Rejected (Shadow Beast Shifters, #1)(57)

His expression showed zero concern about this poison currently absorbing into my skin, as his palms cupped my face. Heat slammed into me, the fires of his eyes burning bright as he ran his hands across my cheeks. His touch wasn’t smooth; the skin of his palms roughened in sections. I wasn’t sure how that worked for a god with ever-repairing skin, but it was what it was. The worst part was that every time his touch caught on my skin, my stomach did some fucked-up swirl, heat pooling low in my gut.

Really fucking low.

By the time the fire of his power had cleansed my skin and blood of the sprecker residue, I was breathing heavier than I was comfortable with. He removed his hands, and I was able to think much clearer.

“How are we going to stop it?” I asked, trying to back away because he was still too damn close for my sanity. Like… this was not the time to have a mental breakdown and lick a shadow god, right?

That would just be a bad idea, no matter how curious I was about his reaction.

The tree at my back stopped me from getting far, and when Shadow leaned in closer, I almost lost my shit.

“You can let me go now, Sunshine,” he murmured, and that was the point I noticed my hands tangled in his shirt like I’d been the one pulling him closer. Well, fuck.

Wrinkling my nose, I growled and shoved him away. “Debatable about who is holding whom, dude.” When in doubt, deflect and blame everyone but yourself.

“Here it comes,” Shadow said, forgetting me as his attention was once more sky-bound.

A gasp choked in my throat as a grey monstrosity came into sight. It didn’t have the eight legs of a spider, but there were multiple limbs. Way more than eight, although some were very small and useless looking, but at least six of the ones close to its furred head looked strong and capable as it scurried about. And how many eyes did one creature really need?

“It wants you,” Shadow said, the full force of his gaze meeting mine. “I’m fucking shocked, are you?”

I gawked at him. “Did… Did you just use sarcasm?”

He lifted his shoulders in a half-shrug, but we all knew the truth. Shadow Beast had just… joked — sorta—with me, and I’d gotten to witness it. Maybe I’d spread those stories if I ever got back to pack life. Or maybe I’d make up some even scarier ones because joking aside, his badassness had not been underestimated. As he was about to prove.

Bending his powerful legs, he launched up into the tree, and like he was channeling Tarzan, pulled himself up and along each branch. “Can’t you fly?” I shouted up to him.

He paused. “Where’s the fun in chasing them down like that? Nah, I much prefer to go at them with a more even ground.”

Lunatic. He was an actual lunatic.

“Stay there,” he said. “I’ll be back for you to neutralize it.”

Crossing my arms, I rolled my eyes at Inky. “Your master is a fucking crazy beast, you know that, right? You’re friends with someone who likes to chase demons down… for fun!” I shook my head.

“We need new friends.”

Shadow landed hard in front of us, the ground shaking at the solid thud. As he straightened to his eight-feet height, there was an actual legit smile on his face. “Haven’t climbed a tree in five hundred years. Forgot how fun it is.”

I just blinked and blinked, wondering if I’d hit my head. Or maybe the poison had managed to infiltrate my blood and I was hallucinating. Shadow looked almost… happy. I had no idea what to think about that.

Patting my face a few times, I gave myself a firm slap, trying to wake up from whatever dream this was. Hands landed on mine before I could try again. “No,” he said, serious again. “Don’t do that.”

With a twist of my head, I attempted to see his expression, but he’d already turned away, reaching out to grab the grey creature about to attack us. The sprecker covered Shadow almost completely in its poisonous and sticky substance, but that wasn’t enough to stop the beast from using his shadow magic to secure it in a small, convenient bundle.

“Your turn, Sunshine,” he told me, not looking my way.

Gone was the open expression he’d worn before, a blank nothingness on his face, hiding all his deeper emotions in the many layers that was Shadow Beast.

For a second, I’d had a little more of him to hold on to, but as always, it disappeared before I’d gotten more than a taste.

Scariest part was that this time, a taste was nowhere near enough.





32

Once Shadow had the sprecker secured in one of the white door prisons, I made him show me the abervoq. Who, thankfully, looked to be in perfect health. Pissed off at being caged, bellowing when it saw me, but was unharmed, from what I could see.

After that, Shadow took off and left me to my own devices and I started to wonder where he went all the times he disappeared on me. Did he have a lover somewhere? Or was he visiting his friends in their worlds?

I wanted to follow him, but he was always so fast—there one minute and gone the next, disappearing into smoky shadows, like he could use them to transport him. Which left me with no true idea of how to track him. Instead I focused on my second-favorite pastime: scouring the library to learn about the worlds.

Most of what I’d picked up in between sweeping was general information about the various lands and their inhabitants. I liked to combine that with real-life observations of the beings who frequented the library, and through both, I felt I had a reasonable grasp of the ten worlds.