Page 22 of Between Soul and Vessel
When Dameon was finished, he took a step back and asked me, “Do you think that’ll be enough?”
“Lost Souls can smell a drop of immortal ichor from hundreds of miles away. It will be enough.” I patted Dameon’s shoulder then walked up to the little beast. My fingers snatched the apple from his mouth. I rolled it over,studying the side where the creature’s mouth had been—the crisp, red flesh had turned brown and mushy. A small crack formed, and dozens of worms began to tumble out.
“You trickster. You-you fraudster. You swindler!” he snarled the words at me.
“I’ve been called worse,” I said as I discarded the apple and began to walk away, Dameon and Zahra following in tow.
“Come back! Come back!” the man-rabbit screamed at us.
When we were twenty paces away, the land on a slight incline from where we’d laid our trap, my shadows swept around us, making us undetectable.
“Blasted immortals!” the beastly thing snarled. “Never to be trusted!” He slammed his head against the rock before he screamed at the top of his rotten lungs, “Somebody help me!”
“I’m curious,” Dameon whisper-spoke to me, his face fixed ahead. “How were you going to do this on your own?”
I knew what he meant. Ichor was an important part of the equation, and my veins could not produce a single drop without Sage. But Lost Souls craved one thing more than immortal blood—they were cannibals, hungering for those who were like them, broken and tormented. Lost. When Sage died, that’s exactly what I’d become.
Eyes fixed ahead, I answered, “I had planned to go into the bog and use myself as bait.”
“Even for you, that would have been dangerous,” Dameon remarked.
“It would have been, yes. So when the wee beast with the third leg showed up, I realized this was a better plan.”
Dameon chuckled at that. “He’s rather . . .gifted, isn’t he?”
“Impressively so,” I agreed.
“Are we seriously discussing his cock?” Zahra interjected.
“Yeah,” Dameon said at the same time I said, “We are.”
She stared at us, shook her head, and looked back at the creature.
A few seconds passed.
Then, Zahra muttered under her breath, “You think he gets ground rash on that thing?”
A low laugh rumbled past Dameon’s lips while I cracked a desolate grin.
Without Sage, I was an empty vessel.
In the distance, the water began to bubble.
A crown of sleek, black hair broke the surface, rising just enough so that a pair of black eyes could look out. Those dark, ominous eyes were filled with a great void—an emptiness beyond compare. They shifted, narrowing in on the creature.
“Oh no. Please. No. No.No!” the small beast screamed, trying to fight against his restraints.
The head lifted out of the water, revealing a feminine face—once full of beauty, but her pale, opaque skin, which showed the tainted, black veins beneath, had robbed her of her looks. Networking her torment, they spiderwebbed under her skin. She glided forward, taking her time as sheclosed in on her prey. Reaching the shore, she stood. Wet, faded fabric clung to her body, the tattered ends breaking off into bits of string that clung to her bony legs covered in black scabs. Her ribs poked through the cotton dress, making it seem as if she hadn’t eaten anything in weeks.
The three of us did not speak a single word, our attention fixed on the unsettling truth now standing before us, of what Harper might become. Granite packed my stomach. A sinking feeling—one I knew weighed on all of us.
The closer she got to the man-rabbit, the more he screamed. When she was an arm’s reach away from him, her attention fell to his chest. She slid one finger over it, gathering up the ichor. She brought it to her nose and then to her mouth. A serpentine tongue slid from her lips, flicking over her gilded finger.
“Mmmm, the ichor of the gods,” she said, her voice haunting. She dipped her head and began to lick the creature’s sternum.
I stepped out from my shadows, revealing myself.
Her head swung my way and her eyes grew wide. Her rusty jaw unhinged, dropping all the way to her chest, and she let out a screech so horrible, it was like shards of glass piercing my eardrums.
