Page 76 of Heartless

I know.

An image formed in my mind.

Won’t work. He’s too big.

I didn’t have any other choice.

I locked both hands around his forearm, braced my shoulders against the wall and swung both legs up…up…up, and locked them around his head.

I dug my toes into the grooves separating the strange tentacles that ran like ropes along his spine, from the base of his skull to halfway down his back. I dug in, deep. Pushed like I was trying to break out of an egg.

His flesh tore. He screamed and tossed me away from him.

I fell flat on my back. My head hit the floor. Hard. I rolled onto my side and shoved up onto my forearms.

Zarren? Where was Zarren?

“Helion!” Nexus 5 screamed his name.

I tried to make sense of what I saw.

Kayn. He flashed from place to place, his blade cutting, retreating before the Hive could react. Strike. Disappear.

Oberon was surrounded, using his blaster to hold three enemies at bay while he fought another with his knife.

Zarren…

My mate was unrecognizable, drenched in blood, head, armor, boots. A pile of dead lay in his wake. No color but dark red was visible everywhere on his body—except his eyes. Those bright green eyes focused on Nexus 5 from a blood drenched face. Unblinking. Deadly. Like a demon’s.

I am a monster, Willow. Nothing less.

He’d warned me.

Nexus 5 and Zarren moved at the same time. Zarren charged. Dodged one strike. Was hit by another.

They moved so fast I couldn’t keep up. Limbs tangled and twisted, angry snarls and grunts of pain.

Zarren had him down. Nexus 5 fell to one knee.

In a fit of rage Zarren grabbed him, one hand shoved into Nexus 5’s mouth.

He screamed as he tore the blue male’s head in half, split his jaw into pieces, tore until the tentacle-like strands separated from the base of his skull.

Zarren threw the top of my captor’s head aside and dropped the very dead body at his feet.

Shocked, I stared.

“Willow?”

Zarren didn’t move, as if he was afraid to touch me.

I scrambled to my feet and threw myself into his arms.

“Willow, I’m—”

“Shh. Shut up. I don’t care. I love you. I don’t care how many monsters you kill. Just run. We have to run. I set a self-destruct.”

“How long do we have?”