Page 107 of Carnal: The Beast Who Loved Me

Carnal looked around the man, searching for the owner of the young voice who had volunteered to be his guide. A human boy, perhaps fourteen, stood behind the man who was probably his father, looking sleepy, but up for an adventure.

“Thank you,” Carnal said. “I need to know now. Right now.”

“Let’s go,” the boy said.

The boy’s father grabbed him. “It’s raining. And cold.”

Carnal looked at the man. “I’m Carnal, the Extant’s son. We will consider this a personal favor.”

The man loosened his hold on the boy, who said, “I’m Max.” To his father, he said, “I’ll get my raincoat.”

Max was gone no longer than a minute and was half into the coat before he arrived at the door.

“Have you ever ridden on a motorcycle, Max?”

The boy’s eyes almost popped out of their sockets. “No,” he whispered, like he was on the verge of receiving keys to the kingdom of his dreams.

Carnal couldn’t help but smile. “Get on behind me. Hold onto me. Lean when I lean. Show me where to turn and where to stop.”

Max nodded. He kept his right hand on Carnal’s shoulder and motioned with his left. In less than three minutes Carnal was barging into Comstock’s house.

“It’s an emergency. Get dressed now. You’re accompanying me to City Hall. You have five minutes.”

“What…?”

“I’m here as the Extant’s proxy with the full weight of his authority. Do it!”

Comstock rushed toward the back of his house as his wife peered around a doorway with wide eyes.

Carnal looked down at Max. “You okay, human?”

Max grinned. “Yeah. The ride here was…”

“Cold and wet.”

“No. Well, yeah. But it was… the best. You know what I mean?”

Carnal was thinking that if the human got that much of a thrill from a three block ride at a pace Carnal could match jogging, there was no telling what he would think about a flat out sprint across the wasteland.

The woman staring with one eye from the doorway was starting to bother Carnal. “I’m not going to hurt your husband. We just need him to help with organization. That’s all.” She blinked, but didn’t move otherwise. “Tell him he has two minutes. No more. Or I’ll drag him out of here in as-is condition.”

She disappeared from view. Within a minute Comstock emerged looking like he’d slept in his clothes and pulling on a ratty raincoat that, like the boy’s, looked like it had seen much better days.

Carnal turned to Max. “You want to go home or you want to hang around and help?”

“Help,” he said simply, eyes alive with excitement.

“Can you jog over to City Hall?” Max nodded. “Meet up there?” The boy nodded and took off.

“Get on,” Carnal said to the mayor.

Comstock looked at the bike like it would devour him. “I’d rather…”

“Get on!” When Carnal roared, the mayor completely forgot about his fear of the motorcycle, quickly deciding that it was less of an evil than the Extant’s burly son.

Rosie stood when they burst through the door.

Carnal acknowledged her first simply by looking at her and blinking, but he spoke to Yellow. “Light that fire in the conference room.” To the mayor, he said, “After you.”