Page 72 of Pareidolia

He’s watching me when he mentions the fucking ranger, so I’m sure he sees the spark of fury that streaks across my face.

Noah.

So close to him.

Close enough that he could step across a yard and knock on his door.

A little human whose arms I could rip away—whose body I could pin to the walls so he was nothing more than a bug on display.

“Careful,” I warn, and Aspen bites his lower lip.

“I killed his brother, Nox. I don’t think it would work out.”

“We killed his brother,” I insist. “When I found him he was still breathing, and your desire to watch him die was clinging to his skin.” I drag my tongue across the fresh bite mark on his side, rubbing my cheek in the blood.

“He tried to kill me first.” Aspen doesn’t sound like he’s trying to defend himself. “I think he thought if he did it in the forest, everyone would blame the monster. His dad always told us stories about how you’d come from the trees and eat us all if we misbehaved.”

“Eat you…” I bite his hip, drawing blood again. Aspen lies there and lets me take little bites from him and moans. I’m fairly certain Noah wouldn’t draw blood, wouldn’t search for signs of affection beneath his skin. No human could give him what I am right now.

“Yeah… eat me up. My monster in the woods.”

My monster.

Mine.

“The boy tasted like hate and fury and terror when he died.” I glance along the length of his body and lick my bloody lips. “I’m glad you killed him.”

Glad he didn’t kill Aspen.

What would have happened if it had been his broken body I found at the base of the fire tower? Just the thought is enough to rip a growl from my throat, to make my wings flutter in irritation at my back. His body writhes in response, the tendrils and bits of me living in his chest, in his blood and soul, feeling my unrest and trying to settle me.

“I’m glad too. It’s the first time I saw you. It’s the reason I came back.” He settles against the pillows and lifts his eyes to the window. “And now I want to stay here.”

And we’re back to the beginning.

“Stay in this house,” I spit it like an accusation.

“There’s electricity here… water… I’m getting a job.” My eyes narrow, but he keeps talking. “I want to stay in Duskfen, Nox.” When my teeth press hard enough that I taste a new prick of copper, he groans as he laughs. “I want to stay with you. This is the only way I know how.”

Stay with me.

He wants to stay with me.

I want to unhinge my jaw and swallow him whole so he’s a part of me forever… but I satisfy myself with licking a slow line along the inside of his thigh instead.

“I get that you don’t understand what that means, but I never wanted to stay anywhere before. I’ve spent most of my life running from the idea of it because I thought staying in one place was going to be the thing that got me caught.” Aspen’s eyes flash as he pushes himself up on his elbows to look down his body at me. “I know you won’t let that happen, though.”

And there’s another emotion that’s new for him, one that I’ve wondered if he could feel.

Trust.

Aspen trusts me.

He trusts me to keep him safe from the ire of the town, to keep him safe when the hunger overtakes him again and he needs to kill.

“You’ll have to come back to the woods to hunt.” I lay a cheek against his leg and glance up at him. “If we start eating this little town, it could cause quite the inconvenience.”

Aspen nods, his brows pulling together. “We were lucky with Janine.”