Shards of Venus by Tjalara Draper

Author:Tjalara Draper [Draper, Tjalara]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-10-31T16:00:00+00:00

16

I’d Rather Be A Piñata

Nathan was thankful, not for the first time, that he wasn’t an average human. The amount of blood pooling around him and Sagan was enough to drain a horse.

Ironically, the rays from Aphrodite had sped up his already inhumanly fast healing process. Not only the wound on his chest but every cell and fiber of his body were being rapidly restored, including his blood supply. He was almost grateful for Aphrodite.

Almost.

He winced. The condensed Venusian rays still shuddered through his core. His vision was blurry and he felt lightheaded, as if he’d just stepped off a roller coaster. A film of sweat coated his body, accompanied by an icy chill, and various muscles in his legs, back, and arms twitched with the sensation of electricity sparking under his skin. He shook and flexed his hands and fingers, which screamed as blood refilled their starving veins.

A particularly strong wave of dizziness crashed into him, and he tumbled to the ground, splashing blue liquid.

“Get up, slith,” Sagan hissed.

Nathan snorted. “Give me a minute, kid.”

“We haven’t got a minute. We gotta go now.”

Nathan raised his head, trying as best he could to bring Sagan into focus—the white-blond demon with an angel’s face. He managed to get himself upright and take a few stumbling steps, his vision still spinning, but he had to throw out an arm to catch himself on the laser cannon when he neared the doorway.

“Hurry up. I’m not carrying you.” Sagan’s features contorted into a sullen frown, and he marched out the door, not checking to see if Nathan followed.

Nathan cursed as he pushed himself off the vile contraption. Damn these Erathi hunters and their talents for torture.

He staggered the last few steps out of the door and hustled, half limping, to catch up to Sagan. The boy guided him through a labyrinth of concrete hallways and chambers, some of which were still slick with the remnants of their most recent occupants. Nathan’s stomach flipped; for a moment, he was glad his vision wasn’t clear enough to identify the details.

After taking another turn, Sagan stopped short and glared at him. At least, Nathan assumed it was a glare; his eyes were still having trouble focusing.

“What are you doing? Why haven’t you changed back into human form yet?” Sagan hissed.

“Huh?” Nathan looked down at himself. His crystal shards and scaled skin glittered under the brighter lights of the stark hallway.

Sagan pointed to the ground behind Nathan. “Damn it, slith. Could you make our escape any more obvious?”

Nathan winced. Even with his blurry vision, his trail of blue clawprints was painfully apparent on the concrete floor. He rubbed at his eyes, willing his sight to clear and for the spinning to stop.

Sagan let out a guttural sound of frustration and kept walking.

Hazing back into Erathi form was usually only a slightly more difficult process than changing into Veniri form. Yet this time when Nathan went to haze, nothing happened.

He tried again. Still nothing.

“Hurry up and change back,” whispered Sagan over his shoulder.

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