I carry Mattie down the hall and gently lay her in bed, pulling the blanket up to her shoulders and folding the sides beneath her. It’s a human gesture I remember well from the days I used to enjoy scaring small humans at night, one meant to protect them from anything that goes bump in the dark. I chuckle, sitting next to her on the bed, and trace my hand down the curve of her back. She feels far away in her dream world, walking in a different plane of existence while she sleeps, even though she’s right below my fingertips. I’ve been watching her each night since I left, but so many pieces of her remain a mystery.
The man from the bar had been scum stuck to the floor, begging for someone to remove it, and I had—for her. His soul had been disgusting and sour, but it still itched the urge to fucking kill something.To kill someone. One of my eyebrows shoots up, and I look down at Mattie again. Maybe she didn’t appreciate my gift because I misunderstood her ritual? Her joy is found in the hunt, in the kill, not in sending them out to their watery resting place. Oh, little bug, how could I have missed it? I saw her darkness mirror mine and still underestimated it. Underestimatedher. I brush my lips across her brow and adjust her necklace so it hangs loosely on her chest. “I won’t disappoint you again, little one,” I whisper into her ear before leaving her to sleep tonight off. Her feet twitch, stirring the blanket just slightly before she’s still once more.
My magic strains against my skin, but I don’t transform before hauling the dead man away. Halfway to the lake, I regret my decision and the choice I made to not just fucking eat him. I want to finish this the way she would have, though. I want to feel closer to her in any small way I’m able to. At least this small action won’t stain her soul any further.
The gravelly sound of dirt churns up behind us as this bloated asshole’s boots drag against the ground, annoying me enough that I resort to carrying him over my shoulder. My human muscles complain under the weight and are relieved when I’m finally able to toss him at the edge of the lake. Water laps at him hungrily, ready to take the body down to its depths. My efforts are finally appreciated. I impatiently stare at the small waves waiting for them to wash the evidence away. My teeth graze against my bottom lip until a thin layer of skin tears away—fucking fragile human bodies. Does Mattie really drag all her kills to the middle of the lake in that dingy little boat? She must, because the water still just rises and falls over the body. The water is clearly unwilling to appease me.
I glance back at the tree line, where a large lump sits hidden. Mattie left the boat under dark green tarps, casually littered with broken branches and other foliage. It might fool others, and luckily for her, I’ve never seen another human out here. I was going for the full experience, but this seems like a waste of time when I can easily swim the body to the bottom of the lake.
The air shifts around me, making the shore of the lake seem infinitely darker once my true form swells from the shadows. Taking the vile human husk between my jaws, I dive below the water’s surface. We swim deeper until no moonlight reaches us and the water clouds with silt. I release my jaw, and the body floats down, releasing another burst of dirt. Using my claws, I poke several holes in the chest cavity. Air escapes in bubbles that rush to the surface. I don’t need my unwanted gift making a reappearance. Mattie was disappointed enough the first time.
My limbs stretch to push back to the surface when my rear legs hit something hard. They’ve hit a block, one of the same I saw Mattie tie to the other man.Interesting.I spin and swim along the bottom, letting my inhuman eyesight take in the graveyard I’ve stumbled upon. Oh, Mattie, you’ve been a busy bug. There are at least ten other bodies down here, a few just skeletons with various stages of decomposition, hanging on by threads of tendons or muscle. The barely attached pieces float through the water like morbid seaweed. One body, though, I recognize. It’s the one from the weeks before, the one I watched her sacrifice to the lake and call me in. Part of his lip is missing, torn away or eaten by fish, leaving him with a permanent sneer and revealing a silver tooth. I reach out and snatch it between two of my claws. Content with my prize, I head back to the surface.
My antlers emerge first, and I wait for the shadows to coat the surface of the lake before allowing my body to rise. I use the same shadows to walk back to the shore, wondering if the sight of me walking across the lake would frighten Mattie or ready her with desire. The thought of both her scents, fear and lust, mixing into a delicious nectar makes my shadowy cock twitch.
Before I make it back to the seclusion of the woods, a noise rings out from further down the mountain. The suddenness of it crashes through the normal veil of silence that surrounds me. The discord, a mixture of screeching sirens and panicked yelling, stirs up enough curiosity that I follow it down one river running off the lake.
It takes seconds for me to cover several miles until flashing lights burn my eyes and the stench of several humans fills the air in a noxious cloud. A group of them huddle at the bank of the river, calling to those not in their circle. I climb up into the overhang of the nearest trees, desperate for a glimpse of what’s holding their attention. They scurry around like ants until finally there’s a break in their formation. I see it, just as one man from downstream calls, “Lawd help us! There’s another arm down here.” In the mud below me, a human arm, half rotted flesh and half bone, sits amongst the chaos.
My little bug is in trouble.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
mattie
The thin coat of frost covering the ground turns my bare feet frozen and raw, but I can’t stop running. Clouds spill out of my mouth with each heavy breath. My thin white nightgown clings to me, my nipples sharp enough to tear through it. Even though my body shivers violently, my hair clings to my face, damp with sweat.
I’m looking for something. What is it? Panic rises in my chest, threatening to crush me if I can’t remember this one simple thing. Remember, Mattie. Remember.
The trees are thick around me, closing in as I run further down the trail. Shadows snake out from the gaps between them, erasing the path behind me and leaving only darkness. I command my legs to pump harder. I’m almost there. I don’t know how I know, but I do. Just keep going.
Shadows lick at my heels but pull back into the trees as I reach the clearing. An open patch of fresh snow waits for me, circled by the woods. I stop, doubling over, choking on each breath. Branches crack from the edge of the circle, and my head snaps up, eyes wide and heart pounding.
A snow-white buck steps out of the trees. He stops just feet in front of me, gently shaking the snow and brush from his antlers. He snorts twice, his breath billowing before him. He’s beautiful.
I take one step, then two. My arm reaches out ahead of me, my fingers twitching with anticipation. I hold my breath, trying to still myself, not wanting to scare this majestic creature off.
His eyes, like dark beads,pierce me, and helifts his coal-black snout to meet the tips of my fingers.His breath is hot, steam rising between my fingers. A grunt reverberates through him, and my jaw slackens as his fur sloughs away from him, turning into specks swirling away from us in the winter breeze. Skin and muscle fade away into dust and join the air blowing wildly around us. The circle of air spins around us until just bones stand before me. The deer still stares at me through darkened eye sockets, his snorts still impossibly producing puffs of air. He snorts once, stomping his hoof, and then the bones clatter to the ground, and the air falls still.
My phone alarm blares loudly,causing me to shoot up in bed, drenched in cold sweat. I rub both temples in slow circles, trying to ease the throbbing inside my head. Everything is too much right now—the light too bright, the air too humid, my skull too fucking small for my brain. The ceiling fan clacks annoyingly above me with each wobble.
I raise the blanket to look down at my body. The soreness in my limbs radiates down to the bone, telling me I have some damage to assess. I squeeze my eyes tight. The ache in my pussy tells me what happened last night, even if the details are fuzzy. I’m naked as the day I was born, and I know I didn’t come home from work that way. I take a deep breath and open my eyes again. Fresh bruises and scratches litter my skin. “What the fuck?” I mouth silently.
I throw the blanket back and stumble on baby deer legs to the bathroom. Bracing myself against the laminate countertop, I splash cold water over my face enough times to wake me up. My courage finally builds enough to look at myself in the smudged mirror. A gasp falls out of my open mouth, and I have to grab the counter again to keep from falling back.
Unfamiliar eyes, the green swallowed whole by black, stare back at me. A necklace of bruises rounds my throat. I blink furiously until tears well at the corners of my eyes, and I try again. Green eyes peer back at me, only bloodshot from the lack of sleep. The bruises, though, are still there. The sting as I run my fingers over them lets me know they’re real. The vial necklace still hangs against my chest. The little spark of light is almost completely extinguished, and I have to squint hard to make it out.
Nope.I shake my head and stomp to the kitchen. I need caffeine to handle this shit. Bright light streams from the windows, stinging my eyes, and I let out a hiss. I wildly wave my arms in front of my face, trying to cover them but not trip over my own feet. I dump out the stale pot of coffee from yesterday and give it a quick rinse before putting it back to work. The coffee slowly drizzling into the pot is the only acceptable noise right now.
A heavy sigh escapes me as I sit at the tiny table that splits the kitchen from the living room. I rest my elbows on it, causing the table to rock unevenly, and bury my head in my hands. Images flash through my mind, fragments of last night, like watching snippets from a movie.
Looking for the man who pissed me off at the bar but finding an empty parking lot.The same man, dead on my porch. Running through the woods. Trying to escape—something. The lake with moonlight dancing across the surface. My stranger.
My head snaps up. My stranger—and now, apparently, my fucking stalker. My center throbs, heat radiating from between my thighs. My body remembers what my mind can’t. I close my eyes and try to fill in the details, but the memory feels clouded, and all I can see is our bodies intertwined through a veil of darkness. It’s more than I remember from our first night together, but it’s still only a few frustrating fragments. The coffee flow slows to only drips falling into a full pot, but I’m already wide awake.
The three cupsof coffee I chugged are finally hitting my bloodstream as I walk across the Foxfire parking lot. I pull back my hair, still wet from the shower, into a ponytail and take a quick look in my side-view mirror. The makeup I tried and failed to put on does nothing to conceal my bruise necklace. “Fuck,” I whisper. Tally is definitely going to be asking questions. I look up to the sky and groan. Maybe if the lord just struck me down now, I wouldn’t have to do this walk of shame. I wait for a few seconds, and when wrath doesn’t rain down on me, I reluctantly head inside.
I wander through the back, and I can already hear Tally muttering mostly to herself, or possibly talking at Wiley. Sure enough, Tally is zipping around at full speed, prepping everything for whatever big game is going to be on today. Wiley is sitting at a booth with his record books spread in front of him. I slow my movements, trying to buy myself a few more moments of peace, which are immediately interrupted by Tally’s squeal of delight—a squeal that’s quickly followed by pursed lips and cluck from her tongue. “Sugar, you look like you’ve been rode hard and put away wet.”
