Page 42 of Obsessed

I climb up into a nearby tree to get a better view of my surroundings, and hopefully a way home. But when I reach the top, I get an eyeful of something even better.

CHAPTER 22

DAVRIK

The pirates stumble from their ship, hacking and wheezing. One clutches his face, skin blistered and raw. Alice's handiwork, no doubt. My chest swells with pride - and worry.

I crouch in the dense foliage, tracking their movements. The injured one breaks off from the group, cursing through his burns. Perfect.

"She couldn't have gone far," he calls to his companions. "Split up!"

The others fan out in different directions while he staggers closer to my position. I ease back, deliberately snapping a twig. His head whips toward the sound.

"Got you now, you little-" He stumbles after me, right where I want him.

Twenty paces ahead looms one of the massive carnivorous plants Alice showed me last week. Its purple-veined leaves spread wide like an invitation, dripping with sweet-smelling nectar that masks its deadly nature.

"This way," I taunt, keeping to the shadows. "Unless those burns are slowing you down?"

"I'll show you slow!" He charges forward, exactly as expected.

I dodge behind the plant's thick stalk. The pirate follows, boot sliding in the slick secretions around its base. He pitches forward with a yelp, straight into the waiting maw. The leaves snap shut with crushing force.

"You should have paid more attention to the local flora," I mutter, watching the plant's digestive enzymes begin their work. "Alice would have warned you about that one."

His muffled screams fade quickly. Four more to go, and I know exactly where to find the most dangerous specimens on this planet. Alice taught me well, even if she never intended these lessons to be used quite like this.

A shout echoes from deeper in the jungle - female. My blood runs cold. Time to hurry.

The female pirate's boots crunch through fallen leaves. "Over here!" Her companion crashes through the undergrowth to join her.

I press myself against a massive tree trunk, remembering Alice's excited voice as she taught me about the local wildlife. "The call sounds like this." She'd cupped her hands around her mouth, demonstrating the specific pitch and rhythm that would draw out the territorial beasts.

The pirates edge closer. "Come on out. We just want a chat about your cargo."

"Yeah," the male adds, "a friendly discussion about proper sharing etiquette."

My fingers curl into the proper position at my mouth. The sound starts low, building to a warbling crescendo that echoes through the canopy. The pirates freeze.

"What the hell was that?" The woman's voice wavers.

A deep growl answers from the shadows. Red eyes gleam between the trees, followed by the distinctive rattle of armored scales against bark.

"Oh shit." The male pirate stumbles backward. "Is that-"

"Run!" The female grabs his arm, yanking him along as the massive predator bursts from the foliage. Its segmented tail whips behind it, clearing a path of destruction as it charges after them.

Their terrified screams fade into the distance, punctuated by the creature's ear-splitting roar. Alice had called it something scientific, but I prefer my own name for it: death on four legs.

"Should have stayed on your ship," I murmur, pushing away from the tree. The sounds of pursuit grow fainter - the beast won't give up until it catches them or drives them far from its territory. Either way, they won't be bothering us again.

Another set of heavy footsteps alerts me to the fuzzy giant's approach. Through the dense foliage, his bulk moves like a shadow, all brute force and no finesse.

"Getting tired yet?" His gravelly voice carries through the jungle. "We can do this the easy way."

I duck under a low-hanging branch. "Easy is boring. Let's make it interesting."

The pit lies thirty paces ahead, concealed by a carpet of fallen leaves and vines. A lot like the one Alice fell in not too long ago. I'm sure there's an exciting scientific explanation for how these pits form, but I'll save that lesson for another day.

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