Page 57 of Aberrant Monsters
“Stab her again.”
“What?”
“Do it. Trust me, she’ll heal in a bit.”
Was that my scream echoing off the walls? My head slammed against the tiled floor.
Move, August, fucking move. But my limbs refused to work.
“Hold her down.”
I fought unconsciousness, forcing my eyes open. “Stop. Please…”
“Ben, maybe we shouldn’t.”
“Knew you were fucking gay.”
“I’m not, I just—What was that?”
I felt Telarion’s icy rage, his lethal intent, a moment before it exploded into the room. Silence followed, pregnant with shock and horror, then the screams began.
* * *
My rage wasa thunder of blood in my ears, but even that wasn’t loud enough to block out the tear of flesh and the crunch of bone. Blood spattered my cheek, warm and satisfying. It saturated the air with its powerful fragrance.
Telarion was killing them, and I was glad.
I was fucking glad.
Finally, silence fell like a welcome blanket. Telarion’s face hovered over mine, his emerald eyes filled with a dark emotion that I couldn’t define.
“You’re bleeding out,” he said.
“I know.” My words were a whisper. “It feels cold.”
His jaw flexed. “You will hurt.”
I wanted to laugh but my mouth refused to work, then a fresh wave of pain tore through me, like having my bones crushed. My scream locked in my throat, and my body spasmed. Fire filled my blood, raging through me like an inferno before slowly ebbing and retreating to two spots on my body.
The knife wounds.
It settled there, throbbing.
My chest ached and knotted as Telarion tore free of me. He straddled my hips, palms either side of me, panting with exertion. “You’ll live.”
How had he done that?
The window for healing was small. Half an hour after sundown. Any injuries sustained during the day healed in that half hour, around the time Telarion left my body. It was his power. His gift.
Healing me outside of that timeframe was new, so how had he done it? Even though the question circled my mind, when I opened my mouth, only two words spilled out.
“Thank you.”
He flinched, mouth turning down.
What…what had I said? My eyelids began to droop, too heavy to keep open.
“Sleep,” Telarion said. “I have you.”
