Shared Mercy Book 5 of the Guardians Saga

CH 16.2 Roaches and Other Monsters

"Rile? Rile?" Drake called loud and clear, still holding Alex's arms.

Rile opened the tent flap and said, "Alex? Drake?"

The tent rocked in a sudden wind and the fake Alex disappeared, only to reappear, slammed into the side of the mountain, the real Alex choking her. At a distance, the false Alex was near identical to the real one. Upon closer inspection, the difference was clear. Her face was a mask of fear and rage, her lips curled back over teeth in a snarl.

The brothers poured out of the tent, swords at the ready. Drake sighted his arrow at the false Alex.

"Release me." The fake Alex turned into a mass of writhing snakes. Each snake was segmented, with a diamond patterned head and a pointed tail, their scales smooth and lustrous like mother of pearl. Their eyes glowed red and they hissed to each other.

Drake's arrow disappeared into the collection. The snakes writhed and twisted all colors of the rainbow, their fangs dripping with venom. Alex took into a sharp breath as a hundred viper mouths fastened onto her arms. Her hands glowed with ruby power and she tightened her grip.

"Make me," the real Alex said with a cocky sneer.

Gabe signaled his team to wait.

The mass turned into a giant cockroach and the snakes on Alex's arms turned into a thousand scurrying roaches. The large cockroach grew a few more legs, its antennae grew longer and thicker, its claws sharpened into curved blades. The hissing and rustling of the snakes turned into the incessant drone of buzzing, chittering roaches.

Alex shrieked in terror and her hands flared higher, but she didn't release her prisoner.

"It's an optical illusion," Cale called. "Don't be afraid."

"Easy for you to say," she called back, voice shaky. "And there is something very real that I have my hands on!"

"Will you trade your life for his?" the roach asked, its hissing voice sounded like a rain of distant thunder.

"Duh," Alex mocked, no fear in her voice now. She stopped the power to her hands.

"His life for theirs?"

"You better turn back from a roach because insects are pretty stupid," Alex said. "They're Guardians. Of course they'll trade their lives for Drake's and I'll let them. Idiot."

"But will they trade your life for his?" The roach stroked its feelers along Alex's face and she bit back a scream.

A wall of sickly green and yellow fire sprang up around Alex and the roach, ready to kill on contact. Drake let another arrow fly and it was consumed in a puff of green flame.

"Drake will live a miserable life of desolation and despair," the roach said. "The Guardians will hate him with a heart-withering intensity."

The roach's words were like a knife to Drake's heart. The roach's beady, black eyes fixed on Drake with an intensity that made his skin crawl.

"You give roaches a bad name," Alex told the creature. "I'm going to pull off your wings and legs." Her hand flared red fire and the thing emitted a screeching cry. "Or maybe it will just feel like I did."

"Release me!" it squealed. The cockroach hissed and its exoskeleton smoldered and it had a black, moist, shiny armored shell.

The roach's voice was high-pitched and grating, like fingernails on a chalkboard. Drake felt a wave of revulsion wash over him. He wanted nothing more than to kill the roach and be done with it. Looking at the brothers, he realized that they felt the same way.