Scarier Monsters

Chapter Seven

I admit, my situation looked bad. There I was, pinned under a decomposing ribcage, wounded and bleeding, with a merc injecting a fatal amount of morphine into me. Great guy, right? It was soaring through my system like a warm poison, giving me the mother of all head rushes along with a high that made my eyes roll. Reapers were affected by drugs differently than humans; we got the same effects but others, as well. A deep numbing effect starts at the core and works its way out through our outer extremities, lasting about half an hour, leaving us totally defenseless and vulnerable. Fine if you're safe with people you trust but hell if you're in a bad situation – as stated previously.

All the while huge terrifying beasts patrolled around us in thick blackness, thirsty for my blood that was oozing from the wound in my arm. Well, and anything they could get their claws on, really. They weren't too choosey. Pissed was one thing you could call me at the moment, along with hungry. Ugh, I was stone cold sober too. I was going to change all three things very soon.

I could hear Johns' breath, warm and close, as he pulled out the needle and packed up the drugs. At the moment he seemed less interested in my fate than getting away; those bright blue eyes nervously twitched from the shadows to the flare where he had thrown it, just a couple yards away. The cries of the monsters around us made him hurry and his energies spiked with stress. Hurry little piggy...rolling my head so that I could see him between the bones, I caught his eye.

"Leaving so soon?" I managed. That handsome brow furrowed and he paused. The pain in my arm was intense but the rest of my body was slowly going numb from the morphine; already I could feel my legs tingling.

"Can't talk your way out of this one sweetheart," he said darkly, breaking eye contact and standing to leave, "and neither will Jack when we ghost him and use him as bait for these things to buy us more time. Sorry to break it to you."

My blood boiled at his words. What a fucking asshole murderous douchebag! I felt my eyes grow hot and burn brighter with fury. Tells everyone he's rescuing the girl and then tries to murder her while already planning his next crime of an innocent? Evil fucker! He definitely deserves this and there was no way I was letting him go.

In an instant my uninjured hand shot out between the bones and I grabbed his ankle. Laughing as he yelled in surprise, I gave a vigorous yank that brought him down hard to the sand. He landed with a bark and a thud.

"I know what else I can do," I grinned, pulling his leg into my prison as he struggled. He saw my face and cried out in terror. Sure, we reapers tended to look a little feral if we didn't feed often; eyes twice as bright and larger than normal, I probably looked like some kind of nightmare. I held his horrified stare with blistering hatred, my face bathed in red from the flare. He kicked, trying to get me off, but from the moment I touched him I began to drain his life force. Shifting my grip, I ensured I only touched skin and delved into his energy pool. The rush was incredible.

"No! No!" he yelled, thrashing in the sand as his skin started to shrivel. As his energy transferred into my body I started laughing out of satisfaction and pleasure.

"Should have never let me out of that pod, merc," I taunted, my voice eerily deep. His limbs thrashed, spraying sand as he tried to escape my grasp. No luck. Tiredness and pain were distant dreams as I rejuvenated. Those blue eyes grew sunken, his flesh dried out like an apple left in the sun and his lips pulled back from his teeth in a deathly grimace. It was over in moments.

I let go of his corpse as if dropping a snake. Johns' heartlessness had met him a slippery end and I was glad he wouldn't be around to hurt anyone else.

I shoved the huge ribs off me, careful to pull the sharp end piece out slowly. Grinning at the sensation as there was no pain, it slid out with minimal effort and the wound closed swiftly. Making a triumphant fist, I took a step toward the sizzling red flare and collapsed to the ground.