Her lungs worked hard to suck in air through the panic. Any strain on her limbs didn’t register as she was in panic mode. She raced flat-out across the plain, swiftly stomping down patches of grass and flowers in her wake. She headed for one of the hills towards the left. Some thought that she could hide there came to mind and she charged forward with her only goal to escape.
The pounding feet closed in on her. The creatures made clicking, gnashing sounds with their teeth. She pushed her last reserves of energy hoping it’d be enough, but a hard body slammed into her. Abby cried out as she went flying hard to the ground, the momentum of her speed banging her head into the ground and making her ribs kiss her spine.
She groaned, unable to move. The thing that tackled her growled and grumbled in a hissing deep voice. It spoke garbled, strange sounding words at her. She was flipped, not gently, onto her back and another painful groan escaped. She had to move. She had to fight back and get away, but her body had given up.
The fall had knocked the wind out of her and sharp pains made each breath she took a chore. Her right knee throbbed with a fiery, burning sensation from the landing. Her bruised sides pulsated in anger at the treatment.
Her eyes flashed open as an idummi climbed over her, one leg on each side of her waist. Its teeth gnashed together in a chomping motion making yellow spittle drop from its mouth. The spittle hung from its thin green lip for a long second. Then it fell from his mouth. The spittle landed on her shirt and started to sizzle, a tendril of grey smoke swirled up. It burned straight through the shirt leaving a black hole. Then it touched her skin. Abby cried out as burning pain engulfed her. She scrambled and wiped with her shirt at the spittle until the pain ebbed.
Breathing hard, she stared up at the demon. It had a nasty sort of smile on its face that only served to bear sharp, pointed teeth.
Only straight meat eaters had such teeth. That thought popped into her head at that exact moment, and it scared the shit out of her. She wasn’t going to become a meal for this thing.
Sucking in a deep breath, she thrust her leg up in a brutal kick catching the demon between its legs. The demon’s hands flew between his legs as its knees buckled. Before it collapsed over her, she scrambled backwards. Now that she wasn’t running, her body started sending warning signals to her brain to let her know her body hurt in a bad way from that fall.
The demon screeched and its yellow, strange red-inflamed eyes narrowed on her. She had a moment to gulp before it launched itself at her landing on top of her. All the air whooshed out of her at its weight. The thing was shorter than she was and bony, yet had a layer of hard muscle over it. It seriously weighed a hell of a lot more than she’d expected. It felt as if a grown, fat man was sitting on her.
The demon’s eyes widened with glee and a black, forked tongue slithered across its lips. It pulled its curved dagger from its belt, pressed its knees into her chest to lock down her squirming body, and lifted the dagger above its head with two hands.
“Kraju d’menuni kash!” it hissed. Then it jerked its arms further back an inch and lurched down with the blade.
Abby screamed and shut her eyes waiting for the knife to plunge into her body. A whizz of air stirred her hair making her flinch. She panted, waiting for the blow, but the demon groaned above her and fell to the side. Abby jerked up, scrambling away.
“Huh,” she grunted.
An arrow was stuck in the demon’s chest where its heart should be. Dark murky blood oozed around the wound. Black feathers were stuck in the end of the arrow. It looked handmade and very real. The demon didn’t move any more.
Abby started to shake. She couldn’t help it. She’d been in several scary situations in her life, especially since meeting Alrik, but this one took the cake. She stood up and her knee gave out. She could already feel it swelling from when she landed, but she locked it and gritted through the pain so she could turn around.
What she saw she could barely comprehend. A group of demons, not idummi, but tall, human-looking demons like Alrik surrounded her. They had various colored skin and hair just like Alrik too. They carried an array of swords, knives, axes, and one in the front held a black bow. He seemed to stand taller than the rest, though that may just be the command that surrounded his presence. He strode towards her. His lips were moving and garbled sounds came out, but she didn’t understand any of them. She recognized the sounds of Demonish being spoken between the men.
His gaze traced up and down her then he glanced back and commanded something to his group. The others vanished in a flash of movement. Then he spoke once more.
Her thighs started trembling, and she flexed her thigh to try to keep her leg from giving out. Hot fire started burning in her muscle. It jerked and she grimaced as her muscle rolled and her knee burned tight. It felt a good two sizes bigger than it should be.
The strange man with the bow said something else to her, his eyes intense. Too bad she didn’t speak Demonish.
With a curse, her knee gave out and she couldn’t keep from crying out. She landed on her side, her hands going to her upper thigh to apply pressure there. It helped to ease the pain some but not by much.
The demon came towards her. He had skin like the pale moon and hair as black as Alrik’s. His eyes were what really caught her attention though, they were green. No, that was too plain sounding. It didn’t do them justice. They were the most beautiful green eyes she’d ever seen. Like the green in a photo of a tree in Hawaii that’d been colored and highlighted by some designer’s hand to enhance it. It was brighter than the brightest grass or leaf even down here in the rift where colors were more vibrant. And, they were on a face that stared down at her with such intensity that it stole her breath away.
The demon stopped before her with his hand held out and whispering foreign words. She felt his magic travel over her body an instant before darkness took her.
Chapter Eleven
“What are you going to do with the woman?”
That same question had been plaguing Aidan since he caught her. He and his men didn’t know what to make of her. She wasn’t demon, nor vampire or shapeshifter, yet she traveled with none other than King Alrik Demuzi. That left them with human.
Just what the king wanted of them, they didn’t know. If the king thought he could garner any kind of support from Aiden and his men then he couldn’t wait to show him just how wrong he was. Few were hated more than the king of the shahoulin—a treacherous, evil bastard that deserved no less than a slow, painful death. Aidan just hoped some good might come out of this chance meeting.
His eyes once again fell to the unconscious woman. She was beautiful, captivating. Then again, he hadn’t laid eyes on a woman in a very long time so maybe his sense of what was attractive or not was tainted. Maybe she actually looked more like a hag. His eyes wouldn’t let him believe it. She looked young, fresh, had a mane of shiny brown hair, and a body perfect for loving.
“That’s a good question, Conrad, and one I don’t have the answer to right now.”
Conrad nodded and his gaze, just like the rest of the men’s, fell to the woman. Aidan had ordered her to be laid upon some bedding near the fireplace until she woke. Her demon companion didn’t have it so nicely. A smile tugged at Aidan’s lips.
“How fares the king?” Aidan asked.
Conrad grinned with pleasure. “He’s below in the dungeon bellowing his brains out to be freed. I don’t think he much takes to captivity.”
Aidan ground his jaw. “Now he has a taste of what he’d bestowed upon us.”