“That’s okay with me,” I said with a smile, my eyes dragging down his body. He noticed my perusal with confusion and slight disgust. I scratched my head. Ava was gorgeous—clearly, the issue here was me. Caspian made seduction look easier than it was. I let it go and padded over to the bush as he walked ten feet behind me.
Tap, tap-tap, tap—The tapping cut off as I grew close.
“You ever wonder about running into predators out here?” I asked, grabbing at Ava’s dress. I tugged her panties off and set them on the ground beside me. Ava was awfully quiet, figuratively holding her breath in anticipation. She knew something was coming.
“There aren’t many,” he said. It was so dark he probably couldn’t see much more than shadowy outlines. I was forged in the darkness though. I could see it all. For instance, I could see the edge of antlers poking up from the bush behind me. Brandon was waiting and watching but unwilling to get too close. He was worried about his hunger.
Tap, tap-tap, tap, tap. The human swiveled his head around, trying to find the noise.
“Oh, I don’t know about that,” I said. “Seems like there are quite a few awful predators. They aren’tnaturalto the area though. Might not be healthy for the locals who have no good way to defend themselves.”
“Are you going or what?” The man snapped, sensing I wasn’t talking about wildlife. I relaxed and relief like no other came over me as I finally let it all out. I sighed in bliss. I guess in my centuries in the dark, I had forgotten a few of life's simpler pleasures.
I eyed the guard as I went, which made him uncomfortable. He darted his eyes away.
I smiled. What a fool. I lunged at him, tentacles of tar extracted from my back.
His attention snapped back to me. He tried to stumble back and fell on his ass as I kept coming for him, feet stomping into the earth.
His hand darted to the salt bag and he threw a fistful at me. It hit my tentacles and hissed, steam coming off. It pissed me the fuck off. This was all pissing me the fuck off and I couldn’t wait to kill each and every one of them. To reap my vengeance on any and everyone. How dare they attempt to keep us captive.
Black, slimy tentacles of muck slid around his wrist and jerked it away from the bag.
He screamed and I loved the sound. It was pure joy to my ears.
“Oh, I like that,” I snarled but shoved a tentacle down his throat, feeling his wet tongue as I silenced him. Couldn’t have anyone attempting to rescue him before I had my fun. More tentacles wrapped around him, pulling his limbs apart and pressing them to the ground. Another wrapped around his neck and slammed him fully to the ground.
Brandon stayed glued to his hiding spot behind me, still obsessed with holding back his new urges.
“Now, which arm did I promise to liberate?” I asked my captive. He squirmed, his eyes bulging. He tried to scream around my tentacle. I began to pull on his limbs. I held him down as I worked on his left arm, tearing and grinding, breaking it off with some effort.
Blood gushed, pouring out of him like a loose fire hydrant. Brandon sucked in a sharp breath as he watched me act. There was a reason I wanted to do this near Brandon. I wanted him to smell the carnage. I wanted himhungrierthan he already was.
I sensed the soul of the dead man detach from his body and begin to drift away.
“Oh, no you don’t,” I snarled. A tentacle shot out, wrapping around the man’s soul. Everyone becomes a ghost, even if just for a moment. The soul has to leave the body before it can do anything else. Some stayed around but most went to some faraway place beyond my reach.
Well,usuallythe soul has to leave the body. I never left mine but I wasn’t really a ghost despite how ghastly I was. I pushed out of Ava’s body fully. My body thumped to the ground, the black amorphous tar rolling across the ground with the squirming fresh ghost in my grasp.
I’d been waiting a long time to get stronger. My time was finally here.
Ava fell to her knees on the ground behind me, gasping as if coming up for air.
“What are you doing?” She asked with a shaky voice. I turned to her and smiled. She’d asked a monster to save her and amonsteris what she got. I wasn’t her pretty nokken or charming Mothman. I was the thing that bumped in the night. I was the thing that caused even the dead to shiver in fear.
The ghost in my grip wailed in terror as I pulled it towards me, my mouth opening wide. I sucked in and his soul began to turn into a vapor. I inhaled it. First with the feet and legs, then torso and shoulders, until finally everything was gone—settling into my center.
I smacked my ichor lips and Ava gaped at me in shock. She always looked so appealing with her negative expressions—fear, anger, pain, and disgusted surprise.
“I told you, I’m not the victim of my story. I’m the villain, the monster from the start. The one they had to throw in a box to save humanity itself.” Her eyes widened, her hand going to her throat as if she were remembering how it felt to have me down it.
“You ate his soul,” she said in disbelief, looking around like the ghost I ate might show back up. It wouldn’t. He was destroyed permanently. Power surged through me. I closed my eyes for a moment and relished the electric sensation. Each soul gave me more power. More power gave me more freedom. With enough, I wouldn’t need Ava all the time and I could have some real strength back.
“Yes I did and I'm still hungry. Practically starving. Not for much longer though. I adore you, Ava.” I moved closer, my body of black ichor pushing against the dirt, my tentacles squirming all around. “You have so much potential but I need my freedom. Don’t you see? I can lift you up. I could give you the world and unlike your other mates, I’ll show you how to save yourself. I’ll make you powerful. I’ll make you a queen,” I told her.
She didn’t shift back in fear as I came to her, despite my current state. She knew I wouldn’t hurt her. We knew each other in ways others never could. I’d seen her head and she’d seen mine. We knew the taste of each other’s souls. Truly hurting her would be like hurting myself.No, it would be worse.
I’d never once had anyone. Always the outsider—the shaman, the witch, evil Makwa doing things he shouldn’t because someone else determined it was wrong. But Ava was like me and she would be everything to me. My protege, my lover, my queen. When I was a man, I used to dream of ruling alone but now I wanted her to have it all too. To have these mountains to lord over all she pleased.
