"I'm not going to let you kill me," she snarled in his face.
He opened his mouth to respond, but before he could draw a single breath, her eyes rolled back in her head and she passed out.
Ren barely caught her before she collapsed. Swinging her up in his arms, he debated what to do. He'd ventured here in his crow form. It'd been so long since he'd last tried to teleport someone from one realm to another that he wasn't sure if his powers would work or not. And then there was the small matter that it was a lot harder to teleport dead weight than someone whose conscious energy he could use for a power source. Not to mention, his brother had drained a good portion of Ren's strength to summon the Na'ha Ala to pull the woman from the human realm into this one.
I hate you, Coyote.
But it wasn't productive to focus on something so negative. Especially not while another Na'ha was entering their small haven ... and it wasn't alone.
A large group of hairy, smelly friends had decided to join it.
Like it or not, Ren didn't have a choice.
Either he tried ...
Or they died.
Hoping for the best, he summoned every bit of power he could and forced himself to take a very rare leap of faith. His head buzzed as he felt the surge.
Light flashed and he felt his body shift, but not how he wanted it to.
Shit ...
He didn't go far. In fact, he went toward them instead of away.
Only I have this kind of luck. Thank the Spirits that the woman was unconscious and couldn't see his incompetence. It was bad enough he was awake to witness it. All he needed was for her to laugh at him.
You're worthless, Makah'Alay. I weep for the day you were brought into this world to be a hindrance to us all....
He flinched as he heard his father's acerbic voice across the centuries. Would you die already, you bastard? I had enough of you while you lived.
But sometimes dead just wasn't dead enough.
Pushing those thoughts away and forcing himself to concentrate on only the positive, Ren tightened his grip on the woman.
With a savage hiss, the Na'ha came at him, fangs bared, claws gleaming in the dim light.
Ren twisted at the waist so that the creature would hit his spine and not the woman. Then, he tried to at least teleport them back to where they'd been a moment ago. The Na'ha's hot breath scorched his neck as it clamped a clawed hand onto his biceps.
That pain boosted his powers as he cried out and rage took hold of him.
This time, with that boost, it worked.
One second they were in the cave, the next he was in his living room....
With the Na'ha's hand still attached to his arm.
Curling his lip at the grisly sight, he moved to lay the woman on his couch so that he could tear it free and throw it into his fireplace where he'd left a fire burning. While his journey had seemed to last only a few minutes, time here passed differently than it did there.
Here, it was already night and his small house was silent and empty. Except for the sound of the fire popping and destroying the physical remains of something he'd hoped would never be able to breach the gate to this world. Things he'd hoped to never face again.
Thanks, Coyote.
Bastard. Rat. Asshole.
Son of a belly-licking rodent's backside.
Ren cringed at the smell of burning demon flesh, which triggered memories he'd spent eternity trying to forget. But some wounds went far deeper than the bones. Some went all the way to the soul, and they stung even after he'd sold that same soul for peace.