Page 172 of A Soul to Embrace

Jabez had to make a choice.

Kill everyone here in order to preserve his life and goal, despite how that could bring further danger to Zylah, or flee to save her from more pain.

Zylah ripped her leg from his loosened grasp, and turned to him with an ominous, rage-induced growl. Yet her orbs were pale red, her fear strong against her Mavka rage. She dived for him, and Jabez made his decision upon seeing the colour.

He darted forward, greeting her head-on to avoid her claws and maw, and met her tackle with his own. He flung himself downwards to shoulder her waist as she leapt above him. Themoment their bodies impacted against each other, he closed his eyes to picture where he wanted to take them.

They disappeared, but a deep, disheartening sense of failure came over him in the split second of darkness.

Had Jabez been alone... had this deep tug in his heart driving him to her not been present, things would have ended differently.

What a fucking waste.

The moment Jabez materialised within the underground section of a ruined library, he flung the feral Mavka off him.

Zylah slid along the ground, her body flailing across rubble and old tomes before crashing into a stone statue of some kind of bird. It broke apart under the impact of her hitting its base and knocking it over.

He cringed when she gave a terrible whine in response, but he’d done what he needed; he put space between him and the immediate danger she presented.

He had no ability to restrain her. The ground beneath was a thick layer of polished, cut stone, and there was no earth here for him to wield. Nothing grew here, and the area surrounding it was a mountain of rock and ore.

The only thing shedding light was a reflection that caught Otholla’s brightness from the surface and somehow directed it to the ceiling. Streaks of a material unknown created a checkered, glowing dome above that dimly lit up the area just enough for him to see. He imagined that light was nothing but ornamental in the past, and they would have used torches or mana stones tolight the room up in other ways.

Zylah leapt to all fours and immediately bolted for him.

Sorry, bunny, but I’m not prey for you,he thought, as he teleported to relative safety.

He materialised to a support column holding up the ceiling and stood on the ledge that once had a statue situated on it. It’d long fallen, likely due to some kind of earthquake or perhaps the rumble of when the gods tried to help the world and failed miserably.

Zylah jumped and dug her claws into the side of the column to climb up to him. She slid down, unable to get any purchase with her back feet being from a creature that wasn’t adept at climbing. She tried continuously, snarling and snapping her maw, and he knew she wouldn’t settle until his thick blood scent was gone.

Staring down at her, he was surprised to find she’d managed to retain her satchel, although his was lost – likely when he’d been hung upside down.

Jabez winced as the agony in his back, face, and arm flared in the cool air. He covered the blinded side of his face and hissed.She gouged my fucking eye out.

His mouth had been torn open to his cheek, and the top of his nose was sliced open, rendering him incapable of smelling anything but coppery blood. The back of his head continued to throb, and he cursed the suns that the Demons had managed to hit him in the one fucking spot that drove him unconscious.

What are the chances?Low, but he thought the gods were just screwing with him at this point. It felt like they’d been doing that since the moment he was born.

He shook his head when he realised he was focusing on the wrong things. He peeked down at Zylah, who refused to give up despite her injuries. She limped constantly, only to steady her footing before each useless jump.

He was like a piece of meat dangling above a mindless, starving beast.

I need to heal.He needed blood and a body to steal from.

Jabez teleported back to the village to find they’d already begun feasting on their fallen comrades.

It gave Jabez the perfect opportunity to sneak up behind one who was close to completion and tear his claw-like nails across the front of their throat. They gave a chokinguek, alerting the others, but he materialised to his spot above Zylah with the dying Demon in tow before they could do little more than turn to him.

Ignoring her frothing snarls, her roars and whimpers, and the way rocks rolled underneath her hands and paws, Jabez sat down on the ledge.

Noticing it was a male Demon, he didn’t care to take in any more of his lifeless features. He would have eaten Jabez given the opportunity, which elevated any guilt he felt over what he was about to do.

Jabez bit into the side of his neck and drained every last drop of blood he had to fuel his own strength. Then, being careful not to mess it up, he used his index nail to carve around his face so he could skin it. As disgusting as he found it, he placed the Demon’s face over his own and closed his remaining eye as he concentrated.

He had to hold back his scream of pain when the edges of his wounds burned as the mask of skin melted around his own and bonded. His toes curled as his muscles leapt in repulsion, but he resisted the urge to kick his legs. Agony radiated as he used another’s face to fix his own countenance seamlessly, and his hands shook to keep it pressed to him until it was done.

It would only take an hour or so for the wounds to truly settle and for such a topical injury to revert to his own skin colour perfectly.

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