouth and tried to push back the fragment, stuffing it into the back of his mind. He shuddered, his entirebody rippling in disgust. His sight came back, filled with white as agony swirled within his skull. His throat became tight at what he’d just done, accessing a memory to speak with it, never able to use his own voice.

Dread filled her features, which had turned gaunt as she gawked up at him. She had the foolish courage to say, “Y-you won’t hurt me.”

She didn’t sound so sure.

Fuck!She refused to listen, refused to bend to his will. She was more stubborn than he was, and Nathair could be rather unmoveable.

His sight blackened as he let another memory lift to his forethoughts. A woman, begging, pleading for her life, right before it was ended. Her screams would follow him for the rest of the day, but he took what he needed from it.

Opening his maw once more, he, she,they, weakly said,“Please.”

Please leave me alone. I don’t want to help you, and even if I did, I cannot.He’d slaughter them all, and then she would regret asking him for help.

Even now, just holding back his ire was a strangulation he was barely maintaining. Invisible hands attempted to mould the goo of his brain, to turn his anger and annoyance at her into fang-filled hunger.

She was at risk, and she didn’t even know it.

“Oh gods,” she cried, attempting to scramble out from underneath him. Her head butted into the boulder behind her, stopping her from going far. “Are... are they the voices of the people you’ve eaten?” she whispered.

Unfortunately, yes. At least their souls, ensuring he’d snuffed out their entire existence, even from the afterworld.