Menace emanates from him like a mantle, and I think it’s goddamn beautiful. What little breath is left in my lungs is stolen by him.
"You want it to hurt, Evie?" The gravelly rasp of his voice has never sounded more delicious. His glare burns right through me. The cool air in the room sends goosebumps up my arms and over my breasts.
A talon traces under my shirt, scratching a line from my pubic bone past my belly button. A moan escapes me. I can’t tell if it’s an oxygen deprived hallucination, but the pressure around my neck loosens slightly, allowing a little more awareness to return to my brain.
As if he wants me awake enough to know I’ve made a terrible request I should regret.
A dark chuckle sounds in my ear, my body shivering in reaction. "I’ll make it hurt."
A Very Dangerous Monster
I’ll make it hurt.
Inner muscles twitch and clench as I will him to touch me where I want it most.
His claw rakes across my right breast, slicing through my oversized shirt, through my swollen breast, exposing my nipple to the cold air. The razor-sharp talon evokes a dark jolt of pain that shoots straight to my core, causing it to clench with need. Blood wells up in the shallow cuts.
His breath washes over my skin as I gasp at the sensation.
A hot mouth closes around my nipple, sharp teeth gently grazing the sensitive nub. Blood smears across my pale skin as he refuses to lick and close up the wounds he caused, focusing only on torturing the sensitive tip of my breast. He pulls and sucks at my tip that somehow begs for more even as electricity shoots through me.
The cuts sting, a sharp contrast against the spikes of pleasure he’s tonguing into my body. A muscular arm wraps around my waist, while his other hand tangles in my hair, tilting my head back, forcing me into further submission.
My center spasms so hard, I gasp.
"Your body is so sensitive, Evie," he whispers in open awe. His talon strokes along my skin, teasing over my panties. "You want to fall into the darkness with me? Become the monster you claim?" It’s almost a taunt.
I writhe, unable to do anything more. "Yes," I practically beg.
The blade of his talon cuts into the thin material of my panties, slicing them away. Pleasure surges through me when the pads of his fingers find my clit. With all the strength I have left, I grind myself against his hand, needing more, needing something. Something I can’t describe. Justsomething.
"Evie," he murmurs, his voice a low thrum that seems to pull the shadows tighter around him. "To become a monster, you must abandon the light of your preconceptions. We are not merely creatures of fang and claw; we are the embodiment of your deepest fears and darkest desires."
He removes his hand, and I’m left hanging there again. My body twitches and bucks. More, I need more.
I need pressure, friction. If he doesn’t give it back to me, I’ll die. Pathetic mewling sounds escape me.
His shape blurs, edges softening and hardening in turns as if he's both there and not, a trick of the light—or the lack thereof.
"Monsters are ruthless. We are the unchecked impulse, the whisper in the dark that urges you to leap without looking. We seduce with the promise of forbidden knowledge, of power unbound by the shackles of morality."
A tentacle snaps across my inner thigh like a heavy belt bruising flesh. I cry out. The pain zips through me, electric pleasure. A throbbing welt is left in its wake. It intensifies the sensation of the cuts on my breast, causing them to sting with more insistence and making sure I don’t forget about them.
Again, he strikes my sensitive skin, this time on my rear. A strange gurgle comes out of me as wetness drips from me and slides down my thighs.
"A monster does not seek to destroy for the mere sake of destruction," he continues, "but to challenge the order, to test the limits of what you believe is true. We are the chaos to order, the storm to calm." His words are as mesmerizing as what he’s doing to my body.
He’s giving me what I begged for. Pain.
But it is also giving me release, relief. On the heels of the stinging pains comes a rush of endorphins that smothers all the hate and self-loathing that was drowning my mind. I’m becoming clearer, cleaner with each strike.
The tentacles part my legs, spreading them wide where I float in midair. The next strike hits me directly on my aching clit. The sound that comes out of me is that of a tortured, desperate animal. Five more direct strikes and my thighs are shaking, sweat dripping between my breasts. He’s pushed me to a peak I didn’t know existed. Desperate to break over the edge, more profane sounds erupt from my throat. I’m threatening him. I’m begging him.
"Shut up, you dumb slut!" comes Elijah’s voice through the walls.
Shadow turns toward the wall and unhinges his jaw, unleashing a terrifying roar in the direction of my neighbor.
When the sound dissipates, the silence is almost deafening. But Elijah does not speak again.
