Page 57 of Nosfer-Meet You

I give him a thumbs up. “Sounds great.”

“Which means if you want to keep living here with your girlfriend⁠—”

Dammit. I knew that was coming. “You want us to look into the issue in the swamp.”

He nods.

“Okay. We’re on it.”

I go back to the room and relay everything to Juliette while she watches another episode of The Price is Great with the blanket up around her nose. She’s still afraid of the television even when there’s nothing violent or gory on, it seems. I kick off my boots and flop down on the mattress next to her.

“Sooo … what do you think?” I ask.

“I think we need to remove this Hell box from the room,” she says as she points at the television.

I lift her hand to my lips and kiss her knuckles. “Not what I meant, Jules. Try again.”

Juliette rests her head on my shoulder. “I think … I think that so long as I am with you, I do not mind what we do.”

I run my palm across the top of her head and kiss her forehead. “My little mind reader.”

“I didn’t read your mind that time,” she says. We look at one another for a long, long moment before we erupt into laughter.

“Oh, not that time, huh?” I run my fingers up and down her sides, tickling her. Juliette lets out shrieks and giggles as I attack her. “So that means you were reading it before! I knew it!”

Juliette continues to laugh until bloody tears streak her cheeks. But this time, for the first time in centuries, they’re tears of happiness.

Epilogue: Juliette

WHIPS AND CHAINS EXCITE ME

“Have you given the harpies their offering yet?” I ask before I’m even through the motel room door yet. The rain outside is a deluge, flooding the parking lot. Thunder cracks directly overhead, making Scotty run out of the bathroom in only a towel wrapped around his waist. He was in the shower. His bewildered eyes find mine and he lets out a deep sigh of relief. “One of these days, you’re going to have to stop being so skittish about thunderstorms. You’re a grown man,” I say as I hang up my oversized hoodie on the wall hook.

Scotty lets out an irritated grumble and moves forward to sweep me into a tight embrace. He always gives the best hugs.

“You’re afraid of the television,” he mutters, then brushes his lips against the shell of my ear. “So don’t even start with me, missy.”

I pull away to arch a brow at him. “That demonic box? I have every right to be afraid of it. It plays the most gods-awful things on it. One night there was a woman being eaten by a kraken! Why show such a thing? As if the world is not dark enough, then you place boxes like this in everyone’s living quarters. No wonder society is so depraved and⁠—”

Scotty presses a finger to my lips, silencing me. “Okay, okay. I get it. No need to go all Satanic panic. It’s not even eight. It’s too early for that.”

“Hmph!” I stalk off to the bathroom to throw cold water on my face. “Satanic panic, my ass. What a thing to say,” I grumble to myself. “Not only that, but I’ve seen Hell with my own eyes, and it looks better than most of the caca on television⁠—"

“Jules!” Scotty calls from the other room. “Come out here. I want to show you something.”

I towel my face off quickly, then leave the bathroom. “And you didn’t answer me about the harpies. They’ll want their offering of chicken legs before the end of the nigh⁠—”

My throat hitches at the sight of Scotty, lying in the middle of the bed surrounded by … chains? Whips? And other … torture devices? I don’t know what to say, so I say nothing at all. Scotty lets out a chuckle and gestures to the flogger by his bare thigh.

“I thought maybe you’d like to check out my new and improved toy collection. There’s a store in town filled with these things. What do you think?” he asks.

Finally, my voice decides to work again. “What do I think? I think calling these ‘toys’ is insane,” I say. “But besides that… we don’t have money. How did you collect these?” My eyes widen. “No, you didn’t. You didn’t enthrall a shifter! Putain, you’re going to get us in trouble!”

“No! Of course not. I traded some deer to a nice bear shifter. She was grateful she wouldn’t have to hunt for the next… oh, I don’t know… two years? Packed her fridge full of venison so she let me have some stuff she was looking to get rid of, anyway.”

I narrow my eyes at him, unconvinced.

Scotty’s smile fades, and he pats the bed. “Jules. Come here. Let me explain, at least.”