Shadow's Seduction(39)
Caspion flicked gore from his blade, then sheathed his weapon. From his jacket, he produced a folded tarp. When he spread it over the sand, Mirceo stepped on a corner to keep it from flying off.
With a grunt of thanks, Caspion hauled a Wendigo carcass over it.
“Ah, I see.” Mirceo cleaned and sheathed his sword. “You plan to use them as gulg food.” Thankful of his gloves, he grabbed the closest body and tossed it beside the other.
As they labored, Caspion said, “You did good back there.”
Mirceo couldn’t stop his grin. His plan to impress the demon was working!
After collecting a pile of headless corpses, he and Caspion each took a corner of the tarp and started dragging the mass over the sands. The stench was nauseating.
“Listen for a knocking sound,” Caspion said as they headed deeper into the valley, ever closer to the fortress. “It’s a gulg’s jawbone opening.”
“Lovely.”
“And remember that you can’t trace. It’s so second-nature you’ll try it reflexively.”
“I understand. Just for reference, if I need to kill a gulg, where do I strike?”
“You don’t. Its brain is supposed to be far below the surface.”
Tremors began to vibrate Mirceo’s boots. To his right? He snatched a corpse by a wrist and ankle, awaiting a target.
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK.
A giant fang-filled mouth stretched wide, emitting rancid air. A long, serpentine tongue curled in the gulg’s slimy maw. Mirceo tossed the Wendigo, and the jaws snapped shut. The gulg descended once more.
“Good job,” Caspion called. They increased their pace. The next gulg was on Caspion’s side. He hurled another Wendigo.
SNAP! The mouth slammed closed.
One gulg after another surfaced, each appeased by its meal.
“This is working!” Mirceo tossed another offering. “Where does their territory end?”
“See those red boulders?”
Mirceo squinted against the wind and made out a line of boulders some distance away. He glanced back at the few Wendigos left on the tarp. “We’ll run out.”
Nod. “Get ready to haul ass. You stay on me like my godsdamned shadow, vampire.”
Mirceo grinned behind his scarf. “Eternally, demon.”
As soon as Caspion used the last of their bait, he and Mirceo took off. They veered right, then left, dodging yawning mouths and snapping jaws.
Pumping his arms, Mirceo was right behind the demon, following him into chaos.
A wind storm had kicked up, gusting sand everywhere. Towering dust devils twisted. All around them: KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK. The winds distorted the sounds. Dunes crested and toppled over, waves on a sea of tan.
Can’t see him!
Caspion yelled, “They’re fucking everywhere! Stay with me!”
Mirceo followed the demon’s voice. “I’m behind you!” The gulg mouths outnumbered patches of ground. He and Caspion leapt and careened, trying to predict the creatures’ movements.
Caspion kept glancing back. “Faster, vampire!”
“Eyes forward, demon!”
“We’re almost clear—” KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK. Caspion’s foot landed atop a gulg just as it opened. He teetered on the lip, arms pinwheeling. Before Mirceo could reach Caspion, a tongue seized the demon’s leg and yanked.
Caspion disappeared inside the thing!
Mirceo vaulted to the fang-lined edge. In the large gullet, the demon supported himself with one leg; his other was wedged against the opposite side, holding the creature’s jaw open. Caspion had already used his claws to sever the gulg’s tongue.
Mirceo didn’t think—just dropped down to mirror Caspion’s position. The two maneuvered till they were back to back with their legs extended to pry open the jaws. “Now what, demon?”
“Afraid you were going to ask me that.”
Mirceo craned his head back. “At least things can’t get much worse—”
The gulg started to spin like a saucer.
Caspion bit out, “Still think this is the best date?”
“How will you ever top this?” Blood from Mirceo’s stomach rushed to his head as they swirled.
“Lower down, there’s a jaw muscle. If we can sever it . . .”
“We walk down like this?”
“That’s the plan.”
Dizziness reigned, but Mirceo believed in Caspion. In them. Working together, they descended closer to the jaw muscle. But they also neared its throat, which opened and closed below them like a trash compactor.
Mirceo spied a juncture of two bulging tendons. “I can almost reach it.” As he pulled free his weapon, the thing spun even faster. With a yell, Mirceo swung his sword, severing the tendons. That side of the gullet sagged.