Page 36 of Obsession

The creature’s strange protrusion began pumping as it sucked blood out like a leech. As Callum turned to slap it away, the thing’s jaw snapped shut like a bear trap, hard enough to snap Callum’s leg. He hissed and screamed in pain, unable to return the attack. Some kind of toxin was stealing his ability to heal while it fed on him.

“Help me.” He cried out to Bastian. HIs hand was in the air as if he was reaching for him.

Bastian had his hands full, literally with two more of the starved creatures that were still making advances on them.

“I will kill every last one of you bastards!” Bastian gritted out through his clenched teeth.

Ren gasped as she watched the last two creatures whirling to attack Callum while he waited for his healing to slowly knit the mangled bone back together.

Grayson stood stock still holding Ren close to his chest, and covered her mouth with his large hand to prevent her from drawing any more attention in their direction.

Her screams were muffled behind Grayson’s strong grip, no one and nothing looked in their direction. Just as Grayson intended.

The moment slowed to a blur, as fear gripped her heart and squeezed. The wicked paced and rhythmic thud in her chest ached to her very bones with terror.

Thirty-Five

Ren's spirit was not easily quelled. Her determination to escape, fueled by Callum's support, held strong in the face of Grayson's unrelenting grip on her. Even her need to see Bastian escape from the excruciating death these monsters promised held her heart in a vice.

The bitter taste of fear was drowned out by the intoxicating promise of freedom. The game of deception was over, and with Bastian and Callum’s life in danger, the stakes were higher than ever.

The charge of adrenaline from her fear triggered her ancient dormant instinct within, and with a scream of pure fury, her body began to change.

“What the fuck is happening?” Grayson questioned.

Her skin began to dry and glimmer as her flesh turned to a rough coating of shiny scales. Her arms and legs shrunk away as her torso widened and extended to massive proportions, loosening Grayson’s superhuman grip.

“Ahhhh!”

Her scream turned to a loud breathy hiss as a crown of iridescent scales wrapped around her head, and her pupils turned to narrow slits.

Ren focused a cold blooded rage on Grayson. With swift movement she was wrapped around and started to squeeze the breath and life from the cold calculating killer.

Her feelings of love, overshadowed by her rage.

She tried to speak but only a long low hiss escaped her gaping maw of razor sharp teeth. Her forked tongue expelling itself to taste the air and sense where everyone and everything that was still moving was.

The formerly beautiful young woman was now a massive black snake that dwarfed the three brothers.

The fates had allowed her buried magic to rise. To protect herself and her lovers.

As the tension within the mansion mounted, Bastian dropped the two now deceased rogues and stared at the abomination before him.

Grayson did the only thing he could. For the first time in his life—or un-life as it were—he retreated. He turned and ran with his inhuman speed so quickly that only a whirl of dust and a ripple across the pools of blood behind him reflected the direction in which he went.

The erratic pattern of his footsteps reflected that his bones were fractured under the weight of Ren’s punishing supernatural grip. He wouldn’t get too far in that condition.

The gigantic snake opened her mouth to reveal massive fangs now dripping with venom. A fluorescent green or chartreuse color dripped from the tips of the longest teeth.

Ren coiled around the column supporting the perch Grayson had been holding her on. Her tail wrapped around at least three times with more length to spare.

She slithered down to the fight. Her body was a writhing wave of fury as she practically swam across the floor. She spit hot venom into the eyes of the creature feeding on Callum. It shrieked and clutched both hands to its face as it released his leg,and Callum whirled hard and slapped it to the floor with a heavy hand.

“I knew it was inside you. I knew it.” Callum said in awe.

Bastian had beaten away five of the creatures and Callum had mortally wounded three. The remaining four charged her, their disgusting faces stretching wide to feed on the blood of Ren, regardless of her new magical form. It seemed they were so mindlessly starved they were worse than the zombies portrayed on that hit television series.

The huge snake spit venom in three quick bursts. The creatures had no defense for this attack. Her venom was so toxic it ate away at their skin like acid. The stench of burning flesh clouded the room.

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