Page 36 of The General’s Captive (The Rift #1)

M y eyes didn’t want to open.

Because I had a feeling that when they did, it would only be more proof that this plan of mine had gone to shit.

The pounding in my head was only more evidence of that.

But then the sound of a snarling roar prevented me from ignoring the inevitable any longer.

So, I opened my eyes and tried to make sense of what I was seeing through pieces of the smashed windscreen.

“Oh fuck!” The curse fell from my lips at the sight of the huge, winged beast, and not one I had ever seen before.

The only way to describe it was as if a monster had forced its way out of the skin of a seven-foot lion.

As if the Hell inside had broken out and what was left beneath was the bluish-gray skin, void of any fur.

More like a thin membrane that was stretched over muscle and tissue, yet its joints and feet were scaled.

Its giant paws held deadly talons like an Eagle, but much thicker.

The claws were strong enough to gouge lines in the road, and it looked ready to charge at the truck.

I looked at the passenger seat, expecting to find Aster there bleeding and unconscious but it was empty.

The door was open, and he was nowhere to be found.

A little cry made its way past my lips, knowing that he had just left me to face this alone.

A little voice in my head argued that maybe he thought I was dead, though I couldn’t help but feel hurt.

Not that I had the time to waste on thinking about this, only terror and survival.

So, I quickly fumbled with my seatbelt, knowing I needed to get the fuck out the truck, right now!

The Myth’s monstrous wide head swung my way as if hearing my panic for itself.

The mane of fine black hair rippled with each movement it made.

The thick folds of its skin created demonic features where it followed the skeletal lines of its face.

Its flat nose was almost hidden completely, had it not been for the V-shape where its nostrils were.

Its glowing yellow eyes homed in on me and it opened its huge jaws letting out a mighty roar. Its lower jaw jutted out further than the top, as if it had too many teeth to allow its mouth to fully close. What with its sabretooth fangs looking ready to sink into me.

Its whole body bristled as it readied itself to attack, the darkness rising from its skin like vapor as the spikes on its back shook.

A vibration made them stand on end, just like the ones that ran down its tail.

A tail that was a fucking weapon in its own right!

The mass of spikes gave it the appearance of some hellish mace.

And if all of this wasn’t bad enough, the fucker had wings!

Two demonic bat wings, that extended from muscular arms protruding out of its shoulder blades.

There was a stretch of purplish skin between the long-arched finger bones, like folds of leathery material.

Each bend in the wing were like fucking bidents of spiked bone that faced forward like pincers.

“Time to fucking get your ass out the truck, Alex… right… fucking… now!” I said to myself as I fumbled with the door handle, my fear making my hands shake, because trying to keep a clear head when faced with this monster was easier said than done.

I almost fell out of the truck in my haste, but that was when I saw my bag in the back.

I knew there was no way to outrun this thing.

We were in the middle of the highway, with nothing but barren fields as far as the eye could see on my right, and the faint hint of mountains in the distance on my left.

Which basically meant that, unless I could figure out how to fight this thing or sprout fucking wings of my own, I was fucked!

So, before it could charge the truck, I reached through the passenger door and grabbed my backpack, yanking it out so hard I fell before scrambling to my feet.

My fucking hip stabbed me with pain shooting down my leg, making me grit my teeth, but my quick actions were just in the nick of time because the Myth came charging at me.

I only just managed to tuck and roll in time, holding my bag to my chest as it missed me.

It then butted the truck out the way with a crunch of metal as it dented the whole of the driver side inward.

I reached in my bag, and grabbed the first thing I could feel, which ended up being one of the glass bottles of perfume. I tossed it right at its head, smashing it over its face and hitting my mark. And oh fuck, it did not like that!

Not. One. Fucking. Bit.

It tried to roar at me, but it was intermingled with snorts as it tried to breathe through the shit.

It gave me enough time to get to my feet and put more space between us.

So, I started running while looking for the next thing to throw its way.

However, in my panic I tripped over, causing my bag to fly from my hands, the contents spilling out and scattering.

“No!” I shouted, turning around to find the creature coming right at me.

The effect of the perfume didn’t last nearly long enough to slow it down, which meant that my hands went scrambling for anything I could use as a weapon.

My hand stilled, suddenly, at the sound of a very different kind of creature.

A roar of anger so loud, it beat the beast in front of me, because even it winced.

It seemed as if it was no longer alone and whatever just turned up was far scarier.

I knew that when the beast started to back away, its tail whipping out like an angry cat.

His head dipping lower as if readying itself for whatever new horror had just invited itself to this kill party.

But nothing could have prepared it for what came.

Out of nowhere, a fucking giant-sized man with buffalo horns barreled into it so hard, it was launched in the air, before landing hard on its side and skidding along the ground twenty feet away.

The creature was easily three times the size of a werewolf and had more muscle than anything I had ever seen in my life!

It had the body of a man with hardened, reddish skin, and brown spikes protruding up from the top of his biceps, covering his shoulders and those thick neck muscles.

A fine layer of brown fur ran along his shoulders and joined the hair on his head.

Its face was like a furious ogre, with eyes glowing red and deep-set brows looking on with hatred.

His deadly gaze turned toward the creature he had just tossed aside like it weighed nothing at all.

And with the blood now dripping down those two fucking huge horns at the side of the new beast’s head, then I would say it had done some damage.

They looked as if they belonged on a water buffalo, only instead of being black they were an earthy brown.

As for the bottom half, his thick legs were covered in long patches of dark brown leather mixed with fur to make crude pants.

There was also a huge section at his waist that made a belt, with leather framed by rivets of metal, and a hammered steel emblem of some kind at the center.

Lengths of the same material were wrapped around his forearms, which were wider than the tops of my thighs.

He was breathing heavy, his huge bare chest rising and falling with every intake of air. The lines of his thick muscle dripped with sweat, as if he had just run from Hell to get here.

His eyes looked to my hand, seeing the Goat Bomb gripped tight in my palm, right there ready to throw his way, then the Myth actually looked like he wanted to grin.

But instead, he spoke, his voice thick and heavy when he said, “Stay here.” Then he turned back to the beast, who was trying in vain to get up to its feet.

“This won’t take long,” he promised, rolling his huge shoulders after turning away from me and stomping his big, booted feet toward the snarling beast.

I looked to see the two puncture wounds at its rib cage, blood pouring from them. Then I turned and quickly started gathering up my things, stuffing them back into my bag before my head snapped to the roaring sound.

This was just in time to watch as the horned man jumped on the winged Myth’s back, the weight of the landing cracking bone, no doubt breaking its spine.

But the horned Myth wasn’t finished, not by a long shot.

I knew this when he wrapped his meaty hand around the base of the arm of its wing connected to its shoulder blade.

Then after hammering down a booted foot on its head for leverage, the horned Myth actually tore one of its wings clean off.

The winged beast howled in pain, but it was swiftly cut off when the horned man used both hands to fold in the severed wing to use the spiked joint as a weapon.

The bident shaped horns quickly hammered into the side of the beast’s neck, effectively killing it instantly.

The darkness around it acted as it always did, seeping out of its body and rising up before evaporating.

It was at this point I wisely started running.

Although just how wise this was, I didn’t know because it didn’t take long before I saw the horned giant running toward me, cutting the distance between us in seconds.

The air was then forced from my lungs when I was plucked off the ground by the creature’s huge arms as they wrapped around me.

My bag fell to the ground, leaving me with nothing left to do but kick my legs out, despite them now hanging four feet from the floor.

“AHH!” I screamed, making the Myth grunt out a displeased sound.

“Calm down!” he shouted, that impossibly deep voice barely even sounding human. “Now I am going to put you down, but if you run again, I will just catch you and, next time, it may hurt more than just having the wind knocked out of you… understand?”

I nodded, willing to do whatever he said to get out of its arms. But instead of just dropping me like I expected, he actually lowered me gently to the ground.

As soon as my feet were back on the road, I turned quickly to face him.

Something that ended with me gulping down my fear after my head fell right back to look at the ten-foot giant in front of me.

He watched as I took a couple of steps back, narrowing his eyes as if he was waiting for me to fuck up and run again.

“Wh-who… what… are you?” I stammered, making the giant sigh. Actually, fucking sigh! Like this was all very taxing for him or something.

“I am a Minotaur.”

I swallowed, taking another cautious step back.

“I’m not going to fucking hurt you Alex,” he snapped, surprising me that he knew who I was.

“How do you know my name?” I asked fearfully.

“I was sent to protect you,” he stated openly, shocking me and making me question why.

“To protect me?”

He looked toward the dead Myth and said, “And a good job too, wouldn’t you say?”

I didn’t answer, instead my eyes went to the creature that had nearly taken my life.

“And that thing? What was it?” I asked.

“A Manticore,” he replied, making me shake my head a little.

“I haven’t seen one of those before,” I confessed, foolishly thinking that I had seen it all by now.

“Not many of them made it through,” he told me, and I was surprised he was being so forthcoming with this information.

But then again, I hadn’t ever talked to a Myth about this before.

The most information I had received had been from The General and he hadn’t exactly been enamored by all my questions.

Most of them just looked like they pissed him off.

“The Rift, you mean?”

“The gateway,” he corrected, and I could still barely believe that I was having a conversation with one of these things.

“I don’t understand… who sent you?” I asked, having a feeling that I already knew.

“I think you know the answer to that.” He leaned down, his whole body bending so he could reach my bag from the floor. One he dusted off before handing it to me like a gesture of goodwill or something. I took it and looked inside.

“Trust me, there is nothing in there that would kill me, but you’re willing to try, if you like. But all it will achieve is pissing me off,” he stated, folding his colossal arms over the vast expanse of his chest.

I gulped again before making a point of zipping it back up and putting it over my shoulder.

“Wise choice,” he said, before turning his back on me and walking over to the damaged truck that I knew Riley would be pissed about.

He loved that truck. Something that made me wince when the giant ripped the door clean off and tossed it behind him, making me jump. Jesus, he had made it look as easy as tearing cardboard.

“You got a first aid kit in here?” he asked, making me frown.

“Why?”

“Because you’re bleeding and he won’t like that,” he told me, making me step closer despite my fear.

I reached up to feel that he was right, there was blood trickling down the side of my face. The sting made me hiss when I felt the gash on my forehead.

“Who won’t like it?” I asked, making him look over his huge shoulder.

His horns twisted and cast long shadows on the ground as the sun was setting, bathing the sky in hues of oranges, pinks, and purples.

“You know the answer to that too,” he replied, and went back to rummaging in the truck.

“You mean The General.”

“Bingo,” he said, walking to the back of the truck after finding nothing useful in the back seats. I winced again when he tore off the door to the trunk. Christ, didn’t this guy know how to open a door without tearing the thing off its hinges?

“So, you were sent to make sure I kept to my side of the bargain,” I said when he pulled the first aid kit free of the wreckage and grunted at my question.

“And what bargain was that?” he asked, making me grit my teeth.

“I thought you work for The General,” I pointed out.

“Yeah, emphasis on the word, work… which means he doesn’t tell me what he doesn’t need to… and that includes private conversations between the two of you,” he replied, before stomping his big body back toward me and at the sight, I couldn’t help but back away.

“Did I just save your life?” he asked abruptly, and I gave a little jerk of my head before answering.

“Yeah.”

“Then why would I bother if I wanted you dead?” he pointed out.

“You wouldn’t,” I admitted.

“Like I said in the truck… smart girl,” he said shocking me, making me gasp as I finally put two and two together, feeling like a fucking idiot!

“You’re…” I couldn’t finish but he certainly could because he grinned widely and said…

“Aster, yeah, nice to meet you again.”