Page 68 of Bloody Bargain
“No,” he admitted reluctantly.
“Then tell me later. I’m starving and I can’t take anymore surprises right now.”
Gamil brushed their chest with their newly minted arms as if they were wearing clothing, watching D’abel warily as they made their way over to my rock. I sat the paper to-go boxes on the sand and placed a fork in each one. I’d hoped that Tsemkhoa would be awake, but instead put two omelettes in front of D’abel.
“Ah, infancy for breakfast and wooden utensils,” Gamil said, sitting down opposite me. “We appreciate that you’ve taken our bodily safety into account. Come, D’abeloloa. Such a delicious breakfast and a thoughtful wife.”
D’abel watched the back of Gamil’s head, calculating how many ways he might try to kill them. He joined us with hesitation, tail winding around my knee. Once he was settled, I glanced up at Tsemkhoa. His scales were charred and powdery, as black as coal. The iron chains around his arms barely held together the remnants of bone and crackling where his scales peeled and curled away from sizzling fat. He smelled likemeat…
“He will need the same treatment,” Gamil said nonchalantly, glancing between us as they chewed. “Someone to exchange blood with.”
I looked at the back of my hand where rusty nails had bitten into my skin. There were no scars or scabs now, but I knew exactly where they’d been. “You mean me.”
D’abel’s tail squeezed my knee. Whatever anger he directed at Gamil, it didn’t extend to his brother. He looked at the other b’adruokh out of the peripupil of one eye with a crease in his brow.
“I owe my brother a sliver of relief after centuries of torture.”
I jammed a big bite of omelette into my mouth, peevish about the pressure campaign even if I’d already considered what he was hinting at. “Are you sure you want to share me like that? I only have so much of the red stuff.”
“Gods are the greedy ones,fyxen,”Gamil said with a smirk. Their tone was teasing, but held a sharp edge. “Elementals, though. They share everything, don’t they, D’abeloloa? Water falls from the skies and volcanoes rage deep within the oceans. The earth mixes to make mud and glass. Mingling is in your nature. Admit it.”
“I would gladly sharemyn chalis’gifts with my brother,” D’abel bristled. “They are hers to give as she pleases. Freely. Without mischief.”
“Easy to say when you’ve already been bound, isn’t it? Blood for me, not for thee.”
D’abel’s jaw split open, his teeth secreting venom as his scales lifted. His tail whipped off my leg and thrashed through the surf as little spines like knife points split through his tail’s ridge. He was going to expand into his spirit and chase Gamil down until he really did eat them.
I grabbed a fistful of D’abel’s hair and tugged hard. He winced, the sharp points on his spine retracted, and that dangerous hiss turned into a low, simmering growl. His split tongue snuck from his mouth and wrapped around my wrist, leaving an ache low in my belly.
“That’s enough.”
“Yes, mine Tessa.”
“Of course,” Gamil agreed, palms in the air. I squinted at them.
“Whatever you did, D’abel is probably right to be angry.”
Gamil grinned, licking one of their cat-like fangs. “He is, yes.”
“Is it going to hurt people?”
“We vow that it will not.”
“Then save the schoolyard drama for another time.”
I stood up and rolled my shoulders, pushing my wet sleeves up my forearms. Tsemkhoa’s blackened hair swam across the surface of the lava without burning. He was a black ember, oblivious to the world.
Maybe gods were greedy, but so was I. One b’adruokh was a force of nature, but two? Maybe more?
We really might be able to save the world from this mess.
“We triggered the apocalypse, so it’s our job to end it,” I told them. “Which means it’s time to wake up another badrock.”
Epilogue
“She is sleeping?” we asked, breathing in the scent of sex off D’abel’s chest. We wanted to lick his scales where smears of her taste still glistened from wandering, desperate hands. Mortals needed validation of life after something so traumatic, so the afterglow tasted particularly delicious. We glimpsed flashes of our Tessa as the b’adruokh approached. A swollen mouth, quivering thighs, the sensation of our fingers deep inside her cunt.
Oh. No, that was a tail. We glanced at D’abel’s fingers to find all his claws intact.
