Page 66 of Rebirth

Darkness clouds my vision again. “Unity?”

“Too far,” he says. “Somewhere where I cannot sense them.”

I don’t ask who or what he’s referring to, because I know. Instead, I grip his forearm, a bit concerned with how weak my grip is. “The others from this camp. They’re gone to Unity. We have to warn the people there.”

He’rox jerks his chin toward his chest in a nod and I notice those tentacles he’d walked on, the same tentacles that had kept me safe, are nowhere to be seen.

Darkness threatens to pull me under again, but I force myself to stay conscious. “We…stick together,” I whisper. “Figure this out. Stop…the parasite.”

A flicker of something crosses He’rox’s eyes and his ears flick at the sides of his head. Those tentacles that hang near his mouth twitch and writhe as if reaching out to me and for a moment, I’m caught in the beauty that’s him.

“Don’t leave me again,” I whisper. “It…” I don’t know what I’m saying. Something screams deep within me that I should shut the hell up. And yet… “I don’t like when you do.”

He glances down at me, something passing through those eyes again that I can’t quite place. Maybe because they’re always so ice-cold. Seeing any form of emotion within them now is almost unnerving.

“We’re…in this together now.” My eyes start to drift closed again. “Just get…us somewhere safe. Rest. Then we fight back.”

“You extend an alliance to a monster…”

For a moment, I don’t realize he’s referring to himself.

“You’re not a monster,” I whisper. “You’re not my enemy either. You’re my…friend.”

“Friend,” he replies.

He’rox’s grip on me tightens softly, his voice a whisper. “If you only knew how much more than that I’d like to be.”

His words soothe me as darkness claims my vision. I let my weary mind and body surrender to oblivion, trusting that He’rox will keep us both safe for now. When I wake, we’ll begin figuring out how to fight back against this insidious parasite infecting our world.

And maybe I’ll have someone fighting by my side.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

HE’ROX

I hold Sophie gently as I maneuver through the forest underbrush. She’s so soft, I worry I might crush her in my monstrous claws.

Because that is what I am.

A monster.

The shame that came over me once I exterminated the threat that sought her blood was one I could not run away from. For the first time since Edooria, I became that version of myself. One my own people were afraid of. Shunned.

I could expect no less from the little hyu’man in my arms.

I glance down at her now, eyes moving over her smooth face. She is…beauty. So different from myself, yet I yearn to keep her in my sight even when I risk her turning me away.

Her steady breathing indicates she has finally lost consciousness to her wounds. Now that she is unable to object, we must move faster to find sanctuary. For holding her to me like this is quickly affecting my thirst more than it should.

Her shoulder wound still seeps blood, the red a stark contrast against her pale skin, and just the sight of it makes my fangs ache.

The monster within me sees a part of her that it wants. But I will resist.

I must.

For rather than harm this little fighter, I will eliminate myself.

I am a blur as I move through the underbrush, following an unknown thread, the steady beats of the source of this planet. Instinct guides me to a secluded cave, but I hesitate.

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