The thought of never seeing her, touching her … kissing her again made him want to bellow his rage. But it took too much effort.
The more blood he lost, the weaker he became. Still, it wasn’t in Charon to give up easily. He twisted and fell to his knees, hoping to dislodge the selmyr.
It caused the beast to loosen its hold. That was enough for Charon to focus once more, and he used that time to slam his elbow into the creature’s side. The more he fought, the more blood the selmyr took.
Of a sudden, Charon found himself on his back, blinking through the torrential rain that fell upon his face. His blood still burned agonizingly, but the selmyr no longer drank from him.
Dimly, Charon heard something to his side. After two tries, he was able to turn his head and see Phelan fighting the creature. Charon knew it would take both of them to kill the beast.
Charon rolled to his stomach and pulled himself to his hands and knees. Phelan was struggling to hold off the selmyr’s attack, the ash-skinned beast’s large fangs getting closer and closer to Phelan’s neck.
Charon was able to get a hold of a fallen tree and drag himself to his feet. He flexed his claws and slashed the back of the selmyr.
The creature turned its eerie black eyes to him, its stringy white hair plastered to its face. Charon reared back his hand, but just before he grabbed for the selmyr’s spine, a shift in the rain caught his attention.
Charon glanced at Phelan, and they both knew more selmyr had arrived. He gritted his teeth and used the last of his strength to take hold of the selmyr’s spine and jerk it out.
With the bloody spinal column still in his hands, Charon fell to one knee as it gave out. He nodded to Phelan as his friend tossed aside the dead selmyr and jumped to his feet.
Charon had no sooner dropped the spine than they were surrounded by dozens of selmyr.
“I think this is it!” Phelan shouted over the roar of the rain.
Charon once more pulled himself to his feet. It was getting more and more difficult just to stay upright. “It looks that way.”
“I killed Wallace’s lover,” Phelan said with a tired grin.
Charon exchanged a smile with his friend, which soon turned into laughter.
“At least we’re going out with style,” Phelan said.
Charon wasn’t sure how much strength he had left. It had never taken him this long to recover from a wound before, even drough blood. But whatever was in the selmyr’s bite had done a lot of damage.
They stood back to back as the selmyr started to close in. Charon had seen a lot of ugly things in his life, but these new creatures were the ugliest he had ever laid eyes on. It wasn’t just their ash-colored skin or the long, stringy hair. Nor was it their height or long limbs.
It was the skin pulled tight over their bones, as if their bones were part of their skin.
“Ugly buggers,” Phelan murmured.
Charon took a deep breath and called to his god. He’d give Ranmond complete control if it meant he got out of this alive and was able to end Wallace.
“We take out as many as we can. If you get a chance, make a run for it up to the top of the mountain. It’ll give you a vantage point to see Jason and attack,” Charon said.
“Fuck you,” Phelan snarled. “You take your place at the top of the mountain. Neither of us is going to die, so stop talking as if we are.”
Leave it to Phelan to put things into perspective. Even though Charon knew they didn’t have the full powers of their gods, they were Highlanders.
“Never surrender,” he stated as a selmyr lunged at him.
Charon didn’t know how long they battled the creatures. His body was riddled with bites, no matter how they tried to keep the selmyr at bay. They moved too quickly, and Charon was fading fast.
He ducked as a selmyr swung a hand at him. Charon’s feet slipped on the grass and he fell. He dug his claws in the ground and shouted at himself to get up. There was a deafening roar that filled the air. Charon glanced up through the flailing limbs of the creatures and saw several dragons above him.
A moment later, and the selmyr were scattered to the wind as four dragons landed. It took three tries before Charon could get to his feet. He braced his hands on his knees and looked to the midnight blue dragon.
“Thank you,” he told Banan, and then looked at the other three dragons.
Phelan turned from the blue dragon to the yellow, to the black, and then to the amber dragon. “I didna think anything could surprise me again. Dragons. Fuck me,” he mumbled with a grin.
Charon nudged Phelan as the amber and black dragons took to the skies. “We need to get in place.”
Together they hurried to the place Charon had left to help Phelan just as the yellow dragon flew over them and roared.