Julie pushes herself up to sitting, puts her hand to her throat and blinks a few times. Her gaze skims past Horn and settles on me. I can see the anger in her eyes before she closes them and takes a deep breath. Her lips round as she breathes out and I understand why Horn agreed to help her.
Her humanity is appealing, and I want to taste her.
11
Julie/Prey
My head pounds, and it takes me a moment to remember why. I’m not even sure where I am for a few seconds. I place my hand to my throat, expecting to feel the chain and the cool claw, but it’s not there and everything comes rushing back a little too fast.
Being grabbed and taken to Under, a monster yanking me out of the puddle before I can drown and making a deal with him for protection. Then him changing the deal and his friend nearly killing me.
I glare at Tail, then take a deep breath so I feel less like yelling at him.
The thoughts may not change me, but the actions will.
When I open my eyes, neither of them has moved and they are both watching me like they expectmeto bite. The urge is there. How dare Tail put his hands around my throat and choke me until I pass out!
“Don’t ever do that again,” I say. My voice cracks a little, but with each passing second, I feel better, or at least as good as I can feel here. I’d feel a lot better if I was back home having a breakdown on the floor like I was before being interrupted by monsters.
Maybe if I’d stayed strong, I wouldn’t have been taken.
I know I’m weak. Bret always said that without him, I’d crumble, and he was right.
“Or what?” Tail doesn’t smile. While Horn comes across as rougher and less talkative, he is quick to smile. Tail appears to be gentler, but I think he has a cruel streak. Who was he before Under claimed him and revealed his monstrous side? “You’ll leave? Go for it.”
Everyone in this cave knows I’m not going to up and leave. There is nowhere for me to go. Though if I made a deal with one monster, why not another? I glance at Horn and know that I can’t leave him even though I could walk away from Tail in a heartbeat.
I cross my arms, making a stand from the floor. “I made a deal with Horn, and I’m not putting out for just any monster.”
“Prey…I need help to keep you safe. Your presence will draw others that will want to destroy you and eat you. And Tail,” he grins as he uses his friend's name. “You are either in or out.”
“I don’t know,Prey,am I in?” His four eyes watch me. “I take payment in flesh like every monster here. You decide how to pay, but I think you’ll run out of toes before you get home.”
My toes curl against the cold stone floor as I imagine him biting them off one by one. Without toes I won’t be able to walk, and I’ll bleed, which will attract other monsters in need of food.
“Not my toes.” I swallow hard, knowing what I need to offer if I want to survive.
“A pity, as they look delicious.”
Horn walks over and lifts me off the ground. “I won’t let him eat your toes.”
“Not even a lick?” Tail asks, as though he is innocent.
“No,” Horn says.
“You can lick,” I counter. Perhaps we can find something we can both enjoy. I need to squeeze every drop of enjoyment I can out of this place, so it doesn’t crush me. “But if I don’t like it, you have to stop.”
He lifts his hand and I flinch, expecting another slap. Instead, he looks almost sad for a moment. One set of eyes closes, and I glimpse what he might have looked like before. The lines of his jaw and the curve of his lips, but when his eyes open, the illusion is lost to the amber irises.
Horn’s arm slides around my waist and he pulls my back against his chest, like he is already protecting me, or maybe he doesn’t want to share me with Tail despite it being his idea.
Tail’s forked tongue darts over his lip. “I am very good with my tongue.”
I press my thighs together, knowing exactly what he’ll taste if he licks higher than my toes.
Horn’s mouth brushes the side of my neck. “I won’t leave you.”
But will he also fuck me at the same time as Tail?