Page 3 of Cold-Blooded Creatures

Innocent. Such a simple word, but it made my teeth ache.

“See, that’s the thing. You say you’re innocent, but could you say that to everyone at Ilasall? You don’t partake in your population control methods?” I spat out, my voice coated with the disgust people like him stirred in me.

“Their bodies are made for this. If they don’t accept it, it’s not my fault.”

“Sure. And you are made just for my blade.”

He licked his cracked lips. “It’s the only way we can survive.”

At last, we were getting somewhere.

“Doesn’t mean it’s right. Now tell me about the new security system and I’ll let you go. Well, in a sense.”

But he remained silent, making no further attempts to convince or beg me.

If he wasn’t willing to play anymore, I wouldn’t be either. It had been weeks since I had a chance to unleash myself on a rat from the city and I was going to take my time.

A surge of madness slithered up my legs and back, bristling the hairs on my nape, and the basement’s shadows narrowed my vision to my sparkling blade glinting on the steel table.

It always persuaded my playthings to talk.

2

KALI

Iclung to the freezing porcelain, cold sweat coating my back and my insides overheating, but the opposing temperatures couldn’t calm the retching. The fourth wave came up with a vengeance and I vomited the leftovers of my dinner down the toilet.

Panting, I waited for the fifth rush. Two minutes full of dry heaving told me I’d been spared from further convulsions, and I thanked the universe for being nice to me for the first time this summer.

After washing the foul taste from my mouth in the sink, I slumped against the bathtub. But the trembling in my hands couldn’t curse away the disbelief.

Another nightmare, and a third time this week alone. It’d been years since I last saw her, yet her memory haunted me.

The clammy night shirt had twisted around my waist, and I jumped, ripping it over my head and tossing it on the cracked pale-blue tiles. So many large chunks of the grass-green, scuffed-up ceramic were missing that the pattern had become indiscernible.

I collapsed back down and shivered from the bathtub’s chilly surface. Breathing deeply to slow down my heartbeat, I wipedthe sheen of sweat from my forehead. There wasn’t enough space to stretch out my legs, so I kept them close to me and rested my chin on top of my knees.

This freaking apartment. It was absurd that I counted as lucky, having this piece of shit place all to myself. It was falling apart.

Two pieces of furniture, a small, squeaky bed, and a half-broken closet filled the bedroom, with barely enough space to walk around them. The kitchen, or as I pretended—my living room, was laughable, fitting a yellowed counter with a matching cabinet above and a round breakfast table under the square window overlooking one of the endless residential streets of Ilasall.

The city of hell. The place I belonged to.

I was as wicked as anyone here. Clawing my way to the top, where one day I’d take the final blow to that monster—our city head.Mycity head.I cringed at the thought.

I was going to burn this place to the ground and then sweep it clean of the ashes, so not a single speck of its taint would remain.

“Remember,one of us will have to lure the doctor out. We need to come up with something.” She frantically twisted her head around at any sound coming through the closed white door. “How are you so calm?”Her iridescent eyes settled on me.

Depending on the time of day, they sparkled in different hues, like the world couldn’t decide which ones would accentuate her beauty the most.

She truly was the most beautiful girl I’d ever met in my life. I’d known her for as long as I could remember and hadn’t doubted it for a second.

I tucked away a strand of her silky hair behind her ear. The color of the deepest black, smooth and glossy, it fell to her waist.

“What are you doing?” She grabbed my shoulders and roughly shook me. “Kali, come on, wake up! She’s coming, I can hear the footsteps.”

“It’s going to be fine.” I pulled her wrists down to her lap. Her lips were so full, but now so pale. I wanted to kiss them, bring that rosiness back—that life back. “I know what to do. We’ll be okay.” To ease her panting, I loudly inhaled and exhaled, watching her to make sure she followed my example.