Page 70 of Tenebrous

“And he was,” she grunts, tracking something on the roof with surprising accuracy. “Earl's daddy was my husband.”

Dust sifts down from the rafters, covering us both. I cough into my sleeve as I inhale sharply, more from disbelief than anything else. “Are you fucking telling me that Earl is your son? That would make Dennis your…”

Her face tightens when a roar comes from above. “My Dennis was always protective of his granny. And this creature has been watching us for a very long time.”

“Orion?” I whisper.

But Mary shakes her head slowly, gaze still locked up above. “No, dear. I don't think what's up there is Orion.”

The roof starts to groan. Wood buckles, then splinters completely as cracks spread along the drywall. My heart rate gallops wildly in terror when she fires before the thing can break through.

The gunshot detonates around us, deafening me as plaster explodes downward. I stagger back, closing my eyes and throwing an arm over my face just before an enormous being crashes into the room.

Its landing shakes the entire floor.

When I open my eyes again, the first thing I see is fur and claws. Then a single burning, golden eye.

“Orion!” I call out on instinct, but the creature turns toward me.

And… it isn’t him.

The difference is impossible to miss now that I know Orion’s body like the back of my hand. This creature is broader through the shoulders, its fur nearly black except for streaks of silver along its neck. One horn has been ripped clean off. Jagged scars run diagonally from its jaw to the space where its right eye should be.

And when it bares its bloody teeth before roaring loud enough to shake the heavens, my bladder empties entirely.

Mary fires another round, striking the thing in the shoulder. It lunges with a snarl, and I barely have time to move before a massive hand clamps around me tightly. My feet leave the ground. Everything spins as I’m hauled high into the air.

“Stop! Let me go!”

I claw at its wrist, digging my nails into the skin, but it doesn’t react. Mary picks up her walker and swings it into the creature’s back, causing it to whirl so quickly that she’s thrown across the room.

“Mary!”

The beast tightens its grip on my waist until my ribs groan. Kicking uselessly, I catch its chin with the heel of my boot, but that only seems to piss it off. It lowers my face to its own with a growl, barely inches apart. The scent on its breath hits me like a steamroller.

Wet earth and metallic blood. Nothing like Orion’s sweet pine and smoke. The smell makes me gag, eyes instantly filling with tears.

Its nostrils flare against my hair as it speaks for the first time, and the word that slithers out of its rotting mouth makes me vomit all over myself before I pass out completely.

“Mate.”

Chapter

Twenty-Five

Orion

Pain tears through my chest with such force that I wake roaring, my claws ripping through the furs beneath me.

I lurch for the empty place beside the fire, searching desperately for my mate, only to find him missing. His warmth remains where his body rested atop mine, but it is fading fast. The fire has burned low enough that gray ash gathers around the edges of the rock.

For one moment, I do not understand. I had held him. He had rested his head against my chest, and his breathing had slowed. His body had softened against mine until sleep took us both.

Now there is nothing in my arms.

“Benjamin?” My voice breaks against the stone walls.

No answer returns.