Page 9

Chapter 8

WHY ARE THE HOT ONES ALWAYS ARROGANT ASSHOLES?

T he battle was over, and the rain stopped. Umbra and her guards gathered with the black and silver clad warriors, too far from the carriage for us to eavesdrop on their conversation.

Savior dude had raked back his wet hair, revealing a hard profile. All angles and sharp edges. He turned his head to look at the carriage, our gazes clashed, and his mouth turned down in distaste.

“What is his problem?” Remi said.

“Maybe he has a thing against humans,” Priti suggested.

“Oh definitely,” Dharma said.

Whatever his deal, he’d saved me, and I was grateful for that.

Movement off road caught my eye. “It’s Cor. He made it.”

The rakshasa plodded toward Umbra, head down, axe held loosely at his side. There was no sign of Eesha. My heart sank.

“The beasts got him, didn’t they?” the guy with the black eye said.

“Looks like,” Dharma replied.

Cor joined the gathered party where one of the guards placed his hand on his shoulder saying something that had him shaking his head and covering his face with his free hand.

Umbra looked over at our carriage with a frown before breaking away from the group and striding over.

We quickly backed away from the door as she pulled it open and ran her gaze over us. She was taking a headcount. “Good. You all made it.”

I had to know. “What were those things?”

“Those things were revenants. And they’re part of the reason you’re here.”

“What?”

Her smile was mirthless. “You’re going to help us to fight them.”

The horses were dead.

The carriages were now useless, and so we were forced to travel on foot.

Umbra’s statement had left us with questions, but she’d shut them down, stating that we would be briefed once we reach Prashikshan domain.

Wherever that was.

We trudged up the road with an escort of black and silver clad warriors and green and gold clad guards. The colors obviously meant something. The guards had fought the revenants, but nowhere near as effectively as the ones in the black uniforms. Those guys had glowing swords that turned the revenants to ash.

They had to be some kind of elite team.

“How are we supposed to fight those things?” Black-eye boy whispered to his companion, a willowy woman with a teary expression.

“I want to go home,” she said. “I just want to go home.”

“We have power,” Priti said to them. “You saw what Leela did, right? It must be untapped inside us all. It’s why they brought us here. It has to be.”

“I don’t want to fight,” the teary woman said. “I want to go home.”

“Well, you fucking can’t,” the woman behind her snapped with a scowl. “So stop being a baby.”

“Leave her alone, Eve,” Black-eye boy said. “She’s scared.”

“And you think I’m not? We’re all fucking scared, but none of us are being little bitches about it. Don’t you think I’d love to have a mental breakdown right now? ”

I slowed my pace to fall abreast of them. “Instead, what you’re doing right now is being a bully.”

She glared at me. “I don’t give a fuck what you think.”

“Back off.” Dharma grabbed her shoulder and yanked her away from me.

“Aw, you standing up for your girlfriend?” she crooned.

Dharma flinched.

“I recognize a rug muncher when I see one,” she continued. “Your kind make?—”

I punched her in the face. It was pure reflex, leaving me staring at my fist as if it was a foreign entity.

Eve clutched her bloody mouth. “You futhing bith.” She flew at me but was plucked off her feet by one of the elite dudes.

This one had silvery white hair streaked with deep blue accents and eyes like sapphires. He bared his even white teeth, which morphed to pointy razors when he brought Eve close to his face. She squeaked, and he shook her slightly.

“You will respect your fellow, aadha rahkt ,” he growled.

He dropped her, and she fell to the ground with a yelp, scurrying to the back of the entourage to get away from him.

He turned his penetrating gaze on me. “You need to work on your punch attack.” He lifted his chin. “We will fix it.” He stomped off, and the group gave a collective exhalation.

“He was…” Priti licked her lips.

“Scary?” Remi supplied.

“Yeah…u-huh, totally.” Priti nodded a little over-enthusiastically.

“Did you see his teeth?” Black-eye boy said.

Remi stumbled, and I grabbed her elbow to stop her falling. “Hey, you okay?”

“Yeah, just tired. Did an all-nighter to get an assignment in, then was supposed to meet Chris and…” Her expression pinched as if it hurt to think about her boyfriend. Someone she might never see again. “I’m running on fumes.”

We all were. The humans anyway. These other beings didn’t seem tired at all. Maybe because they weren’t, and they didn’t realize that we were.

I didn’t want to clash with Umbra again, but someone had to say something. I broke away from my group and jogged to catch up with her, internally wincing when I realized that she was walking with savior dude.

They cut off their hushed conversation as I fell into step beside them.

“What is it?” Umbra snapped. “Another pee break?” Her tone dripped with derision. As if it was our fault that we’d been attacked.

I’d come to her intending to find out how much longer we’d be walking, but I found my temper rising instead. “If you’re going to kidnap humans and make them work for you, then you probably need to be more prepared to protect them when they have no choice but to satisfy their bodily functions.”

If my words bothered her, she didn’t show it. “What do you want?”

“I want to know how long before we get to our destination. We’re tired. Some of us need sleep.”

Her frown deepened. “The sooner it kicks in, the better.”

“What?”

“Nothing. We’ll be at the vortex soon enough. An hour at most.”

The vortex? Wait… “An hour !”

“Yes. Is there anything else?”

My gaze flicked up to find topaz eyes smoldering down at me, irritation beating off his body in waves as if my mere existence was a personal affront to him.

I should have just backed off, but one look at my party and their slumped shoulders, shuffling feet, and dark, smudged eyes was enough to fuel my indignation.

We were not cattle to be driven until we dropped. “Fine, then we need to stop and rest.”

“We are not stopping,” Savior dude said, tone low and gravelly with authority. “Or have you forgotten your recent brush with death?”

“Which you saved me from, and I’m grateful, I am. But unless you can tell me, for certain, that being on the move will prevent a second attack, I don’t see why we can’t take a short break.”

His jaw flexed.

“Araz?” Umbra arched a brow his way.

“No,” he said. “It will not prevent an attack, but if we keep moving, we lower the odds.”

Play nice, Leela. Do not lose your temper. Keep your tone reasonable. “If we don’t stop to rest, then we won’t be moving at all.”

“Then we keep moving until you cannot continue.” He lengthened his stride so that I’d have to jog to keep up.

My resolve went out the proverbial window. “No.”

Araz ignored me, which further incensed me.

“If you want to continue, then you can either do it without us, or you can carry us.”

He came to a halt, his back to me. The material of his black armor outfit clung to him so that the play of muscle along his shoulders as he tensed was clearly visible.

I held my breath.

Had I pushed too far?

He bowed his head in defeat.

Hah. A win.

I turned back to my human companions, a smile of triumph on my face, but their attention was on something over my head. The spot between my shoulder blades tingled, and I spun round in time to be swept off my feet and thrown over Araz’s shoulder .

My squeak of shock was muffled by rough material when my face hit his spine. What the ever-loving fuck? “Put me down!”

He responded by pinning my thighs to his chest. “I’m simply giving you what you want,” he drawled. “Everybody, pick a human to carry. We are not stopping.”

Shit.

“I think all the blood has rushed to my head,” Remi groaned from her spot over a guard’s shoulder. “My face must be as red as my hair. I don’t have the complexion for this."

"I think I'm gonna be sick," Priti said from somewhere farther down the line.

“I swear, if you touch my ass one more time…” Dharma warned her ride.

Someone chuckled low and sexy. “Apologies. Such temptation is difficult to resist. Consider it a compliment.”

“Where I come from, it’s called assault, you wanker,” Dharma retorted.

“Wanker? I don’t think I’ve heard that one before. Pray tell, what does it mean?”

“Shut up,” Dharma snapped .

Araz’s chest rumbled against me. Wait. Was he laughing?

But the rumble cut off too quickly for it to have been anything meaningful.

I hung over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, seething because I hadn’t expected him to take me up on the offer of carrying us all, and I couldn’t help but think he was only doing it to prove a point, although I did have a pretty nice view of his ass.

Do not touch it.

Do not fucking touch it.

“You’re suddenly very quiet,” he said. “I’m beginning to wonder if I’ve played right into your hands. Maybe this is what you wanted all along. But you should know, I am not interested in your mortal wiles.”

Wait, he thought I was hitting on him? And wiles? Who spoke like that? “I’m grateful for all the lifesaving and the lift, but I’m not interested.”

“You lie.”

“God, you’re so full of yourself.”

“Full of myself? How can one be full of themselves?”

“ Arrogant . You’re arrogant.”

“Ah… and no, I’m merely stating what I’ve observed. The acceleration of your pulse, the color staining your cheeks, and the dilation of your pupils when you spoke to me all indicate attraction.”

Bloody hell. “Oh no, what will I do?”

“Sarcasm, how completely mortal. ”

“Contrary to your predisposed views on humans, we can find someone attractive and not want to pursue them. Especially if we later discover that person is an ass.”

He was silent for several beats, and I relaxed, thinking the conversation was over. I should have known he wasn’t the kind of guy to let anyone else have the last word.

“How amusing that you still believe yourself to be human.”

Huh? “Believe? I know I am.”

“No, tiny mortal. You are not human. Far from it.” There was that disgusted bite to his words again, and I fought not to get defensive because I needed to know what the heck he was talking about.

“If I’m not human, then what am I?”

He exhaled as if trying to get an awful smell out of his nasal cavity. “You are aadha rakht , a half-blood.”

“Yeah, I heard about the whole divine seed thing.”

“And you haven’t figured out what that makes you yet? You are a stupid mortal indeed. I should have let you die and saved the gurus time and effort in training you.”

His insults washed over me without effect because I was still fixated on what he’d said about my not having figured out…wait, if I was a half-blood and I had the blood of a god then… “Oh, god.”

“Not quite a god,” he grumbled. “A demigod.”