I turn and open my eyes. With my vision clear now, there should be no confusion as to what I’m looking at. Who I’m seeing. But I am wholly and completely fucking confused. “I ... don’t ... understand,” I say, sounding just as idiotic as the idiot I left out in the Tunnel of Lights.
“Taranis, you reverted,” she says to me. There’s a sudden banging on the bathroom door. “And unless you want to have to explain this to the ambassador of South Korea and every other person at thisparty, I suggest we get out of here before Cynthia tells too many people ... Whoa!”
Monika starts to fall back as the bathroom door behind her swings inward, revealing the elderly, pleasant-faced Korean woman who’d walked by Cynthia and me moments before in the Tunnel of Lights. She stands in the bathroom stall now, aghast, before her shock morphs into a fear so crisp I can feel it like a breeze. I know what she’s gonna do a moment before she does it—and so does Monika, who holds up both hands and says something to the woman in Korean. Doesn’t fucking matter. The woman still belts out a scream that surprises me and sends a zip of lightning shooting down my spine.
Monika turns back to face me and grabs my arm. My giant blue arm hulking out of my goddamn tuxedo. Because that’s what I am now. A hulk. Just as big as the Wyvern’s stupid pink ass. With horns. And a ... tail. The Wyvern doesn’t have one of these. How the fuck did I get so lucky?
My tail whips around Monika’s waist on instinct the moment she pushes on the bathroom door. She squeaks. My tail wraps around her tighter. It feels like ... it feels like nothing I’ve ever felt before. Only that’s not true, is it? Because I have felt this before, the strength of this appendage that’s about as thick around as Monika’s wrist at the base of my tailbone and narrows before flaring back out into a spade-shaped tip. This is the same tail I had as a boy, only I was smaller then, a soldier of Tratharine newly formed.
It’s a solid strip of muscle, one strong enough to bend metal and break stone and definitely strong enough to keep Monika zippered to my side when she tells me to duck my head so I can fit my horns through the door of the bathroom and step out into a world of madness. That fucking cunt Cynthia told everyone.
The entire lantern-lit world in front of us is packed with spectators who scream and laugh and cheer the moment they see me. And all I can think in that moment of frenzy is that they’re going to trample her. I haul Monika up my body, shocked that my tail can support herweight entirely, and then I start forward, intending to bulldoze my way through the crowd until I can reach the outside air, at which point I’ll fly to get us the fuck out of here.
Cynthia stands closest to me and screams, “I caused his reversion!”
Attention turns to her as she waves her hand in the air. Camera lights flash, some at Cynthia now, but my attention is fully on Monika as she loops her arm around my thick neck and leans in to speak to me above the cacophony. Her lips brush my ear. A shiver runs down my spine. “Hang left. There’s another way out of here.”
I move without her needing to say more, down a short path that leads to the men’s and gender-neutral restrooms. Monika doesn’t need to guide me from here, as I already see the glowing red sign for the emergency exit:Do not open. Alarms will sound.I shove the door open and run.
I’m running with Monika wrapped around my body, her arms around my shoulders, her knees straining the fabric of her dress. I take the stairs in one leap, arriving at a second exit door. I pull my phone out of the inner jacket pocket of my tux that now hangs all askew over my too-large frame and dial my driver. She’s waiting for us on the corner two blocks away.
Monika’s panting as she grips my clothing with force. “You know, you can just drop me off here ...”
“And let you ridealonewith fucking Nicoleta back to your fucking place?” I could electrocute her again for as pissed as that thought makes me. I wrench open the door to the back of the limo as it glides to a stop at the edge of the curb and all but toss Monika inside. She lands on the long bench seat lining one side, her legs all tangled in the delicate fabric of her dress.
I try to slide on to the seat I’d occupied previously, but my horns are too tall and I no longer fit. I land instead on my knees on the floor in front of her. “Drive,” I bark. “Take us back to my penthouse. And roll up the divider unless you want a show.” I’d like her to keep it down, because I wantNicoletato understand that Monika won’t be goinganywhere near her without me anytime soon. Monika won’t be goinganywherewithout me anytime soon. Not till I’m through with her.
I feel manic and suddenly crazed as I watch Monika watch me with wide eyes. She drags her tongue over her bottom lip, and I want nothing more than to see that color smeared over my dick. I reach up to tear off my bow tie, only to find that my bow tie has already exploded off my bulging fucking neck. And then I reach for her. Monika flinches back.
“Wait, wait, wait.” She shakes her head abruptly, like she’s trying to clear her thoughts. “Shouldn’t we be headed to the COE? Are you okay? How do you feel?”
“I don’t give a fucking shit about that. About any of it.” The energy rolling through me, riling me up, needs an outlet. One outlet. “Do it,” I snap in the harshest tone I’ve ever used with her.
“Do what?”
“What we both know you’ve been dying to do since you first met me—not Taranis, but the real me.”
Her head cocks to the side, confusion warping her features as she struggles to sit up.
“Drop your top, show me your tits, lift your hips, and show me that pussy. I know you want to give it all to me.”
Her eyes round. Her lips part. Her back arches on instinct. I have half a heart to wonder if this body is even meant to breed a smaller human form, but then I remember that I don’t have a heart at all. She’s gonna take me if it breaks her. And then she’s gonna take some more. “Taranis, are you—”
I spasm and then I shock her, this time controlling it so that she just gets a little visible zap to the outside of her right knee.
She jerks, spreading her legs for me. Her eyes widen even more. She combs her hair behind her ear and whispers, “Your eyes are blue. Almost white.”
I don’t let my shock show. Don’t tell her that my eyes have never shown anything but shades of purple before and the occasional red. “Don’t give a shit about that. Do what I told you to do.”
“You’re sure?”
“Don’t make me repeat myself, Monika.”
She sucks in a breath, and I watch the indecision play out across her face. I try to look stern as I wait for her to decide, but my insides rattle like loose stones and I’m holding my breath. She takes too damn long—so damn long I start to wonder whether she evenwantsto fuck me anymore. I’m not the attractive human I once was, back in that elevator when she all but melted for me, and then when I had her eating out of my palm before Cynthia interrupted us.
Goddamn Cynthia. Monika wanted me to fuck her—I know she did. But now that I’m a hideous beast, what if she doesn’t? I could hardly blame her.
Nerves clog my throat in a way I’ve never experienced before. My gaze traces the low silk neckline of her top as it hugs those perfect tits, those curves, every one. “Monika,” I growl, trying to keep the desperation from my tone. I can’t. Because I remember the word she whispered to me and say it now. “Please,” I choke.
