Page 168 of A Soul to Embrace

Just as Zylah took a single step towards him so they could touch and he could teleport them away, something snagged around her ankle and yanked. She fell forward, just missing his swiping grasp, and the underside of her skull bashed against the ground as she was pulled back.

She clawed at the ground to get purchase, and Jabez roared when some kind of rope was flung around his forearm. He pulled, sending the Demon on the other side forward with a scream.

That was the last thing Zylah saw before she was covered in a swarm of bodies.

Her orbs turned white as her heart clamoured in her chest, sprinting hard and fast. Fear shot through her, harsher than she’d ever felt, and only seemed to deepen the further across the ground they pulled her.

None of them appeared to want to intentionally hurt her, all grasps designed to hold her arms and legs down. Yet the more she struggled, able to rise to her knees despite their attempts, the harder everyone tried to squash her. When they realised she was stronger than she appeared, more Demons attempted to lie on top of her, as rope was used to bind her ankles together.

Something smacked against the back of her skull, but it merely bounced off, followed by a blunt, radiating pain.

The bottoms of her orbs broke into glittery white tears.Why did I have to step away?Why didn’t she just stay glued to his side, rather than investigate behind them with worry? If she’d just stayed put and trusted Jabez, they would have been less than an inch from each other.

He would have reached her. She would have grabbed him before he even felt the need to.

She hadn’t expected everything to spiral so fast, or for these Demons to be so swift, strong, or cunning.

She could hear Jabez’s snarls and the answering calls of many others, but the sounds were muted, and she saw nothing through the swarm. Her fear for him grew, causing her breaths to come out as frightened whines.

Zylah fought back, her sharp claws slicing through torsos and rendering multiple Demons dead within seconds. She kicked her strong legs, shunting bodies back with surprised yells, as she twisted to get free before they could bind her fully. She tried to claw her way out, using all her strength and might to fight them off – and was succeeding. She was able to get her knees underneath her, then to her elbows to push off.

But the moment she’d turned violent, and the smell of their fear tangled around her, was whentheybecame violent.

An agonised squeal left her when something sharp lanced through the middle of her shoulder blades – as if they’d been going for her heart. She fell to her stomach at the shock of some weapon cutting right through her body.

Red flared in her sight, just as blood-lust ripped into her stomach like a set of claws. Hot rage burst into her veins, causing her muscles to swell and her fur to lift in aggression.

Jabez’s face came into view, his knees resting on two different shoulders as he dug his way through the flailing bodies to get to her. His claw-like nails stabbed into the sides of faces and necks as he pried heads apart.

His face was fierce, nose bunched in fury and lips curled back as he bared his fangs, his red eyes never wavering from her. She’d never seen him look so menacing before, or so like a Demon – his snarl beastly. Uncaring about his own wellbeing, he fought to get to her, and his steadfast gaze promised he would.

Only a few seemed to notice him, but it was too late. He made enough space to reach a hand down to her.

Zylah tried to keep her Mavka instincts at bay against the pain and fear, even as she squealed when someone bit into the back of her calf. She felt the muscle tearing as they took a chunk from her, but she continued to reach up.

Relief swept through her like a blissful gust when their palms touched, just as a loudthunkcame from above.

Instead of teleporting them to safety, Jabez’s eyes rolled back and his grip on her loosened. He went languid, his body dropping forward as though he was unconscious.

A droplet ofreddripped against her nose hole, and the smell of blood was saturated in bergamot, sandalwood, and copper.Hisblood. It sent hunger through her within an instant when it slipped inside the hole of her snout, shielding any other scent from her.

Suddenly the pain became irrelevant, not with the starving grumble in her gut that roared for a taste of him. To eat and consume the source that was even more delicious than any human or Demon she’d ever smelt. To get her claws into her prey until she was able to lick at the ground for the last few drops that remained once she was finished eating him whole.

Rage took hold, and her prey was dragged away right as it did.

Uncontrolled and no longer truly present, Zylah lunged.

A jerk to his legs stirred Jabez awake, just as another yank slowly hoisted his body off the ground until only his elbows rested upon the dirt. Another brought him to his wrists before he was yanked to dangle higher, then higher still. Upside down, with his ankles caught in some kind of binding, all the blood rushed to his head as he tried to regain consciousness.

His eyelids refused to open, too lethargic against whatever they’d done to put him under.

A throbbing in the back of his head told him one thing for certain: they’d struck him hard, and right in the same spot as when he’d been a teenager. With the strength of an Elf-eating Demon wielding whatever barbaric tool they’d utilised, it wasn’t surprising he’d passed out.

Lucky bastards. If they’d hit anywhere else, his strong skull may have stayed intact. Unfortunately, by the pain he was in, the fuzzy disorientation he felt, and the familiar sensation rippling along his head, he knew they’d cracked his skull. They’d given him a rather good concussion.

He’d not managed to heal that injury well as a teenager, andhad to let it do so naturally.

His head felt like it was filled with cotton that was slowly being saturated with liquid. Being upside down, the trickle of blood that had begun to slow started up once more, and when he did crack open his eyes, he noticed a large chunk of his hair had turned bright red.

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