Oath of the Alpha - Eva Dresden Page 0,25
silver of his lips gave Er’it pause. Phylix were creatures of protection, sometimes of war, but they would never attack the person they aligned themselves with. Kal was even less inclined by the debt they owed one another. For him to bite Er’it so, either Kal felt the debt paid without warning, or he had good reason.
Shudder rippling down his spine as Kal’s liquid black eyes peered at him from under the thick fringe of silvered lashes, Er’it took several deep breaths, working his way back through the power-drugged memories swamping his mind with the desire to feel it all again. Even his cock was hard, straining against his pants in the aftermath of all that magic at his disposal.
“Aida…” He’d forgotten her in those moments, the whole point of this mad journey lost with a mere taste of the power contained within her. That thing could be after her still, could have her.
Kal huffed, pawing at the ground no longer stained with black slime. Fresh and untouched, patches of golden brown and waxy green littered the forest, a landscape this land had never seen before in all its time. Long grasses looking dry and dead were anything but, their rust-hued fringes near blossom. Tiny white flowers struggled against the tight confines of their protective pods to bloom in the cool of night, something seen only after the worst of deluges in the sandy hills of Denath. It was the same with the spiky leaves sprouting from squat, craggy stumps. Thin and able to slice open a man’s arm, they held a treasure of milky fruit when large enough. None of them would show that for decades to come, though, if they even survived in this place.
Shaking himself from his wanderings, Er’it took a cautious step onto the sandy path of soil. When he didn’t sink in, he glanced back at Kal with brows raised high. In answer, Kal came forward, a dainty scrape at the dirt proving it went deep, at least deep enough to bear the Phylix’s weight as he edged farther out into the still-changing clearing.
“If I walk a while, you can rest and—” Er’it’s surprised shout echoed through the forest as Kal’s head wedged between his legs, tossing Er’it back over his neck as they’d done when Er’it was younger and far smaller. Scrambling for handholds and trying not to pull Kal’s mane out by the roots, he clung to the Phylix’s back with knees and arms, his breathless laugh muffled in the silky strands as the ground swam beneath them. “I am entirely too old for that, my friend. But thank you.”
Er’it’s teeth snapped shut, missing his tongue by a narrow margin as Kal lunged into a wild run. Hooves flew over the ground, eating the distance between them and where Aida must be. Any fear Er’it had of the transformed path ending and forcing them back into the trees proved invalid. At every turn, more of his homeland’s sparse plants and rugged growth showed its face, more often than not among a bed of delicate, heart-shaped flowers in shades of violet and plum.
Dawn approached above the canopy, turning the dense green into spritely chartreuse. The entire forest seemed changed on a level Er’it couldn’t understand. Those damnable flowers sprouted everywhere, even among the lingering swaths of murky slime.
There were hours between them and the clearing where they had found the long-dead body. Though the clothing didn’t show any signs of the seasons beyond being ragged and torn, the corpse had. Leathery skin sunken, cleaving to the narrow bones. Tattered iron-gray hair spread in a wave over fresh green grass.
Aida had been there at some point. That much Er’it knew. The remains of a fire and her lingering scent drove him insane. Unable to find her tracks or anyone else’s where she’d disappeared into the woods, they now followed the general direction he thought she may have gone.
They had nothing but guesses and estimations, which made him bristle, hackles raised as he neared his prey. Er’it wasn’t sure what he was more eager to do to her when he found her. Fucking her would be sublime, but so would turning the tawny roundness of her ass crimson.
He did not question that he would find her. It was just a matter of when.
Ducking under a low-hanging branch as Kal picked his way through the thicker undergrowth, Er’it heard a clipped cry. Snapping upright, he muttered a curse as the branch smacked him in the face, shoving