Tail grabs me and kisses me hard. “I don’t want to forget you, but it might happen.”
And if they die?
Should I try to make a deal with the new monsters? I hope I don’t need to make that decision because I like my monsters and I don’t want them to be hurt. But I can’t say that without putting them in danger. They know Under and I know they are right. I just hadn’t expected them to be so willing to fight and change so soon.
Once again, I feel that I asked too much to save myself from the pain of changing. Instead, they will bear the cost for me. Bret’s word echo in my ears as he calls me a selfish bitch.
Horn and Tail push me behind them as the three new monsters arrive in a cloud of dust that tastes like ash on my tongue. One monster has eight legs, another is part horse and part fly, the other seems to be part tree and part beetle. I half expect him to sprout branches.
All three show traces of who they used to be. The one with eight legs is a woman. Her breasts are bare, and her hair is long, but her face is nothing but a mouth filled with tiny sharp teeth.
I want to turn and run, but if I do, I will be chased, and I think these monsters only want to eat. They aren’t interested in deals, or changing, or going home. There is an air about them that reeks of starvation and violence. Even when I first met Michael, while he’d been hard, he hadn’t seemed like a killer—or maybe that was me being hopeful and if I hadn’t offered, he’d have ripped my head off and taken my body home to Tail.
There isn’t any speaking, only a sizing up of the competition.
My heart beats hard, rattling my ribs. My skin becomes clammy and for a moment I want to be sick as my stomach bottoms out.
Tail strikes first. He moves so fast I don’t realize what has happened until the horse monster stumbles. It’s only then that Michael joins in and I am left alone. I am clawless, and defenseless if one should turn to me. But the monsters are too busy fighting Horn and Tail, and they seem to enjoy it a bit too much.
A wound opens up on Michael’s side. And Tail is pinned by the one with eight legs and for one terrible heartbeat that lasts a painful eternity, I think I am damned. I want to join in and save them, to fight for myself, but somehow, I stay still, rooted to the ground. And in the next heartbeat the horse stumbles and collapses, and the eight-legged woman is hobbling away on only five.
The clash is over as quickly as it begun.
The horse with the wings and eyes of a fly doesn’t move.
Tail is coiled on the ground, writhing in pain. I take a few steps toward him before Michael gathers me up. “You’re mine.”
I twist in his arms, not to resist or fight him, but to look him in the eye. He still has only the one, and I can’t tell if there’s any new horns.
“Yes, I am. But Tail, your friend, is hurting.”
“Yeah.” There’s a bit too much smug satisfaction in the word, like he’s enjoying it. “He started the fight, so he’s wearing most of the cost.”
“You were hurt. Are you still bleeding?” Or has the wound already healed?
He stares at me. “Why do you care?”
My heart stops as I realize he has forgotten me, and I have to start over. “I’m…” I almost say Julie, but that’s not what he called me here. “I’m Prey.”
And I do care about him. And Tail. They might appear monstrous, but on the inside they aren’t. They can care and want more than mindless slaughter. This fight was one they could have avoided if not for me, and now Michael can’t even remember the reason he was fighting.
My eyes burn and I blink back tears. It’s my job to make him remember what it is to be human, so he doesn’t lose himself. “We take care of each other.”
Tail groans, but I need to keep Michael from running off with me and leaving Tail alone. “You protect me from other monsters and in return, I let you fuck me.” The harsh word catches in my throat.
His gaze shifts from me to Tail and back again. “Why would I share an unchanged one?”
“Because.” I run my hand over his shoulder. That’s when I notice the change. He is bigger. Broader. Hopefully, what’s in his loincloth hasn’t grown. “It’s more fun together. And it’s easier to win fights when you two work together.”
He keeps staring at me. I hold his gaze and keep talking. I need to remind him of who he is, and who I am before he does something he won’t have the mind to regret, like attack Tail. “Do you remember dragging me from the puddle? Of taking me in the water when I first gave myself to you?”
His expression softens for a moment, as though he’s trying to find the memory. “I don’t.” Then he curses and his grip on me tightens, his claws digging into my skin. “Why would I forget something like that?”
“That’s what this fight took from you, your memory of how much fun we had. Let me down and I’ll show you.” But this is not the place for a tryst. It’s too open, and we could be too easily attacked.
“We will go home, and then you can show me.” His hand slides under my robe, then under my skirt as though testing how far I’ll go. Does he think I am lying?
I put my hand on his increased chest. “We aren’t going back to the cave. We are going to the center.” If he forgets what we are doing after every fight, I’ll need to become super-convincing super-fast.