by Cecy Robson
Four males lay slumped like a deck of cards toward our right, their bodies rigid, but no obvious signs suggesting cause of death. The lack of decomposing flesh and the few flies circling their forms suggested they’d met their demise fairly recently.
And yet as gruesome as I found them, they didn’t compare to the naked woman left abandoned in the center of the room. My hands trembled. Perspiration slid like ice against my chilled skin. Her clouded eyes stared blankly at the ceiling while an expression of sheer terror and agony froze the features of her young face. Her entire abdomen appeared chewed open from the inside out and her half-eaten bowels lay over her hips like wet ropes. Flies swarmed her and took their fill. Small water bugs crawled along her bloody nails. She’d clawed at the splintered floor. God only knew the pain she’d endured before her heart had mercifully stopped beating.
Part of me wanted to run screaming. The other part struggled not to release my tears. Humans generally feared me. Their fear often manifested into dislike and more than often hate. I’d been mistreated to the point of cruelty throughout my life. But as horrid as others had often behaved, no one deserved to die like this. No one.
Aric pulled me into him, his voice harsh yet gentle all at once. “You don’t have to look, Celia. And you don’t have to be brave. If you prefer, Gemini can escort you and Taran outside.”
I shook my head, unable to rip my gaze from the poor soul in the center of the room. “No. I’ll stay.”
Aric gave me one last hug before releasing me and stepping forward. He said I didn’t have to be brave. So I wasn’t. I stayed put as he and Gemini’s wolf examined the bodies. They inspected the males first, circling their forms and drawing in their scent. I stopped trying to work so hard to smell. It remained my last ditch effort to keep from hurling. All the dead men had their mouths opened. They likely screamed until their last breath. A cricket crawled out of one whose tongue hung out. That’s when I stopped looking as well.
I heard Aric and Gem’s wolf tread toward the woman. They paused. “Do you see what I see?” Aric asked, rage clipping his words.
“Yes,” Gemini’s human side answered. He clutched Taran close against him with his head lowered. I supposed he could see with his other half. “Two burrowed out in separate directions.”
I forced my mouth opened. “Two what?”
Gemini raised his dark almond eyes. “Demon children,” he answered.