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“What?”
“That motion with your eyes. My consort does that. I thought it was a malfunction of yours.”
He repeats the eye-motion, and I nod. “Yes. That!”
He mutters something under his breath I do not catch, and I lean in further. Perhaps not the wisest decision, considering he is in chains, and I hold the key. I pull back again.
But he does not jerk the chains taut or make a grab for the key. His voice remains patient. “You are a fool. It is a crime of the universe and our Creator-Father that I am strapped with this parasite and you are free.”
The anger in his voice is obvious. I feel a pang, but mostly I just shudder. I would not exchange places with him for anything in the whole world. Especially now that I have a soft consort to fuck, and he remains chained in this dungeon.
“I am sorry, brother.”
He clenches his teeth and stretches his neck. The “parasite” slumbers now but will not for much longer.
“I abhor pity,” he grinds out through his teeth.
I straighten. “Then I will give you none. But please, I beg of you, brother. Give me advice. This consort—” I cast my gaze toward the roughhewn wall. “She is unlike anyone I have ever met before. She does not run from me. Or scream at the sight of me.”
No, she just screams in my face and challenges me, baring her tiny kit’s teeth at me that look as if they have all been filed down to little nubs.
“Talk,” Romulus repeats. “Ask her questions. Listen to the answers. Then ask her more. It’s called conversation. Like we’re doing here right now.”
I laugh out loud at that. “But you are my brother. And she is…”
His eyes again move upwards and to the right. “I know, I know, she’s your consort. Talk to her. If you’ve found a woman who doesn’t cringe at the sight of you, then enjoy her warmth, you lucky bastard.”
I frown at him and rise. The parasite is growing restless. I will leave before it wakes. “You are wise in many things, brother, but in this I think you are mistaken. Consorts must be trained. Not talked to.”
“Says who?” Romulus bites back. “Creator-Father?” His eyes darken as he strains his neck again. His teeth clench. He is fighting for control. “Because that worked out so well for him.”
I bare my teeth at him for daring to make such a comparison. “I am nothing like Creator-Father.”
Romulus grimaces at me then holds up his forearms, covered elbow to wrist in hell-metal chains. “Are you so sure?”
With a furious growl, I spin and turn away from him, storming out of the dungeon. I make sure to slam the door behind me in a way that is sure to wake the parasite.
Cruel, perhaps.
But I have never pretended to be anything more or less than the monster I am.
Chapter Seventeen
MONSTER
I storm back up the stairs. Talking to my brother has not made anything better. I am more… agitated, if anything. My mind turns and trips over thoughts of her.
My world was orderly before she stumbled into my life.
Not easy. Never easy. But orderly.
My body gives signals, and I fulfill them.
A dumb beast, like my Creator-Father called me enough times. I am hungry, I feed. I need to piss, I piss. I need to sleep, I sleep.
I take care of what needs caretaking in the dungeon.
It was only this spring I became… restless.
I abandoned my dungeon duties for weeks at a time after slaughtering large game for food and leaving it for my brothers. I sought out the solitude of the cave halfway across the world where, for the most part, except for the occasional pest, I was left alone.
I followed the cardinal rule.
I stayed away from the mortals.
I suppose even in the lonely mountain encampment, I was still too close to them.
Creator-Father would not have approved.
Then again, Creator-Father is no longer here.
It was such freedom to take my little rebellions. To shirk duty and brotherhood so I might… escape.
Escape this castle and its memories and the smell of Creator-Father that still lingers in the corners and cobbles of this ancient snow palace.
For a while, to forget.
I was always going to come home to my responsibilities and duties and—
And I never intended on bringing a consort home with me.
But now that I have her here…
When she is near, her scent eclipses all else. I cannot hear the memories of Creator-Father because she seems to fill every available space in my brain.
And my body is mad with fire for her.
I am not a fire-breather, but I may as well be for as much as my body wants to fuck her. I restrain myself only because I fear I might break her. And the thought of breaking the pleasure-vessel I have only just found… No. No, I will be careful with my new precious cargo.
