you or Zach to think about it in terms of how I’m feeding though. The two of you are enough for me, in all physical and emotional senses.”
There was room for more though, I thought. Deyva deserved more after everything she’d been through. Maybe she didn’t realize how much she’d changed in such a short amount of time, but she’d gone from guarded and sarcastic, nipping playfully at us with barbed digs about our piety, to… Well, to a fluffy cinnamon roll of a woman, one who made sex with me about caring for one another, and who was working with Zach on his own self-acceptance. Who amplified love between a couple of humans who hadn’t accepted her.
She could work her magic on Kais and he might even learn to trust himself again.
Deyva’s hand squeezed around mine suddenly, so tight it actually pinched. We were halfway around the windmill when her head suddenly snapped to one side, looking out into the smog.
“Dey, do you hear—”
“Shh.” She raised a hand to silence me, gaze locked on something indiscernible out in our hazy surroundings.
I listened hard, hands tense on my water gun, but couldn’t make out anything beyond the whooshing sounds of the wind turbines cutting through the toxic air. Deyva remained eerily still, like a statue, her hand still hovering in the air from shushing me.
My gaze shifted toward Zach. He’d already seen us pause and listened intently, alert and poised with his machete Joan, for anything moving. His jaw clenched, mismatched eyes hard and determined on Deyva and me. I sent a nod back his way, hoping to reassure him we were fine and he should focus on protecting Will.
“Something’s out there,” Deyva whispered with a slow lowering of her hand. “But it’s keeping its distance.”
I opened my mouth to ask what she’d heard, when a bone-chilling scream rattled through all my senses. My feet carried me in a sprint toward the base of the turbine, muscle memory powering me before my brain made sense of the fact. I’d heard that scream before. Too many times. It was the sound of someone being dragged off by a hellion.
Will’s repair kit was scattered all over the base of the windmill. Just beyond his tools, their forms quickly fading in the low visibility, two men fought for their lives.
“Zach!” I rushed in, my fear of losing him taking on new heights, new meanings since the start of our budding relationship.
“Get Will!” he shouted back, cutting through one of the hellions in a wide arc, continuing the movement in a graceful spin to slice through the ones coming for his back.
I ran blindly into the sulphuric haze, following the sound of Will’s cries and his body dragging along the ground. The poor man was able to grab hold of a craggy rock sticking out of the ground, buying me a few seconds of time to catch up before the creature cruelly yanked him loose.
These hellions were unlike any I’d ever seen before, and I’d seen enough to last lifetimes. Their proportions were more human-like than most, and they seemed to be wearing odd clothes and masks. The one pulling Will away wore large trash bags over its torso and legs, wrinkled black plastic covered in dust and ash. A cheap clown Halloween mask covered its face.
I aimed my gun and sprayed holy water the moment I had enough visibility. The creature paused and stared back at me, water running over its mask and trash bag-clad body. Then it let out a rattling sound, a hellish taunting laugh that made my skin crawl, before continuing on its way.
“No, no please!” Will’s hands scrambled for purchase on the ground as he continued to be dragged, blood darkening his fingers. “Save me, Father, please!”
My gun clattered to the ground, hands reaching for the knives sheathed on my sides of my legs. He would not be taken because I failed him, because these monsters figured out how to shield themselves from holy water. Arms and legs pumping to catch up, the demon would be in stabbing range in just a few more feet. I raised one arm, aiming for the back of the neck, while keeping the other poised at my ribs to stab through the trunk of the body.
In less time than it took to blink, something hit the demon from the side with the force of a freight train. I nearly tumbled over my own feet as I stopped abruptly, looking around desperately for where