There was no telling what was on the other side of the little alley, but she could only fix one problem at a time. The lane was only two feet wide, and she had to duck under several ducts and pipes as she escaped.
When she burst out the other side into a wider street, it seemed much emptier than before. Maybe she could escape!
Hope had lit her heart the exact same moment she rounded a corner and ran full-tilt into someone, knocking them to the ground.
“What now?” the person whined from the cobblestones.
They were tall, broad shouldered, but painfully thin. And wrapped in stained and bloody bandages. Their damp, blond hair fell in thick strings over their face, obscuring it from view. But she didn’t need to see it to know who it was.
“Oh…oh, no.” She took a slow step back.
A cracked and weathered, yellowed and stained full mask turned up toward her. “Oh! There you are. I was looking everywhere for you!”
Rxa.
She turned to bolt and pulled up her steps as soon as she did. The drengil were there as well. They weren’t attacking her; they weren’t even moving. They were just standing there…waiting. Waiting for what?
She whirled to go the other way. Another wall of drengil. They all stood in a circle around her and Rxa, blocking her escape. She had no way out.
She was trapped.
This is how I die. She shivered. She had known she was going to die by being eaten her whole life. She knew that was how her life would end. But now that she was facing it down, she decided she very, very much was not ready to die.
Silently, she prayed to the old gods for protection.
“Oh, please don’t go.” When he touched her shoulder, she swung her arm to strike him. She didn’t even get close. Six inches from his face, he caught her wrist and laughed. “Hey, now! I haven’t done anything. Why’re you so jumpy? Is it because the city is being consumed by the dead?”
She yanked on her wrist, but his grasp was like iron. It shouldn’t be possible for someone to be so strong, especially not someone who looked as though they had starved to death. But no matter how she tugged, she couldn’t even budge him. “Let go!”
“Nah. Don’t think I wanna.” He yanked her toward him. She tried to fight, but it was like being pulled behind a horse. A second later, and she was only a few inches away from him. He wrapped his other arm around her lower back and tugged her flush to him. She could smell the tangy, bitter scent of the blood on him. That freakish, broken mask grinning at her was far too close. “I was so worried about you! We were having such a nice time, and then somebody went and shot me. When I woke up, you were gone. Are you all right? Did anyone hurt you? Tell me who, and I’ll eat their liver while they watch.”
“Please—Rxa, please—”
“Hm? What?” He tilted his head to the side. “Why are you so afraid? You’re safe now.”
“I don’t—I don’t want to die.” He’s sentient. Maybe I can reason with him!
“I know, I know…Under is such a scary world. But you’re with me now, and I can protect you.” He chuckled. “Won’t that be grand? You and me. I like this plan.” He nodded. “I like it very much indeed.”
Sentient and insane. Maybe I can’t reason with him.
“I think I found some of your friends,” he interjected into the silence. “At least, I assume so. They aren’t from Under, so unless we’ve gone around hoovering up a whole bunch of random-ass worlds, I think these dead people are yours, yes?”
She nodded weakly.
“When you said your world was being consumed, I didn’t think you meant it so gosh-darn literally!” He laughed and squeezed her against him. She didn’t know how it was possible, but she somehow went more rigid than before. “Wait.” He paused. “Are you afraid of me?”
“Y—yes.”
“But…why?” He sounded so disappointed. “I haven’t hurt you.”
“But you could.”
“So could everyone here! Lyon could rip you to shreds just as easily as I could. But you seem to like him.” He sighed. “Everybody likes him…”
“He seems a bit more—” She stopped. Don’t insult him.
“More what?”
She shook her head.
He chuckled and leaned his head closer to hers. She wasn’t a short person, but she just cleared his shoulder. “Come on, what were you going to saaaaay?”
“He seems a bit more…um…sane.”
He laughed. “Very true! Very true. That’s fair. So, my little dove. I have so many questions. So many things to ask you.”
“Like…like what?”
“About them, for starters!” Suddenly, he wheeled her around. She gasped as she found herself with her back to his chest. His arm was wrapped around her waist, and it might as well have been steel rebar. He still held her wrist tightly in his hand, leaving her unable to even try to push him away. “Since it’s clear these guys came with you. Fred’s my friend. He’s over there. He doesn’t talk much. But he’s a good guy. I’d ask him if I could, buuuuut I don’t think he has a tongue. Or a jaw. Or a brain. Hard to talk if you don’t have a brain. Unless you’re the scarecrow.” He cackled and then sang, “If I only had a brain.”
Nope. She definitely couldn’t reason with him.
She stomped on his foot as hard as she could.
“Ow! Hey!” He snarled. He let go of her arm only to snap his hand around her throat, yanking her head back against his shoulder. “Play nice. I’m not doing anything to you. And I could. And I’m so hungry. So, please, please don’t tempt me.”
Live for every second. “Sorry.”
“No, no. I get it. I’m a very scary monster, and you’re very scared of the very scary monster. And, oh, your heart is pounding. It’s racing underneath my fingers. It’s so tempting. So wonderfully tempting. Can you feel it? Thump-thump-thump-thump-thump. Well…can you?”
“Y—yes.”
Porcelain touched her cheek as he leaned in closer. His voice was quieter when he spoke. “Calm down, little dove. I’m not going to hurt you. I just have questions. So many questions…”
“What happens after I answer your questions?”
“Then I might eat your liver.”
Ember screamed and struggled, trying her best to get him away from her. She clawed at him, kicked at him, did everything she could. But he only laughed as he wheeled her around again and pushed her into a nearby wall, her back to the brick surface. He pinned her there with one arm across her shoulders. He was little more than skin and bones, and she couldn’t gain any ground on him.
“Did I say something wrong?” He nuzzled his masked face into her throat.
She froze. What was he doing? “Let me go, please…” She shoved on his chest, but it didn’t do anything. Well, anything except confirm her suspicion that entire chunks of him were missing. She pushed a bit of his bandages inside of a wound. She grimaced and pulled her hand away.
“No, little dove. I don’t think I’ll let you go just yet.” He glanced down at the blooming stain on his collarbone where she had touched him. “Ow. Ow-ow-ow. That stings. Do you mind pulling that cloth back out?”
“What?”
“What?” He chuckled. “Sorry. That’s too much fun. Do you mind pulling the bandage back out of the wound? It really burns.”
Stunned, she didn’t know what else to do. She carefully plucked the cotton strip out of the gaping hole he had in his chest.
“Phew. Thanks.” He paused.
She stared.
Nothing happened for a long beat.
When he spoke again, she jumped in surprise. “Okay! Where were we? Oh, yes. Questions.”
“Who are you?” He was so close to her, his thin frame pressed against hers. She could feel the bones of his hips digging into her abdomen. He was taller than she was, something she hadn’t noticed until he straightened up. And he was still slouching.
Why was he so close to her?
“No, I’m the one who is supposed to ask yo
u questions.” He tapped a finger on the end of her nose. “And you know my name already. Silly.”
She flinched at his touch. “What do you…what do you want to know?”
“Did you have these shambling, flesh-eating corpses on your world? On Gioll?”
“Yes.”
“Oh—fascinating.” Keeping his arm across her collarbones to pin her to the wall, he used his other hand to idly toy with a strand of her hair, twisting it around his bony and bloody fingers. “Who commanded them?”
“N—no one. The Dread God who made them, maybe…but they didn’t stand still like that.”
“Dread God, eh? Sounds like our new Ancient came with you and our new goopy friends.” He snickered. “Interesting! So, they were just running loose, eating everything they wanted? No rhyme or reason?”
She nodded weakly. Her heart was, in fact, pounding in her ears. Every moment that passed she expected to be her last.
“I guess that’s effective. Hm. I like having an army, though. It’s a great deal of fun. Tell me something, little dove. This one’s a bit of a stretch, but hey. Doesn’t hurt to ask.” He paused, and when he spoke again, the manic quality to his words had been replaced with anger. “Do you know why the fuck it brought me back to life?”
She didn’t know how it was possible to go any more tense than she already was, but she managed. “No, I—I’m sorry.”
With a long, drawn-out sigh, he leaned his head against the wall next to hers. “Damn. I really hoped you’d know. I’m being followed around by a bunch of zombies, and I’d really like to know why.”
He shifted his arm from across her collarbones to drape his hand over her throat, fingers to one side and thumb to the other over her pulse. But he didn’t squeeze. He just made the silent promise that he might.
Her heart was pounding in her ears. She knew she’d die from the hungering dead eventually. But never in a million years did she think she would die like this.
He shifted his thin body against hers. He was little more than a skeleton, and she shuddered at the sensation. He pressed the forehead of his mask against her temple. “I have a world I’d like to destroy. Maybe that’s why I’m back. Maybe that’s why they’ve been given to me. To tear this world apart, tooth and claw.”
She could only shiver at the sound of loathing in his voice.
“I think I’ll take you with me. You can be my spunky sidekick while I destroy Under at its very core. But first, I think I’d rather like to taste you, little dove. We were so rudely interrupted last time.” He pulled his mask from his face with his free hand.
She froze. His pale, yellow eyes watched her reaction to him carefully, as if eager to see what she might do.
She had seen him once already, but it had been so dark she hadn’t been able to see much detail. Only that his face looked as though it had been torn to pieces by an angry animal.
She furrowed her brow. She distinctly remembered being able to see the tendons of his cheek. But now, it was mostly grown over with new skin. His face was still torn to shreds, but…not as bad. “You’re…healing?”
“I am? Oh, fantastic.” He grinned. His teeth were white, and she could see his pointed fangs. They were just a hair longer than the rest of his teeth, and just a bit too sharp. “I would love it if I could, y’know, have all my organs again. They’re really underrated things.”
One of his eyes was bisected with a thin white line. The three gashes she had seen before that ran down one half his face were still there, cutting down to the bone. She cringed at how painful it must be.
He frowned. Part of his lip was still missing. “I’m hideous, aren’t I? I knew it…disfigured and horrible.” He winced. If she didn’t know better, he might be tearing up. “Fine. Fine.” He grimaced, and she watched as his fangs grew longer, extending from his jaw as if by command. The hand at her throat was against her cheek then, turning her face away from him and pressing her head to the wall. “I won’t make you look.”
“I—it wasn’t—it isn’t—” She grabbed on to him, trying to push him away. It was useless.
“Shush. You’re trying to be nice. I appreciate that.” She felt his hot breath against her throat as he leaned in close. “No need to lie to spare my feelings.”
She gasped as he ran his tongue along her neck, tracing the tendon from her shoulder to her ear. She couldn’t help but shiver at the sensation. “Please—” she whispered.
“Look at you, bursting out in goosebumps…” His voice dropped low, growing soft and thick like rich velvet. He scraped his teeth against her throat. She jolted at the sensation, her body shuddering against her will. The feeling of it made her head spin. “You like being touched, don’t you, little dove?” he purred. “Good…”
“I don’t want to die—”
“You won’t. I promise. I can be very gentle. You might even get addicted to this. I know I will.” He placed a slow, sensual kiss against her throat in the hollow of her ear, before leaving a trail of them down to the tender part of her neck. He rolled his tongue in a slow circle there, lavishing her, savoring her.
A strange sound came from him. Something deep and rumbling, like the purr of a cat, but much lower. It sent a thrill up her spine. She was clinging to him, but she wasn’t sure if she was even trying to push him away anymore. She just needed something to hold on to.
And still, that purr came from his chest. It soothed her fear. It made her thoughts swim.
“That’s it…good, little dove. So good. It won’t hurt. You’re going to love it. I promise.” Sharp fangs grazed her skin. She felt them there, two needle-like knives, waiting to strike.
She was dizzy. She felt thrown over the edge of a cliff.
“Rxa, enough!”
In a flash of white light, she could only watch as something ripped through the corpses faster than she could see. When it settled, Lyon was standing there in the middle of the clearing, blood dripping from his golden claws. “Let her go, Rxa.”
“I was so close!” Rxa tilted his head back and let out a loud, annoyed groan. “Damn it, Lyon, you overgrown wet blanket. How many times have I told you? Interrupting somebody while they’re feeding is incredibly rude.” He stepped away from the wall, and for a split second she was free. She punched him in the side as hard as she could.
And her hand went into him.
She felt it sluice through muscle and touch his ribs. But there was shockingly little resistance as she found herself with her hand inside the man’s side.
“Well, this is a unique sensation. Ow.” Rxa laughed. “I mean, if you wanted to fuck me, you could have just asked, sweet dove.”
She pulled her hand out of him with a thick, wet slurping noise. “Ooh, gods…oh, gods—”
“That good, huh?” Rxa cackled.
He whirled toward her, but she ducked away before she could see what he planned. She wasn’t going to stick around to find out. She ran for Lyon. It was only when she was standing near the King of Blood that she turned back to see what had happened.
Rxa was facing them now, looking down at the hole in his side. He poked at it idly a few times. “But…I just grew that liver. Ember, why are you so mean to me? I didn’t even do anything!” he whined.
Ember flicked her hand, trying to get some of the yellow-black gore off her hand. It was thick and hot. She might have been sick if adrenaline hadn’t been pounding through her system.
“What do you want, Rxa?” Lyon reached out a golden claw and pushed Ember behind him. “Why are you doing this?”
“To destroy Under and everything in it. And now I have an army to do so.” Rxa looked around him at the pile of bodies. “Hey, you killed Fred! Poor Fred. Oh, well. That’s all right. I have a lot more where he came from.”
“Rxa, you have to stop all this carnage. Call off your creatures. Let me take you to the Great Hall. Ini and I can—”
“Ini! How is my wonderful floating elf? How is my charming, beautiful, sexy Queen of Fate? Do you think she could tell
me why this is happening? Why the Ancients saw fit to do this to me? To torture me even further?” Rxa growled. “Or does she not know the answer either?”
“Rxa, please. I know this seems like torture, but the Ancients—”
“What else could this be?” Rxa began to unwrap the bandages on one of his arms, hissing as he pulled the cotton from the open wounds. Then he ripped at the bandages covering his chest. He exposed raw flesh, bone, and pulsing organs. Ember covered her mouth with her clean hand.
His hiss turned into a wail as he ripped the cotton loose from where it had healed over. Blood, black as pitch and shining yellow in the streetlamps, dripped to the cobblestones beneath him. His voice cracked from the agony. “What else is this but torture? Why have they done this to me? Look at me, Lyon!”
For the first time, Ember was glad the drengil didn’t feel pain.
Because now she knew what it looked like when they did.
Ember cringed in sympathy as he revealed just how bad his injuries were. Tears stung her eyes. “You poor man…” She didn’t realize she had spoken until she noticed both Lyon and Rxa were looking at her.
After a long pause, Rxa spoke again, and his voice was once again gentle. “Come here, little dove.” Rxa reached a hand to her as he stepped forward. “I have more questions for you. I want to know about this world of yours and these drengil that plagued you. I can keep you safe. Come to me.”
“No. She will go nowhere with you.” Lyon struck his arm out to block his path to her. Not like she had any intention of taking Rxa up on his offer.
Rxa snarled, and his hands turned into fists. “What is this to be, then? Another fight where neither of us wins? My corpses will shortly overtake this city, and all those they’ve killed will fight in my army. Your only hope is to evacuate with whatever survivors you can wrangle up. You cannot beat me.”
“Perhaps not here, perhaps not now. But we will stop you, Rxa. Mark me.” The armor on Lyon’s arm disappeared, and he took Ember’s hand and pulled her closer to him.
“We’re not done, Ember. We’ll talk again real soon. I promise.” Rxa chuckled and waved a bony hand at her. “Ta-ta for now, little dove.”
Mask of Poison (Fall of Under Book 1) Page 14
