Beast of the Damned #2

*Chapter Sixteen*

~ TRISTAN ~

"Talrek, return to Borasina and gather our forces. Tell Nakasha to send word to the legions in the Northern hemisphere. I want them ready for combat and to move out. The other sanctums are to maintain their post and slay any angel on sight."

"Shouldn't we be heading to Valderanna?" Kinley keeps a wary eye on Talrek. Her nose crinkles as he dips his finger into a pile of slain angel ash and pops it into his mouth.

"We won't be returning to Valderanna until I can guarantee safe passage. Now, take off your clothes." I hand Talrek a silver medallion.

Nakasha will know what to do with it.

"When you begin the march from the coliseum back to Valderanna, take the valley to the Black Locust woods. Continue till you reach Cistoca were we will meet up. We'll use Reaper's path to Valderanna. Night is our advantage. Angels do not see well in the dark."

Talrek nods, pulling his finger out of his mouth. "Taste like a pixie stick."

"Were you talking to me?" Kinley halts her exploration of scattered bike parts she's been shoving around with her foot. Her toes one broken exhaust pipe away from the hand I severed from the angel the wounded female called Dagen.

"If he were talking to me, I'd expect him to lay a bleeding heart at my feet first." Talrek slips the medallion in his pocket."

"You want me to undress out here! No way." Kinley wraps her arms around her midsection, her white dress soiled and tattered as the back train struggles to stay attached.

"Angels may not be able to smell blood, but they can perceive the aura of a dark being."

"I'm not a dark being," Kinley argues.

She stumbles back a step when I materializein front of her. "That's correct. Now, take off your dress so that the angels will not be able to locate us by tracking the demon incantation that covers you."

"You mean..." Kinley lifts her arm, inspecting the intricate lace trimmings of her sleeve. "This isn't just lace and silk I'm wearing?"

"The demon insignia embroidered into your garments allows the Prince to track you. The demon tied to this symbol has but to draw this mark and they will be able to find you wherever you are. Just because you can't see the glow of the demonic markings covering you, doesn't mean the angels can't."

"Why would the Prince of Darkness cover me in incantations that could lead to my capture?" The roll in Kinley's throat follows the tip of the dagger I drag along the base of her throat and position at the neckline of her dress

"Because"—together, my hand and blade free Kinley of her dress—"it is a warning to all dark beings that you belong to someone else."

Kinley's dress falls into a puddle at her feet, her shaky breath catching up to the speed of my movements when she realizes she's before me in only a slip.

"Make haste, Talrek. Nightfall is upon us."

Modesty is lost to most of my kind and not something we afford to humans. As a massarra, Kinley isn't used to being treated like everyone else. She stays immobile, staring up at me like I've committed an egregious sin.

"Wait until Marianna finds out you ruined yet another one of my dresses. She'll have your hands." Kinley stocks off into the woods, her arms protectively keeping her nude silk slip close.

"I think she will be fine with it if it's what keeps you alive." I fall in step behind her, keeping distance between us.

"You're the most insufferable leech I've ever met. I can't wait to return home so that I may never have to look upon your conceited, I'm scarier-than-thou face."