Up From The Deep Vaughn Jackson (book club suggestions TXT) 📖

She feels the children on her back, so close, so ready to burst into the sunlight and feel the warmth. And the hunger. Tiny hungers.

Her mate calls out to her again. Concern? Or a threat? Her children demand protection.

She rises to her full height, looking down on him, his taste teasing her tongue as it flicks the air. Pleasure courses through her. Food.

Closer. Her meal slides closer to her, nuzzling against her, smelling so…edible. She can barely resist. Why should she resist?

Eat me, her meal says. Or is that just her desire? Eat him, her children say. Or is she just hungry? She leans down, nipping at his wing playfully. Delicious. More.

Her meal pulls away, looking up at her. He’s confused. The food is confused.

She goes down for another taste, but he moves out of reach, eyeing her suspiciously.

He knows. Her meal is running away with itself. Rage. She screams, stretching wings dormant longer than she can remember. Powerful. Her meal backs away, trembling, but then steadies, stretching his own wings and roaring with indignation. She lashes out at him, her massive claw tearing through the meat of his shoulder. Warm. Blood. Instinctively she springs her neck forward, latching onto the fresh wound. The taste is exhilarating. She hears her meal scream and that only serves to invigorate her more. The pleasure pulls her in until…Pain.

Her meal’s claws are lodged into the side of her neck. She feels her own blood pouring down her scales. It makes her hungrier. With a flick of her powerful neck, she sends the meal crashing to the other side of the island. She doesn’t want a fight, just a meal, but the hunt drives her senses wild. Her children tremble with excitement as well, urging her forward, urging her to feed. She rears back on her hind legs, spreads her wings, and issues her challenge. The noise rumbles in the depths of her core. And she charges.

Her meal is quick, trying his best to take to the sky. She catches him with her forelegs, dragging him back to the ground and holding him there with her weight. She’s ready to strike, teeth bared. Her meal opens his mouth too and releases a rush of burning gas directly in her face. It stings her eyes and chokes her lungs. The gas fills her lungs and she stumbles back, hacking and barking. Her meal wastes no time, raking across her face with burning hot claws, tearing her flesh and fanning the flames of her rage. She wheels with the blow, turning slowly, deliberately, until her back is to him and her tail smashes into his side. Bones crunch underneath the force of her blow. She angles her tail down, crushing him into the ground before rounding on him again and driving the claws of her forelegs into the fleshy membranes of both his wings. They tear ragged and bloody as she drags her claws down along their length. Holding him in place, she bites down on a wing, tearing off a chunk and gulping the flesh down greedily. A soft trill escapes her throat. Pleasure.

Her meal’s body gets hot. Too hot. Burning her. She rears into the sky on heavy wings, hovering above her prey before slamming back down on him. He crunches beneath her, blood gushing from his foaming mouth and open wounds. His body is still hot. She feels the temperature around her rise. Fire.

She summons her own power, a stream of electricity courses through her veins. Her muscles spasm before contracting so tight they feel like they’re tearing. She tingles from the pit of her stomach to the tips of her wings. Her meal is slow, she hears the clicking that indicates his coming attack. She is not slow. The air crackles around her. She wants this to end. Her jaws sink into the throat of her meal, and she releases her energy. Static fills her head and her teeth buzz with the current. The heat of her meal burns the inside of her mouth. She feels the flesh burning, but she holds on, not letting go. His body convulses beneath her, thrashing and clawing at her. He lets out a violent rattle from his chest, a last, shaky breath. One last weak roar escapes his lips before he falls limp and silent. She’s won. Her reward lies beneath her. Food. Eat. Her children share her pleasure as she gorges herself on warm flesh, crunching through bones and tearing tendons.

Stop. She pauses. Her children will need food on their own. She looks down at the meal that was her mate, half eaten. They will eat from him as well. Until then, she will sleep. Her children are coming soon. She feels them squirming in their eggs. Soon. She grabs the remains of her prey by the remaining wing and glides into the murky water around her nest searching for a place to submerge completely. The air is drying out her skin and she feels the pain as it begins to crack and bleed. Beneath the surface of the water, her body slows down until no more sensation disturbs her rest. Only darkness and the motion of the currents.

Chapter 14

“Holy shit,” Devonte said.

“That was…probably the most brutal thing I have ever seen,” Brannigan said. “And I have literally been to war.”

“Nature is fucking mental,” Skylar said.

“All I know,” General MacPherson said, “is that we have one less problem to deal with.”

“And potentially one-hundred new problems to deal with,” Devonte said. “Sorry,” he added, seeing the general’s scowling face.

“We need a plan,” Raymond said.

“Well we’ve shot it, we’ve blown it up, and we’ve shot it some more,” Brannigan said, “we’ve basically exhausted any military-type plans.”

“We need—”

“Devonte,” Brannigan interrupted with a grin, “if you say science, I swear to god I will call you a nerd for the rest of eternity.”

“…science…”

“Nerd.”

“He’s right, though,” Skylar said.

“Like two nerds in a pod,” Brannigan said.

“Did anyone else notice the most