Page 62 of Pain

He nodded and put the vehicle back into drive, hitting the accelerator. Even though the air outside was still way too hot, at least it created a breeze that was welcomed against my sweaty, dusty skin. I was careful not to touch the jagged bits of glass sticking out on the windowsill, but leaned a little closer to the door to get more wind on my face.

We drove without any concern for probably another two hours, none of us saying much. Maxar also turned off the lights—which, when the night was fully on us, made driving more precarious than ever.

I was mentally drained, as I’m sure the others were as well, and closed my eyes for just a moment; the air whooshing through the broken window on my face almost pleasant. I was still completely aware of my surroundings and every bump and jiggle of the vehicle, but I wasn’t prepared for the heavywhomp whompof wings beating overhead, far more terrifying than earlier. There was no screech this time, just the sudden crash of talons against metal as the beast in the sky ripped off my back passenger door, flinging it out into the desert.

Omaera screamed. Maxar, jarred by the uneven weight distribution of the vehicle now that the monstrous bisibra was on the roof, jerked the wheel to and fro, sending us into a tailspin. Zandren gripped the safety bar overhead, and I scrambled to find the bar on my side, but along with the door, the bisibra had also ripped off part of the vehicle.

Claws, much longer than the ones from earlier but still just as viciously sharp, scratched at my arms and body as the animal shrieked and grunted above us. Feathers filled the inside of the vehicle, and I tried to find a leg to bite like I did the other—since this was clearly a different and much bigger version of our previous attacker—but I couldn’t. We had no light, and the thing wouldn’t stopmoving.

Pain lanced through me with a hot rush as the bisibra finally made contact, latching on, impaling me with its talons. The seatbelt that held me in was no match for it either. In fact, it was pulling so hard, that if I didn’t reach for the buckle and unfasten myself, I would have been ripped in two.

I was airborne in seconds, clutched into the deadly claws of my captor. But there was more weight than I expected. I glanced down, wincing from the agony of being impaled, and found Omaera holding onto my feet, dangling high above the dark ground below.

“Let go!” I screamed, blood bubbling up in my mouth. The creature must have punctured something bad.

“No! Just give me a second!”

Faint cries from below—Zandren and Maxar, no doubt—echoed as no more than whispers, we were so high up now. The air was slightly cooler this high in the air, but still not pleasant. The mighty monster’s wings beat slow and steady as it evened out its flight path, no longer climbing higher into the sky.

It let out a loud and torturous scream, followed by another, and another. It wriggled and squirmed in the sky, grunting out in pain.

And then we were falling.

At some point in our plummet to the ground, the bisibra relaxed its claws and let go of me, its talons slipping out of my body with a nasty slurping sound.

Omaera cried out in distress, and even though we were all nothing but shadows dropping quickly through the inky sky, I managed to grab her and put myself beneath her in order to break her fall.

We hit the ground with a dull and bone-crunchingthud,followed by the harshcrashof the bisibra’s body smacking the compact dirt, just narrowly missing us. It made no noise or movement after that.

Nothing but shadows filled the sky around us. I tried to move, but couldn’t.

“Omaera?” I croaked; her body draped across mine. Panic filled me, giving me the rush of adrenaline I needed. I ignored the pain in my chest and lifted my hand to stroke her head. “Omaera!” I said with more urgency.

She made a soft cooing sound and stirred.

I exhaled in relief, my ribs screaming at me with every labored, wheezy breath. I probably had a collapsed lung.

Frantic, now that she was awake, she pushed herself up and rolled off me. “Drak! Oh god, Drak!” She patted me down all over. “You’re okay. Are you okay? Oh god!”

“Why?” I croaked. “Why did you do that?”

She smacked my shoulder, which was probably the only part of my body that wasn’t in agony. “I’m not going to let you get captured and eaten. Jesus. Use your brain, you dumb vampire.”

The warmth in her tone made me smile just as blood began to bubble out of my mouth.

She sniffed the air. “Shit. Are you bleeding?”

“A little,” I wheezed.

A bizarre whinny not too far off in the distance made us both pause. Then there was a cacophony of whinnies and hoof stomping.

“You heard that too, right?” she asked.

I nodded and grunted to agree.

“Something else that wants to kill and eat us?”

“Probably.” I closed my eyes and focused on sending healing powers to all the broken and damaged parts of my body. I was still healing from her last torture session, and I was losing a lot of blood. I needed to feed. “The scent of my blood is probably luring whatever that is to us. Like chum in the water.”

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