Page 148 of Damsel in Disguise

My cock stiffens almost immediately beneath the attention. Annoying bastard.

I bend over to retrieve the sweatpants from the floor, dragging them back on before turning my attention back to the remains of Delilah.

I grip her wrist and drag her across the marble floor toward the containment elevator hidden behind the eastern wall.

The entrance is almost impossible to notice unless someone knows exactly where to stand—ten centimeters from the wall. Direct line of sight into the wolf’s eyes hanging within the oil painting.

Look into its eyes, and only then does the hidden mechanism recognize retinal alignment.

The shape of a door presses inward with a soft hiss. The containment door slides open after retinal verification.

Cold air rushes outward instantly, curling around me in sharp, sterile waves, clashing violently against the stench of decomposition trailing behind Delilah’s body.

Behind me, Ariella stares at the opening for a moment too long before quickly catching up. She sits on her knees beside the body, ready to hoist it up.

The thought of killing her comes too easily.

What unsettles me is that I’m only thinking of the act instead of already doing it. Just like I killed the third Synthète, the one playing the role of a friend, after he discovered this chamber.

“You want to help now?” instead I find myself asking her with a low chuckle.

“I mean…” she starts fidgeting with her nails again, avoiding my eyes for half a second. “You could use some extra hands.”

“You could leave anytime, you know.”

“I don’t want to.”

The answer comes too honestly.

I slowly turn toward her fully. What are you doing, little kitty?

Every instinct she should possess as a human being ought to be screaming at her to run. To fear me. To disappear before she ends up becoming another secret buried six feet under.

Instead, she keeps stepping closer toward me. Toward the thing that might destroy her.

Just be scared and run in the opposite direction. Give me a reason to chase you and hunt you down. To kill you before you become another liability breathing too close to my secrets.

“Stop looking at me like that.”

“How am I looking at you?”

“Like you’re trying to intimidate me.”

I almost laugh. Not only is she right, but she’s also partially wrong.

Intimidation isn’t the real problem here. The real problem is that I’m trying to figure out why I can’t bring myself to erase her like the others.

“Alright,” I huff eventually. “This one is decaying way too fast. If you want, you can help me get it inside as soon as possible.”

Without needing to be asked twice, her gloved hands wrap around Delilah’s ankles as she hoists the lower half upward with a strained grunt, clearly caught off guard by the weight of synthetic reinforcement beneath flesh.

I don’t offer to take over or ask if it’s too heavy.

She wanted this. Now she can carry part of it too.

Ariella drags harder, forcing me to move with her. Together, we pull the corpse across the marble floor while the deterioration worsens beneath our hands.

Synthetic skin begins sloughing apart near the neck. It peels backward in wet strips, exposing the mechanical structure beneath the flesh where the freshly regenerated tissue tears itself open all over again.