AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“What in damnation?” Misery hissed, leaning over my shoulder to stare at the screen.
I shot him a look and laughed at the bewilderment tugging his pale brows together, pinching his eyes. “You’ve never seen a duck before?”
“What is it doing?” he asked in a confused murmur.
“Drinking Dunkin’ Donuts’ strawberry water,” I informed him. At his blank look, I explained,” Dunkin is a fast food chain. A shop that sells food,” I elaborated when his eyes went dull.
“I see,” he murmured. “And you can watch Dunkin on your phone?”
“Yeah, there are millions of duck videos on here. And even more cute videos of other animals.”
He went very still for a reason I couldn’t pinpoint, and then looking at me with wide golden eyes, he asked, “Are there prairie dogs on your phone?”
“On Youtube? Yeah, I bet there are loads.” I closed the video and searched for prairie dogs, darting glances at Misery who was very, very close all of a sudden. His face lit up when I opened a short and scrolled through a few others when it finished, and I swear I saw actual stars in his eyes.
“I’m getting Peach,” he said, pulling back abruptly. “She’d love this.”
“Um—” He jumped out of bed and raced from the room before I could say another word, and I blinked at the open door. “Who the hell’s Peach?”
The video drew my attention again and I smiled, watching the groundhog steal a man’s snacks. I glanced back up when movement came through the door, and then I shot upright in bed, my mouth falling open.
“Holy shit!” I exclaimed, and then because that wasn’t enough, “Holy adorable fucking shit.”
“Language,” Miz chided, carrying a real life prairie dog across the room. “You’ll corrupt her.”
I couldn’t resist a smile. “I bet she’s learned plenty of swearwords from Tor already.”
Miz groaned. “Despite my best efforts.” He settled in bed beside me, Peach cradled in his arms, adorably fuzzy, her eyes big and dark and luminous. Wow. I’d never been so close to one before, had only been this close to a cat or dog, actually.
“Can I…touch her?” I asked, my heart jumping when she turned at the sound of my voice. “Oh, hi. I’m Cat. It’s very nice to meet you, Peach.”
Miz groaned and whispered, “Torment was right.”
“About what?”
“Nothing,” he said quickly. “You can touch her; stroke her head, she likes that.”
My stomach swooped as I reached out, very lightly stroking Peach’s head, surprised at the texture of her fur. The smile on my face widened until my eyes curved. “She’s so fucking cute. Oops, sorry for swearing.”
The look on Miz’s face was… different. Almost tender. He clearly loved Peach a lot.
“Let’s show her some videos,” I said, grabbing my phone again and scrolling until I found a good one.
Peach showed no interest at all until we got to a video of a prairie dog yipping, the high pitched sound drawing her attention.
“No biting,” Miz warned her in a stern fatherly tone as she leaned closer. “Watch your fingers, Cat; she likes to nip them.” With a wicked smirk, he added, “Tor’s been bitten more times than I can count.”
My heart faltered at that smirk, the familiarity of it—the mixture of malice and joy in it.
And as if it had stuck in my consciousness, waiting for me to finally notice it lingering there, something he said minutes ago came back to me.
It’s hard to hate you when you’re so pitiful, Prick.
Fury rose so swiftly that I saw red. Relief was there too, that the blue-eyed psycho who kissed me wasn’t one of Nightmare’s followers. But rage was the dominant emotion that took over me.
“Put Peach at the bottom of the bed,” I told him, and I must have sounded serious because he immediately did as I said, setting Peach up on a cushion. The second Miz sat back against the pillows, I leapt onto him and wrapped my hands around his throat.
“You,” I hissed, the sound coming from deep in my throat. “You were the psycho who shoved me into that alcove and forced your tongue in my mouth.”
