Page 95 of Creatures Like Us

She puts her hands on her hips. “Where the fuck have you been?”

“I?…?uhm?…” Asher looks stunned, and he stares at me, then back at Lilith.

“Who’s this?” She points at me with a long black fingernail. “Your new boyfriend?”

Her friend snorts out a laugh.

“I was worried about you, you know,” Lilith says. “Disappearing like that in the middle of the night. I asked Louis to find you, but he said you were probably better off without me.” She rolls her eyes dramatically.

I have no idea who Louis is, and I don’t care to know. All I care about is getting out of here before the situation escalates.

I rise from the table, but before I have time to drag Asher out of here, Lilith catches sight of something, and she pulls up the sleeve of Asher’s jacket, exposing the marks around his wrist. The marks from the chain.

Her eyes narrow. “Ash? What the fuck is going on here?”

People around us have started to take notice, and panic is taking root for real in my heart.

Asher rips his arm away. “It’s nothing.”

“Is he hurting you?” Lilith nods at me.

“What do you care, anyway?” Asher snaps.

“Come on.” I grab his shoulder and start walking him toward the exit. “Let’s go home.”

“Home?” Lilith says, a worried crease between her brows. “What’s going on here, Asher? Ash!”

She keeps calling after us, uncaring of the scene she’s making. Thankfully, that girlfriend of hers stops her from following us, and we disappear out of the diner and into the rush of cold air.

Back in the car, I clench my hands around the steering wheel. “I knew something like this would happen,” I say, teeth gritted. “We never should’ve left the house.”

“I know.” Asher strokes his wrist with his opposite hand, looking down into his lap. “I’m sorry, Noah.”

This experience hasn’t been all bad though. In fact, it’s led to an important revelation.

It’s becoming more and more clear to me that what we are—and what we have together—can never be understood by the outside world. We’ll both be better off in the basement.

Safe. Alone. Isolated.

Down there, no one can question us. Down there, no one can plant seeds of doubt in Asher’s mind. I just have to make sure we stay there. Forever.

Chapter 25

Asher

Istandinthehallway, feeling strange and twitchy. I’m sure once we go downstairs, I’ll feel okay again.

“Cookies?” Noah asks.

“Uh?…?yeah, sure.” I linger in the space between the entryway and the kitchen, unsure what to say or do.

Seeing Lilith was freaky as hell. It’s like she’s part of some ancient time—a distant life I barely remember, because I don’t want to remember it. I didn’t want her to pull up my sleeve and expose the side effects of what being with Noah has done to my body either, but she did.

I’m happy here. With him. It doesn’t matter if he’s hurt me in the past. It just doesn’t. It can’t. I have to stay here. There’s no other option.

I clench and unclench my hands, feeling teary-eyed all of a sudden, hating the thoughts flitting through my mind, unable to make sense of them, unable to make sense of anything.

Noah comes to check on me. “Hey. What’s wrong?”