Page 12

Chapter Twelve

Separate its head from its heart.

Drive a stake into its chest.

Burn the creature in a human fire.

With my back teeth, I rip off a piece of half-stale bread, chewing without tasting. My body is land I rent. I seed and nourish its soil so that he can reap sustenance and entertainment.

Paolina feeds me bread he brings down. I stay in the sleep of the bloodless. Her face is a flickering blur in the cold fire, until her sadness is crystal clear. I get up on my elbows.

“How long?” I ask, checking for the rest of our party.

“Who can tell?” She glances at the ceiling that hides the sun.

“Where’s everyone?”

She shakes her head. “He finished them.”

I stand so fast the room spins. I lean against the wall to steady it. “Where are the bodies?”

“He took them up. I guess they fit right in with a good sacking.”

“Fuck.” I look at my hands. What could they have done to save them? Something. Anything. Nothing. “Tinoro.” I am neither friend nor lover. Not a protector or threat. I was there the whole time—a ghost of a man.

“I’m sorry.” Paolina puts her hand on my arm.

“Where’s the gun?”

“I don’t know.”

“We have to do something.” Even as I say it, I know I cannot. My body and heart are under his command. She eats the barest corners of stale bread, holding onto the sanity and strength he is chipping away. I move away her hair to see her throat, but she pushes me away. “Did he…?”

“No,” she says. “I’m the same.”

“He’s consolidating his power.”

“He’s going to turn you into one of him,” she says. “He looks at you the way a father looks at his son.”

I get on my knees before her and take her wrists. “I will let him do it. Even now, I want him to bite me again. My body is already my enemy.”

Her gaze is built on a hard, detached compassion. “It’s always been a friend to me.”

“I want you to kill me.”

“I will.”

There’s not a drop of doubt in her voice. I am relieved, but only for a moment.

“I offered you the same.” The monster leans against the wall, naked again, as always, utterly silent until he wants to be heard.

“You refused me so easily. But you beg for it from this one?” Faster than the eye can see, he grabs her by the hair and drives her to her knees.

“You like her too much to deny, do you?”

I do. He knows it, but he’s asking . He’s not forcing me to admit it, and in that hesitation, his expression turns dark.

I’ve angered him.

No. I’ve hurt his feelings and he’s going to hurt her to heal himself.

“She’s just a whore.” I step back, but it’s too late to create distance. It’s too late to pretend I didn’t hesitate.

“Then fuck her.” He lets go of her hair and uses his foot to push her toward me.

I don’t move. Paolina’s on her hands and knees, looking up at me with fire-glinted eyes.

“I’m not fucking a woman who doesn’t want to be fucked.”

Even as I say it, I know I’m not in control of what I do or what I want. My world is this man-thing. My body will do as he commands, even if my mind knows it’s wrong.

“But I am the law.” He crouches, back to the wall, forearms resting on his knees. “And I want her to be fucked. By you.”

I feel him inside me, pulling strings. I am not strong enough to resist him. I am only strong enough to force her.

“I’m sorry,” I say to her.

“I know.”

“I’m not strong enough.”

“I’m not either.” She cringes as I hold her down, handling her more roughly than I ever have.

“Fight me,” I beg her. I think I can let her win, but she knows I don’t have that power.

“It will be two against one.”

“Never.”

“Yes, it will be.”

She is right. She is a woman and I am a puppet.

“Make it good, beautiful one.” The monster laughs. ”Make it the fuck of her life.”

Paolina just closes her eyes.