Page 34 of Monstrous

Walker kicks out and lands a hit on the back of my knees. Pain rips through me as I jolt forward and my chin racks against the floor. I distantly hear the guys yelling at me in concern. Telling me to get up.

Three against one.Fouragainst one, if I count my meager attempts to take down Walker. And I thought it was going to be easy?

Apparently I’m delusional as well.

It takes me much too long to regain my footing, distracted by the hit, even as I hear Vexx snarl a challenge. He hurls himself forward with a furious cry. Forcing me to scoot back to avoid their attack.

I scoot across the floor on my knees, making myself as small as possible to avoid the onslaught of that shadow power. My gaze fixed on the printer and the outline of the paper in the drawer.

“Do you think you’re going somewhere?” Walker taunts.

Just the way he used to taunt the football players on whatever opposing team played his favorites, the Kansas City Chiefs.

But I can’t let the past lull me into complacency. I have to face him straight on, my chin held high, even if he gives me a beating. Even when the look on his face is cruel and inhuman.

I force myself to fight my fears and face him now.

“Just trying to practice my art,” I call back, sinking my fingers into the carpet and dragging myself forward, teeth gritted against the pain. “You know me. Always taking the opportunity to grow.”

Vexx falls to the floor next to me with blood dripping from a wound on the side of his head and his eyes full of fury. The next thing I know, Walker covers me with his body, arms on either side of me to keep me caged in.

He whips me around to face him wearing a dark, skeletal grin. An image of the past flashes in my mind, his body a charred husk. His bones blackened and the rest of him gone before I had a chance to say goodbye. Before I even had a chance to fucking scream.

I snatch the nearest object—Mom’s magazine holder—and slam it against the side of his head.

Walker falls back with a yowl but it’s a second of distraction. I’ll take whatever I can get and hurl myself toward the printer. Hoping I can make it in time to send him back before he hurts someone I love.

Terror claws through every vein in my body and tears them open, desperate to find a way to stall me. And it hurts.

Grabbing the printer paper, I crumble it in my hands, pressure building inside of me. I suck in a sharp breath and glance around for something to write with. Wondering why the room has suddenly gone silent behind me.

Until I turn around and see all three of my monsters strung up in the air by Walker’s shadows. He twists his fingers and the shadows slice into their skin. The air sings with the alien feeling of his magic.

“Well?” he asks me. “What are you going to do?”

There’s no trembling now.

I hesitate for a moment before throwing myself at him, clawing until I’m on his back and tightening my arms around his neck to cut off his air supply. There’s no way I’m letting anything happen to these guys if I can help it.

“Fuck you,” I bite out against his ear. Even as fear tumbles through me for the others. “For everything you’ve put us through, fuck you, Walker.”

His dark chuckle, the sound I used to love so much, turns my stomach. “You used to love it when I fucked you. Was one dick not good enough for you, Mari baby?”

“Not anymore.”

“Did you always need more and that’s why you didn’t grieve once I died?”

Okay, that hurt.

He slams my back into the wall to get me to let go. Sorry, not going to happen.

I loosen my grip only enough to punch him on the side of the head as I scramble away toward the blank page I’d dropped. Too bad for him. I’m too stubborn to give in to the panic. Even if I do happen to love Walker more than anything. I know the best thing I can do for him is to set him free and hope his soul is no longer trapped by what he’s become.

I growl, hunting for a pencil to send the Darkness back to where it came from.

Spotting a pen tucked inside a paperback, used as a bookmark, I dive for it, a small secret smile lighting my features. I break into a sprint to cross the room before Walker can stop me. A tendril of shadow lashes after me, wrapping around my ankle and dragging me back. I dig my fingers into the carpet like it will somehow stop me from moving. Walker grabs me by the legs and draws me toward him.

I catch a glance of vile victory on his face before my hair falls over my eyes.

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