Page 40 of Of Monsters and Mazes

The magic tingled through me as another thorn penetrated my right tricep, then crawled down to my elbow, cutting a clean line as it went. I rotated my wrist, admiring the way this snakelike limb so boldly laid claim to my body. How much longer before it bore its teeth? Five minutes? Ten?

“Go on now. If you’re going to eat me, get on with it.” I rolled my head back against the wall, sinking into the deceptively soft leaves of the hungry parasite that grew all over the boundaries of the Green Sector. Flesh eating plants flourished here, likely because this was where the most people died, be it on Rai’s horns or by the vegetation’s whims. The vines wrapped around my chest and pulled me backward, and I couldn’t help the wide, toothy grin that brought to my lips. I flattened my fox ears against my hair, while my thick tail twitched with amusement.

Imagine if this was how I died? The warrior, the executioner, the spy, and the elusive Teumessian Fox, himself, who not even mighty King Jericho could capture, eaten by a wall in a rainbow maze. That would be adorably tragic.

Another vine, thicker than the last, tangled itself around my neck, then started increasing pressure around my windpipe. I extended my claws, but I wanted to get more deeply in peril before I did anything. It was no fun if there was no danger, real or imagined.

Unfortunately, being myself, it was increasingly difficult to find anything that resembled real danger. There were no thrills anymore. Being clever and untouchable was only fun to a point. Where my ego thrived, my adrenaline had petered out. What I wouldn’t give to get my heart racing again. Anything to upset the monotony of existence.

The plant started to fully choke me, and its leaves began dragging me deeper into its thicket. Tiny bristles on the fuzz of every stem and vine rubbed across my skin, taunting me into a poisonous sleep. Next, it would attempt to enter my mouth and tranquilize me, then it would completely ensnare me in vines, and begin excreting its digestive acid.

Predictable. Boring. I’d seen it a thousand times watching ignorant tributes and devils alike who stopped to catch their breath by leaning on the flesh eating ivy.

I closed my eyes and gave myself to the abyss, waiting for that sweet lure of death to offer me its hand.

Come on. Come ON. Closer.

The high of asphyxiation was tingling through me.

You’re not even trying. Hurry up.

I was right fucking there, and my instincts were teetering on the first pings of fight-or-flight. Seconds from finding that perfect limit, feeding my body the endorphins and adrenaline from the fear of going too far—of tempting my fate and oblivion to the point of no return—I was practically begging to tip over that edge…

When the shriek of a slain vine pierced my ears, and the man-eating plant immediately retreated to whence it came. Vines released my limbs, thorns ripped from my flesh, and the tension around my neck ceased to nothing. Every scream of dying ivy was viciously amplified while my ears were partially shifted to fox form, and I hastily covered them with my hands for respite from the deafening pitch.

The blood curdling screeching was followed by the sudden “Are you okay?” of a feminine and unfamiliar voice. My inquirer didn’t wait for an answer before I was being tugged free of the demon plant by a strong, warm hand.

I blinked the world back into focus, where I met the crystal blue eyes of the most lovely woman I’d ever encountered. .

“I think he’s still alive, Theron.” That tone, sweet as honey, was marred by that name.

I blinked a few more times, until I saw that white haired, heavily scarred demon, standing awkwardly at the woman’s side. I raised both of my brows in his general direction.

Theron.

“Oh. It’s you again. I should have suspected as much.” I tried to hide my annoyance, but every word came out laced with thick sarcasm. “How completely out of character for you to ruin my chance to get off by completely ignoring all of the obvious signals of my pleasure.”

He shook his head, and the blue lightning in his eyes sparked with an irritation equal to my own. “You’re welcome, Alessi.”

“Welcome for what? For ruining my morning?”

He rolled those annoyingly pretty eyes. “For saving you from being plant food. You’re lucky Butterfly over here cared enough to help, because I would have let it digest you as slowly as it wanted.”

“Saved me?” I snorted through obstinance, then stuck my hand back in the thicket and let the vines take hold again. They wrapped tightly and efficiently around me, digging their thorns in so deep that my blood dripped freely from every puncture. Then, for emphasis, with the slightest flick of my wrist, my muscles tensed, and the thorns were forced from my flesh again. Another flick, and the vines screamed as I severed them with my sharp claws. My wounds healed slowly. “I was in no actual danger, I promise.”

I retracted my claws back to something vaguely human as soon as I’d made my point, and my old companion shook his head with disdain.

“If you weren’t scared than why are you partially shifted?” He asked, motioning towards my tail and ears. “I don’t see any reason you should need to call on your animal side if you’re so secure.”

“All the better to hear you with, my dear.” My right ear twitched before I also shifted those into something better resembling a human. Yes, maybe I was partial shifted, but maybe, JUST FUCKING MAYBE, that was because I liked playing with my soft, fuzzy tail. Which obviously I wouldn’t be admitting to Theron. But being human was too boring, and being a fox was like playing life in easy mode, so I didn’t see any reason to settle on one or the other. Though it shouldn’t surprise me that he was jealous he had no such alternate forms, because being unreasonable was what he was best at. “Happy now?”

“I’m never happy when I have to talk to you.” He lied so unconvincingly I damn near choked on my laugh.

“You know each other?” The pretty dove sang, and I’d nearly forgotten she was there in light of… the other one.

“For better,” I began.

“Or for worse,” Theron finished my sentence on routine, and his whole body cringed when he realized what he’d done. Old habits die hard, I suppose.