Page 10 of Monster's Obsession

Freddy shook his head, continued to jiggle. “After you took off, I’d been searching for her, along with some of the guards, but she’s nowhere. Not in the castle, not on the bridges. I’m sorry, but I can’t find her.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?” I spit, the splintering ache of her absence carving through me. “How the hell did you lose her?”

“She has to be somewhere in the castle. She wouldn’t take off on her own.” Ash released me in seconds and darted into the castle, moving like a madman, smashing right through the glass doors and not stopping.

“Fuck!” Seven growled, his grip on me tightening. “We need to find her. She’s not safe in the city alone. Fuck, fuck, fuck.” Seeing Seven was currently stuck repeating only one word, I shoved an elbow back into his ribs, then ripped free from his grasp with all the force I had left.

“Creed, if anything happens to her, it’s on you,” I snarled, breathing heavily, my threat loud.

He snapped his attention toward me, a feral expression crawling over his features. A low snarl rumbled in his chest, then he headbutted me with fury.

The sharp pain split across my head, hurting like shit. The world around me faded so fast, that I only heard a few of Creed’s words before darkness claimed me completely.

“Lock the fucker up. We’re tearing down the city until we find her.”

CHAPTER 3

BLAKE

The world was spinning around me. Dark specters darted in and out of my vision, and I was faintly aware that I was screaming.

What was happening to me?

When I’d been locked in the asylum, I’d thought about death a lot. I’d thought about what it would feel like. If it would hurt. I’d wondered if it would give me any relief from the fucking hard life I’d been placed in.

Was I dying? Is that what was happening? Was the excruciating pain lacing through my bloodstream how it was going to end for me?

“You’re not going to fucking die,” a voice growled, and my eyes flew open to see Tempest staring down at me, an edge of panic to his words.

“You’re a grumpy, grumpy goat,” I mumbled nonsensically, because evidently my brain had melted and that was all I was able to say. If he even could understand my words. Because I wasn’t sure that I’d spoken out loud. I wasn’t sure if I was even capable.

“Keep your eyes open!” he snapped as my lids flitted closed. It was all I could do to try and pry them open again. The world was a reddish blur around me, and my eyeballs seemed to have gained a thousand pounds because keeping them open could have been one of the hardest things I’d ever done.

“That’s it, sweetheart. You’re doing such a good job,” he purred.

Nope, that wasn’t Tempest. That was Steele’s voice I was hearing in my head.

Was he here too?

“Fuckkkk,” Tempest muttered as he leapt in the air.

My head lulled to the side, giving me a view of the literal lava underneath us as we soared. There were skeletal hands reaching for us from the searing orange and red liquid, and I was really hoping I was tripping. I tried to open my mouth and scream, but it got caught in my throat. The best I could do was to try and hold on to Tempest tighter. The air smelled like sulfur…and the heat coming off the lava was almost unbearable.

We landed on a rock, and the jolt had pain shooting through my already aching skull.

I couldn’t hold in my whimper, even though I was really glad we hadn’t fallen into the lava where all the scary creatures were. Tempest cursed again.

His next jump was much softer…but it still hurt. I buried my face into his neck to try and block out the pain…and the sight of the lava, and the demonic hands I was convinced were going to reach out and grab me at any moment.

Sparks of light flickered under my eyelids, answering pain exploding in my skull. I was more than whimpering now…I was sobbing. It felt like every nerve in my body was plugged into a light socket and my body was made up of nothing but pain.

“Almost there,” he murmured, sounding almost like he was reassuring himself more than he was reassuring me.

I tried to nod…but my body was cramped up, unable to move. A frozen living corpse, stuck inside my own body.

I’d never imagined anything could ever be like this.

Cool air hit me as Tempest made one last jump, the blazing inferno from the lava river from hell replaced by icy fingers.