Page 10 of Into The Green

But as I looked back over my shoulder to where said faun had been standing, I knew deep down to my bones that it was true.

"Go on," I croaked.

"Their music makes women... hot. Literally," he said, and I'd swear I detected a hint of humor in his voice. "Physically hot. But also... turned on."

Good God. I wanted the ground to open and swallow me right then and there. Because that was exactly what happened. And, at the time, it didn't feel weird. It felt natural. It felt like breathing. It felt amazing. But as I stood there with Jasper, the whole of what had happened settled down on me.

I had been turned on by a fucking goat.

Well, technically, half-goat, but still. There were definite goat parts.

Jesus Christ.

"You can't help it," Jasper went on as if sensing my embarrassment and trying to soothe it over. "It's the music. It puts you in a trance and draws you to him, makes you feel good so he can get and keep you close. And then when he has you..."

"Tell me," I demanded, needing to know what could have happened to me if he hadn't shown up just in time.

"When he has you, the music pulses through you until you come," he went on, not a hint of awkwardness at bringing up the topic of my orgasm. "Then he lifts his eyes. And when he looks at you, you're his. Everything normal and human of you slips away. You no longer feel and think like you normally would. You become a living sex toy for him."

"Fuck," I said, shaking my head. A living sex toy to a freaking goat. With boy goat parts. That was so incredibly disgusting that I felt the bile rise up in my throat until I could practically choke on it.

And again, fuck fuck fuck men.

Of every species.

Every last goddamn mother fucking one of them.

I sighed hard, looking back up at Jasper, knowing I owed him gratitude, but hating that fact. "Thank you," I said, not sounding like I meant it at all.

Jasper seemed unaffected though and shrugged. "Come on, let's get some food in us. It's going to be a hell of a day, I can already tell," he said, turning and going back the way we had both came.

A few minutes later, both of us sitting on the ground, I popped a couple of berries into my mouth, wincing a bit at the bitterness.

"Here," Jasper said, holding out a few button mushrooms toward me that I eyed a bit dubiously. "They won't taste great, but they have protein, and we need all we can get," he said, popping one in his mouth.

I took them and held them up to the light. "Did you know that mushrooms more closely resemble meat in their make-up than plants?" I asked as I ate one, chewing fast and swallowing before I could really taste it.

"I did not," Jasper said. The silence stretched as we ate our small breakfast before Jasper suddenly declared, "You really don't have any questions for me?"

I knew I should have. Really, when someone has an auditory flute-music-induced orgasm from a half-human, half-goat creature, they tended to have questions. But it had taken my brain all of twenty seconds to freak out and accept that all those tales I had seen in movies, had read about in books, they were all real.

"I guess there isn't much to ask. This 'Green' is like... some kind of fairy land. Creatures I thought were figments of writers' overactive imaginations are real. There's not much to ask."

"That's... an interesting way to think of it," Jasper said a bit cautiously.

"And you... you're a fairy too," I declared, making Jasper snort hard.

"I'm fae, not fairy. I am not six inches tall with wings."

I nodded as I reached for three of the last remaining six berries, knowing it was nowhere near enough to keep my stomach from growling until lunch, but knowing there was nothing else either. "And Jade too."

"Yes, Jade too."

"That's how you knew she was in The Green, then? Did she like run away here or something for some reason?"

"No," Jasper said, sounding guarded. "She would never come back here willingly."

My gaze shot up, my brows lowered at him curiously. "Why?" I asked. When he didn't answer, I followed his lead as he took his feet. "So she's here unwillingly," I said, feeling my heart clench hard at the idea. Had she become some sort of slave? Had she fallen into hands of some half-human thing and couldn't get away, couldn't remember that she was supposed to want to?