Page 16 of Brutally Mated
Skor and Krall have not looked away from the being all this time. They’re not able to. They’re locked. Transfixed. If I left them there for the rest of the night, in the morning they wouldn’t be men at all. They’d be two stone statues ripe for erosion. Before that can happen, I grab both Skor and Krall by the shoulders and turn them away from the Medusa.
“Thanks for looking after them,” I say. “But I can’t let you do that. They’re my mates.”
She lets out a cry of rage. “I almost had them!” she hisses. “You should have left them to me. They deserve to be rock like the mountain. They are made of the same stuff.”
“Have a day off,” I suggest to her. “These men, silly as they are, are under my protection.”
“Waste of life,” she hisses, her tongue forked and flickering with impotent rage.
“Very possibly,” I agree, dropping the leaves into a pot over the fire. “But I’d like to see what happens with them.”
“Give them up to me. Free yourself. Do not let their seeds take root in your belly. You were made for more than this, Tabitha.”
She speaks my name, and something sparks inside me. I am confused for a brief second as to how she knows my name, but a slow horror soon creeps over me as the most likely answer occurs to me.
I do not want to look at her too keenly. I do not want to see confirmation of my worst nightmare. The things that come from the shadows are manifestations of all who have been lost to the dark over the years. They are not just our tormentors, they are our loved ones as well.
“Leave me be,” I say, lowering my eyes. “This night is haunted enough.”
“You’ll regret not giving them over,” she hisses. “They’ll breed you until there’s nothing left.”
“Don’t threaten me with a good time,” I quip back, focusing my attention on the pot. The liquid is starting to leach the important elements from the leaves. I add a little something from my pouch, and murmur a few words. As I do my work, the storm of horrors seems to settle outside the circle.
I hear Krall and Skor start to stir as their limited paralysis slides away.
“I saw something I’ll never be able to explain,” Krall says. “I knew there were vampires here. I did not suspect that there were so many other horrors. What was she, Tabby? What was that creature with all her… and the…”
I look over at him. His eyes are wide, and the expression changes his features in quite an interesting way. He doesn’t seem quite as intimidating at the moment.
“Oh, the dark Medusa? Yes. We’ve all seen the dark Medusa. She tends to appear when a female is suffering in some way,” I say, letting my tone be pointed. “It’s best to treat ladies well when she walks the land.”
In the distance, we all hear a hissing rattle. She has retreated to the deep shadows, but that does not mean she is entirely gone. She could surge back in an instant and strike if the conditions were right.
“What are you doing?” Skor asks the question, coming to stand by my shoulder. He seems interested in what I am doing, and entirely unconcerned about what just almost happened to him. Perhaps he is brave. Maybe he’s stupid.
“Making a little potion,” I say. “For the boy.”
I like calling him the boy. It makes me feel more powerful, even though I am the youngest here, and of course the weakest female. They can take me physically, but my knowledge and expertise makes me strong.
“I thought you needed ingredients outside the circle to make that,” he says.
I don’t reply. I can feel his eyes boring into the back of my head. He might not be pleased with my disobedience, but it is going to ensure that his brother does not end his days in a possessed state.
When the potion is ready, I decant it into a tin cup they brought with them, and swirl it so it cools as swiftly as possible.
I go to the youngest of my mates, tip his head up, and pour it between his lips. “Drink this,” I say as I do. “It will set you free.”
“What are you doing?” Krall snaps the question, as if he suddenly remembered that he thinks he is supposed to be in charge and therefore has to impose himself on every situation.
“The same thing I was doing when Skor asked,” I reply, more than a little snark in my voice. “Let me do this. You three are out of your depth and in more danger than you understand.”
While I am answering silly questions, the potion is doing its work. Thorn shakes, shudders, and bursts into tears as the demon leaves him. A dark cloud funnels out of his mouth and makes its way up into the sky above.
“I’m so sorry!” he says to me, his eyes immediately wet with remorse. “I was so cruel to you. I was…”
“Hold him down!” I shout to the other two. “He’s going to run!”
Sure enough, Thorn was scrambling to his feet while making apology after apology. He remembers all he did, and he cannot reconcile it with what he needs to believe about himself. This is the way true madness lies, and the truly mad flee into the dark night in the attempt to cleanse themselves.
