Free The Space Within (The Book of Phoenix #3) by Kristie Cook

us.
    “Why do you have all those clothes on?” the brunette asked with an accent like Hayden’s, while staring at me. I kept my head averted, as we all did, so they wouldn’t see the unusual colors of our eyes—unusual for these humans anyway, who were completely Dark. I rolled my eyes up to peek at them through my lashes.
    “Yeah, aren’t you hot?” the blond asked. She reached out for Bex’s jacket, her arm skating over Bex’s boob, the same one Mason had mauled, making her flinch. The woman cocked her head for a moment, then laughed. “You even have gloves on! I don’t know how you can wear all that. The cold feels so good.” She lifted her arms above her head, raising her full breasts, and spun in a small circle before wrapping herself around her partner again, one hand landing on the other’s breast and the other hand sliding over her stomach, downward. “I can never wait until that fucking sun drops so I can take it all off and feel the air on my skin and see all the sexiness of my girls.”
    The other woman giggled as her friend pinched and pulled at her nipple. “Me, too. You should come join us in our tent. The more the merrier, right?”
    They batted their eyelashes at us as they smiled seductively, then turned to each other and proceeded to make out right there in front of us, their hands groping and stroking the other’s body in the most intimate places while they moaned into each other’s mouths. Without breaking their kiss, one of them reached out, about to grab my arm.
    I carefully tucked it close against my body, out of reach. “We’re going to shed these clothes first. We’ll be back.”
    I gave my head a small jerk as a sign to the others, and they began moving. I must have said something wrong, though. Or maybe it was my poor attempt at mimicking their accent.
    “Wait,” the blonde said, extricating herself from the other’s embrace. She studied us more carefully, first Bex and me, and then her gaze fell hard on Brock and Hayden. In a flash, her hand flew out and knocked the hood of Hayden’s poncho down. “You’re a man! And your eyes …”
    Her mouth fell wide open, but not to express her shock. A shrieking, siren-like sound exploded from her.
    “Run!” Hayden barked, and the four of us took off toward the shore.
    Hearts pounding and legs pumping, we sprinted through the camp and broke through its edge, onto the beach. A half-dozen monsters barreled toward us. Without slowing down, we all pulled our weapons out. A Weiran, the green-skinned giants that reminded me of the Incredible Hulk, shook the ground as he ran toward us, swinging a mace. Hayden stepped in front of Bex and exchanged a look with me before we both craned our necks to look up at the beast. We lunged at the same time, Hayden’s two swords slicing into the Weiran’s tree-trunk of a leg and my knife cutting a gash into the arch of its other foot. The thing howled and immediately fell on its butt, making the ground quake beneath our feet.
    “Run!” Hayden ordered again.
    Before the Weiran could react or the other creatures could reach us, we raced again across the beach. Several round objects that I thought were rocks were scattered on the sand. Hayden picked one up and threw it at Bex.
    “Put this on,” he commanded. He grabbed another and pulled it down over his head. Brock and I each picked one up and did the same as we continued running, splashing into the water.
    As soon as the water touched it, the jacket I’d stolen tightened up around me, becoming a second skin, as thick and reptilian-like as the gozzards’ hide. Good thing, too, because even it began sizzling and disintegrating in the water. It wasn’t mucky and oily as I’d expected, but apparently acidic. I could barely breathe in the helmet at first, but then it sealed up, too, and oxygen came from somewhere. The protection would only last so long, though—everything was peeling away in thin layers—so I swam as hard as I could. Hayden and