The heart beats in his hand as I look at it, considering my moral stance on this. The person is already dead and they’re not using their heart. If I don’t eat it, Darcy probably will, and how much do I want to be able to shift on command?
“I’m the Avatar of Good, and I think you should eat it,” Bellamy interjects, reminding me that Darcy and I are not the only people in the basement right now. He hands me the crutches, and I get them situated under my arms.
I slide my gaze toward him. “Sorry about the nudity. It wasn’t planned. I didn’t even know I could turn into whatever Darcy called me.”
“Feu follet. It’s the American swamp version of the will o’ wisp,” Darcy explains. “Different creatures; evolved from a common ancestor, though, and have similar abilities.”
“I’ll have to do some research into that,” I decide thoughtfully.
Bellamy reaches down and hands me the pants I borrowed when I got dressed this morning. I’m guessing since of the three men in that house, I’m most similarly sized to him, they’re probably his pants. “I’m used to seeing Darcy’s partners naked,” he says with a sly little smirk.
I chuckle as Darcy takes the pants, hands me the heart, kneels, and helps me into them. “I bet threesomes with this guy are fun.” A swell of affection hits me in the heart as Darcy pulls my pants over my hips and tucks my junk into them. “I’m not interested in that. It’s hard enough getting naked for one guy at a time, more than one and it might feel like I’m being fetishized or judged.” I wiggle my short leg to emphasize the point.
Darcy chuckles deep and dark. “Peach, th’ain’t no way I’m sharing.”
Bellamy huffs beside me, but whatever he’s thinking he keeps to himself, toeing the clicking noise corpse. “Will the gargoyles eat this?”
Fox and Romily join the small circle around the corpse, and Fox answers his question. “They won’t eat the corpse, but they’ll dispose of it. They usually return them to their dimension.”
Romily pats Fox’s shoulder affectionately, and I get the impression that he’s proud of his partner for using more words than usual. They’re cute.
I take a deep breath and pop the heart into my mouth. It’s the second most disgusting thing I’ve ever put in my mouth, but if I could get through Big Jim’s nasty Rocky Mountain Surprise, I can get through anything. I don’t gag on the heart. I chew it into swallowable pieces and get it down.
I give a full body shudder, horrified by the whole experience. “I might become vegan after this,” I admit, shivering again.
Darcy nods. “I considered doing the same after my first one. Fortunately they’re rare enough that you’ll probably never come across another one.”
That’s a relief. “You said if I eat enough of them I’ll be able to shift on command,” I remind him.
Darcy nods. “That’s true. We won’t know how many it takes until your body processes that one and we see how it changes your current magic. There are ways of finding the—” There’s thatshudder-inducing clicking noise again. I don’t know if I’ll ever not feel like prey when he does that. “We can even summon them if we’re desperate.”
“We are not summoning beings from a different dimension just to murder them. I’m drawing the line there. That one attacked me first, so he brought the natural consequences of his actions onto himself. We’re not summoning them to harvest their hearts.” That’s a limit for me.
Darcy slides a hand around my neck and pulls me down, meeting me halfway. “Whatever you say, Peach,” he promises and kisses me, igniting the memory of the orgasm that brought me back into my body a few minutes ago.
I pull back before my dick can do more than chub up. We’re hours away from time for a fuck, and I don’t feel like edging myself today. “Grab my leg, will you? I want to go find all my shit so I can get you back in bed.”
A wicked smile splits his lips. “I’m very reward motivated.”
“Awww, you two are so fucking cute!” Bellamy deadpans, pointing at Romily.
My brow scrunches in confusion as I turn toward the man. “Are we?”
Darcy sighs, stomps over to my prosthetic and the bag, grabs them up, and stomps to the elevator. “We’re not cute.”
I frown at him. “I’m cute, and you’re sexy as fuck, and it’s fine if other people think we’re cute. They’re allowed to have opinions.”
Darcy struggles for a moment, but a smile lifts the corners of his mouth. “Come on, Peach, we’re burning daylight.”
I laugh, rolling my eyes and hopping into the elevator car. I’m pretty sure Hell doesn’t even have a sun.
21
Disappointment with the situation dampens my mood as I sit on one of my kitchen chairs to pull on the layers of socks I have to wear over my stump to get the socket prosthetic on. The other four are watching me, and while Darcy is curious in a way that makes me think he’s making sure he knows the process just in case for future use, the other three are just curious for the sake of it. Well, Bellamy is attempting to hide his curiosity by holding up his phone and pretending to do whatever on it. He keeps glancing up to see what step I’m on, but he’s trying not to get caught; it’s pretty funny.
Romily, on the other hand, is staring boldly and blatantly. I chuckle at him as I fit the socket to my stump and make sure it’s in there good and tight before I roll down the sock to keep it in place. “It’s not as convenient as the osseointegrated prosthetic I had before, but it will let me walk for a few hours. Will someone grab the cane out of my room? I’m probably going to need it.”
Fox spins on his heels and moves down the hall to my bedroom, and I call out, “It should be leaning up against the wall between the bed and the nightstand.”
