Page 2 of Ghoul Huntress (Maelstrom Duology #2)

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Avidex reflected on the fate of his most recent captive. He couldn’t exactly rest chin on hand, as the humans in his collection of brains had once done, but he could ponder in an appropriately thoughtful way. Tentacle to teeth, as it were. He was Socrates mulling over what action to take, over the consequences, and over the fun to be had if he did this or that.

Rendered oblivious to her surroundings by the Lure, the woman waited, swaying a little on her bare feet.

The more bloodthirsty of his nine brains urged him to eat her. Some had deteriorated with time inside his core and had become less human, more Ghoul Lord in their thoughts. This was due to osmosis, one of them volunteered.

What is the meaning of this osmosis , he asked it as he slid in a rough circle about the female human called Willow. He knew her name from the rippers that’d gone below to reconnoiter. The sounds and images sucked from ripper nervous systems were flawed and messy, but her name, that had been said several times, and it was her true name.

Willow , he hissed across the mind spectrum. Whether or not she was conscious of her dire situation, she perked up, her head rising. Her eyes met his, and he recognized more intelligence there than was normal. Avidex recoiled. The last to be like this was his nemesis, Cyn—the hateful one who’d cut him.

Eat her , rattled out his brains. Taste her.

He would, he would… it was just such a waste to only do it once. There was a way to make it happen over and over, to feel her screams penetrating his… soul.

Do I have one of those? he asked the brains.

No.

No.

The answers bothered him, and he slithered a fat tentacle into the squeaking woman’s mouth, spearing the sharp-formed tip deep enough to feel her thoughts at the very edge of her brain. No deeper; he wanted this part of her intact. Then he spoke to her directly.

I will get a soul, soon. Perhaps I will have yours.

He could eat her, make her hurt, strip her flesh, fuck her with his tentacles, pull out her brain, and with some extra-fine effort he could make a copy of her again if he wanted to, so he could repeat the cycle of pain and pleasure.

Yes. I will do this.

Without Cyn, his revenge gnawed at him. This Willow would do as a substitute. He could even keep her original brain in his flesh core and let her watch the torture of her cloned self.

Yummy, insisted a brain.

Nine brains wobbling in his flesh jelly, and they were getting so like him, so like how he’d once been—without an adequate… functioning brain cell in his head, haha, that it was starting to annoy him.

Willow’s brain will be fresh and feisty.

The clone’s brain would not have her soul, her personality, but it would be most interesting to let her see herself hurt and pleasured and hurt again.

He extracted the tentacle, wrapped it around her ankle, and hauled her upward, flipping her upside down, then he wrenched apart her legs and her mouth with other appendages.

Beginning at the ankles, he began to dine while he tentacle-fucked her, and so on ad infinitum, almost. It did have to end. Blood ran down her body in streams and her writhing was exceptionally gymnastic.

All in all, this was a good day , Avidex decided, as he chewed and swallowed.

Of course, he knew how to keep damaged humans alive for a very, long time.

At the end, when there was little left but for skeleton, shreds of muscle, and her feebly beating heart, he plucked her brain from its cavity and lovingly absorbed it into his core jelly.

Then he squirted out one of the stupider brains and rocked this Willow to sleep. Nine was enough. He grew too heavy and slow with more. Let this one recover from the trauma before he questioned it and made it truly his.

While it slept, he’d practice molding himself a new Willow using the molecular remains of her flesh as a template and a disposable human for the body mass. Ripping her DNA into a new body required large amounts of energy but he had the inclination, the time, and the bloody-minded need.

He was ravenous for revenge.

This was a friend of Cyn; he’d gleaned that from the last sleepy thoughts of his new Willow brain.

Even better.

So much better.

Is this like build-a-bear , a brain asked him?

He thought awhile.

No. We shall call this build-a-human.