Chapter Four
Colton pressed himself against the rocks with his heart lodged in his throat and his gut churning with nausea. Things surrounded him. They weren’t human enough to call them anything else. Some he couldn’t see. He could only hear them moan and growl. They were shadow figures that moved in the dark. They were bad enough, but it was the things he could see that seized his lungs and had his heart beating against his ribs so hard he could feel it pounding in his mind.
The creatures surrounded him two deep, but the front ones kept the others at bay. One, in particular, seemed to control the group.
Waiting for them to make a move was the worst. If they were going to kill him, he would rather they just got on with it. Instead, they stared at him, unmoving from their spots around him.
Some gnashed their teeth and swayed from one foot to the other. They looked from him to their leader as if the anticipation overwhelmed them.
One creature had long flowing red hair and looked like a human woman in every other way but for her long canine teeth and her red glowing eyes. She was the closest to him at an arm’s length away.
Colton looked away from her when she licked her lips and grinned.
He wanted to shut his eyes and pretend he was back at home, listening to Wyatt bitch about money and Laith taking the bitching personally. Maybe if he closed his eyes and wished hard enough, that Dagda god dude would make it happen.
He would try it but feared for his life if he took his eyes off them.
One of them was worse than the rest because the thing kept changing. Like literally. One second it was a snarling wolf, and the next a lizard creature. It changed into a shadow and then a man, who had black hair and eyes. There were more shadowy creatures, but if they could change like the other one they chose not to.
Some creatures looked a bit like Talli and Kele. And others looked like the stuff of horror movies. The leader, with his long flowing hair and short, pointy ears came right out of middle earth. He had on what looked like leather clothing which was odd considering he remembered Talli saying they didn't eat animals. It stood to reason they didn't wear animal skin either. Whatever the material, it hugged his body like a second skin, not leaving much to the imagination.
"I am called Runir."
Was Colton supposed to respond? His first instinct was to give the guy a false name, but the more he thought about it a lie seemed pointless. It's not like he could steal Colton's identity. "Um...Colton. My name's Colton."
The guy smiled. It would have come off as friendly if not for the cold, calculation in his eyes. "What a pleasure it is to have a human in my realm."
"Uh…" Colton's heart pounded in his chest a bit harder when Runir took a step toward him. He ran a finger down Colton's cheek. Colton jerked, turning away from the touch. "Don't touch me."
Runir laughed. "You don't have enough leverage to make demands, Colton."
Yeah, that was probably true, but he'd be damned if he'd let some asshole manhandle him as if he had a right. "Get away from me."
Runir grabbed Colton with a big hand around his throat and held him against the wall. Colton kept his hands stiff against the cold stone. His palms pressed against it as he tried to stay as still as possible, so the hand wouldn’t tighten to the point of cutting off his air.
Colton flashed back to his teenage years. Not so long in the grand scheme of time, but long enough that he thought he had moved on from the emotional trauma of it all, his father had pinned him to the wall with a hand around his throat. He remembered feeling the wind leave his lungs when he hit the wall and how the lamp on the side table next to the couch crashed to the floor. His mother had put her hand to her mouth but did nothing to stop the abuse. She stood a few feet behind his father, and Colton remembered looking away from her as his father told him he wasn't his son anymore. It had been the worst moment of his life, and it all came flooding back into his memory.
"Oh, you are a brave human to be sure. Perhaps I should give you to Belka. It is long past meal time." Runir turned to the vampire woman. "Are you hungry, dear?"
She smiled, flashing her fangs. "Famished."
"What have you to trade?"
The smile fell from her face, and she huffed out a breath. "I have the brownie from yesterday. In my den. I can bring her to you."
"And what use is she, compared to this boy?"
Boy? Yeah, right. He hadn't been a boy in a long time. Even when he was a boy, his father made sure he grew up fast because if he didn't, there would be name calling. He might have only gotten physically abusive that one time, but the mental abuse had made his childhood hell.
"She would make a good housekeeper for your den."
Runir grinned and looked at Colton, meeting his gaze. "Keeping house is no concern to me. I want something different."
Colton swallowed the lump lodged in his throat. No way was he becoming some psycho's plaything. He grabbed Runir's wrist and tried to pry his hand away from his throat. "Let me go, asshole."
When Runir didn't release him, he brought his knee up, connecting with the man's balls.
That set him free, but Colton quickly realized he had nowhere to go.
Belka, the vampire, came at him, moving past Runir as if his pain didn't matter. She pulled her lips back, and her fangs seemed bigger the closer she came.
"No fucking way, bitch."
She giggled.
They were the same height, but Colton was bigger around the shoulders. Working the farm for two solid years kept his body in shape, so he should have been able to overpower her, but even when he tried to keep her at bay, she had no trouble coming at him. Clearly vampires had some sort of super-strength.
She fisted his hair and wrenched his head to the side. He never thought he'd go out from a vampire bite. His little mini-vacation to the Otherworld sucked if he did say so himself.
The points of Belka's teeth touched the skin on his neck, making him stiffen, bracing himself for the pain to come. He squeezed his eyes shut and prepared to die.
The pain ended up being from the strands of hair she pulled out of his head. He cried out and put his hand on the offended spot instinctively. Before he could process whether or not he had hair left, someone screamed right before a weight landed on him. Colton went down like a stone, his back scraping against the wall.
He sat there, trying to get his bearings back. Wetness seeped through his shirt to his skin. He tried to wiggle around to get away from it. It wasn't until he managed to get his hands in front of him and began pushing the thing off him that he finally figured out it was Belka's dead body on top of him. When he pushed against the soft flesh of her abdomen, his stomach rolled.
He learned something at that moment that he never really wanted to know. The dead weighed more than the living. He grunted as his muscles strained. Her head and shoulders slumped against his chest.
"Oh, God." He was going to vomit. He could feel it building in his esophagus.
He turned his body, setting himself partially free. Her face lay next to his. Her eyes were a glassy emptiness that stole Colton's breath.
That alone got him moving. He scrambled to his feet and let out his breath, only to suck it in again as he got the first good look at the carnage around him and the man in the center of it all.
Bodies were everywhere. The shadowy, shapeshifter things seemed to evaporate like black smoke scattered by the wind. Runir and two others were the only ones left. He was at the end of a hooded man's sword. The man had his back to Colton so that he couldn't see anything but leather-covered legs and a hand holding the hilt of a sword. The sword was a shiny black that reflected the flames nearby, not that there were many.
"Well, well. What did you do to lose Oberon's favor?" Runir had a smug smile on his face that seemed stupid given the sword pointed at his heart.
Did his kind even have a heart and was it in the same spot as a human’s? If the guy in the cloak didn't turn that sword on him next, maybe he'd ask.
"The human is mine." The guy growled out every word. His deep voice sounded like he gargled with fire once every hour. And none of that made Colton feel any better about suddenly being property.
Runir took a step back and gestured with his hand to the two creatures behind him. The creatures seemed to melt into the darkness. Colton shook his head and blinked, his mouth falling open. "I will concede to you this once but know you are in my realm now." Runir melted into the darkness the same way the others had. It was fucking creepy, to say the least.
The guy sheathed his sword before turning to Colton.
As he moved closer, Colton's body stiffened. "Look, dude. I'm not that tasty."
The guy pushed his hood down, revealing himself. He had long dark hair and a handsome face. His smile totally did it for Colton.
He stepped over a body, and that put him within arm’s length of Colton. "My rescue does not include eating you afterward. I assure you of that, little human."
"Colton. My name is Colton."
"And I am Awan." Awan held out his hand. "Shall we start our journey?"
Colton sucked in a breath. "Awan." He sighed and slumped forward with his hands on his knees. He let out a relieved laugh before he straightened again. "Thank fuck. I’ve been looking for you.” Colton grinned and straightened. “Man, I thought you were like the rest of them. Wanting to suck my blood and shit."
Colton wanted to feel something for the dead surrounding him, but all he felt was cold to the point his skin tingled in certain places. His hands shook so he stuck them in his pockets.
He let out a shaky sigh as the full scope of what just almost happened set in. The sigh turned into a laugh. The laugh turned hysterical. As much as he didn't want to sound like a crazy, scared human around a guy who just took out a dozen creatures all on his own, he couldn't seem to stop.
When Awan touched him with a hand on his cheek, Colton pulled away unable to take the kindness. If he did, he would start crying like a damn baby, which was so much worse than the hysterics.
"Shh, Anam Cara.”
A part of Colton began to process what Awan just called him, but there was an equal part that just couldn't think about it. “I…uh…just need to have a breakdown quick like.”
Before Colton knew it, he was in the man’s arms. He hesitated once before finally returning the hug. He let the guy's warmth seep into his skin. It calmed him quicker than he expected.
“I will not leave you here. You have my word."