Page 7 of The Zagorath
Just a little further.
The door of the cabin swung open, light spilling out in the darkness as someone hurried out onto the porch.
“Oh my gods! Liv,run!” Jessie screamed.
Liv panted and shook her head. She wasn’t going to fucking make it. What was worse, she was drawing the monster directlytoward her friend. “Two!” she shouted back. “Two fucking cars. Be prepared to move your asses!”
This was their only shot. The bitterness of the situation sank into her. She wasn’t going to make it. She never thought she would be one to sacrifice herself. But she was also a realist. For whatever reason the monster had its sights set on her. It wanted her. Not only that, but it wanted her enough without any competition that it had frightened away the bats. That provided an opening that the others wouldn’t get again. So as long as she could lure the monster away from the cabin, the others would have a chance to flee.
“Fuck, this sucks ass,” she whispered brokenly under her breath as she changed her trajectory so that she looped back toward the woods, the monster gradually closing the distance between them across open ground now that there weren’t any obstacles between them.
Maybe she could regain some distance once she entered the woods. What if this was some kind of nighttime horror that would return to wherever it came from in the morning. Nothing was there when they all arrived or all day. It wasn’t until the sun started to go down that all hell broke loose. Maybe, if she could find her way to one of the cabins, she would make it until dawn.
“Liv!” Jessie screamed. “Wait, what are you doing? Stop! No, we can’t leave her! Put me the fuck down!” Jessie’s protests were drowned out by those forcibly moving her and Liv’s eyes squeezed shut in silent thanks.
Jessie would survive. And if the gods were willing, so would she.
With a silent prayer, she entered the woods just as the sound of engines broke the air and tires squealed with loud sprays of dirt before fading completely. Then there was nothing but the sound of the woods as they closed around her completely.
Chapter
Seven
Dahtao’s eyes narrowed as he chased the female—his female. His treasure. He knew that the other humans were fleeing. He could hear them rushing away and the wail of the forest in protest, but he ignored it. The sound of madness and the clawing hunger of the forest was drowned out by his own need forher.
He charged through the trees, his tails lashing behind him as he tracked the female’s progress through the woods, his horns occasionally crashing through and breaking branches and tree limbs that got in his way. The forest moaned in vexation in response, but he snorted irritably at it. It could complain all it liked, he was on the hunt—just as it wished, though for a different purpose. She would not die. The only death she would experience would be the release that came at climax when his cock was buried deeply within her. When he caught her that was, which did not appear to be soon. He bellowed repeatedly for her to stop but she ignored his every instruction. Not that he did not admire that— only a fool would cease running from the predator trying to catch it. And his female did not appear to be any kindof fool. She did not try to trap him or fight him as many humans have done in the past. Nor did she run in full blind panic.
No, she focused merely on keeping ahead of him and utilizing the landscape to her advantage, even if she missed some tactical advantages in the process, informing him that she did inhabit a place where she frequently had access to the woods. She knew little about it beyond utilizing naturally formed barriers optimally which could be easily done in any kind of environment. She was out of her element but smart.
And she was quick. She frequently disappeared between the thick tree trunks and the tangle of brush and tree limbs only to reappear again moments later further away in an unanticipated place. It did not help that his speed had slowed down considerably once they returned to the forest. He was hampered by his bulk when among the trees. Fortunately, he did not need to physically see her to “see” her winding path among the trees. Her pheromone trail sank into his senses, adding layers of input so that he could almost see the translucent pink signature of her passage as his inner vision and other senses overlaid that which was provided by his eyes. It was like the trail of pixies but far more intoxicating to his senses. And yet twice as elusive.
He growled in frustration as she slipped away, disappearing from sight as she neatly evaded him, yet again. He felt foolish but was also oddly amused. He was a master of manipulating the forest to his advantage, and a superior hunter, and yet he was being neatly evaded. Of course, he had many skills at his disposal, and everything within the forest would bow to his command, yet he did not utilize them because he did not wish to kill her or risk harming her. He needed to calculate a way to cut her off without damaging her.
Above, he could hear the querying shrieks of the fahgor hopping and gliding between the trees, inquiring as to whether or not he required their aid. He roared in response, the tonesslipping a shifting brutal melody that conveyed his denial. They immediately fell into shocked silence. He understood their surprise. He rarely turned down an opportunity to use the fahgor to his benefit. They were excellent ambushers, and he seldom cared how his prey met its end—his only interest was that it was done expediently. But twice now he had given them the order to disperse, and that was something he had never before done. It was no wonder they were surprised when the first time had come as a surprise to him as well. They did not necessarily leave this time, but they did silently watch and follow, eager to descend and feed as they did at any given opportunity in the wake of his destruction.
He would not use them. Fahgor could not be trusted to not devour whatever was in front of them when the opportunity presented itself. They were mindful to their master to a certain extent but even he knew not to push boundaries that conflicted with their natural instinct. They were creatures of destruction and little more than pure appetite on wings when riled up into the frenzy. It was better to avoid them.
It was a good thing that humans possessed terrible vision, though. He did not wish for his female to see the ruin of bones and remnants of flesh her companions had become the moment the sun went down. Watching them fall in front of her was going to put enough of a crimp in their courtship.
He grunted quietly to himself at that silent observation, his eyes scanning the forest in the near distance. Her shimmering path winked in and out. He studied it as he ran, the muffled demands of the forest growing dimmer than more he focused on her. Without that cacophony in the background, he could think clearer and calculate with nothing more than his maddening lust for blood and sex to contend with.
And while blood was fine and good, with the scent of her soaking into him, it was the need tightening his loins with everytaste of her on the air that was the current source of his ecstatic insanity.
Leaping over a fallen tree, he sent his senses streaming across the ground, connecting with the networks of fungus beneath the earth and the roots of trees and all manner of plant life. His clairsentient touch grazed them all as it drew ahead of her and brushed over a cluster of trees overgrown with vines. He smiled. There.
Leveraging control of the forest, he waited, his breath drawing in and stilling with his rapt concentration on her progress. She was drawing closer… and closer. She was nearly there. His tongue swept eagerly over his lips, hungrily, waiting to spring his trap. Dahtao intentionally stepped loudly to the left, crashing through some thick brush. Thorns ineffectually tore at his flesh—more of a nuisance with their sting than anything truly painful, and yet it served its purpose. She wheeled in the desired direction, her pheromone trail bounding in the general desired direction. And then she was there, nearly within reach of the vines.
He could feel her through the root systems of the vines that his senses and power were melded with. Stretching his sense wide from that location he located several crows gathered within a nearby tree. Stretching out his mind to them, he touched them with his power in a silent command. With a thought, he directed several crows to burst through the trees, steering her ever so slightly so that she unconsciously stepped directly within the path of his vines—and sprung his trap.
Her startled scream pierced the woods making the trees quiver with pleasure in anticipation of her pain. They would be disappointed. They would have to adequately satiate themselves on her fear that rapidly filled the air as the vines coiled rapidly around her, stretching her arms out from her side and spreading her legs wide as they lifted her from the ground. Tendrilsburrowed under her clothing and tore it, shredding the cotton fiber. It posed no true obstacle. Her clothing sloughed off her skin, leaving her bare and the sweat and dew of her skin soaking into the leaves and vines wrapping rapidly around her.
Through his awareness connected with them, he tasted her and groaned aloud at the purity of her natural aphrodisiac as it hit his senses. Vines trailed over and cupped her breasts, twinning around her nipples with firm pressure even as other vines, unbidden by him, crept along her inner thigh, sliding through the gathering slick to coax the soft folds of her sex wide. His cock ached and wept in response, his testicles heavy like stones against his thighs. She cried out again as leaves cupped and furled around her clit and slid against her slit, opening her for the vines that traveled upward and slowly pierced her.
As much as the forest desired blood and death, it was using the opportunity to savor her in the most direct way that it could have her while he was in command. The forest drenched itself in her juices which ran down the vines and dripped onto the mossy ground. Although her fear still hung heavily in the air, the scent of her pleasure rose as her moans quaked the air. She struggled within the hold of the vines like a moth in a web, pleasure trembling the strings as the forest drank her in.
And that was how he found her. Dahtao drew to a stop in front of her body, pinkened and plump with her lust. Her nipples peaked from the vines, stiff and engorged in a darkened pink hue while the folds of her sex split open upon the vines piercing her was puffy and slick and that same deep ruddy hue. She writhed within the vibes in feeble protest, half-hearted at best as she was slowly devoured.
He stared, watching. This was not what he planned for his trap, but he was transfixed, incapable of looking away as his lust roared within his ears. His desire crept higher within him as he watched, her moans filling his ears, her passion-glazed eyesstaring back at him blankly as she quivered with every stroke of the vines plunging into her weeping cunt. He took his cock and hand and stroked it twice, a deep guttural growl escaping him as a thick stream of his seed burst from its tip, spraying the ground.
