Chapter 23

Twenty-Three

Baku responded in an instant. With his free hand he quickly took Theo's and pulled him over to a large tree that created a massive canopy above them. It was infested with hundreds of little silver insects. Baku didn't seem perturbed by them, so Theo decided to treat them in the same way, even when a couple tried to fly into his mouth.

He crouched down next to Baku under the canopy of the tree, hand tingling as always from the monster's touch, and leaned into whisper, "What is it?"

It took Baku a moment to respond, but Theo knew why. He was waiting for the thing to swoop across the sky again, which it soon did.

"It is a rage."

It couldn't be more than two in the afternoon. It shouldn't be awake yet. Theo sucked in an unsteady breath, not at all keen on the horrible spike of adrenaline that shot through him at the monster's words.

"It's still daylight."

"We must have awoken it."

"It hasn't cried," Theo whispered, which allowed a silver insect to crawl into his mouth. He spat it out.

"No."

"Is it going to?" Theo asked.

"Yes," Baku replied. "And it will wake the others when it does." He paused. "We have no choice but to kill it."

Theo shuddered. He shrank back against the tree, and several of the silver insects took that as an invitation to try to burrow into his ears. Theo swatted them aside.

"How…" The word came out weak, trembly but Theo couldn't help it. He was frightened of the rages. The way they had made him feel was like nothing he had ever experienced before, and in a really bad way, and he did not want to go through it again.

"We must lure it out," Baku said.

Theo swatted a fresh wave of insects away. They hissed in response. "I'm guessing I'm the bait?" he asked.

"That would make sense," Baku responded, eyes darting back and forth across the canopy. "If you can lure it out, I can kill it."

There was no dimension, not this one, not his own, not any of the others that the nightmare queens were trying to munch through, where Theo wanted that to happen. He honestly could think of nothing worse and yet what choice did they have? Baku had a better chance of killing it than Theo did.

"We must act quickly," Baku said.

"It isn't attacking us yet though," Theo replied.

"No, look," Baku said. "It's waiting."

He pointed up to where there was a gap in the canopy. Theo leaned forward a little so he could see it and when he did, he gasped. The rage looked nothing like Theo had imagined it would.

Nothing at all.

It had to be about Theo's height. Its body was an other-worldly shimmering silver, and two huge, silvery wings surrounded it. Its face was almost human with the same features that Theo and Baku had, including eyes that were greener than any Theo had ever seen. The rage was beautiful. Theo doubted that any human could ever be more so, and tears pricked his eyes as he marvelled at it.

"How…" he whispered.

Baku gave him a hard shake. "Look properly," he said.

Theo blinked, the tears clearing from his vision, and when he looked again the beauty disappeared to be replaced by something else entirely. Theo wasn't sure what it was, but he shrank back from it. It was horrible, malevolent, something filled with rage.

"It is very young," Baku said, and Theo could see that his monster was holding himself tense as he resisted whatever the rage was trying to do to them.

"A child?" Theo asked.

"No. They do not have children like we do. They are fully formed when they emerge from their egg sacs.

"Then…"

They shifted slightly, and the rage responded by doing the same. Its wings fluttered and the beauty washed over it once more. It looked like an angel. If Baku had told him that was what it was, Theo would have believed it.

"I have never seen one of them just…watching," Baku whispered.

Theo desperately wished he hadn't seen one at all. To now be able to match that face up to the mournful cries he had heard…well, Theo could have gone his whole life quite happily never having experienced that. "What should we do?" he eventually asked,

"We have to kill it," Baku replied. "There is no other choice."

"How?"

"They are motivated only be the need to consume," Baku said softly. "You need only show yourself, Theo, and it will come for you."

"And then?"

"When it lands on you, I'll stab it through its heart." He paused. "That one will not come for me alone. I'm too big for it." Another pause. "This is the only way, though I do not like the idea of putting you in danger. I promised myself I would not."

"I'm soon to face the queen alone," Theo said softly. "That ship has long since sailed."

Another shift from the rage, almost like it could hear them, and maybe it could, and the beauty faded again, and a horrible anger shone through. It looked like a devil now.

"You're going to be right here," Theo said though he wasn't sure if he was asking Baku or reassuring himself.

"The moment it pounces," the monster replied and despite the fact Theo had said no kisses, Baku leaned in and placed one on Theo's forehead. The action sent a shiver of pleasure through Theo. It was almost enough to banish the fear. "I will protect you," he said.

"I know," Theo replied.

"You are mine," the monster added. "You have been since I saw you on that army base."

Theo was not entirely sure he agreed with that but did not think now was the time to argue about the timeline of their relationship. Instead, and taking a deep breath, Theo moved out from under the canopy of the tree. His heart was racing. It would easily be in the one-fifty plus, and Theo didn't think it had ever gotten that high before. He was sweating slightly as well even though it was a cold, wintery afternoon. His stomach churned.

Theo was scared.

But he was also resolved.

There was no choice in this. And he had his monster to protect him.

He stepped into the clearing above which the rage was perched. The tree it was in was infested with those same silver insects. Theo could feel a couple of them in his hair.

He moved slowly but still Theo felt like his footsteps were ridiculously loud on the crunchy forest floor. He kept his eye on the rage as he moved, and it was just a heartbeat before the rage's eyes fixed on him.

His very green eyes.

He was so beautiful.

It made Theo ache just to look at him.

But the rage did not respond. It stayed there in the tree, surrounded by hundreds of the silver insects, none of which tried to bite or hiss at it, and it watched Theo, slowly, almost curiously.

Theo came to a halt, knife in hand, and he could feel Baku somewhere behind him, the monster's presence, ready and waiting.

Theo looked at the rage.

It looked at him.

Moments passed.

Theo did not know what to do.

His took another step forward. The rage unfurled its massive wings but still it did not move. It just looked at Theo with those beautiful eyes.

"What are you waiting for?" Theo asked, and he wasn't sure why, maybe because he didn't know what else to do.

The rage shifted in response. The beauty remained. It unfurled its wings to their fullest extent and spat out what Theo could only describe as some form of language. It was just like the cry. It both pleased and horrified Theo, and his body didn't know how to respond to such contrasting emotions.

He wanted to look behind him to where Baku was waiting, but at the same time, Theo did not want to take his eyes off the rage. He gripped the handle of his knife tighter. His heart continued to race. Minutes ticked by.

"Do something," he found himself saying and many, many years later Theo would always wish that he hadn't because there was an instant response, but it was not from the rage above him.

Another shimmering rage, bigger, stronger, hurtled straight into Theo. He was knocked to the ground in an instant and the breath left his body. He held onto his knife, though he had no idea how, but couldn't move it, because just a moment later the smaller rage fell upon him too.

Theo cried out. He was buried under two rages, and they were spitting that odd language at one another. The older one smacked the younger one aside, leaving it to tumble across the forest floor in a flurry of wings and more of that strange, melodious language.

A shriek. Then another. Two more rages arrived, each of them as old and as angry as the one who pinned Theo down. They spat out their language as they approached, eyes on Theo.

Another angry cry sounded.

It was not from any of the rages.

It was Baku.

He jumped upon Theo's rage and stabbed him hard. The rage shifted at just the right moment so that the knife went through his wing rather than this heart, and he let out an ear-piercing shriek.

He smacked Baku aside with a blow that would have knocked Theo clean out. Baku shook it off quickly and launched for the older rage again. He wasn't fast enough though. Just like with the matriarchal spider, the rage lifted Theo against him, and he flew high into the trees. The last thing Theo saw there on the forest floor was Baku being tackled by the other rages…and then him disappearing under a flurry of wings and snarling, beautiful faces.