Page 94 of Aberrant Monsters
It took everything I had in me not to rush toward him. Instead, I reined back on my vision, forcing this strange sight I’d accessed to retreat enough so that I could see what the eldritch wanted me to see. It resulted in a false image superimposed over a true one.
The false one showed Telarion on the bed asleep, when in fact he was standing against the wall made of squishy stuff.
The thing was feeding off my aberrant.
I needed to stop it. Break the contact and set him free, but doing that would end my ruse and put me in danger.
Telarion? Come on, wake up. Please.I strode to the bed. “What the hell are you doing taking a nap?”Come on, you crazy-ass monster, wake up.“Get up, we have work to do.”
I felt something between us. A thrum of awareness. The kind a spider would feel from a fly trapped in its web. He felt far away, though, and drifting farther. Soon he would be lost to me. Panic squeezed my lungs. Time was running out. Whatever the eldritch had done to the humans and the ghosts was nothing compared to what he was doing to Telarion.
I needed to act.
Think.
It was an hour drive from our house to here. Uncle Fred had to get home first, though, so goodness knew how long it would be before I had my pack.
Damn Quentin for not answering his phone.
Telarion’s body, his real body pinned to the wall, convulsed.
Fuck this.
I rushed past the fake figure on the bed and grabbed hold of Telarion’s shoulders. “Wake up!” I yanked at him, trying to pry him free. “Come on, wake up.”
But the crimson walls that held him firm began to pulse.
It knew I was on to it.
I gripped Telarion’s face and stood on tiptoe to look at him. “Wake up!”
His eyes moved beneath his lids like a REM pattern. Fear clogged my throat. He needed to wake up, to fight back, because if he didn’t, I’d lose him, and I couldn’t lose him. I just couldn’t.
I pressed my lips to his in a desperate, crushing kiss that made no sense because how the heck would that help? But it just seemed like the right thing to do. The only thing.
“Please, Telarion.”
I squeezed his face, my frustration bringing tears to my eyes. He was supposed to be a monster, invincible. Powerful. He’d fed me that power. Fed me his life force…Oh, shit. He’d fed me! What if that had weakened him? What if he hadn’t had time to recharge, making it easier for the eldritch to grab him.
Oh, God.
I knew what I had to do.
I pressed my lips to his again, this time with a purpose. I needed to feed him power.Mypower.Mylife force. I wasn’t sure how it worked, just that I needed it to, and that seemed to be enough.
I felt the amber stuff seep from me into him, swelling up my throat and slipping into his mouth. My energy to give.
Please wake up.
His unresponsive mouth grew firmer beneath mine, and his hand came up to cup the back of my head as he devoured what I was pushing into him.
Yes, it was working. My limbs felt heavy and my fingers slid from his cheek to hang limp at my sides.
“No!” He shoved me away from him, eyes wild. “Stop. No.” His gaze flicked around the room. “Get out. Get out of here.”
A sob of relief caught in my throat. He was back and it didn’t even matter that he was telling me to piss off. “I’m not leaving without you.”
“Do you have your weapon?”
