I asked.
“I’ve watched you do many things.” He dragged his stare down my body, which caused an angry rattle to sound behind me. “You are a rarity, and a beauty unmatched comes from within you. Yet you throw it away on a man who can never return that fire. He may see your fire, but he will never taste your flames.”
“But, you would?” I snorted. “This is insane. I’m gone. It was so nice for you to lure me here. I’d say it’s been fun, but it really wasn’t. If you intend to use me as well, do me a favor and fuck off,” I growled, moving to leave the platform when a rattle sounded that made the hair on my nape rise.
“Good morning, Eva,” the seductive male said, watching the woman rise into a crouching position on the altar. “This is Aria, and I intend to mate with her. Be gentle with Aria, for she is untrained, and stubbornly prideful.”
I wasn’t sure what horrified me more, that the woman with the matching soft turquoise eyes had zeroed in on me, or that the male had dropped the mate shit like it was already decided. What the hell was it with the men in this hellish world?
The woman rattled again, and everything within me went on high alert. I watched the men move away from Sleeping Beauty, who bared serrated teeth and surprisingly long claws. She crawled to the back of the altar and rattled again.
I felt my mind switching, and yet it didn’t fully send me to the backseat as it normally did when my creature took control. I leaped onto the altar, crouching to mirror her pose. My chest vibrated, and my mouth opened, releasing a rattle that sounded through the cavern, echoing off the walls as I arched my spine. I felt twitching within my body as things attached to my spine itched to be freed from my flesh.
“I am Eva,” she hissed.
“I am me, and you are threatening my host,” the creature snarled, using my lips to speak. “No one touches my Aria. Not without having a really nice cock for me to use.”
“You’re not even combined fully yet,” Eva mused, and when my hand lifted, and the middle digit rose, she snapped. “I’m going to rip your head off,” she snarled.
“You can try, but I don’t think you have the tits to do it,” I shot back, smiling coldly as the female’s eyes became solid turquoise. “Shoulders back, tits out, and let’s fuck some shit up, Creature.”
Chapter Fifty-Four
The woman lunged, and I barely avoided colliding with her. Her body smashed into one figurine, sending the statue and the crystal into the water. My eyes slid to Knox, finding him and his men watching me.
I jumped from the altar, slowly moving around the woman toward them. My creature itched to fight, but she had also done the math of how many men were in the room with us, recognizing that those wanting us alive were on the other side of a barrier.
Eva rattled, and I echoed it. I could feel my creature helping me from within, directing me through the knee-deep water.
She lunged, and I flipped into the air, landing on Eva’s shoulders. Slamming my body over hers, I sent her crashing into the barrier that sizzled and popped. Eva howled an ear-piercing scream that had my hands coming up to protect my ears.
I danced away from her and the barrier, noting her charred skin from touching it. Knox, on the other hand, had his hands pressed firmly against it. His eyes studied my movements, but there was anger in his stare that worried me.
He thought I had led him here. Eva moved in at an inhuman speed, sending me sailing across the room to crash against the barrier.
I howled, jerking my skin away to find pieces of it still stuck to the shield. I growled from deep in my chest, slowly moving closer as I silenced the room, homing in on her and only her.
Eva moved again, and I jumped, kicking my leg up into the air with the weight of my body, sending her crashing against another statue. She stood, cracking her neck while staring at me.
“You’re one of us,” she snarled.
“No, I’m really not,” I grunted, watching her head cock to the side while her eyes slid over me.
“Not entirely true. I hate liars,” she jeered, zipping forward.
I used the same movement, crashing into her with my claws extended, my creature releasing them