Page 36 of Love & Monsters
“Mina,” Vadric rasped as he laid beside me, pulling me under a layer of cover.
Peeking one eye open, I placed my finger on his lips, knowing what he was going to ask next. “Yes, I’m fine, Vadric. I’m great.”
“If you insist.” He didn’t push the issue. Vadric pulled me into his chest with his fingers drifting through my hair. It soothed the last of the buzzing energy under my skin as I snugly fell asleep in a monster’s embrace.
Twenty
Another day of traveling while my mind wandered. Another day on the back of a nuckelavee swaying through a forest, mirroring the terrifying energy from a horror film. Another day under a dark sky, with the red aurora dancing around two moons drifting across the sky. Another day listening to the rustling leaves in the wind and skin crawling howls of beasts in the distance.
Naturally, Vadric and Anakis didn’t need to adjust to this world. None of this was unusual or out of the ordinary for them. This was the land they were born to, and it was just another day. Perhaps the day was strained with whatever schemes and plans they had on our misadventure, but still this was just another part of the lives they lived.
I was alone. In my mind and in my heart. The only human in two hundred years to face the terrors of this world. The only one of my kind facing the obstacles of trying to survive under a blood red sky.
And I was using intimacy with a demon to distract me from my problems. My life, my mind, my new desires…. they felt sinful. How many people in my situation would fuck the monster they wound up imprisoned with?
As we traveled through the bone-white trees under the crimson leaves, I felt Vadric flush against my backside. Each rock and sway of the beast between our thighs pressed us together and made me endlessly aware of the hard muscle of him, the power under his skin, and the heat radiating off him. Even now, I wanted him while thinking about how wrong it was.
Were my feelings for him a response to the trauma as a way to cope? I doubted there was a therapist in the world of demons who could help me answer that.
We only took two breaks throughout the day. Stopping to eat dried meat from the supplies that resembled jerky and a chunk of dry bread. With only enough time to relieve myself and stretch before, Vadric was hoisting me onto the nuckelavee again, promising we’d be at our destination by nightfall.
But it always seemed like night to me in this world. So, I tried to pay attention to the shades of red in the aurora through breaks in the trees, studying the differences in how bright or pale it was as we traveled. Then I watched the two moons. How the smaller one hugged the bottom right curve of the massive moon as they drifted across the dark sky.
Every so often Vadric would ask a random question to draw me into his conversations with Anakis, but mostly I let them chat without me. I didn’t have the experience or knowledge to make a place for myself in their discussions, and I think Vadric could tell I wasn’t in the mood to talk.
I’m not sure when the two moons blurred together and vanished from sight. The rocking motion of the monster under me and the lulling heat of Vadric at my back, wrapped around me like a warm cocoon, pulled me into sleep.
“Mina.” Vadric’s voice was a caress through my ears that roused me from my nap. “We’re almost there. Look.”
Inhaling and shifting against him, I opened my eyes to follow the direction he pointed in. A few hard blinks pushed the sleep from the edges of my vision, trying to focus on the towering silhouette at the top of the mountain.
When my sight cleared and the structure came into focus, my body held in a breath and my eyes widened into saucers. Our safe hideaway in the forest, built at the top of the mountain, was, in every sense of the word, a gothic fortress looming over us.
Pointed spires aimed at the sky like daggers, towers with pacing winged beasts shot to the ruby aurora, guards in black armor paced the battlements clutching their pikes within their clawed hands.
Anakis raced ahead of us, kicking her nuckelavee into a fast trot. While I craned my head back to take in the enormous stone wall around the fortress, I heard her whistling, mirroring a bird-like call to the guards manning the exterior portcullis.
An icy chill flashed through my body, and goosebumps spread over my limbs, which caused my heart to race into overdrive. I witnessed one of the winged beasts on the highest tower take off into the sky, emulating the sight of a dragon soaring with the serpentine body it had.
“Vadric,” I whimpered, leaning into him.
His arm encircled my waist, hugging me tight as the guards raised the groaning heavy wooden portcullis for our arrival. Anakis dipped under the gate just as it was high enough for her and her nuckelavee to pass through, revealing the muddied outer yard where other demonic monsters were gathering at the commotion.
“Stay calm, little one. I can feel your heart beating.” Vadric’s palm moved from my waist to press his palm against my chest. “Remember to follow my lead.”
I swallowed hard over a lump in my throat, forcing myself to remember to how to breathe. Then we passed under the portcullis, entering the outer courtyard of the fortress made of onyx stone.
There were so many eyes on me in those brief seconds of silence as our nuckelavee trotted deeper in the yard and into the throng of onlooking creatures. The anxiety clawing at me was painful, and I couldn’t move my body as that tension stretched.
Only when their eyes shifted from me to Vadric, sitting tall and proud behind me, could I take a full breath again. But the anxious tension didn’t leave my body as the monsters surrounding us howled and cheered with glee, crying out at this long-awaited arrival.
“Lord Ascian! The Lord has returned! He is free!” Clawed hands rose in the air, reaching for Vadric as he slowed to smile at the adoring crowd. Glowing eyes assessed me with mixes of hunger and curiosity before landing on the demon behind me and joining the others chanting.
“They have freed the rightful Lord!” Anakis shouted from atop her beast. “Prepare a feast in his honor, and after our celebrations, we make preparations to retaliate against the usurper!”
I became made of ice, as unmoving as stone, to hear this new revelation. Little things I heard fell into the puzzle as the missing pieces, and now they screamed in the back of my mind. I was a fool for not realizing it sooner.
Vadric was the one they spoke of. The Lord that was freed from unrightful imprisonment. Rykan was the false lord that usurped his throne. These were his people, his subjects, and he their rightful leader.
