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It’s then I realize I was staring at him.
Bret always said I was a bitch whenever I spoke up for myself, and after refusing to help him, I’ve now lost my voice. Because I am a bitch or because I believe I am a bitch just like he said?
I sigh, unable to explain any of it, and not wanting to hear the bark come out of my mouth. Then I lean over and kiss him, for no good reason other than I can.
Yeah, I made a deal that he could have me if he protected me. But that has shifted because I have gotten to know him—he’s not the boy I knew in high school, but he is still Michael. And I still like him, even if he is crowned in horns and built like a body builder.
He cups my cheek as his tongue dances over my lip. “If the others are watching, they will become jealous.”
I know…and I’m not planning on doing anything more than kiss him while he has lips. He always had nice lips, and I don’t trust Under not to take them again. My tongue dips into his mouth and I taste blood.
I draw back and a drop of crimson lands in the dust. My hand dabs my lip, as I realize I cut myself on his sharp teeth.
“I’m sorry.” He pulls me close.
I can’t even say that it’s not his fault. I kiss his cheek and pull away so I can climb onto his back for the rest of our run to the ridge. I make sure to duck my head, so I don’t smack myself in the face with a horn or three—there are too many to count. Some are tiny, but he has two big ones that begin above his ears and curl upwards.
I wrap my arms around his thick neck. The great muscles are needed to support the weight that he carries.
“Are you okay?”
He can’t see me nod, so I give him a thumbs up, even though I can taste blood in my mouth. It will heal. Every wound here heals fast.
Michael stands, his muscles move and bunch beneath me, and then he is jogging. Moving faster than I could, even at a sprint. When we reach the ridge, we will stop for the night, and I will need to make good on my end of the deal with Talon.
2
Talon
Iwait for Julie and Michael to pass and for the dust to settle before I move out of the shadow of the rocky outcropping. While Tail took his bad temper and slithered ahead, I lingered behind.
There is no point in only looking forward, as monsters will follow a trail if they smell something interesting, and Julie is interesting indeed. At least when Michael is carrying her, she is leaving no scent on the ground. Her much smaller human footprints stand out in a place where there are more commonly hooves or paws.
But her footprints are the least obvious thing she left behind.
A bright scarlet splash stands out on the pale gray dirt. Spilled blood is nothing unusual, blood that still smells and tastes like human on the other hand is. I scoop up the blood and dirt with a claw, or talon as Julie calls them and me, and put it in my mouth. The grit is rough on my tongue, but her blood is sweet. I now understand why Michael was more than happy to lick her palm when kissing the cut better.
I hold the dirt and blood in my mouth. While I don’t need to eat—the less I am, the less hunger and thirst I feel—I want to remember the taste of things. I have a memory of hot bread and butter. I know it was hot because my fingertips burned, and the butter melted and dripped onto my hand. I can almost feel the bread in my mouth. But what it tasted like, I have no idea. The only thing I know is the taste of blood and meat and death.
But I can add Julie to the list of things I know the taste of.
I make sure there are no more drops of blood for me to clean up, but there was only the one.
The ice she cracked so she could drink is nearly healed. After I blur their footprints, it will be like she was never here.
I lift my gaze from the ground to where Michael runs with her on his back. They look like some kind of hunchbacked, purple winged creature. Maybe if he runs fast enough, they will fly away. Fly up the spire and up and away home.
Wings that are capable of flight, are something that I have never seen here. And I have seen more changes than I ever ate hot bread, of that, I am sure.
But then, I’ve also had more meat ripped straight off bones of the dying than I ever had hot bread. I don’t know how long I’ve been here, aside from too long. I scurry over the dirt after them, not wanting there to be too much gap between us.
While I will never say it aloud, I do not want to be left behind. I spent so long lurking in the safety of Michael and Tail’s cave that being without them, and out in the open, and on my own, is more than a little terrifying. I almost skip the erasing of the footprints to hurry after them.
They might leave without me.
They don’t need me now.
I told them how to escape. Stupid. I should have kept that to myself until we were there.
