Total pages in book: 49
Estimated words: 45319 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 227(@200wpm)___ 181(@250wpm)___ 151(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 45319 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 227(@200wpm)___ 181(@250wpm)___ 151(@300wpm)
“My fruit she took! Just take a look!” the Ogre grated.
“I’ve been picking pears from that tree for years,” I sang. “He never claimed them before and besides, I only picked from…from the branches hanging over the hedge.”
My voice was starting to wobble because I was still so afraid. Also, the Ogre’s scent was nauseating. I just wanted to get away from him but my shoes were still stuck to the path. And what if Malik decided to just give up and let the Ogre have me? I didn’t know the Incubus well enough to know if I could trust him to stand by me or not.
But despite my doubt Malik stood his ground.
“You heard the lady,” he said firmly. “She only took fruit from this side of the hedge—you don’t own the path. It’s not on your property.”
“But the tree belongs to me!” the Ogre declared.
“I don’t give a fuck,” Malik growled, clearly losing patience. “Now are you going to take your stasis spell off her or am I going to make you do it?”
As he spoke, his eyes began to glow with a Hellish light and he seemed to increase in stature. His shoulders got even broader and he was suddenly a head taller and even more muscular. The sharp points of his curving horns gleamed in the sunlight and even his tail looked ready to attack. It hovered in the air beside him like a cobra about to strike.
The Ogre stared at the Incubus uncertainly. He was still taller but despite his size, he was clearly mostly flab and hair. If it came to a fight, I didn’t know who would win but I thought even if Malik lost he would make the other Creature pay dearly in the process.
The Ogre must have thought the same thing because at last I felt the magical grip on my legs loosening. He pointed one finger with a long, dirty fingernail at Malik and me.
“For now go free, but you will see that you can run but we’re not done!”
Malik glared at him.
“Stay away from my woman,” he growled. “If you threaten her again, you’ll be picking your teeth out of your asshole because I’ll fucking turn you inside out you hairy bastard! Oh, and take a bath—you smell like sewage.”
Then he put an arm around me and urged me forward on the path.
I found that I could move my feet again and I set off at a steady trot, still clutching the basket of pears. I dared to toss one quick look over my shoulder, only because Malik was at my side. What I saw wasn’t exactly comforting. The Ogre was staring at me with a look of such hatred it made my blood run cold.
Hatred and something else. Was it…hunger?
As he saw me looking, the long red tongue I had seen behind the curving daggers of his teeth shot out and licked sloppily around his thick, rubbery lips.
I felt my stomach turn over queasily and I turned quickly away. But I couldn’t get that hungry expression out of my head or forget how close I had come to dying right there on the path behind my house.
CHAPTER NINE
Somehow I waited until I got in the door of my house to break down.
Please don’t misunderstand—I’m not the kind of woman who cries easily or often but having a near brush with death will puncture anyone’s cool. And I had no illusions about what the Ogre wanted to do to me.
You know all those fairytales where the innocent children get eaten by the monster? Well, they’re popular for a reason. Back before there was a barrier between the Creature World and the Mortal Realm, children actually did get eaten by monsters—or Creatures with evil tendencies. Those fairytales were there to warn people not to get too close to the dark side of magic that lurked in the gloomy heart of the forest or the silent caves deep under the mountains.
People see the old stories as fiction now, but there’s a kernel of truth in every single one of them. Evil Creatures really do hunger for human flesh and drink human blood when they can get it. That’s why they can’t be trusted to live in a town like Hidden Hollow where Creatures and human magic users intermingle.
So yes, as soon as I got into the house with the door shut behind me, I started crying because I’d had a near death experience and part of me was certain I was still in danger.
“Hey, hey, it’s all right. Come on now, put these down.” Malik carefully extracted the basket of pears, which I was holding in a death grip, from my grasp and put it down on the kitchen table. Then he looked down at me anxiously. “It’s all right now, Celia. Everything will be fine.”