Page 99 of Ravenous

Groans echoed outside the cave. “Get ready, wolf.” She flexed her hands, her palms superheating for hexshots. The smell of brimstone filled the air.

A dozen ghouls swarmed the cave mouth. Their green skin was luminous, their claws dripping contagion. They crowded the landing, eyes burning yellow with rabid instinct:infect and multiply.

Their moans deepened into a chorus as they charged.

Thane met them head-on, roaring, sword flashing. Ghoul blood sprayed. Ditch joined him, unleashing volleys of molten sorcery that seared faces.

“Blinding them with lava?” he said. “You fight dirty.”

“Filthy. Like sex. Like my slate.”

He decapitated another with a snarl. “They’ll keep coming till their heads are off. I’ll clean up after you.”

“No one cleans up after me.” Her magic flared brighter. The lava and acid grew, scalding away flesh until heads tumbled off in spurting fountains of green gore. “Hell spreads,” she said simply. Her worldview.

“What else are you packing?” His sword never slowed.

Her horns flared forward, and she rammed them into a ghoul’s face. “Horn kisses,” she crowed, delighting in the kill.

When the creature clutched its throat and staggered, Thane said, “Poison?”

“Yes. My tail too.”

Even as he beheaded a trio, she caught the flicker of his thoughts—where that tail had been, where it might go again.

Straightening, he repeated his earlier words: “We’ll discuss later.” Then he cleaved another.

She found herself laughing. Fighting beside him was fun.

They moved well together, his skill and might intertwining with her well-aimed chaos. Corpses piled high, green blood sloshing around their boots until the floor was slicked like swamp water.

Too soon, the ghoul numbers thinned. Thane allowed her to burn the last one—chivalrous—and then quiet fell over the area.

They stood facing each other, breaths ragged, boots calf-deep in steaming gore.

Immortal bodies were slow to give up life, and all around them, green corpses writhed, claws blindly puncturing each other in a last hope of infection…

Thane wiped his blade and sheathed it. “Why didn’t your appearance mesmerize the ghouls?”

Ditch’s fire dimmed, and her tail cooled to its spry loveliness. “It only works on certain species, usually fully sentient beings.” She canted her head. “You might be disgusted with my powers, but youappreciatedthem.”

“No’ disgusted, lass. Just surprised.”

“I thought you were turned off that I’m a witch, but your expression when you saw my demonic visage was priceless.” Maybe that was why she’d shown off—because he was the first male who’d found her lacking.

“I’m no’ turned off. It was just…”

Before he could finish his answer, Pemphre’s singsong voice slithered from the shadows. “You earned your answer, wolf.”

Ditch stepped over a corpse, careful not to get a scratch. She smiled when she realized Thane no longer worried about her leading.I might be light on morals, she thought,but I make up for that in lethality.

“Come on,” she said. “Let’s hear this answer—the one you won’t welcome.”

***

Thane

On edge from his mate’s transformation, Thane accompanied Ditch back into the cave. She still sizzled with power, had demonstrated at least three new caste abilities tonight.