Page 117 of Land of Monsters

“Down there.” I flicked my chin.

He turned around, rushing us down the long row of tubes. I purposely didn’t look, keeping my focus ahead, feeling as if each one was reaching out for me, crying for my help.

Ash curved us around a corner and behind an outdated elevator, the smooth edges of stone giving way to crude rock and dirt. The stench of newly soiled earth stung my nose, though something else already wafted in. It coiled over my tongue the further we descended, whisking my lungs in and out at a faster rate. My pulse beat against my neck, the grip on my gun cracking my knuckles. Memories flickered so quickly in my mind I couldn’t grab onto anything but the sensation.

The dread and horror.

Black fur sprouted over my arms, and a rumble formed in my chest.

Dziubus.I felt him speak straight into my body, his calming tone hushing my beating heart, like his hands were stroking through my soul. Ash kept his attention forward, but I sensed him inside me, invading my space, taking over and soothing the beast, shushing the obscurer. And they allowed him in, kneeling to him. It was comforting and frightening at once.

Because if anything happened to him, neither would find serenity again. And what I did to Alexsei Kozlov would be trivial to the chaos I would cause. There was no becoming a better person because I was loved by him. I would cover myself in blood until I was hunted down and destroyed.

The pull I felt gripped me harder, pointing me down another tunnel, when the hums of noise separated and became clearer. Muttering voices, metal clanking, and deep grunts.

Acid dripped down my throat, perspiration dampening my forehead as if I knew what was coming, yet still wrapped myself in the blurred darkness of those triggers.

The cave opened, the dirt path switching to a steel walkway, bridging the open space and inclining into stairs toward the lair below.

I stilled, my lungs attacking oxygen as if it were the enemy. My nightmare had come to life in rich, vivid colors and details, instead of hazy tendrils I couldn’t quite grasp. This time, instead of being in my body, I was watching from above, taking in the true hideousness of what was happening.

Rattling from the snake-man filled the cavern as he bred a human woman. I recalled her serving me coffee at the camp. She had a child and a husband, who were probably upstairs being used as research.

Her eyes were barely open, her body moving up and down, but she was not inside, the drugs taking her far away. Thankfully.

But the loudest was coming from a warped looking man with a scorpion tail, on the other side of the room rutting so hard the bed slid across the floor, his final hissing moans scraping my ears like thousands of bugs.

My insides went cold. The flash of his body over mine, his grotesque sneer, his stench still haunting my nostrils. Immobilizing fear crashed over me.

Z.

I knew his name and that he was the leader, but most of all, I recalled his hot breath on my face and the feel of his scaley hands on my skin.

He immediately got up afterward, tucking himself back into his pants, and moved away. The girl underneath lay there as he left her, her darker blonde hair matted, her skin covered in marks and bruises.

This time bile made it all the way up my throat and filled my mouth.

Celeste.

Z zipped up his pants, strolling to a tied-up figure on a bed against the wall.

“You better hope that worked.” The arachnid kicked at the figure. “Or maybe I’ll try you next with this.” Z’s stinger scraped over the bed, his laugh sounding like chirping hisses.

My attention lowered to the person he was talking to.

Everything fell away. My body wrenched up, reacting purely on instinct.

My brother was gagged, blindfolded, and cuffed to a bed leg, his face bruised, yet I could still make out an expression of disgust and devastation.

“Rook.” His name stuck in my throat, my need to get to him, save him, tingled the daggers in my back.

“No,”Ash barked without actually speaking out loud. He grabbed my arm, pulling me back down behind the wall, his head shaking.

I felt the retort on my lips, theFuck you, I’m getting my brotherresponse, but I knew Ash was right. We couldn’t run down there with no strategy.

“If it does. I’m next.” A man with boar tusks and rough, brown skin stood at the entrance like he was on guard.

“No,” Z snarled. “You breed with the humans.Iget the fae women.” He nodded from Celeste to two other figures near her.

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