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“You don’t have hooves.” Julie points at his feet. She’s right. The familiar black hooves have been replaced by claw tipped toes.
I lift my leg to stare at a foot. It also has claws, but I’m pretty sure it’s my foot. “Great, so we got four new feet between us.”
“Six,” Theo says. “I can see myself. I haven’t seen myself since the center. Julie saw me. I can be seen.”
I glance at Julie’s drawn face and wonder what it was she saw. I make a note to ask her at some point. Whatever she saw is big enough and bad enough to eat an entire monster and leave no mess, not even bones, on the ground. He’s not all shadow.
Fuck…and I gave him a hand job. I flex my fingers, glad I still have a hand.
“You can both have a look if you want. I don’t mind. I think I want to be seen. I don’t want to disappear the way I once did.”
Michael walks over. He limps slightly as though his feet ache. Then the shadow swallows him whole.
My heart lurches and Julie takes a step after him. I hold her back. “He will be fine.”
I hope I’m right.
She glances at me with wide eyes and whispers in my ear. “He ate it in one mouthful.”
Michael steps out and shrugs like there’s nothing to worry about. “A typical big center kind of look.”
Made for killing is what he isn’t saying. We have something twice our size that’s freshly fed and we’re calling him one of us. If Theo wants us dead, we don’t stand a chance.
“Have a look for yourself.” Michael smirks. “You can see what you had your hand on.”
I flick Michael the finger. “It felt like a dick, and that’s all I needed to know.”
“You can’t stand, can you?” Julie says loud enough for everyone to hear.
I cringe and glance away with one set of eyes while glaring at her with the other set. Why didn’t she tell Theo to eat me and be done with it? If I can’t move, I’m fucking useless.
Again.
This time Michael can’t carry me because my tail is far too long. Even though he is bigger and stronger, dragging my ass across Under will only make us an even bigger target for anything with a hunger to sate. The reality of my new legged predicament seeps in. I wish I’d never grown them. They are worse than useless.
If I can’t get up, I can’t fight. And a monster that can’t fight is a dead monster.
“Not yet.” I don’t know if the bones had to regrow completely, or if they had to push out of the tail. What I do know is that I have an extreme case of pins and needles, and it’s not going to get any better if I try to walk on them. I’ve already grazed the skin on both knees while rolling around and fighting off my attacker.
Knees. It’s weird to have them, and stranger how much I currently hate them and love them. My eyes heat and tears prickle at the corners. I’d like to blame the pain.
This isn’t how it ends. How I end. It can’t be.
Michael comes over and studies me. I’m sure Theo is doing the same. I hope I’m toxic to anything that eats me. No, because then Julie will only have Michael protecting her, and he might be strong, but he isn’t that smart, not like he used to be. He’s got more horns than brain in his skull at the moment.
“Your tail’s so big,” Julie says.
I smirk. “That’s what they all say.”
She rolls her eyes. “Can’t you use it to prop yourself up?”
“I tried, but my legs are in the way. And I can’t get my legs under me.” I give my thigh a prod. It feels like it’s made of muscle and bone and not just skin and fat. “Because my tail is in the way.”
And my legs hurt.
“I will carry you,” Theo says.
Like fuck. Once I disappear into that shadow, I won’t be coming out. He’ll swallow me whole and then rattle with every step.
