Page 53 of A Very Monstrous Desire

Moments passed.

Theo did not know what to do.

His took another step forward. The rage unfurled its massive wings but still it did not move. It just looked at Theo with those beautiful eyes.

“What are you waiting for?” Theo asked, and he wasn’t sure why, maybe because he didn’t know what else to do.

The rage shifted in response. The beauty remained. It unfurled its wings to their fullest extent and spat out what Theo could only describe as some form of language. It was just like the cry. It both pleased and horrified Theo, and his body didn’t know how to respond to such contrasting emotions.

He wanted to look behind him to where Baku was waiting, but at the same time, Theo did not want to take his eyes off the rage. He gripped the handle of his knife tighter. His heart continued to race. Minutes ticked by.

“Do something,” he found himself saying and many, many years later Theo would always wish that he hadn’t because there was an instant response, but it was not from the rage above him.

Another shimmering rage, bigger, stronger, hurtled straight into Theo. He was knocked to the ground in an instant and the breath left his body. He held onto his knife, though he had no idea how, but couldn’t move it, because just a moment later the smaller rage fell upon him too.

Theo cried out. He was buried under two rages, and they were spitting that odd language at one another. The older one smacked the younger one aside, leaving it to tumble across the forest floor in a flurry of wings and more of that strange, melodious language.

A shriek. Then another. Two more rages arrived, each of them as old and as angry as the one who pinned Theo down. They spat out their language as they approached, eyes on Theo.

Another angry cry sounded.

It was not from any of the rages.

It was Baku.

He jumped upon Theo’s rage and stabbed him hard. The rage shifted at just the right moment so that the knife went through his wing rather than this heart, and he let out an ear-piercing shriek.

He smacked Baku aside with a blow that would have knocked Theo clean out. Baku shook it off quickly and launched for the older rage again. He wasn’t fast enough though. Just like with the matriarchal spider, the rage lifted Theo against him, and he flew high into the trees. The last thing Theo saw there on the forest floor was Baku being tackled by the other rages…and then him disappearing under a flurry of wings and snarling, beautiful faces.

Chapter

Twenty-Four

Theo’s breath came back to him quickly, probably fuelled by the adrenaline now racing through his body. He sucked it in as he was taken high up into the canopy of the trees, twisting, and shifting as he did so.

The rage held him tight against his body so that Theo was looking down on the forest and away from the rage. He could only be grateful for that. He’d gotten only the briefest of glimpses of this one, and it looked angry.

The rage was moving quickly, still spitting out that horribly melodious language. Theo tried to ignore it, but it was doing exactly what he suspected it was meant to do, confusing him, making him frightened and yet eager at the same time.

It was horrible.

And Theo knew that he was in trouble.

He twisted again as the rage swooped them towards a huge tree deep within the forest. The branches were thick and heavy this high up, not thin and spindly like Theo would have imagined. Was the rage planning to drop Theo on to one of those branches and then eat him? Theo suspected as much, and he tried desperately to think of a way out. Baku could not fly. He wasn’t going to reach Theo here. The only way back to his monster was by getting back to the ground.

They passed over something in one of the trees that looked like a cloud. It wrapped its way through and around the branches, and Theo gasped as he remembered Baku telling him exactly what that was for.

The creepers.

They were the only monsters that occupied the forests with the rages without the fear of being killed because they were just as strong, just as fierce, and they lived there in those clouds. They were not friendly. Baku had been clear on that. But could they be worse than this rage?

Theo decided there and then that he would take his chances. He reached down and he grabbed the clawed hands of the rage against his chest, and he dug his nails into them as hard as he could. The rage let out a shriek. Theo turned his head slightly and bit down hard on the only bit of the rage he could reach which was his upper arm. It shrieked again. Theo bit again and then again, pulling and tugging on it flesh in an effort to free himself. The rage loosened his grip ever so slightly. Theo took advantage of that to pull himself free, using every bit of strength that he had.

The next thing he knew he was plummeting towards the tree covered in clouds. He was quite high up. His heart jumped into his throat as he fell. Would the clouds break his fall? Would the tree? Theo did not get the chance to find out. The rage grabbed him before Theo could make it to the cloud, though it wasn’t quick enough to stop them falling into it a moment later.

They tumbled into the cloud in a tangle of limbs and wings. The hissing started immediately. It began at the point they had entered the cloud and then quickly came from all over. Figures started to move within it. Theo could see them because he was enclosed in the cloud, desperately trying to pull himself free of the rage. And, of course, it was not a real cloud, it was made of a thick substance that moved around them, cradling them in place, and unfortunately for Theo that meant he couldn’t pull free of the rage. It held him tight as hissing surrounded them.

“Let me go!” Theo screeched.

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