Page 36 of Run Like the Devil

Then there was Loch. She walked between us, heads shorter and so much smaller. If I were looking at the situation from the outside, I would have worried for her safety between the four of us, yet she had never truly feared us as she should have. She seemed like a light in the middle of our darkness, hope where we only saw despair.

It was strange to think that while I would have written her off so many times, she was the driving force behind this all. She had overcome us—the worst of the worst—time and time again.

She tucked her hands farther into her sweater and hunched her shoulders, a sure sign that the bitter cold was getting to her. I fought the sudden, strange urge to put my arm around her, to pull her against my side and share my own warmth with her. It hit me so quickly, as so many things with her did, that I had to blink slowly to think about it.

She woke instincts inside of me that had always been there but slumbered.

Something farther down the way caught my attention, dragging me from my thoughts, from the comfortable quiet between us. Something dark and low to the dark shifted just off the Path. It twisted, moving in the fog so I struggled to tell what it was.

Well, beyond the fact that it was whatever I had sensed in the fog, the thing stalking us.

We approached it, and it remained there, just outside of view. Loch didn’t notice it, her gaze forward, her thoughts likely taken up by our conversation. She never had been great at sensing dangers around her—as made obvious by her comfort with us.

I set a hand on her waist and pulled her gently to my other side, the one away from the thing in the fog. As I did so, it slid more into view, a single tentacle reaching for where she had been.

Loch looked at me, her brows furrowed. I gestured to our left, away from the creature. “Can you see the mountain out there?”

She squinted, trying to see where I pointed, but shook her head.

“Perhaps the fog will clear. It is a lovely sight.” It really wasn’t, but it kept Loch from noticing the creature, gave her a reason for my actions.

So as she stared off in the opposite direction, I risked one last glance as the creature pulled away, as it retreated back into the dense fog.

I had a feeling this was not the last time we’d have to deal with that thing, and I doubted it would make it so easy the next time…

* * * *

Loch

“Did you know that ears never stop growing?”

I rubbed my hands against my eyes, so over random fact hour with Yazmor, especially because it had now lasted well over an hour. If anything, it seemed worse than usual.

Yazmor always liked to supply information no one cared about or wanted, but this level of annoyance was new.

Which for me to say meant something, since he’d once left me to fend off a kinky pharmacist by myself because he’d wanted pussy—and not even the kind I could understand and respect a man for ignoring me to get.

Or, fuck, maybe my nerves were fraying from this endless walking, from the way we never seemed to make any progress no matter how far we went. That was bound to annoy a person.

“And what’s the record for a person being quiet?” The snarky words escaped me without me even intending them to.

Yazmor paused, staring off as if considering it. “Probably the oldest mute person, I’d think. When we get back, I could find out for you.”

His overly nice tone grated on me, even more so because I knew he’d do exactly that. If I didn’t stop him, he’d spend hours upon our return—if we made it back—researching mute people to find the one who had lived the longest.

“Please, for the love of dick, don’t do that.”

“But you asked—”

“I was joking!” I snapped those last words out as almost a yell.

The moment the statement left me, an uncomfortable guilt gnawed at me. It wasn’t Yazmor’s fault that he could be an annoying companion. He couldn’t help it, and it normally didn’t bother me.

What the hell was wrong with me?

I opened my mouth to apologize, but Yazmor’s surprisingly cold voice stopped me. “Very well. I think I’ll move up closer to the front to watch for risks.” He didn’t wait for me to respond, his steps quickening to put distance between us.

I watched his back, that guilt pulling at me, then ran my hand through my hair.

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