“Of course it’s me.” There is more bite to the words than I expected.
“You have to help me,” Bret pleads.
I cross my arms and glare at him. “I don’t have to do anything.”
“Please…the monsters will eat me.”
My monsters come to stand behind me, to protect me. “And? That’s what you deserve. You lived off me for the last two years. I worked my ass off at school and waitressing and you did nothing.” There’s a snarl in my voice and the rage that I bit back my entire life surges forward like it wants to burst free from my skin and tear him apart.
“Don’t be a bitch. I was figuring myself out. Now I know.”
I take a step closer to the lake. “I figured some things out, too. You are a user. You thought you could walk all over me and that I would never bite back, would never stand up for myself. Well, you’re wrong. I won’t help you. You brought this on yourself.”
“What does that mean?” He splashes like he’ll be able to pull free of the mud gripping his legs.
I know how that feels. Trapped and knowing that there is nothing you can do. I went through my life thinking I was trapped, but it was me that had built the walls, hoping that they’d keep me safe.
“Julie, come on. We’re the only humans in this place.”
“Everyone here is human. Every single one of those monsters was human once.” Some of the other monsters step into the lake and are wading toward him. I know that if I stay, some might think I am the next meal and Michael, and Tail will have to fight. I don’t want that. I glance at the monsters by my side. “They have more compassion and humanity in their claws than you have in your entire body. You’re a liar and a thief, and I was dumb enough to be sucked in by your charm.”
I’m angry at him and at myself for wasting all that time. If I’d left him a year ago, he’d have never stolen my necklace and I wouldn’t be here, but then I’d have never found Michael and Tail and they’d be stuck.
“Are you fucking them? Is that what it is? You think they care about you? You are a needy bitch, too weak to do anything on your own and when they realize that they’ll leave you too.”
“I’m not!” I stamp my foot.
Tail grabs my hand. “You don’t need to argue with him.”
But I want to.
I want to see him suffer. I want to hear him beg for his life as the monsters pull him apart.
Tail tugs on my hand and I pull free.
I watch as the first monster gets close enough to grab him. It wrenches at his arm and rips it off.
He screams. “Julie!”
Blood spills into the water and my thirst becomes unbearable.
“We need to take her away from here,” Tail says.
Before I can argue, Michael scoops me up and carries me away.
“No!” I twist around, determined to see as they rip apart my ex, but I can’t see past Michael’s bulk. A burning in my blood makes me gasp, my body going rigid as pain floods my veins.
Too late, I realize what is happening. “I should have helped him.”
By leaving him to die, I damned myself. A sob escapes my throat. I am a bitch.
20
Michael/Horn
Prey—or is she really Julie?—goes stiff in my arms. I felt her anger and pain as she yelled at the man in the puddle. Now I feel her fear as her first change rips through her. I hold her close, not sure what else I can do. I don’t know how to help her, or if that is even possible.
Her words ring in my skull.They have more compassion and humanity in their claws than you have in your entire body.