Page 27 of A Soul to Guide

He raised his forearm in preparation to impale the one coming on all fours from the side. It was yet to break through the tree line.

“Raewyn, I need you to–”

The agonised choke that came from Merikh was profound, cutting his words off, when she kicked him in the fucking seam. His entire body went rigid. His red glowing orbs turned white from the pain, and the solid ball of his orbs wavered, as though he was about to cry ethereal tears.

The Elf’s lithe body was deceiving as to just how much strength she could wield. His groin radiated with agony, to the point his hidden tail coiled around his leg in aversion.

Then, just as the second Demon broke into the area and leapt for them, impaling itself with the quills on the back of his forearm, she did it again. Merikh yelped as his arm buckled and his knees tried to turn inward so he could protect his groin.

Pointless, since she was between his legs.

The Demon’s scream made her jump in fright and gasp. “What was that?”

Merikh yelped again when the Demon above swooped and cut him right across the arse. He had no quills to protect him there. Usually, he had his tail free to swat with defensively.

The Demon currently stuck to his forearm thrashed, since it had impaled itself in the stomach. It made his limb heavy, and the constant, agonised screams as it desperately pushed to free itself were annoying. He yanked his arm back to dislodge it with a grunt.

With a whimper, the Demon backed up with a trail of dripping purple blood. It didn’t leave, but its pain and fear made it wary of coming close again – at least while he was protecting what it wanted to feed on.

“Don’t you dare kick me in the cock again,” Merikh growled, the white of his orbs flaring into red. “Currently, I am the only thing that stands between you and the Demons you are foolishly bringing upon us with your fear.”

“Demons?” she squeaked, before she stupidly tried to poke her head out from between his arms so she could... hear them or smell them, maybe?

He tucked her back in by cupping the top of her head, just as the swooping one dived. It must have thought better of it when it realised it was going to hit his quills, and it flew upwards to assess the best way to attack.

The space between his back and calf quills was small, and if it didn’t strike accurately, it’d cop a face full of quills. Hitting him there last time had been lucky, but he figured the Demon understood just how much of a risk going for it again would be.

“Control your fear. I’ve muted my sense of smell, but it will eventually get to me, and then the Demons will have to fight me for your corpse.”

Merikh winced when her scent deepened. Fuck, he’d said the wrong thing.

“Aren’t you going to eat me anyway?” She covered her face.“Olee Giildeed Maydin!”she gasped in another language he didn’t understand.“That’s why you said I’d find out you weren’t my friend!”

“I’m not going to eat you!” he bellowed.

Okay, he might eat her, but right now, he needed her just to calm down! Currently, he was protecting her with his very body, but they were stuck with the Demons unless he took matters into his own claws.

“I need you to trust me.” Then, he asked softly, beseechingly even, “You’ve been doing that for days, remember?”

She shook her head as her strange eyes crinkled with the hurt of betrayal. “You lied to me.”

I could strangle her.He could snuff out the scent himself if he rendered her unconscious, saving them both from further trouble. She was obviously in a state of complete panic, and he was starting to doubt whether he could calm her at all.

But he didn’t move, didn’t even try.

It would solve the current issue, but it would only create problems later. He was going to need her trust, even if it was broken, because he was no longer going to let this Elf out of his grasp until he was done with her.

She was stuck with him – for now.

Merikh took in a long breath while facing the gust of wind ruffling his spikes, using its freshness to help clear his mind.

I could use her blood to make a shield.

That brought on a bunch of issues.

It would saturate the air with blood momentarily until he healed her, making her fear scent even more delectable to themall.He would have to hurt her, and that would make her trust him even less.

The other issue was he’d be stuck inside the shield with her, since he could only project a shield around himself.

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