Page 45 of Consume
“Captain!” I screamed.
The hybrid I’d cut lunged forward. His jaw snapped. I stabbed into his chest all the way to the hilt. Blood squirted out and coated my hand, the floor, everything.
The other hybrid squeezed my head harder, his palms crushing my temples. Pain flared. I kicked out, smashing my boot into his toe while trying to pluck my knife free. It was rooted too deep inside bone though.
A wail sounded from behind me, followed by a great force slamming into the hybrid behind me. It knocked me into the hybrid I’d put an extra hole in, and the three of us toppled to the ground like dominoes, our feet losing traction on the slippery blood.
A red streak zipped toward our body pile. No, not red. Blue fur drenched in blood. Jezebel, her fangs out in a sinister grin. Her black eyes zeroed in on the hybrid who’d had my head, and she climbed on top of him with her long arms and legs painting death over his clothes. Her three-inch-long claws speared right through both his cheeks. She gripped his lower jaw from inside his mouth, and I had to turn away at the sickening crack. My stomach rolled, and I sucked in a breath to keep everything inside where it was.
Slothcats were wild, illegal animals for a reason, loyal only to those whose souls it deemed worthy. I counted myself lucky she had good taste.
“Jezebel,” I rasped, still not able to look toward her. “Come here.”
One clawed paw touched my shoulder and I winced. She stepped into my lap like she had a hundred times before, but other than the kind eyes blinking up at me, I hardly recognized the killer in front of me. She was far removed from the lovable goofball cricket muncher I was used to.
“Are you hurt?” It was impossible to tell with so much blood coating her. I gazed around us, the low rumble of the ship the only sound. “Thank you for saving me, sweet girl.”
She booped my nose with hers, her fangs coming inches from my face, and I tried not to recoil. She wouldn’t hurt me, but the fact that she could’ve so violently if I’d been someone else unsettled me. Because I was someone else. Several someones, in fact.
The ship lurched and tilted, sinking fast. We were losing altitude and not at the smooth rate Mase usually lowered us. The two hybrids slid toward the wall. I instinctively held to Jezebel, blood and all, and scrambled to the same wall to brace my back against it. On the way, I jerked the knife free from the hybrid and wiped the blade down my pants.
“Hang...on...to something,” Mase said through the telecom. He sounded out of breath—or hurt.
A loud crash sounded from below. Had we hit something? The ship shuddered violently, crashing the titanium wall against my head.
I heaved to my feet, the floor bouncing underneath me. “Hang on tight, sweet girl.”
She wrapped her long, dripping arms around my neck. The ship juddered and swayed, flinging me into walls and swiping my legs out from underneath me.
Over my head, the light blinked and hummed, blinked and hummed, and then went out.
Startled, Jezebel leaped off my chest and barreled down the infirmary hallway again, her paws slapping the wet floor.
“No, don’t leave,” I tried to cry out, but the words didn’t come. The wind had funneled from my lungs.
I gasped for breath, but darkness pressed in with unwavering force. It squeezed my ribs, crawled over my arms, and slithered into my fingers until my nails buried into scales. My scales.
Stop.Stop. Feozva, I couldn’t draw another breath because my hands were around my own throat. My heartbeat rang a shrill scream through my head as I poked my tongue into every corner of my mouth. No iron. Had it fallen out? Had I swallowed it?
No iron. No hands to get more from my pockets. And no voice to shout.
My body thrashed and bucked against the metal floor. Alarms lit within me. This couldn’t be how my friends and family found me without a chance to explain. I’d known my control was slipping, and I hadn’t done a damn thing about it.
The floor plummeted out from underneath my body. I rolled and smashed into the wall, my elbow taking the brunt of the hit. Pain sliced through my nerves, and my grip around my neck slackened. Enough for me to snatch a cube from my pocket and stick it between my lips.
A loud roar sounded, punctuated by battering rams all over the outside of the ship. Then we hit hard, what felt like an actual landing but not a nice one. As we seemed to slide to a stop, I clenched my teeth around my iron, smashing it into the roof of my mouth until my jaw ached. This cube would stay in. It had to.
The engine cut, and silence filled the ship almost as loud as our landing. Overhead, the light blinked back on.
The iron’s tangy flavor washed down my throat as I took stock of myself. Everything hurt and I was sure to have ugly bruises, but I was me again. Until the next time I wasn’t.
“Everyone off the ship now,” Mase ordered over the telecom. “Move.”
Why? What was happening? The tense edge to his voice surged me to my feet, though I just about went down again.
Gunshots sounded from close by.
From around the corner, the elevator rumbled its descent. I backed away, my strength and energy sapped.
