A Soul to Keep: Duskwalker Brides: Book One, page 15
A cry was wretched from her throat and sounded through her nose as tears began filling her eyes.
“You killed your baby brother!”
The face changed, a little boy, no older than three, came into view. With brown hair, green eyes, and a face covered in freckles, his face scrunched up as he wailed with little tears falling from his eyes.
“It hurwts, Wreia,” he blubbered. “Why didwn’t yew protwect me?”
I didn’t mean to! She didn’t mean to let them die, didn’t mean to do nothing. She’d heard their screams, heard their cries, heard them fighting until the sound of tearing, blood-splatters, and the suckling of blood and organs was heard.
“Pappa said for yew to always protwect me. But... But yew wlet dem eat me.”
Reia wanted to cover ears, like she had when she’d been a child, at his voice. Pain filled her chest and guilt clutched her throat. A sob came from her as tears began to track from her eyes and down her temples to roll into her hair.
“You were supposed to protect him!” her father roared, his face reddened with rage and anger as his face filtered in. His short, light brown beard tickled her nose as he spoke over her. “Instead, you brought us death! Your mother, your brother, me. We died because of you.”
I’m sorry! I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry!
“Help us!” her mother screamed as her face broke through.
“Wreia!” Caleb cried.
“I wish you were never born!” her father yelled.
“It hurwts!”
Their faces and voices flittered in, over and over, reaching into the depths of her anguish and memories of that night. A night when she had not been afraid, but she’d felt the loss of them ever since.
“Why didn’t you love us?” her mother asked with a voice filled with tears.
But I did! Her thrashing increased. I loved them so much. It’s all my fault. They’re dead because of me. I killed them.
And Reia had paid the price of that for the rest of her life. As an outcast. A shame. A thing to be terrified of. Alone. So alone.
She shut her eyes as she cried, fear giving away to the overwhelming grief and loss and pain. I miss them all so much.
She’d never gotten to play with her cute baby brother again outside in the spring where flowers would grow in their yard or watch him grow from a cute young boy into a handsome man. Their home had been secluded in the dangerous forest, but her family had lived there for generations safe and unharmed.
Until Reia came along.
I killed them!
She felt the sharpness of fangs scraping across her skin as a jaw spread over her face, filling her senses with foul breath, but she couldn’t open her eyes or stop crying.
I want my family. I want to hold my brother again.
She missed her mother’s cooking and cuddles, her father’s bedtime stories filled with fantasy and hope. The laughter her family shared around the fireplace. She missed everything.
Why did this have to happen to me?!
The stench was suddenly gone before a cracking thud of multiple branches being broken filled her ears. The sound forced her eyes open, and through teary eyes she saw a black figure with a white face and horns attacking the giant spider.
But Reia couldn’t stop crying at her loss and doubt to feel relief, or even worry that Orpheus found her.
Orpheus gave a bellowing roar when he saw the arachnid Demon with her jaws widening around Reia’s head. He lunged, his vision a crimson red.
Shoving his entire body with the use of his shoulder into her meaty behind segment, both of them went tumbling to the other side of her nest. Screeching, her body hit against the thick trunk of a tree while Orpheus found himself on the other side of Reia.
The silk hammock wasn’t sticky and allowed Orpheus to freely crawl around it on his hands and back paws. It was also strong enough to hold both their heavy weights as it bounced them.
He was in his more animalistic form, his legs wolven-shaped with long fur covering his upper torso while the rest of him was covered in more deer-like fur, as well as a tail. Bones protruded from his body in sharp angles, while fish sail fins hung from his back, elbows, and the back of his calves in tall arches.
His head always remained the same, never changing.
He turned to the crying human, his head twisting to see her tears when he’d never seen them from her before.
As he was raising his claws to cut the cocoon surrounding her, a coil of spun rope was leashed around his throat and horns and yanked him backward.
“It is my dinner, Mavka,” the arachnid Demon hissed, dragging Orpheus backwards until he managed to use his claws to cut himself free.
He turned to her as he crawled around on all fours. He wanted to free Reia, but he understood he had to fight the Demon first.
“Mine,” Orpheus growled in answer, his jaws opening to show the length and sharpness of his fangs in warning and threat.
How close he’d come to losing Reia was gut-twisting.
When he’d returned to his home after fetching her water, elated with his memories of her from earlier, a pain had pierced his heart when he knew she was gone.
Hurt and rage had caused those invisible squeezing hands to grip his brain within his skull so tightly he’d instantly morphed to his more agitated state right in the middle of his home.
He’d barely been able to shove himself through the door, hearing it groan and creak under the pressure as he launched himself outside. Following her scent, the feeling of a hunt, of his hunger being satisfied at the end of it, quickened his long strides.
His want to protect her fell away to the excitement of the chase and the desire to consume flesh and blood. If Orpheus had been the one to catch her, had he found her running, he doubted she would have lived past his tackle filled with swiping claws and snapping fangs.
But her elderberry and rose scent had vanished from the ground when he found only the amulet and dagger she’d taken.
Rage that his prey was taken by another dipped the squishy flesh of his brain while fear that Reia would be gone also clutched his throat.
His mind wasn’t sound. His thoughts were muddled between his want to consume and the returning pressure of wanting to protect, and they tugged on him from both sides.
Orpheus was lost to the chaos within.
His sweet memories of her that he’d never obtained from another offering was the only seam within him that wasn’t allowing his hunger to win. If she had been like the others, he wouldn’t have tried to free her from her cocoon. He would have bitten into her before the arachnid Demon even had the chance to leash a whip around his throat.
She would have been trying to fight for the remaining parts of the corpse as Orpheus fell into hunger, eating while fighting for his meal.
But the fleeting memories of her smile, her eyes on him, and her trinket hanging above his bed, fought the gripping hands within his skull. The taste of her skin, her arousal, made his mouth salivate for that aroma just as much as blood. And her pretty voice saying his name, her laughter, and her moans of pleasure as she came, eased the tension in his muscles.
He hungered, but his want to protect soared when he found her about to be eaten by another.
“The human was in my territory,” she hissed, her lipless face contorting into fury as her mouth opened to reveal her own fangs. “I stay out of your home, Mavka.”
Orpheus backed up to be above Reia while the Demon began to walk backwards up the side of the tree so she could hang from above. It made her backwards body appear upright, and her black hair fell over her shoulders rather than from the top of her head.
“Do not touch!” he roared.
“Oh?” Her three sets of red eyes widened, before she began to give a wheezing snicker. “Is it one of your little playthings?” She crawled over the web-covered canopy above, staying just out of reach of him unless he jumped. He would have if it wasn’t for the fact he could land on top of Reia when he came back down. “How pitiful. How long will it be before you eat this one?”
Agony swirled around his heart as a light whine rattled the bottom of his lungs.
“No,” he demanded.
He did not want Reia to end up like the others.
“I can see how much you don’t want to,” she snickered, moving above him until he had to turn around to face her. “It ran from you. It hates you.”
Orpheus growled in answer, his anger spiking, but it was tangled with sadness. She was right. Reia had run away from Orpheus, just like many others.
He’d felt this before, this cold taste of sadness. Orpheus becoming fond of a human only for it to leave because of its disgust in him. Is Reia the same? Would things end up as they did long ago?
“It left you, Mavka.” Her head twisted to look down towards Reia’s face. “I see its memories. It was always planning to leave you.” The Demon turned her grinning face back to Orpheus, its red eyes bowing with nasty humour. “You will not be able to keep it.”
That swirl of sadness took charge, and he was filled with hopelessness like a constant ache in his heart that he’d held for eons. His vision turned to such a deep blue that it made everything appear darker and lonelier, like a veil had been laid over his face.
“It will end up like her.”
His sight turned down to Reia to find her green eyes were still tear-filled but wide as she stared up at him. Orpheus shuddered as he reached up to the top of his head to dig his claws in. It felt as though his skull was cracking under the pressure of his mind, the Demon reaching into his deepest uncertainties, doubts, and fears.
She will never want me.
Why was Orpheus bent on trying to find a companion, even a bride, when it always ended in tragedy? The humans, this human, would never grow fond of him. No matter what he did, what he tried, he would lose them one way or another.
“I sense your guilt.” The Demon’s voice turned softer. There was almost a comforting, caring, hint to it, like she cared for Orpheus despite it being nothing more than a cruel manipulation to get what she wanted. He knew this, but it was hard to ignore for it was the first time anything had truly spoken so kindly towards him. “You do not want to eat them. You do not want to harm them, but you cannot stop from spilling their blood.”
Faces began to flicker over the Demon’s, showing him each human he’d lost over the last hundred and eighty years, with an additional one filtering between each of them. That one face, repeating when the others didn’t, was to ensure he felt overwhelmed in loss, in pain.
Gone. All of them gone. All of them lost... because of him. Dead because of his actions, because he brought them here. Gone.
“This human will be no different.” She pointed a claw at Reia. “Why bear the memory of you eating it?” Then she dared to come a little closer, her voice even gentler. “Give it to me. I will punish it for leaving you. I will take that guilt away so you may try again.”
Red flared in his vision, bright and as dangerous as ever.
“No!” he roared, making her flinch back.
She was trying to get into his head, trying to latch onto the tethers of his pain to have her meal. She was the Arachnid Demon of Sorrow.
Orpheus wouldn’t allow it!
He spun to Reia below him and slashed his claws. Her cocoon split apart, leaving only a few strands that he tore away carefully with his other hand.
“She is mine!” He jumped forward, away from Reia, to grab a hold of one of the dangling arms of the Demon.
They both fell with the spider on top of him before they rolled over the hammock. It bounced, followed by the vibrations that came from where Reia was as she moved now that she was free.
The Demon shrieked when he ripped his claws into the back of her human torso before she scuttled away from him on her eight legs. Purple blood oozed from her in heavy drops as she sprinted forward with her claws bared to attack him.
A spike swiftly extruded from where her spinnerets were and she curled her body, raising on four back legs as the four front lifted around him as she tackled.
The spike stabbed into his side, and he felt the cold rush of a liquid enter his body.
Despite her intentions, she placed herself around him where Orpheus was able to open his mouth and place it where her spider segment met the human-like part. He bit, his fangs slicing deeply, while thrashing beneath her to rip his claws into any part of flesh he could.
He cared not for his own pain she attempted to inflict.
She screeched, running her own claws down his chest, before he managed to grab her neck with one hand as his pawed feet pressed against her spider behind. He started pulling, gnawing his teeth at the same time.
“It hurts!” she screamed. “Stop! It hurts!”
Foul-tasting, rich blood entered his mouth, but he refused to stop. He refused to stop until he’d chomped his way enough through the tough section between human and spider, until he was able to push her lower half away while pulling her upper body.
The wet sound of skin and muscles tearing filled his ears as he tore her in half and severed her body.
He threw the pieces away from him, huffing deeply as he got back to his hands and paws.
The eight legs twitched in the air as her spider half lay on its side, wriggling and contorting. The human-like half used its hands to crawl around as she cried and gargled, life slowly fading from her. Heaving with terrible sounding wheezes, purple blood stained the nest as she moved around.
Then the top half slumped forward, bleeding out from her ripped torso as blood dribbled from her teeth.
A maelstrom of emotions swirled like a cyclone inside Orpheus. He shuddered and shook, as pain from his injuries flared through him at almost the same intensity.
And Reia was gone.
Red flared deeper in his vision, and he leapt in the direction she’d gone. Chasing her. Hunting her scent.
Mine! She was his human! His offering! His to touch, his to see, his to eat.
He was inhuman. He could never be human. So why would a human ever want him? But I want her. Every kind of hunger inside him wanted her. His desire, his loneliness, his need for flesh and blood.
He was a monster. They’d all called him one. He was a nightmare to them.
Her scent grew stronger as he got closer and the sound of leaves crunching under quick, but light, footsteps told him she was running.
Orpheus gave a bellowing roar with parted fangs, the chase sending an electric thrill and excitement through him. Those hands squeezed his brain, and he panted. His vision dazing as it pulsated in and out.
He was so close he could hear her gasp at his roar, knowing he must be coming upon her. He was her death, her doom.
Then he saw her. Reia stopped and turned to him just in time for him to lunge at her.
She knocked against the ground, but her halt had stopped his claws from ripping into her, instead they found air around her back. His jaw clanked and clicked as he widened it swiftly, his head backing up to make room as he hovered above her.
Just as he dived his head forward to sink his fangs around her head for a quick strike, she ducked it forward at the same time, causing him to miss her. A crackling, wet snarl was loud even to his own hears.
“Orpheus!” she cried, wrapping her arms around his neck to bury her face against his monstrous, fur-covered chest.
He froze. His name and her tight hug burst through the fog that clouded his mind from the chase.
“I’m sorry!” She began to sob, the salt of her tears filling his sense of smell as she heaved her chest against him. Her nails dug through the long fur around his shoulders as they embedded into his flesh. “T-thank you so much for saving me.”
He didn’t know what to do. His emotions were still too chaotic, his thoughts still uncontrolled. He could still attack her. He could still hurt her.
I almost ate her. A part of him still wanted to.
“Reia,” he warned as he placed his hand around her shoulder to pull her away from him. He needed space to calm down. He was still in a highly agitated state.
She shook her head while squeezing him tighter.
“I’m so sorry. I was so stupid. I sh-shouldn’t have left.”
His head shot to the side when he heard the snap of a thin branch on the ground.
We need to leave. Demons would fall upon this area soon at the smell of the arachnid Demon’s blood – and he currently had a human in its vicinity.
“We have to leave,” he told her, trying to get to his hands and paws to get her to let go. Then he stood, able to stand on his pawed feet alone even though that bent his body so that his arms hung forward.
She continued to cling to him until she was dangling in the air, before slipping her legs around his waist to stay attached.
He heard more rustling and knew they were running out of time. Orpheus wrapped one arm around her securely and began to run, occasionally dipping forward to balance himself with his free hand.
His eyes were a diluted red, fear for her safety making it appear whiter than normal. She isn’t wearing the amulet.
He raced for their home, needing to get her within the protective salt circle there. He needed her safe.
Reia sobbed as Orpheus carried her through the forest.
She knew they were going fast by the cold chill of the air cutting through her skin, but the warmth he emitted kept the shivers at bay. She could hear the rustling of movement beside them, as if something, or multiple somethings, were following them.
Orpheus snarled before he jumped sideways with the sharp, clipping sound of his jaws snapping around air. A warning. He knew they were being followed as much as she did.
“Give us the human, Mavka.” She heard from her left.
“Feed us!” This time it came from the right, a different voice telling her it was a second.
He ran faster than they could keep up, and they quickly fell behind.
She couldn’t stop crying, couldn’t stop clinging to him, not daring to let him go or peek her head up to see the Demons despite not being afraid. She trusted him. Trusted he would protect her.
