Page 63 of Run Like the Devil

I stretched my legs out more on the sleeping bag. It was strange, because there was no day, no night, no way to mark the passage of time on the Path. We stopped to eat and rest, but I couldn’t work out how long we’d been here.

It felt like just one mess after another, but I didn’t feel any closer to an end than I had when we started.

A crack to my left drew my attention, and I saw the shadow of Guardian moving in the fog. It had grown bolder, showing itself more, drawing closer all the time.

I almost felt like it was testing us, seeing how close it could get before we reacted. It hadn’t actually attacked yet, but I had no doubt it was coming.

“Don’t worry about it,” Gorrin said.

“I’m not.” At his look, I shrugged. “Okay, look, I’ve seen enough hentai. I know what tentacles can do. I am equal parts worried and a little curious, I’ll admit.”

He choked, then hit his fist against his chest. Since he wasn’t eating, he must have choked on his own saliva.

So much for an angel, huh?

“The things you say…” he muttered once he’d caught his breath again. “I used to think you said things just to unsettle me, but I’ve since learned you say them to everyone. I’m not sure if it’s a brilliant way to keep others off balance or if you simply don’t recognize how inappropriate they are.”

“Probably a bit of both,” I admitted, then gazed at the fog again. “It’s getting closer, you know?”

“Of course I’ve noticed. It swipes out of the fog now. Normally, it goes for you…”

“Yeah, well, don’t get too comfortable. Hentai also taught me that men aren’t immune to the lure of the tentacles.”

Gorrin winced, telling me he knew exactly what I was talking about. Given his expression held absolutely no excitement, I had to guess he didn’t have any desire to try out that specific fantasy.

“Koller called it The Guardian,” I said to move the conversation away from tentacle anal sex, which wasn’t a topic I often had to skirt around. “Does that mean it guards the Plains?”

“That would make sense.”

“You’d think it would attack us more, then? Why would it just wait around so much? From what the book said, it isn’t like it can’t attack us.”

Gorrin pressed his lips together, and I could tell he didn’t know. Fuck knew that wasn’t a nice thing for anyone to admit, but I had a feeling it was worse for Gorrin. He was an angel. He came from the Plains. He knew Hubis better than anyone else. Even with all that, he didn’t know exactly what The Guardian was, why it acted the way it did, or what purpose it really served.

I closed my eyes, leaning back on my hands, trying to ease the aching in my body from the long hours and little progress.

“Maybe it’s made to drive people here crazy? Maybe it’s not meant to actually kill people, just to make them constantly on guard, to ensure they don’t sleep and can’t rest until it breaks them?”

“So Hubis is a sadist?” I thought about what he’d made me endure and shuddered. “I guess that sort of checks out. I mean, look at the shit he’s pulled so far.”

Gorrin didn’t respond, and I cracked one eye, wondering if I’d pissed him off with that. He wasn’t all that loyal to Hubis anymore, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t flip that switch by accident.

Except, when I opened my eyes, Gorrin wasn’t there.

Not just Gorrin, either. I leaped to my feet, spinning around to find myself not where I had just been. No fire, no sleeping bag, no Lords at all. Even the landscape from where I’d been was gone.

I stood in a clearing, surrounded by trees and fog, with the Path nowhere in sight.

And I was entirely alone…

Chapter Fifteen

I am a strong, independent woman who doesn’t need men.

Normally that thought came to me when I was trying to open jars, reach things from tall shelves or occasionally when the batteries of my vibrator ran out right before I got off. All those times I cursed my luck then pulled myself together and got the job done myself.

This time, when I found myself lost out in the middle of nowhere in the Path, no idea what direction the men were in, where to go or where I’d come from, I had a feeling just slapping some new batteries in wouldn’t solve this problem.

“This isn’t so bad,” I said out loud, thinking that hearing some conversation would make the whole thing easier.

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