Signs of Cupidity (Heart Hassle Book 1)

I continue to walk beside the guys, absentmindedly scratching my arm where my itch used to be. I like to keep up on it. Just in case.

   “You keep doing that and you’re not going to have any skin left there,” Evert says.

   I shrug and stop scratching. “Can’t be too careful. I’m telling you, don’t ever let an itch go. You have no idea how that oversight can haunt you.”

    He shakes his head at me, like he can’t quite get a grasp on the things I do or say. “Do you—”

   Evert’s words are cut off suddenly as a giant shadow leaps out at us from the side and crashes into him. I scream and trip, falling backwards on my butt. It takes a few seconds for my mind to catch up with what I’m seeing.

        There’s a big beast trying to maul Evert as they grapple on the ground. Its fur is dark gray in color and it has curling horns on its head and huge fangs that stick out of its lips, its hackles raised menacingly.

             It has claws like talons and a short, stubby tail. It’s bigger than me, and probably at least a hundred pounds heavier. Where the hell did this thing come from?

In a moment, the beast has tackled Evert onto his back and another one comes running to attack him, too. The beasts pins him down, going for his throat with its huge fangs. But suddenly Sylred is there, grappling with it, trying to get it off Evert.

Evert manages to knock the second beast off of him and grabs its throat in a headlock while he reaches for his knife. I’m still sitting frozen on the spot where I fell down like an idiot, until I feel the hairs on the back of my neck rise. Uh oh.

I turn my head slowly and my heart drops when I see two more beasts right behind me. “Emelle, fly!”

I’m not sure which brother yells it at me, but I don’t have to be told twice. I scramble to my feet and bend my knees, launching myself into the air as high as I can, just as the beasts launch themselves at me.

I stretch out my wings and flap desperately. Both beasts jump for me, barely missing my feet. I tuck my knees to my chest and keep flapping, gaining pathetic inches up, but it’s the best I can do.

I try to use every single breeze to my advantage as I flap frantically, but I’m just not high enough to catch any real wind. It takes everything in me to keep myself off the ground.

I steal a look behind me, but wish I hadn’t. “Shit.” They’re following me.

They’re right below, running after me and showing no signs of slowing or stopping. I keep going, my heart hammering with fear as they snap their jaws and continue to take running leaps at me that I barely dodge.

But I’m tiring. I know I can’t keep going like this for much longer. I maneuver around the trees, twisting and turning around them, desperately trying to not crash into one. I try to gain more height, but I can’t manage it with the trees so close together and I’m unable to spread out to my full wingspan.

I see a huge boulder below me and barely register it before I realize my mistake. One of the beasts runs right for it and launches itself into the air using it as a jumping point for added height.

Powerful jaws wrap around my ankle, the beast’s fangs piercing my skin instantly as it yanks me down. I scream as I fall and land hard on the ground, my head smacking against the rock.

The beast still has hold of my ankle, and the pain is so intense that I can barely breathe. Another beast comes upon me, too, and I know it’s over. I’m going to die right here and now.

My screams turn to sobs, but I’m stuck with absolutely no hope of getting away. The second beast runs toward me, and all I can do is lift my arms to block my face before it jumps, its fangs ready to rip me into shreds.

But the impact never comes.

I hear a pained shriek and a terrifying growl. Lowering my arms, I look up to see Ronak tackling the beast to the ground. He appeared out of nowhere, all massive muscles and uncontained fury.

Ronak lifts the beast by the scruff of its neck like it weighs nothing, takes hold of its head, and snaps its neck. He tosses it to the ground in a heap and then turns to me, but the other beast starts pulling on my ankle, trying to drag me away.

I cry out in pain, and I know that if the beast bites down any harder, there’s a good chance it will rip my foot clean off.

Ronak’s tail rises behind him, twitching with warning. His long brown hair and beard looks like a mane around his face, and his eyes flash gold. He looks feral and dangerous. Locking eyes with the beast, Ronak lets out a low, threatening growl. It makes the hair on my arms rise.

The growl doesn’t deter the beast. It rears up and then clamps down on me even harder than before, making me scream in agony.

In an impossible leap, Ronak is suddenly there. He reaches his huge hands around the beast’s jaws and wrenches them open. The moment the fangs leave my leg, I try to crawl backwards on my elbows, but I’m hurt and dizzy from the blood loss, and every movement that drags me along sends a fresh wave of pain so intense that I can’t manage more than a couple of feet.

The beast and Ronak are locked in a vicious fight. The beast leaps and clamps down on Ronak’s arm, but Ronak rears back to throw a punch, aiming for its side.

The beast manages to dodge it at the last second, but Ronak still lands a glancing blow across its ribs, and the sound of snapping bones cracks in the air. If the beast hadn’t dodged, Ronak would have killed it with just that single hit.

The beast lands and shakes its head with a dazed shriek. Ronak’s massive muscles flex and his tail flicks.

As they circle each other, the beast snarls at Ronak, but Ronak snarls right back. The sound is so bestial that I flinch. But then the beast turns to me. It’s like the animal has just realized how big and ferocious Ronak really is, and it knows it’s going to lose the fight, so it decides to take me out instead.

I flinch back as it leaps for me, but once again, it doesn’t reach me. Ronak is suddenly there in front of me, and the beast crashes into him instead. They land only inches away, and then Ronak straddles it, grabs the beast’s head with both hands and pulls.

Ronak rips the beast’s head from its body with a sickening sound of popping bone and tearing muscle. He tosses it away like garbage and gets to his feet, staggering slightly, and I stare up at him with wide eyes.

His shirt is ripped, his chest is heaving, and he’s covered in blood. His nearly seven-foot height towers over me and even though I know he just saved my life, I can’t help but feel fear.

The expression on his face is deadly and vicious. His muscles are tense, poised with strength ready to strike. He just ripped the head off a two hundred pound beast like it was nothing, and I tremble at the sight of him. If he wanted to kill me, now would be the perfect time. He could end me and blame it on the beast, and no one would be the wiser.

But he doesn’t. He could’ve let the beasts have me. But he didn’t. He saved me. Ronak. Out of all the guys, Ronak saved me. I don’t know what to make of it.

He takes a step toward me and then stops himself. We stare at each other without speaking and I feel tears falling down my face. “Please…” I plead. I don’t even know exactly what I’m pleading for. He clenches his fists, his whole body on edge. I can see the lines of sinews straining in his neck.

Then Sylred comes crashing into the clearing.

“Ronak,” Sylred says, hurrying to stand in front of him, trying to get his attention. Ronak still doesn’t look like himself. He looks murderous. Predatory. Animalistic. His normally black eyes are still shiny and gold, and his lips are still pulled back in a snarl.

Ronak continues to stare at me from over Sylred’s shoulder, and I can’t look away. “Ronak,” Sylred snaps, moving closer to block our view. “Evert is hurt.”

This finally seems to snap him out of whatever trance he was in. He shakes his head as if to clear it, and I watch as his eyes turn black again. “Where is he?” he asks, turning to Sylred.

“That way. He’s unconscious. You’ll have to carry him. He’s too heavy for me. I’ll get Emelle.”

   When Ronak walks away, I realize that I’m still trembling and crying. My leg looks really, really bad. Sylred comes and kneels beside me, but I flinch when he reaches out to touch me. “It’s all right,” he says quietly. His voice has a natural calming sound to it. “You’re okay now. It’s all over.”

   I can’t speak. My whole body begins to shake violently. As soon as he says it’s over, my mind goes into overdrive and I keep replaying the terrible scenes. Every second lasts a lifetime.

   “I’m going to pick you up now, okay? I need to take care of your leg. You’ve lost a lot of blood, and Evert isn’t well enough to heal you.”

   I don’t answer, but he scoops me up as carefully as he can. Even as gentle as he tries to be, pain explodes in my leg and foot.

   “I’m sorry, Emelle,” he says, his mouth in a grim line.

   As soon as I’m secure in his hold, he starts walking fast. I stare at the beasts behind us, their bodies bloody and unmoving. I can’t take my eyes off them.

   I don’t know how long it takes for us to get to the cabin. I don’t know what the voices say as the guys speak around me. I just stare at my ruined leg and shake and cry and bleed and hurt. I’m laid down on furs and then someone is talking to me, but I don’t hear them. I see Evert suddenly laid down beside me. He’s covered in blood and I can’t stop staring at his unmoving body. All my fault. This is all my fault. I try to reach out to him, but I’m too far away, which only makes me cry more. Gods, if he dies…another sob escapes my throat. “Please don’t die,” I whisper.

Then someone is touching my hurt leg, and I scream again and thrash with pain, but strong arms keep me down.

“Emelle, listen to me, you have to stop moving or you’re going to hurt your leg even more. I know it hurts, but stop fighting us.”

   But I can’t connect the words to meaning. All I know is that they’re hurting me. I hurt so damn bad.

“She’s in shock.”

  “Do something, Sylred.”

   “She’s losing too much blood.”

“So is he.”

  “Dammit!”

  “I need more bindings.”

“Fuck, Emelle, hold still!”

  “Sylred!”

  “Give her to me.”

   All of their voices are a jumbled mess in my head, and I can’t tell who’s saying what. Hands are all over me, holding me down as I scream and thrash. Incoherent words fly from my mouth alongside shrieks of agonizing pain.

  It hurts.

   It hurts so much worse that all my previous injuries put together.

Evert is hurt, and it’s all my fault.

   I can’t stop fighting the hands that hold me, and I can’t stop the pain from consuming me like a raging fire. It’s going to kill me. I can’t escape it.

  But then I hear something.

   My whole body goes still at the sound, the screams dying in my throat. My eyes are sealed shut with tears, but even in the darkness, I hear the most beautiful, calming sound that has ever existed.

   It’s a low whisper of a melody. A slow, tranquil tune that immediately smoothes over my sharp panic. I feel the song seep into my ears and burrow into my bones. It slows my frantic heartbeat. It swims in my blood. It captures my exhales and breathes new air into my lungs. The tune sings to me, for me, and I feel more peace than I’ve ever felt in my entire existence. It’s a song that you want to fall into and live in forever.

   I hear murmurs of voices, but I don’t pay attention to them. I don’t even pay attention to the hands that move against my ankle, or the bindings I feel wrapping around the center of my pain. All I concentrate on is the song, because it’s my savior, and I know that as long as I hear it, everything will be okay.

   I don’t know how long I drift along with the melody, but it’s become a part of my soul. I don’t know when my sobs drain away or when the shaking calms. But before the song ends, it pulls me into a deep sleep, and I embrace the darkness with open arms, because even if this is death, it’s peaceful and welcoming, and far too tempting to deny.

If this is death, so be it.