Screaming as that Elf venom began to pump into me, one moment I was being mauled by the Elf, the next there was a deafening roar louder than my own screams piercing my ears, and then Bels was the one screaming.
Fumbling, slapping my hand to my neck as crimson gushed, I could see the pieces of skin he’d torn, a flap of skin just dangling there. Choking out a pained noise, I scrambled to the cage door and right out of it. Stumbling out of my prison, tripping over my own feet to rush down the corridor, I didn’t dare glance back. The sight I’d glimpsed of the Elf being mauled by the Krampus was enough to last me a lifetime. I had no idea intestines were that freaking long.
Bels howling bellows hounded me as I inched my way to the cave opening. Slow and steady she goes, I kept telling myself, but soon my fingers were painted in red, my neck and chest wet, the smell of iron rich in the air. My free hand slapped to the rock wall alongside me and soon I was using the wall to keep me upright.
Slow and steady she goes was getting slower and slower as I grew woozy. By the time I’d reached the mouth of the entrance Bels’ bite had taken effect and I was seconds away from collapsing.
A sharp noise behind me had me turning to spy the figure in the shadows, drawing closer. There were these glowing crystal looking things in a pretty light blue, like this was where you harvested December birthstone gems and crystals of the like and they glowed until chipped off to make jewelry. The brightest faded in and out, like slow blinking tree lights, some large sections without crystals leaving those portions in shadow. Smaller crystal-like stones were a constant, low glow, if waxing and waning just enough to make it look like the mountain was breathing.
Tensing, I waited for the hidden figure to emerge, exposing itself.
I couldn’t explain the relief that filled me as the bloodied, hulking figure of the Krampus who’d claimed me popped into sight. I also realized then Bels had stopped screaming.
Pausing to stumble his way, I still hesitated. His lips pulled back and he snarled at my standoffishness. Jesus, could anyone blame me?!
Waiting, silently praying I wasn’t next, the thought occurred to me, Do Krampus succumb to bloodlust? Did this one? Was I next?
A startled yelp left me as he came storming right up to me, scooped me up, and continued on as if that’s all there was to it.
“I don’t know where we could go-” I started to say, for the hulking beast to pause midstride, glance down at me, and hush me. A long, “Shhhhh,” aimed my way had me snapping my trap shut to stare up at him dazedly. I blamed the Elf venom and my innate need for self-preservation. Shutting up it is, then.
My hand at my nape began to slip and slide through all that lovely blood, and it quickly grew harder and harder to hold my hand there. Eventually my head was so light it was fuzzy and my limbs felt heavy. My head started to slump, then loll there limply.
The Krampus cocooning me in his arms began to shake me, jargling me, but my eyelids were heavy and sweet oblivion was calling me. It was sounding pretty nice right now.
When I thought that was it, this would be the end of it, I felt a sharp pinch, claws jabbing into my side. Opening my mouth with a yelp, I noted several things at once as something wet and spicy, like hot tomato juice, was forced into my mouth. Swallowing reflexively, I gulped, choked, then forced whatever the hell that was down so I could breathe. Cracking my eyes open, I found myself on the ground, a strange, purple ceiling with lots of sharp points dangling down from it, a thousand spiked bits of amethyst, royal purple, frosted with white. We were in a cave, but it wasn’t the prison one, and unlike our icy, shared domicile, this one was actually a bit warm. Warmer, I should say. It was cold in here but nothing compared to the icy crush of the prison caves.
“Where are we?” I mumbled, then shivered. Staring up into the scowling face of an altered version of the Krampus I’d escaped with, his fur cleaned now and much more tan and brown, bits of grey throughout his coat, than the Shnikel of before.
“Ssssafe,” he said slowly, then scowled harder as if that was the understatement of the millenia. “Sssafe withhh Sssshnikel,” he compromised on.
It was then I noted we were in fact in another cell, the bars to my left making me want to cringe and then climb up them screaming for help. Farther about the space, my gaze spanned, noting the keys Bels’d had near us, our cell locking us in to protect us from the crowd of Krampus looming near a large cavern opening.
Safe with him. For sure.
Starting to count the sets of horns and white furred bodies, I stopped at twenty. “There’s so many of them,” I whispered. Glancing from Shnikel, the Krampus gathered to check out the newbs who’d locked themselves in a cage, and back to Shnikel again, my eyes widened in wonder and a pinch of horror.
“Saffffe with Shnikel, Loo-me,” Shnikel insisted.
“Thank you,” I whispered, absently reaching out to pat him.
Aches and pains came to the fore, my breasts among them. Grimacing, the chill of the floor on my back starting to really seep in, I smiled up at him sheepishly.
“You, uh, wouldn’t be hungry by any chance, now, would ya?”
Shnikel’s grin was feral. Leaning in, he shocked the figgy pudding right out of me when he leaned in, cautious of his horns, and rubbed our foreheads in some weird beast friends with benefits head hug. And then he was on to better things, like offering me a sip of piping hot freehanded-pocket-pool-demonstrating man meat and taking a crack at emptying the jugs.
By the time he’d finished with me and we lay cuddled up on our sides, the beasts at our door literally grunting and growling their dismay we were out of reach as we tended our needs and then screwed like bunnies, were just background noise. I had no idea where things were supposed to go from here, what the hell I was supposed to do next. I promised myself that first night I’d be taking this one day at a time, one thankful moment to be alive and whole, like my miracle neck healing and Shnikel’s much easier going demeanor, and hope for the best.
Chapter 12
The best I could hope for, watching Shnikel fight off yet another Krampus for the meat from the beast he’d killed and dragged here, some kind of caramel corn reeking giant of an ox looking creature with horns on its head like a triceratops, spikes down its spine like a stegosaurus, and a thick, fluffy, cream and mustardy colored coat like someone had just murdered a pack of shaggy-haired baby seals. Snuggled up in the first pelt he’d cured and brought to me, using all kinds of the animal’s bodily fluids and a few of his own and we weren’t going to talk about it, I knew he was doing all he did for me.
Tossing a hank of cooked meat my way, snarling viciously with pride when I caught it and held it up to show him, he wrestled the pelt free and gave up the rest as yet another loss.
Female Krampus began to crowd him as he strode toward me, hissing and flicking their long tongues, trying to rub up on him enticingly. She devil beast ladies were hoochies. By the time he reached me, he’d thrown several off of him, and had to snarl threateningly at the lot to get them to back off.
Opening the door to the cage, letting him in to quickly lock it behind him, I dutifully handed the keys off to him. The second he set down his burden, taking the meat from me to toss it on the coals in our little space, he was scooping me up to nuzzle his forehead along mine. My lips found his and he groaned.