An Invocation of Monsters (The Void Book 2), page 16
All those anomalies were just human bones.
And how many had I seen? How many half-buried corpses had I passed?
Too many.
I thought that maybe… this was where the villagers of Deepwater had ended up.
“Stupid, stupid, stupid,” I whispered. I should have guessed the minute I’d seen the first white protrusion.
Then I heard a sound that wasn’t made by me. I was perfectly silent, hardly breathing, unmoving.
The sound of something rasping against stone… getting closer.
Please just be echoes, I thought, moving just enough to peer around the spire in front of me.
But of course the sounds weren’t just echoes. That would’ve been way too easy.
The pale thing that had chased me from the ruins was here.
The worst part was that it looked almost human at first glance. It had a head. A torso. Five-fingered hands.
But it also had maggot-pale skin stretched too tight over warped bones, multiple triple-jointed arms extending from its back and sides, the wasted legs curled up beneath its torso like dead things, and worst of all, a gaping jaw lined with more rows of teeth than any human could ever have.
My lungs had actually stopped working. Every nerve ending in my body was too frightened to inhale, to move, even to blink.
The thing was only twenty feet away, sniffing at the air. Its eyes were black, almost jelly-like orbs bulging from its sockets.
And despite the horror of it, there was something vaguely familiar about the thing, too.
I couldn’t stay here. It would sniff me out soon enough, and already I felt the malevolence emanating from the entity.
I dared to take a step back. The glittering sand muffled my footsteps, and I took several more as the creature pulled itself from the crack in the wall at the end of the ravine, moving on several of its spider-like arms.
I kept the spire between us, never stopping. If I stopped, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to start again.
Hope began to rise, until my foot landed on something hollow, crunching right through.
The crackling sound filled the cavern like a gunshot. I looked down frantically, and saw I had stepped right on top of a half-buried skull. The fragmented bone slashed at my exposed ankles, but I didn’t feel any pain.
I only saw the welling blood. I heard the creature make a liquid, hungry sound.
Then I turned and ran, my brain utterly blank except for those images, and the sight of the creature latching onto a spire, jaws dropping open to reveal the maw lined with teeth all the way down its throat.
Panic filled me when I didn’t see the switchbacks cut into the ravine wall. I was running blind, ducking around spires, bones crunching underfoot, but there was no turning back with that thing behind me.
Its breathing was stertorous, painful, its shrieks bouncing off the walls in a never ending stream of echoes.
I just kept running blindly, tasting blood, searing pain stitching itself into my side. The ravine had to end. It had to end somewhere.
More than once I just felt the tips of fingers brush at me. There was a sharp pain in my scalp when the creature yanked several strands free, shrieking in outrage when the rest of me ran free.
And when I heard it, I thought it was my lungs failing. They were crumpled balls of agony in my chest, forcing every last gasp.
Water.
I pushed myself harder, my thighs and calves numb, and finally found the other end of the ravine.
It ended on a cliff overlooking the lake.
I didn’t think twice as the creature screamed again. I just ran with everything left in me, leaping out into open, empty space.
The lake glittered as I plunged downwards, the blue and green glow of the surface swirling, endlessly, into a nest of writhing tentacles far below.
22
Drazan
I sensed her aura, an emanation spilling waves of terror and rage across the Void, coming closer. Faster.
Too fast.
I spoke, and the water responded.
It rose above me in a roaring tidal wave, a glittering column that reached up, up, up towards the woman that launched herself from the rift above.
She plunged into it, the column of water halting her fall. Elle sank into it slowly, bubbles rising from her mouth, her eyes wide and shocked.
I called the water down, reaching for her. As the column dissipated back into the surface of the lake, ripples flattening, I reached for Elle.
She latched onto me, nails digging into my shoulders, craning her head to look at the cliff overhead.
The creature stared back at her, and vanished back into the crack in the cliff with a low hiss.
Elle, I began, and stopped myself. She heard the anger in my tone, but instead of shrinking in on herself, her eyes flashed.
“Let me guess,” she said, her voice quivering as she struggled to keep it even. “I should have a monster chaperone at all times in the Void.”
I was about to agree firmly with her, but before I could, her shoulders slumped. She closed her eyes, resting her forehead on my shoulder.
“I know, Drazan. I know there’s dangerous things here. It’s not like I’m parading around trying to get myself killed, but… I can’t sit back and wait for someone to hold my hand, either.” She let out a heavy sigh. “I’m used to looking out for myself. It’s a hard habit to break.”
I know you are not, I said softly, stroking her shoulders. I cradled her as I swam towards safer waters, keeping Elle’s head above the surface. She was trembling slightly, both with exertion and the aftershock of terror. Your independence appeals to us. It is not a flaw. But neither do we wish to see you dead. You must realize that all you must do is call, and we will come for you.
We were close to the ruins. I would send Elle home through a safer door; I did not know where she had come through, but she had clearly found a deadly breach.
Few living things approached the rift in the cliffs above. It was a bad place, a dead place.
I do not wish to fight with you, my Elle. We know that you will do what you please. I merely wish you to know that you have been chosen, and we are here for you.
My tentacles drifted over her hair, luxuriating in the silky softness of it while simultaneously stroking her, soothing her.
With her small torso pressed against mine, I felt her rapid heartbeat, like a fluttering bird trapped in a cage. As we drifted, it finally began to slow; I hummed under my breath, never relenting in the soft strokes down her head and back.
“We have to do something about that thing, Drazan.” She propped her chin on my shoulder, her muscles slowly relaxing. “That creature. I’m not the only one in danger from it.”
I agreed, if only because the fact that she wished to remove it meant that she was no longer holding us at arm’s length.
This could mean that she wished to remain here.
None of us were in danger from it; the creature was quick and sly, but it seemed to be aware it was heavily outmatched. It avoided our presence.
Elle was the one who called to it. She was full of fresh, living human blood.
I will speak with the Zizhatl, I told her. One of us will hunt and destroy it.
But she didn’t hear me. Her heartbeat was steady now, but her eyes had drifted shut. In the aftermath of shock, she had finally been pulled into sleep, or had passed out entirely.
I was content to drift and let her rest on me. My tentacles moved over her, delicately massaging the tension out of her muscles. Her legs felt as hard as stone, the muscles overworked.
As we neared the ruins, Kiraxis melted from the forest, his six eyes narrowed as he scented the air.
It is in the rift, I told him, rolling onto my back and supporting Elle on my chest. She snuffled in her sleep, then went limp again.
“I will find it and rend it limb from limb,” the M’luldra growled, keeping his voice low. “I will present its head to my mate for daring to even think of her.”
His gaze flicked towards Elle, the raw fury in his eyes softening when he saw her sleeping form sprawled out across me.
On all six limbs, he prowled down to the beach, settling himself on his haunches like a sentinel.
Time had no meaning. I was content to lay there, drifting on the gentle waves, feeling my mate’s heartbeat and steady breathing against me. But when she finally began to stir, cracking her eyes open, of course she asked the human question.
“How long was I asleep?”
I thought about it. Several of your hours, I believe.
Elle sat up, straddling my abdomen and pushing back locks of flaming red as she made a face. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to pass out on you like that.”
There is nothing to apologize for.
She looked much better after sleeping, no longer pale, the violet bruises under her eyes faded to a more normal tone.
I wracked my mind for what a human needed. Rest, water… food. Humans needed to eat constantly to remain alive.
You must acquire food for her, I told Kiraxis. Unless… you wish to try fish?
Elle froze in place, midway through rubbing sleep from her eyes. “Ummm… I can go get something to eat, it’s not a problem.”
“No, I will get your food,” Kiraxis growled. “The little man will bring me a feast if I peer at him for too long.”
An unwilling smile twitched across Elle’s lips. “Please don’t frighten him into an early heart attack. I’m really quite fond of his cooking.”
Kiraxis twitched an ear, and loped towards the door in the forest.
“So… what kind of fish were you going to feed me?” she asked, sliding her finger under one of the tentacles on her arm until it had wrapped around her pinky. “I don’t think I’ve seen a fish in this lake yet.”
Ah, let me show you. They are quite a sight.
I reached out to the water, the element that responded to my every command. I let my consciousness slide down the lake bed, into cool, dark depths where the light was only a myth.
I felt the living creatures of the lake like tiny blots of luminescence in my mind. There was an impressive one; Elle would find it amazing.
With a twitch of my fingers, I created a current in the water, calling the fish towards us.
I soothed its mind as it traveled upwards into waters unseen; it did not like where it was going. There was panic in its small brain.
When the milky eyes that had never seen the stars breached the surface near us, Elle went rigid, gazing at it in horror. She scrambled off me, splashing towards the shore. “What the hell is that?”
It is... I examined it. Globulous, blind eyes; serrated fins; a transparent body with its organs pulsing in vital colors. Its mouth gaped open and shut. It is most certainly a fish.
Elle rubbed her face. “If that’s what the fish here look like, I can say with one hundred percent confidence that I’ll never be eating one.”
I released the current and the fish’s tiny mind, and it darted off, wriggling back towards the depths.
She seemed disturbed by it.
Perhaps on Earth, fish did not have humanoid faces.
There were many things I had not considered when choosing a human for a mate. It occurred to me, in tiny increments, that humans did not have the same perception we monsters did.
What I would consider ‘usual’ was amazing to her.
What I considered amazing, she may consider disturbing.
I will choose a prettier fish next time, I told her, and she smiled, even though she was still rubbing her temples like she had a headache.
Kiraxis rescued me from the mistake of the terrible fish by returning with a massive plate of human food.
“I frightened him,” he said proudly. “He has made a delightful feast in supplication.”
Elle groaned, but her stomach rumbled when she took in the oversized plate and its contents.
Kiraxis laid the plate on the shore, sitting across from her. “You must eat as much as you can,” he ordered her.
“No problem there,” Elle said, picking up meat still on the bone and biting into it. “Feel free to share, though, I’m not finishing this all by myself.”
I drifted closer, until my stomach scraped the pebbles. Human food did not look enticing. Her meat was dripping with sauce. There were what appeared to be vegetables that had been applied to fire.
I shuddered.
“What do you eat, Drazan?” Elle asked, holding a bone she’d completely cleaned.
Tiny sea animals, too small for your eye to see. They are cool and salty and nourishing.
“Not… blood?” she asked, now blushing.
My tentacles writhed with distress at the mere thought. To eat landwalker flesh is abhorrent to a Klee.
“His kind do not consume blood or meat,” Kiraxis informed her.
“Are fish not considered meat here?”
Before Kiraxis could answer for me, I replied: I eat fish only on rare occasions. I feel their minds as I consume them; I do not enjoy it when my food screams at me.
“I do,” Kiraxis said.
Elle had looked horrified at my statement, then she rolled her eyes at Kiraxis and picked up another meat-bone. “I like mine quiet and already dead and cooked for me.”
I found that it did not bother me that my chosen mate ate flesh. She was a human, with different customs; at least, unlike Kiraxis, she did not like her food alive to shriek as she ate it.
She went through her meal at rapid speed, losing interest in conversation as hunger overcame her. I was simply happy to watch her regain color, the slight tremor in her hands vanishing.
Finally she slumped back, patting her full stomach. “That’s a solid six-pound food baby, right there.”
Kiraxis paused mid-bite. “My Gods. You give birth after feeding?”
Elle stared at him. “Of course. All humans do it.”
Then her lips twitched. She couldn’t hold the serious stare for long and started laughing, clutching her stomach. “Ahhh, the look on your face! It was just a joke. There’s no baby in there, trust me.”
I watched with fascination. Human humor was… strange. Incomprehensible and unknowable.
“You eat the rest.” She pushed the plate towards him, and the M’luldra swiftly cleaned it.
“Yes, I too sometimes feel that I will give birth after a feast from the little man.” He frowned, lying next to Elle. “But then it is merely defecation.”
Elle cackled.
I just shook my head.
They were truly eldritch beings, these humans.
23
Elle
I probably shouldn’t have made the food baby joke, but the look on Kiraxis’s face had made it oh, so worth it.
And eating and laughing made me feel so much better. Somehow being chased by the creature seemed like a distant event, washed away from my memories thanks to the feeling of happiness I got just from hanging out with the monsters.
I managed to stop cackling, staring up at the swirling sky.
When was the last time I had genuinely laughed like this?
Like I didn’t have a care in the world, like every bad thing had vanished for the time being?
I wracked my memories. I’d only really laughed… when I was with Juno.
And it wasn’t exactly the same kind of happiness. I loved Juno; we were close enough to be sisters.
But being with my monsters was entirely different.
They gave me the sort of lightness I had never felt before, all the weight lifted from my shoulders.
I sighed, patting my stomach again. Kiraxis had returned with a giant platter of food: barbecued drumsticks and wings, roasted veggies, and chips with dip.
I avoided dining with the Wendigo Society so often I’d been skipping more meals than I could afford to; I’d have to start sneaking into the kitchen to eat.
Or I could just allow Kiraxis to terrorize poor Tater into sending feasts to the Void.
No. That was wrong of me; I’d have to find a way to bring the food in myself. The techno-loving chef didn’t deserve to be tormented.
We laid there in silence for a while, watching the progress of the stars around the sky. They faded into the abyss in the center, winking out like dying embers.
I decided that, creature or not, I could be really, truly happy here.
Eventually I managed to drag myself back to my feet, heading to Drazan where he lurked in the shallows. “Thank you for saving me.”
I was up to my knees in the warm water, and the ticklish sensation of tentacles creeping up my legs wasn’t remotely eerie or unusual now. It was the loving touch I’d been deprived of for most of my life.
Of course, my Elle.
He rose from the water, spilling luminescence everywhere, and I wrapped my arms around his neck.
I was growing used to answering to the stirring of need that rose in me. After years of cutting it off, pretending it didn’t exist, it was so lovely to be able to answer it.
I kissed him where the tentacles emerged from his face, working my way over the ridge of his cheekbone.
More quickly than I’d anticipated, the gleaming green and violet lights in his skin began pulsing pink, and then scarlet.
He let out a low growl, clawed hands resting on my hips as I kissed him slowly all over.
What do you desire, my little one?
“You,” I breathed, running my hands over his shoulders. “Both of you.”
My legs still ached from my terrified run, but I didn’t want to sit here like a traumatized lump. I wanted to take every moment of life the Void offered, grab the bull by the horns.
Kiraxis purred behind me. Drazan brought me to the shore, and the sensation of tentacles sliding over me, peeling away my clothes, was a welcome one. I untied the planchette, dropping it onto my clothes.
I stepped out of my jeans and crooked a finger at Kiraxis. “Come here, you.”
I wondered if he’d experienced a blowjob. If not, he was sure as hell about to.
He came closer, his cock already rising, hard and ready.
