Page 32 of Consume
After my startling physical change, yesterday’s rescue at the Byrian mansion, and now this obvious threat from the Saelises, I was in way over my head. I had been for quite a while. A knot of worry had settled into my gut, and now it festered, spearing poisonous thoughts to my brain that told me to give up and run. I was tempted. So tempted. If I hadn’t been too terrified to move, I probably would have already.
The elevator down the hall dinged as it opened.
“Absidy,” Crispin shouted.
I shifted the iron in my mouth to the other side and called, “In here.”
He swung around the doorway, panting, his gun drawn. “Someone’s coming.”
“Where?” I scrambled up and followed him out.
“Through the forest. Almost right on top of us.” He turned left, heading toward theVicious’s open entryway and out into Parker’s ship.
“How many?” I asked, keeping up with his brisk pace through the halls. The plush carpet silenced our footsteps, such an odd sound compared to the metallicthunk thunkI was used to.
“One. Big, but not the captain. And he/she/it’s in a hurry.” Crispin slapped the button to open the first exit door, and rushed through toward the second. Before he opened it, he raised his gun. “Stay behind me.”
I nodded, my mouth souring at the thought of killing someone just for walking through the woods. Despite how society liked to portray me, I wasn’t a complete psycho.
He made a move toward the green button on the wall, smudged with the slightest bit of light-blue paint, but I grabbed his elbow.
“Wait.” In my haste to stop him, I knocked into a panel on the wall so it now hung sideways and revealed tubes and wires. Absently, I straightened it. “Ask questions first, then shoot.”
“Okay. Just don’t show your face.” His eyes widened as he turned an apologetic look toward me. “I didn’t mean it like that.”
“I know,” I said, squeezing his arm reassuringly. “Just open the door.”
He did, and I took my place behind the doorway and hugged its frame, using it against the howling, lashing wind. Arctic air bit into my skin and instantly dried out the one eye I was using to peer outside. I didn’t see squat beyond Crispin, who leaned into the wind as he stepped down the ramp with his gun raised. Soon, the blowing snow erased all sign of him.
My ears strained for voices or gunshots. I blinked several times to try to make out shapes, but in this weather, my senses were crap. My hair blew free, which blotted out the snow with more white. Before I wrangled it back behind my ears, a sharp tap on the top of my head froze me solid.
Oh Feozva, what wasthat? I forced a swallow and flicked my gaze upward. A pair of black eyes stared back, rimmed with blue fur and a smile curling the slothcat’s mouth. Jezebel dangled from the ceiling and playfully tapped my head with her lethal claws.
“Jezebel.” I jerked away from her in shock into the doorway and then gazed out into the storm. Were Moon and Franco here too? “Did you sneak in here, sweet girl? What did you do with your mom?”
She yawned and then slowly climbed down the wall to join me, looking at home in this spaceship, looking at home anywhere. Typical slothcat.
Then, as if out of a snowy dream, two figures came running up the ramp. One of the figures divided by osmosis, and then there were three. The one that had separated hauled ass on a direct path toward me, a blur with a stocking cap pulled low and bobbed black hair poking out.
I all but collapsed into her arms, and my roommate and I held to each other and sobbed a mix of relief and horror. Franco joined our huddle, as did Jezebel who curled up on the tops of my boots. Crispin closed the door, sealing this little bit of warmth and hope off from the terrible outside. It had only been about a week since I’d seen them last, but it felt like a lifetime too long.
I squeezed Moon and Franco tighter to me, unwilling to ever let them go. “You can stay here with me. I won’t let you ever leave my side again.”
“Promise?” Moon whispered. “Even with Franco’s morning breath?”
“What are you talking about?” he muttered, pulling away some. Tinged-blue tawny skin dusted with whiskers and diamond-like snow framed his broad smile. “I have delightful morning breath.”
Crispin let out a yelp from by the door. Jezebel had climbed from my boots up his front and must have deemed him acceptable because she’d folded herself over the top of his head and picked at his ear.
“Let’s get to the dining room and warm everyone up,” I said, breaking away from the group hug toward Crispin. “Okay, girl. Maybe we can find you some crickets to eat.”
Once I’d disengaged Jezebel from him, Crispin touched his neck. “It drew blood.”
Sure enough. A whole spot of it on his ear.
“But your ear is a lot cleaner now. So there’s that.” I hugged the blue furball closer to my chest, and she nestled her head into my scaly neck. She’d known me right away even though I hadn’t seen her in a long while, had changed considerably, but she was still my little love bug. My heart warmed. “Let’s get you something hot to drink.”
Moon came up beside me as I led through Parker’s ship on the way toward theVicious’s dining room. Her teeth chattered as she pressed her cold body against me. “There’s...m-more.”
