Page 87 of Insidious Monsters
“What are you doing?”
Telarion, he—
My mind went blank. Wiped of the words it needed to call out for help. All the while I moved closer to the barrier, to Hawlee, the eldritch who wanted my power. A power that wasn’t mine to give. It was a mutation, a side effect of my binding to Telarion. But this guy didn’t know that. He’d kill me before he discovered his mistake, and I was voiceless to explain that to him.
“August, what’s happening?” Jacob appeared by his crypt.
I turned my head, trying to communicate my distress.
He looked toward the barrier of the cemetery and let out a bellow. “You, let her go. Let her go this minute.”
Hawlee ignored him. “Keep walking, August.”
No, no, no. I didn’t want to keep walking. I wanted to stop. But fighting him was draining me, using up the power that Telarion has siphoned into me and leaving me empty.
The hunger returned as the cemetery around me bloomed with the ghosts of my ancestors. They gathered around me, spectral arms reaching for me as if they could save me from my fate.
Telarion would have come by now if he’d heard me. Why hadn’t I called to him sooner? I should have screamed his name as soon as I saw this fucker on the grass.
I caught the distant sound of a car door slamming.
Someone was running across the grass.
Nandi and Quentin. The cavalry had arrived. A sob caught in my throat because they’d help me. They’d break this fucker’s hold on me.
“Get away from her!” Quentin yelled across the lawn.
He was too far away. He wouldn’t make it to us before Hawlee got a hold of me.
“August!” Archie came running out of the house. Much closer to us than Quentin and Nandi.
Hope flared in my chest, because all I needed was for Hawlee to lose concentration for a second for me to—
Archie barreled into him, knocking him sideways and breaking his focus long enough for me to scream Telarion’s name. But in the next instant my friend was flying back across the lawn smack bang into Quentin and Nandi, and my words were locked away.
No!
“It will be over soon, August,” Hawlee promised.
Pain lanced through my stomach as my psychic hunger intensified, becoming a physical thing, and suddenly Hawlee was wreathed in emerald power.
I wanted it. Needed it.
I stopped fighting his command and flew at him. His eyes popped wide in shock and confusion a moment before my hands found his throat. The contact brought a rush of power so strong it almost knocked me off my feet. I held on, arching my back and crying out as it filled me in pulsating waves.
“Stop,” Hawlee gasped. “Please, you don’t know what you’re doing. The danger isn’t me…it…isn’t…me…”
But I didn’t care about his words, all I cared about was devouring his life force. Mine. All mine.
A hand wrapped around my waist and tugged.
“NO!” My voice was an inhuman bellow.
“Yes!” Telarion shouted. He tugged again and this time I lost my grip, falling back against him, thrashing and kicking to be set free on my meal again.
Hawlee swayed on his feet, his sapphire eyes dull and empty, and then he crumpled to the ground. The emerald power remained inside me, filling me, buoying me.
“Let it go!” Telarion demanded.
