Page 197 of Pareidolia

He’s covered in blood—in mine and his, red-streaked black… in the blood of the man I tore apart.

It’s hard to tell where human pain begins and our monstrous pleasure ends.

Finally, Aspen leans his head back on my shoulder and rolls those moonlit eyes to look up at me. “I need a shower, and some new clothes… and maybe three to five business years to process that I’m not as human as I was when I woke up this morning.”

“I can take you back to the cabin and clean you with my tongue.” It’s the best offer he’s going to get.

“Nox, that’s not⁠—”

“Monsters…” A soft voice from the corner interrupts him, terrified and half stuttering.

We both turn to look at Noah. He stares at us with a blank, shocked expression, his eyes darting to Aspen’s stomach, to the monster wrapped around him and the bite marks on his skin.

Then they turn to his dad, half decapitated and staining the carpet, and he rolls onto all fours and vomits.

“What do we do about him?”

What to do…

What to do…

As much as I want to keep Aspen in the woods forever, I know eventually he’ll want more again. Looking at Noah Daniels and his broken, fractured eyes… I realize I can give it to him.

I stand, pulling Aspen up with me. When I’m sure he’s steady on his feet, I turn my attention to the mad man in the corner. The second my eyes focus on him, he curls in on himself, his hands wrapping around his waist, his body trembling like a leaf ready to fall.

My tendrils spill out and wrap around his throat, his chest. They shift to move along his claw marks, filling him as much as I can.

“Noah… Noah… why did you kill your father?” I whisper, and Aspen freezes beside me.

“I… I did?” Noah glances at the dead body again and whimpers. “I did.”

“He attacked you. Cut you up. Said you were a monster with wings… and you… you reacted. Snapped. Snapped away until there was nothing but a mess. Nothing but death.” I squeeze his throat as I bend to pick up the knife—Aspen’s knife—and place it in Noah’s hand.

“I killed him,” Noah whimpers again. “I didn’t… didn’t mean…”

“But you did. You did… and now everyone needs to know.”

Noah’s eyes flash to me, to Aspen. That pained expression streaks across his face until his eyes drop back to his father’s mutilated body.

“Need to tell… tell everyone.”

“That’s right.” I squeeze again. “Tell everyone how you were here alone.”

Noah looks between the two of us and mouths the word softly. Alone. And then he blinks once, twice, as my tendril slides from around his throat and he nods. “Tell everyone. I was alone. Alone…”

I wonder if I should wait until he’s finished calling and kill him. Like he can read my thoughts, Aspen moves.

“Nox…” Sharp nails bite into my arm. “That’s enough. Let’s go before someone shows up.”

My gaze flicks to Aspen, who stares at Noah with a strange sense of… whatever is the closest thing he can muster to pity.

“Go where?”

There’s only one right answer, and the flash of his eyes tells me he knows it.

“Back to the forest, to the cabin. I don’t want to be anywhere near here when the police arrive.” Aspen leans forward and wraps his arms around me, saying the only words I want to hear. “Take me home, Nox.”

CHAPTER 40