Her hand started to shake and she reached into the side of the door for a cigarette. She used to hand roll them when I lived with her. Now she settled for Camels. Instinctively, I rolled the windows down as she lit up.
“How bad has it gotten?” I asked.
Getting involved was risky business, I knew that, but if she was serious about leaving him for once, maybe I could go with her. Maybe I could live with my family again. Hell, maybe we’d have a chance at a real family with him gone.
Keeping the hand with the cigarette on the wheel, she rolled up the sleeve on her shirt. I gasped. I’d expected bruises, not burns.
“He’s going to kill you.”
“I know,” she said, tapping her cigarette against the open window.
“I don’t have that much. I have $3,000 I saved to move out of the trailer.”
“I shouldn’t need your help,” she said, her voice sounding faraway and sad, the mother I remembered.
“I’ll see what I can do.”
They pulled into town and as agreed, her mother pulled in front of the trailer.
“I wish you would come home, Jessica.”
“I wish it was safe for me to come home.”
“I’ll come by and see you tomorrow with the twins if you don’t mind.”
“Sure, let’s go to the park.”
I didn’t believe she’d actually come. If my father wouldn’t allow her to leave, she wouldn’t. He had that type of control over her.
“Love you, baby.”
“Yeah. Love you, mom,” I answered, my hands numb from the cold air whipping through the car.
I stuffed my hands into my pockets and entered the trailer. I’d have one more night alone, probably. Nancy and Tina enjoyed camping and drugs too much to miss their last night in the woods. At least I’d have a chance to be alone. I’d gone from a tryst in the woods right back into real life.
I climbed into bed and when I closed my eyes, my heart stopped. Kronos’ face was right there, with his sharp angled jaw, his ridged nose and his eyes, glowing yellow as he stared into my eyes curiously, as if I were his prey.
“Is this real?” I whispered.
He didn’t respond. I fell asleep, assuming that it was only my vivid imagination.
When I woke up, all the weird lovey euphoric hormones that had been there from my encounter with Kronos disappeared. He was alien to me in every way, I realized, and as a result, nothing between us could ever be possible.
There was one other way he could help me. One other way he could make a big difference. I just had to wait for him to find me again.
SIX
KRONOS
The longer Iwas apart from her, the worse I felt. Mating had bonded me to her.
I couldn’t stop thinking about her black hair, the way her flesh responded so willingly to my touch, the way her lips felt when I pried them open with my two pronged tongue. Then of course there was sinking myself into her, driving my cocks inside her tightness as she writhed in my grasp and moaned out loud.
After a few days of keeping watch on her, something happened. I looked on at her trailer and as she returned home from one of her odd jobs, her roommates Nancy and Tina stood at the door with arms crossed. Jess’s bags were packed — two olive green canvas duffel bags — and placed outside on the steps, just barely out of the snow.
“What’s going on?” Jess asked.
“Taylor woke up at the hospital today. He said you’re the reason he got put there. He said you were crazy and tried to stab him because he wouldn’t have sex with you.”
