Page 1 of Monstrous Rampage
1
HOLLY
Thank the stars above for a bedroom far enough away from Natalie’s that I didn’t have to cover my head with a pillow while my favorite Sleep Token songs thundered in my earbuds to block out the sounds of her pleasure.
I wasn’t judging or slut shaming.Get it, girl. Get it all.
But I didn’t need to hear every fucking detail.
Which only made me even more jealous. Then guilty.I’m a shitty friend.
My quaint two-room cottage might be small but the view more than made up for its size. Soaring volcano peaks surrounded Lake Atitlán below, its waters dark and mysterious. So deep it hasn’t even been fully explored. Staring at it made me shudder—but in a good way. Like I could just jump in and sink into another dimension.
Where I have five hunks staring at me with devotion and obvious hunger like Natalie’s squad.
Okay, the dyni weren’t “hot” by normal human standards, but I’d never classify myself as “normal” either. Certainly my family had never understood me. Why I wanted to go to college for something as boring as archeology and botany, when I couldsimply smile on some billionaire bozo’s arm and use his credit card to shop.
For one thing, ew. Never. For another, I actually had a brain andlovedto learn new things. Obsessed. I’d rather sell off my useless gifts of designer bags, shoes, and clothes from my grandmother as needed to pay for another semester of college and feed my brain than ever find satisfaction in shopping. Dad might have cut me off for refusing to step into line, but his mother had no problem with our little arrangement. I probably had a few gifts waiting for me at my apartment in Texas, assuming I ever went back.
That’s the real dilemma I pondered as I sat rocking on my little front porch staring out at Lake Atitlán.
I’ve seen too much, discovered too much, to ever go back to basic life.
So whatever Natalie did last night—even though I didn’t feel a thing—needed to work.
Maybe I can feel something. My skin prickled with a weird buzz that made all the hairs on my arms stand. I straightened, looking around for anything unusual, moments before a wave of blue energy rolled over—through—me. I gasped like a bucket of icy water had been dumped over my head. Still shivering as the wall of energy rolled down the slope toward the lake, I hugged my arms around myself. Axxol’s jump rings were the same brilliant blue, like a gas flame burning from orange-red, hotter, toward ice-blue and then white. Had they jumped somewhere?
And left me?
I waited, my eyes straining to see anything in the darkness. Searching the sky, the water, even the jagged line of mountains around us. No giant space creature attacked. No dinosaur came charging out of the wilderness, cracking mighty trees like kindling. Minutes went by without any sign of danger.
Finally, I heard voices in the night, coming from behind my cottage toward the main house. I couldn’t make out their words but I recognized Kroktl’s easy voice and Natalie’s laughter. They hadn’t jumped somewhere. We weren’t under attack.
Relieved—and a little disappointed, yeah—I decided to head to bed. The quicker I went to sleep, the sooner I’d be one day closer to hopefully finding my own squad.
Though how was that going to work, exactly? Images filled my mind as I showered and went through my bedtime routine. Natalie had gotten lost in the jungle. I could certainly wander around the forests and hope for the best, but the squad would know if there were more of their kind anywhere nearby, right? Rizan was constantly scouting with his special radar for anything that might be suspicious.
If a squad did find us…
They’d be our enemies. They’d have orders to kill Natalie and her squad. From everything I’d seen already, her squad would wipe the ground with anyone who even thought about hurting her or their baby.
Including my potential squad.
Frustrated, I flopped around in bed, tossing and turning, trying to get comfortable in a new place. I finally drifted off into sleep, hoping to dream up some kind of solution.
My cottageonly had a single burner portable stove and no food to speak of, so in the morning, I headed up to the main house. Someone was always up, no matter what time of the day or night. Rizan or Lohr were generally the only ones who ventured into the kitchen. I liked both of them, once I adjustedto their unusual appearance, and we’d formed a bit of a routine, at least at the other house.
As I hoped, the coffee was fresh and hot, and Rizan was taking a pan of muffins out of the oven. This kitchen wasn’t as sleek and modern as the other house, but it had a four-chair round table in a breakfast nook overlooking the rear garden. I brought my laptop like usual and started it up before grabbing a cup of coffee and a muffin.
“This looks fantastic.” I peeled the paper wrapper off the outside and took a bite of soft crumb. Tart lemon with a delicious sweet and crunchy crumbled streusel on top. “Wow. How’d you get so good at baking so quickly?”
He made a low, pleased whirring sound as he joined me at the table. “It’s easy after watching every episode ofChopped,Good Eats, and theGreat British Baking Show.”
“Where do you find the time to watch so much of our television shows?”
“I don’t watch it, exactly. I can absorb entire years of television shows and movies in a matter of minutes. Then all of the instructions, recipes, and tips are simply there in my databanks. Ready to be used.”
I started going through my email and sighed. “I wish I could absorb information so easily. Then maybe I’d be done with my dissertation already. Though of course it’d help if I’d quit changing my mind on what I want to focus on.”
