Page 15 of The Manticore's Fire

“Oh.” Abby murmured but she blinked, her brows knitting together in puzzlement. “Wait… he?”

Despite sinking into a grim mood with this topic of conversation, Samir chuckled. “I am a manticore. We are not like humans are many other species. Manticores are only male and this is largely because of how we reproduce.”

“I don’t get it.”

He settled back into his chair as he fixed her with a grim look. “The details are not exactly pleasant.”

“Spill,” she demanded.

Samir sighed. He did try to warn her. “We implant our offspring into our mates by way of a special stinger on our tails. Of course, this was not always the way. At one time, the ancients did not mate but merely chose a host to implant their offspringinto—someone suitable to carry their young and whose flesh the cubs would afterwards feast upon. Much like some species of wasps.”

Abby gagged a little and his lips twisted in agreement. He did not blame her.

“Male, female, it didn’t matter. The only real difference was that a female had a convenient place to implant our young where her body would expel the offspring naturally. Those who lacked a womb would require the manticore to extract his offspring from their flesh. Either way, they were merely meat after the male retrieved his cub.”

“Gods.” Abby shuddered. “I sincerely hope that is something that will remain firmly in the past.”

His lips twisted with dark amusement. “It is far more advantageous to keep the meat alive for more cubs to be born,” he teased to which she hurdled a disgusted look in his direction. He sobered in the next moment, however. “I will not lie. There are some few manticores who keep to the old ways. They are usually destroyed the moment they are discovered.” He met her eyes soberly. “As it happens, we distribute justice upon our own without needing human intervention to take down the truly monstrous among us. Most manticores have fond memories of our human parent and would wish nothing more for a mate from the time that we are young.”

“And you thought you found that in him,” she murmured. “What happened?”

“I do not like to talk about it,” he growled, rising from his chair. He did not even want to think about it any longer. “I have satisfied your curiosity about my species, but I am not interested in digging into painful history for your amusement.”

“Hey, that’s not what I meant,” she protested as she jumped from her chair to follow him.

He did not know exactly what happened but that somehow her feet must have become tangled on something because she dropped to the floor with a loud enough crack that he halted and whirled around, his heart pounding with fear that she might have done serious harm to herself. Rushing to her side, he grabbed her beneath her arms and hauled her to her feet just as she was beginning to push herself upright and held her out in front of him as he ran his eyes over her frantically.

“Have you harmed yourself? Is there pain anywhere?”

“No, nothing like that. I’m fine. The only thing that hurts is my damned pride. I got up too quick and got tangled in my throw I keep here,” she grumbled.

Samir nodded, lightheaded with relief, and carefully set her back on her feet before releasing her. “I thought I heard something crack. I was afraid that it was your skull.”

Abby looked up at him and her eyes squinted faintly in genuine amusement as a quiet chuckle left her lips. “I’m afraid my head is a bit harder than that. You’re right, though. I heard something did crack, as well, but I can’t imagine.—" Suddenly her face paled, and a loud curse burst from her lips as she began to dig into the layers of her clothing. “Fuck! No, no, please!” A low, pained groan escaped her, and she pulled out the broken case of a flare.

“You were just carrying that flare around on you?” he inquired, impressed with her commitment and the fact that she had concealed it so well.

“Well, yes, I couldn’t just leave it somewhere where it might be found and I thought maybe—” she froze, her eyes shooting up to him accusingly. “Youknew. You knew what this is and that I had this thing on methe entire time?”

Samir stared at her, suddenly uneasy. Was there is a slightly shrill note to her voice just then? “Of course. I did search your clothing and body to remove all of your weapons if you recall. Iknow exactly what you had with you. Why wouldn’t I recognize a flare? Humans had these for quite some time in some fashion.”

For a moment it looked as if she might truly attack him and draw blood with her puny claws. And as angry as she appeared, Samir was not entirely convinced that she would not be able to do it. This was not part of the game. But, to his relief, she did not attack. Abby groaned as her head dropped, and she tossed the broken flare to the ground.

“If I had known I wouldn’t have been hiding it on me,” she grumbled. “This was my only way to communicate with Zayman and ask him to return for me. Now… I truly am stuck here.”

His eyes dropped to the flare.

“Ah,” he replied and immediately gave her a capitulating smile when her head shot up so that she could glare at him. “I mean nothing by it, kitten. I had not realized that your plan depended on something so… fragile,” he concluded, diplomatically settling on that word rather than his first choice.

Foolish was more accurate and he wondered whose plan that was… hers or this Zayman. He had little doubt it was the latter. Abby would not have trusted her safety to a single flare if she had been the one arranging things. She was far too intelligent for that. There was a good chance that this Zayman did not even care if she died out in the desert, and that did not set well with him. Not at all.

A low growl rose to his lips and Abby quickly skittered away from him. His gaze shifted to her and, upon seeing her unease, he felt an immediate pang of regret.

Closing his eyes, he fought for his calm and did not dare open them until he found it. He did not know if it was because she trusted him or because of her fear that she did not take that opportunity to flee but he was grateful regardless.

“Thank you for not running,” he murmured.

“Where am I going to go?” she asked with a bitter laugh. “Without that flare I would likely die on that desert going by foot and without adequate supplies. Just tell me if you are planning on killing me now or not.”

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