Page 16 of Fire Kissed
“The City likes to play games.”
“What does that even mean!” I shriek. “The City likes this, the City does that. What the fuck is this city, and why does it have more of a personality than you do!?”
His insulted, narrowed eyes hold on me for several seconds. “It’s a living maze. Filled with creatures and the worst men in all the realms. If you can bear my personality, I’d suggest you stay close.”
I’m still gaping at him when he turns away from me, and with stiff posture, he leads the way further intothe City.
An hour passes in the quiet. More animals start scurrying out when it seems we’re in the heart of the land. A terrible rodent or possibly a bug infestation is disturbing in this part of the land. Another large, black creature crawls out on six furry legs, squeaking at us as we pass. A dozen black, beady eyes look up at me, and I almost trip to avoid stepping on its long, bushy tail.
“Rat roaches,” Torben huffs with a curl of his upper lip. “They’re harmless in small groups.” A bit of relief settles in at that comment. “It’s the herds of them you have to watch out for.”
My brow scrunches hard. I barely hold back my gag out of pure respectful fear of the weird little monster disappearing through a large crack in the building next to us. Probably off to find his notorious rat roach herd.
“The deeper into the realm we go, the more dangerous it’ll become,” Torben warns.
I nod at that and try to keep closer to him as another squeaking sound like a rioting herd scrambles out of nowhere. If I lean into him any more, I’ll just be crawling him like a tree which, I’ll admit, at one time seemed like a sexy scenario, but this exact rat-roaching setting was not what I had in mind.
The City and its games continue as we go. Lights fall from the sky, blinking in with florescent bulbs that aren’t at all reliable but do help to illuminate our shady setting. One swings from an old wire just above my head in faded neon colors.
Op-n. It reads, sparking with some sort of mysterious electrical problem that doesn’t quite make sense. It’s as if the heavens of Hell have a short fuse somewhere, and at any minute, this entire creepy world might burst into electrical sparking flames.
The blinking swaying to the left of it is less damaged. Girls, Girls, Girls.It flashes, and what I can only assume is a sexy, fluorescently made woman shakes her curvy hips with every flicker of the sign. She’s captivatingly realistic. Watchful eyes and a sinful smile shine out at us.
“Torben,” I say on a whisper.
A grunt is his only charming reply.
“Torben,” I hiss a bit louder when the woman’s eyes follow us further, and unsurprisingly, he just grunts a bit louder until I’m glaring at the back of his messy, blonde hair.
“Okay, she just fucking winked at me! It wasn’t a blink, it was a wink, I swear!”
He arches a brow at the curvy woman on the hanging bar sign.
“Betsey’s harmless,” Torben finally tells me. “She just needs to be complimented, or she gets a short fuse sometimes.” He looks at the bar sign. “Brightest lights I’ve seen all night, Bets,” he tells her with a smile. Arealsmile. Like... when the hell did this asshole even learn to compliment someone, let alone smile about it?
“Thanks, handsome,” the woman purrs as her fluorescent pink lips pull up in a saucy smirk.
Then she looks at me.
I look her drawn figure up and down and try to think of something polite to say to a stripper sign.
“Prettiest bulbs in the whole realm,” I say, and I can’t help but feel the lameness seep right into me.
Her lips purse together, her hips still swaying, but clearly, she’s lost a bit of pep in her step.
“Next time, learn some better manners from the Dragon like your friend here.” Her blue-lit eyes roll, and I’ve never racked my brain so hard for a compliment in my entire life.
“Come on.” Torben nudges his elbow into mine, but I’m still mentally trying to think of what I’ll say to please the stripper sign when we leave this place.
“What happens if what I say next time isn’t good enough?” I ask once we’re far enough out of sight from Betsey. “And what does she mean, you learned your manners from the Dragon. She’s talking about Aric, right?”
“What?” Torben barely looks my way.
Another building slams to the ground in front of us, splattering mud across my legs and barely missing my toes. Torben wipes his face harshly, and with annoyance, he leads me around to the right of the building.
“I said—”
A slithering slides through the night air, and I shut up instantly. I sense it before I see it. A chill that claws into my bones bites into my flesh. Because the largest snake I’ve ever seen extends itself up, arching above us until it shadows over our forms like ants at the base of an old oak tree.
