Devoured Read online

  “No!” Garron couldn’t stand it anymore. Deep inside he felt the beast that had slept within him for years boiling to the surface. Dimly he understood that his dr’gin was rising, that the implant in his neck was no longer working to keep the monster in check, but he didn’t care. All he could feel was rage that this bastard had dared to threaten Tess. All he could see was the cut on her face. All he could smell was her blood and fear hanging in the air and that scent, more than anything else, was making him crazy.

  It’s coming! he thought. It’s coming and I can’t stop it.

  I don’t want to stop it.

  Then he knew no more.

  * * * * *

  Tess gave a muffled gasp when Garron changed. One moment he was himself—a big, muscular guy with black hair and glowing turquoise eyes—and the next moment he was a completely different creature.

  It happened so fast she didn’t see the transformation, even though she was watching. But suddenly, there in Garron’s place, was a creature bigger than the biggest grizzly bear standing on its hind legs. Its fur or feathers—Tess couldn’t tell which—were pure white, almost seeming to shine in the dark cabin, and it had razor sharp talons that curved into cruel hooks like an eagle’s.

  When it turned its vast, leonine head, Tess saw that the only thing it had in common with Garron was its eyes—they were a deep, pure, glowing turquoise that shone like search lights as it studied her and Pierce.

  There was a moment of pure, breathless silence as the dr’gin seemed almost to float before them in midair. For some reason, gravity didn’t appear to affect it which gave the whole encounter a slow-motion, dream-like quality.

  That was until it opened its mouth and roared.

  Curving, knife-like teeth glinted in the moonlight and a sound that was a cross between a lion’s roar, an eagle’s shriek, and the loudest alarm claxon Tess had ever heard split the air—and felt like it split her eardrums as well.

  She screamed behind the piece of duct tape Pierce had slapped over her mouth and writhed in his grip.

  Perhaps stunned by the noise, Pierce loosened his hold on her and Tess was at last able to break free. Clapping her hands to her ears, she stumbled backwards, tripped and fell against the couch.

  To her right, Pierce was also retreating.

  “Holy fuck,” he breathed, his eyes wide with fear. What the sight of an angry Kindred warrior had failed to do, the dr’gin accomplished effortlessly—clearly Pierce was scared to death.

  But as Tess knew from experience, her ex was even more dangerous when cornered. She watched in horror as he dropped the knife he’d been using on her and pulled a gun out of his belt.

  “Come on, you fucker,” he hissed, aiming right at the brilliant white hide.

  “Watch out—he’s got a gun!” Tess shrieked—or tried to. To her horror, she realized she still had the duct tape over her mouth. She clawed for the edge of it as Pierce advanced on the floating dr’gin. But before she could rip the duct tape off, the white beast roared again and flowed forward with a sinuous grace that seemed to belie the laws of physics.

  There was a loud bang and another deafening roar. To her horror, Tess saw that a dark crimson patch had appeared in the white feather-fur covered hide and was quickly spreading.

  Yet the gunshot wound didn’t slow the dr’gin down a bit. It gave that alarm-claxon roar again and came straight at Pierce with its curving fangs spread and its claws extended.

  “Fuck!” he shouted and fired again. And again and again.

  Three more crimson patches appeared on the pure white hide but the wounds only seemed to make the dr’gin angry. It flowed forward, losing none of its animalistic grace, as Pierce staggered back, trying to get out of its way. Suddenly he tripped and fell flat on his back.

  The dr’gin pounced.

  Tess watched in horror as it grabbed Pierce’s right leg, the curving talons sinking deep into his flesh, while its impossibly long fangs closed around his ankle. There was a crunching sound and his entire foot, still clad in one of the expensive Italian driving loafers he loved, suddenly disappeared into its red maw of a mouth.

  Pierce shrieked with horror as he stared down at the spouting stump where his right foot had been. He scrambled backward but the dr’gin was by no means satisfied. It flowed forward, going for another bite.

  Somehow Tess scrambled onto the couch and drew her feet up, breathing hard as she watched the scene playing out right in front of her. Pierce was literally at her feet, just in front of the old plaid couch, and though she didn’t want to see what was coming next, she found her eyes were glued to the action—unable to look away.

  “Leave me alone!” Pierce yelled hoarsely. “I won’t…you can’t…” He raised the gun again but before he could pull the trigger, the dr’gin lunged forward and engulfed his hand and most of his arm in its massive mouth. There was another dull crunch like a thick celery stick being broken and suddenly his elbow was nothing but a bloody stump. The dr’gin chewed twice then swallowed everything—even the gun—before coming back for more.

  Pierce shrieked, his face going gray in the moonlight. His big body fishtailed across the floor like someone having a seizure but there was no escaping now. The dr’gin took his other foot and calf next…then it bit a huge chunk out of his torso. Slippery ropes of intestine spilled out of the gaping hole in his side and blood sprayed in a crimson-black arc, spattering the couch, the wall, and Tess, who was still watching mutely with wide eyes.

  “My God, oh my God,” she whispered, squeezing herself into a ball. She had hated Pierce for a long time—he had hurt and abused her and betrayed her trust more times than she could count. But never, even in her most vivid revenge fantasies, had she imagined watching him be eaten alive by a hungry beast.

  “Tess!” he gasped and she saw that somehow he was still breathing, still alive even after all the blood he had lost. How was that even possible, she wondered numbly. How could he survive when the dr’gin had eaten over half of him?

  “Tess!” he said again, blood bubbling from between his lips. “Make it…stop. Can’t…you can’t…let it…hurt me. Kill me…”

  Tess shook her head, her blood-spattered hair flying. She couldn’t stop the dr’gin now—no one could. She remembered what Garron had said about its insatiable appetites when it first emerged. It was going to eat its fill and there was nothing anyone could do about it.

  “Tess!” Her ex sounded angry now. “Tess, you can’t—”

  At that moment the dr’gin lunged forward and took his entire head in its vast mouth. There was a muffled shriek and a snapping sound and what was left of Pierce’s body went into one last, violent spasm. Then he went limp in the dr’rin’s jaws and there was nothing but the wet, messy, crunching sound of the beast feeding.

  Chapter Thirty-six

  Tess didn’t know how long she stayed there, huddled on the couch in a ball. It was still dark outside and she felt like she had fallen into a nightmare she couldn’t wake up from. She put her hands over her ears but she couldn’t shut out the sounds. The wet ripping of flesh being torn and the dull, muffled crunching of bones being ground between those knife-like teeth bored into her head. Her heart pounded and she knew she would never be able to forget those noises—or the sight of her ex husband being messily devoured.

  The dr’gin paid no attention to her as it fed. It reminded Tess of a hungry dog gnawing a bone or licking a plate to get every last little bit. It occurred to her numb brain that this would be the perfect time to run. She could climb over the back of the couch and slip quietly out the front door which still stood ajar, letting in a narrow ribbon of moonlight like the path to freedom.

  But she was frozen in place. Though she told herself repeatedly to get up and go, she couldn’t make so much as a finger twitch. She was curled in a ball, her knees drawn up to her chin and her arms wrapped around her legs, her eyes wide and staring as she watched Pierce disappear into the dr’gin’s red flecked maw.

  Oh God, she