Page 35 of Demon: Monsterverse
Continuing my momentum through the prickly stuff, I hugged my arms to make myself smaller. The foliage turned into a sort of tunnel made up of the bramble.
Shit. Was this a nest? ... I quickened my pace, the end in sight. I burst out on the other side and smacked at a web that caught on my cheek. Shuddering, I patted myself down and backed away from the thick, overgrown foliage. After a few steps, I reached the stone I had my eye on. That tree overhead looked much larger than it had from afar and the surface had a vine consistency.
I brushed away the dust and bits of branch stuck to my dress, so determined to get the leaf off my shoulder that I didn’t see the boulder until my toe rammed into it. Screaming, I toppled to the ground, landing with an ungracious thump.
What was the use? I whimpered and rolled over, blinking up at the blurred fog with the sky peeking through the awning, stringy trees.
I’d been lucky so far, so the universe had to toss in a wrench. I shuddered and puffed my cheeks out, trying to hold back the watering of my eyes.
A reptilian clicking had me tensing and my lungs seizing. I had to crane my head farther back until I was staring at slitted eyes and the snout of a dragon.
“What has you in such a state, human?”
I screamed and bounced to my feet, whirling to face the dragon. His rumbling voice vibrated across my skin.
“Worry, not. I will not harm you,” he said. I blinked at those sharp teeth lining his mouth and gulped. Although Tene also had sharp teeth, they were, uh, smaller and less in your face. His tail flicked behind him as he pushed onto his hind legs, exposing his lean lower half that tapered down. The scales over his body rippled with each of his movements—the red shade striking. How had I not seen him?
He now stood like the dragons that had hauled me about earlier, but he was taller, putting him at about thirteen feet tall. Wings spanned out at both his sides, fluttering.
“Human,” he muttered. The movement of his wings rustled my hair around my ears. I scooted backward.
This was such a stupid life—planet—world! Why had the San Andreas fault ruptured? Couldn’t it have held off a good century until I lived my ordinary life out? I whimpered. I was not cut out for living through the end-times.
Tears leaked from my eyes. The dragon’s scales shifted.
“Ah, exhaustion is kicking in. Must be your organs beginning to fail ...”
Hold up.
I scowled. “What does that mean? Why would they fail?”
The dragon shook his wings out.
“Humans can’t survive long in this atmosphere unless you drink of a monster’s essence.” He huffed a plume of smoke from his snout.
I blinked. Essence ... did he mean what I thought he meant?
He must have read my shock as confusion.
“Our release, yes.”
I coughed.
I was right. Tenebrous had been sustaining me with his cum ... did he know?
“I can provide for you if you come with me.”
He grinned wide. He’d just offered me hisessence.
I gawked.
“N-no thanks.” His scales rippled as he made an angry sound. Even though he seemed on the verge of striking at any moment, this dragon appeared to understand humans better than Tenebrous.
His wings beat, and he hovered off the ground, kicking up a flurry of dirt. I sneezed and cupped my hands around my nose, eyes, and mouth. Talons buried into my shoulder, wrapping around it as his wings beat and he lifted me higher and higher.
“No, stop!”
My arm burned at the joint, and I screamed, legs kicking. Flailing only made the pain worse, so I went limp. No point in trying to escape.
