Sloth by Lana Pecherczyk

Author:Lana Pecherczyk
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Prism Press
Published: 2019-11-25T16:00:00+00:00

Sixteen

Max’s anguished face was the last thing Sloan saw as she released the rocky wall and let the animals tear her down. Jaws locked onto her rucksack, ripping and snarling. She shut her eyes and let the free fall enshroud her. The snapshot of his face stayed with her. At least this way, he’d be released from the pressure of the mating bond. At least this way, he could go forward and save Barry’s daughter.

With a bone-jarring thud, she landed on her back. The wind knocked out of her, but the pack broke her fall.

“NO!” A roar of male fury thundered through the night as animals converged on her.

She lifted her arms, blocking her face with only one thought: Max.

One word. One name. One pain.

Her mind stuck on the echo of his roar, of his denial. He didn’t want her gone, any more than she wanted to leave. Max wanted her to stay. She had to fight. Keep fighting, Sloan. The thought sent a surge of defiance through her. She kicked, twisted, reached for her ankle knife, missed. It wasn’t enough. She tried to throw boxes of emotion at the animals, pain, sleep, sorrow—anything. But her mind was a mess, in shattered pieces. She could only focus on the sensations in her body, and right now, they were in chaos.

Shot after shot cracked loudly as Max tried to execute her attackers. Whelps, whines and hard breaths exploded as the monstrous beasts bit, clawed, and scratched. Pain knifed her limbs, stabbed her legs, flashed at her face, and cut into her heart.

She wasn’t sure how long her stab-proof battle gear would hold. There was too much pain over her lower limbs to believe it had protected her.

Through the chaos, she heard Max shout, “I’m coming down.”

“No!”

Panic speared through her. Max. If he came down, he’d die. She wouldn’t let him die. No chance in hell. With all the resolve she could muster, she soaked up the blinding pain emanating through her body and relished it. She got to know it, studied it, and became one with it. Once she was sure the pain and she were friends, she fashioned the sensation into a psionic blade, adding the memory of herself bleeding from the palm. She hurtled her agony outward, amplifying it tenfold. Pain burst from her in a silent sonic boom. A gust of wind brushed outward, lifting sand and dust in its wake. Monsters screamed, screeched, and whimpered. They keeled from her body, rolling back as though punched—as though stabbed through the heart with a knife.

She didn’t wait to see if they recovered.

Releasing herself from the shackles of her rucksack, she forced her heavy limbs to move. Every time she felt a stab of pain, she used it. She hurtled it outward, spearing anything within her radius. She moved.

“I’m coming,” she rasped, jumping up to grasp a protrusion on the rocky wall. “Go back up.”

“Sloan!” Max, already half down the wall, changed his trajectory. He scrambled back up, but then turned and shouted.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.