Page 34 of Resisting the Alien Rider

Garrek hissed in pain as Killian’s full weightstretched his torn flesh. But he didn’t flinch and he didn’t fucking let go. With a colossal show of strength, he hauled Killian against his body, then backed Killian up onto the closest branch near his feet so that he was now between the monster and the child.

Killian scrambled in a half-crouch towards the end of the branch, moving as far from the trunk of the tree as possible. His hands hooked around the solid wood of it while his tail looped itself in desperate coils around the hook on the back of Garrek’s belt.

I couldn’t tell where the creature’s eyes were, but it obviously realized its prey was no longer above it, but below. It didn’t even have to turn itself around. It just immediately started skittering down the tree as easily as it had gone forwards and up. My skin crawled as it hastened towards the branch where Killian and Garrek were now trapped.

Through undulations of fear and relief, Garrek’s words suddenly filtered, spoken in a gruffly harried tone.

“You have to jump again,” he told Killian, “but onto a blasted branch this time! Don’t just fling yourself out there! There’s a branch directly below. You can make it.”

“You have to jump, too!” Killian keened. His tail tightened on Garrek’s belt hook.

“I have to stay here and make sure it doesn’t follow. You go.”

Killian didn’t move. The spider got closer.

Garrek sounded like his last, raw nerve had justbeen pulled out of his body with a pair of rusty pliers when he spoke next.

“Killian, so help me Empire, if you do not listen to me now, foroncein your cursed life, then I will push you off this branch myself.”

He would really do it, too. Even now, the hand that wasn’t plastered to the tree to stabilize himself was busy yanking Killian’s tail free from his belt.

“I don’t want to leave you!” Killian said in a broken little voice that damn near broke my heart.

“You have to,” Garrek replied, undoing the last knot of Killian’s tail on his hook. “If I don’t stay here and take care of this, it will only follow us down. I won’t have it touching you. Or Magnolia.”

There was a pointedness in the way he said my name, as if mentioning me would mean more to Killian than his own safety.

And maybe Garrek was right. Because Killian finally listened. He lowered himself off the branch, hanging on by his fingers. His tail stretched, seeking purchase against the next branch. Once there, he moved quickly, half-climbing, half-jumping down the rest of the way. As soon as his feet hit the ground, he was running for me. We collided, and I wrapped him in my arms, barely holding back a sob.

I wanted to let my legs go boneless, just fall to the ground and hold him, but he was swatting and yanking at me.

“We have to go, Magnolia,” he said in a rush. “You can’t stay here. It’s not safe.”

He began to push me. He was much stronger thanI’d realized. I stumbled backwards, then nearly fell when my boot landed on something hard.

The handle of Garrek’s knife.

“Oh my God. Killian, stop, wait.” I snatched it from the ground, my stomach lurching when my fingers made contact with the stickiness of blood that coated it.

How many times had I gotten blood all over me at work? It had never made me nauseous like this.

But this was Garrek’s blood.

And that was different.

“Can we get this to him somehow?” I asked, my eyes clawing their way back up to where Garrek was within arm’s reach of the creature. The creature seemed to have paused in place. Maybe it was sizing Garrek up and didn’t like its chances as much as it had against the much smaller Killian. Garrek was very still, apart from the blood dripping from his tail.

At least, he was still until he made a fist and punched the spider thing right in the middle of its… face?

The creature reacted instantly, giving a chittering howl that set my teeth on edge. It rose up high on its legs, revealing a set of red pincer-like claws beneath its body. The claws stretched and clamped, seizing upon Garrek’s vest.

In my desperation, I nearly hurled the knife. I even cocked my arm to do it.

“Give it to me!”

I hesitated at the words, turning to find Killian’s jaw set with determination.

“Garrek told you to stay safe and out of the way!” I argued.

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