Page 74 of Witchbane
“Can you get us closer to the portal?” Liam asked Nick. It wasn’t a giant butthole, but a small rift which the monsters guarded. I suppose that made sense, since something as large as the buildings would have been a tear between worlds that might have allowed the corruption of Underhill through.
“I will try,” Nick agreed. “If I say run, you best run.”
We both nodded, and followed him into a maze of broken buildings. It was an odd combo of humanity and otherness. Walls shattered, pieces of lives strewn about with everything from furniture to dishes, and yet there was graffiti on the walls. Spray painted insults and pictures, warnings to “Go no further” and “Death is hungry.” Had taggers gotten through? How was this even possible?
“Did you?” I asked Nick, pointing to the nearest “art.”
He shook his head and waved for us to keep moving. It was painfully slow. A stutter of movement. Several times we had to stop and backtrack as a building had fallen that Nick hadn’t expected, blocking the path. But I knew we were getting closer because the hunger grew. I ground my teeth together, fighting it. It was only hunger. Not that I hadn’t ever been hungry in my life. My year on the run had taught me I could live days without food. I didn’t remember it being this intense before, like my stomach was trying to find a way to gnaw through my spine. And Liam’s normal scent seemed to grow stronger, tantalizing me, though neither he nor Nick registered with the kitsune as “food”, for which I was grateful.
Liam paused to look back at me. Was he feeling this? He gripped my hand and squeezed it.
I licked my lips, swallowing hard. Something close smelled delicious. My kitsune jolted inside me, demanding to be free and feed. I clung to Liam like he could keep me from doing something stupid. I’m not sure even he had that superpower.
“This was a bad idea,” Nick whispered. “We should go back.”
“We’re close right?” Liam asked, keeping his voice low. “Maybe you can keep Seb here, and I’ll see if I can catch a glimpse of the portal?”
“No way to really get close.” Nick jabbed a finger in the direction of the far wall. The building we were in was barely standing. The creaks and groans of weight resting on the floor above us made the walls shake. But there was an exit on the other side, a hole gaping in the rubble. “We might be able to peek out that section and catch a glimpse, but only if the monsters are clear.”
Liam nodded. He plastered himself to my side and we crept toward the opening. A noise outside, a scraping metal scream, forced me to pause, causing my ears to ring. It echoed, rattling the walls hard enough to shatter windows if there had been any remaining. And I felt the call of it all the way into my gut, with an echo back of hunger. Like whatever that was would feed me for a long time.
I shook my head, trying to clear the tunnel encasing my hearing. Liam was holding me, tugging me forward, his gaze upward rather than at me. The entire building, however many fallen floors rested above us, trembled and shook.
Fuck.
I knew it was going to fall before it happened. Wasn’t sure how I knew. Only that the sand dropping on us, filled with chunks of rock, meant the building wasn’t going to withstand that roar. I didn’t think in that moment, reacting instantly. Shifting to the kitsune, I shoved Liam and Nick beneath me as the entire building fell.
Chapter 20
The weight of it was crushing for a few seconds, pressing down on me, making it hard to breathe. Everything shook and rattled, giant rocks were falling, and I felt like I was doing the universe’s hardest sit-up. I poured every bit of my strength into the lift, despite the continuing weight piling on. The kitsune smoldered, my vision shifting to the glowing edge of magic and a tunnel of vague darkness.
I lost a few seconds. It’s the only way to describe the absence of sensation. Too much, and then a brief glimpse of floating in the dark like I’d fallen into an abyss. I even had a momentary panic that I’d failed, leaving Liam and Nick to be crushed.
But a few blinks and everything began to redefine. I had grown, and was suddenly larger than the rocks. They dripped off my back like pebbles and the weight trickled away. I shoved them aside, and batted them away as they fell, like they were no more than tiny stones.
Liam had rolled and shifted beneath me, changed into his own kitsune form which was now much smaller than mine. Like a house cat to a giant saber-toothed tiger, I dwarfed him. But he was protecting Nick. Both peered up at me with twin expressions of horror.
What had happened? Had Underhill pulled out my monster again? It hadn’t felt that way. It didn’t feel like a monster. I was still me, even if the intensity of sensation and magic was much like being stuck in spider webs. It was an oddly uncomfortable sensation, but I couldn’t really tell where it started or ended.
Something slammed into me from the side. Not a brick or a stone, but a solid mass that bit down hard on my left flank. I howled as fangs sunk in, tearing into me, and whipped around to snap at whatever had attacked. A giant bug with a thousand wriggling eyes didn’t seem phased by my cry or my teeth. It dug in, locking powerful jaws in an attempt to take a chunk out of me. It shook its head, trying to rend flesh with powerful jaws. And it hurt.
Sparkles flashed around my sight. Pops of magic almost, insanely bright. I saw spots and dark blotches peppered my vision. My entire right eye was lost to the dark wash like a really bad migraine could do sometimes. But the teeth dug in deep, filling me with brutal cold in an almost icy-like acid flow of venom, seeping into my blood.
Liam leapt from the rubble, landing with kitsune fangs and claws on the beast. But the shifting mass of monsters coming to the aid of the first meant we were in trouble. I turned and clamped my own teeth around the middle of the bug, surprised when my canines sliced through the middle section of its segmented body, shearing it in half and leaving me with a giant chunk of dripping bug guts in my mouth. Gross and yet hunger roared through me, demanding more than the tiny taste.
I fought not to swallow, but the kitsune wasn’t having it. It forced that slimy mass down my throat as if it were sugar spun donuts and we hadn’t eaten in a week.
The first monster writhed with death throws, and its teeth released, leaving a bleeding wound in my side. The cold oozed through me, and my hunger growled louder than any of the oncoming hoard of monsters. I lost a few seconds again. Blackness took over and caused me to float. Then I dropped back into awareness that my kitsune was feeding, snapping up the remains even as the other monsters all shuffled in to fight for their own piece. It was gross and I’d lost control, the hunger intense. I couldn’t regain myself. It was like watching a robot I was stuck inside of, unable to take back command, but also unable to get free.
The kitsune, nose deep in gore, lapping up the sticky remains, didn’t care at all that Liam was somewhere below, in danger.
Pain blossomed through one shoulder. Stars popped around my sight again, forcing the kitsune to pause as it ate, glancing around. Nothing dared approach, yet the tugging on my brain said we were hurt. The kitsune recognized the pull even when I couldn’t direct it.
Not me. Liam.
Liam was hurt. The soul bond settled into place filled with pain, terror, and anger. Emotions rich and flavorful, I could taste them, drown in them like in a chocolate pudding lake. The kitsune blinked wide eyes in his direction, clearing all the mash of colors and finding my—our—mate. It was the one thing he could push to me that got through. He was hurt and needed me.
He’d herded Nick to the side but they were both fighting some sort of giant horse with tentacles. Nick wielding his sword like a pro, a swinging dance of movement, shearing tentacles when he had the chance, and Liam using all the dexterity of his kitsune/wolf to tear into it. Liam’s fur was painted in blood, wounds peppering his side. Each slice sent a wallop of rage through me, and recognition. Something had hurt Liam, and I’d been lost in feeding; it had taken everything he had to break through. I vaguely heard him calling me now. He was bleeding, hurt, but concerned about my injuries rather than his own.