Page 7 of Ghoul Huntress (Maelstrom Duology #2)

7

For the second time, Avidex forced the new brain called Willow to watch a clone of her body be eaten, fucked, and killed. He found it delightful to feel the squirms of her emotions inside him and not simply as experienced by his sight and taste buds, his hearing apparatus, and the touch receptors in his tentacles. Strangely she had not expressed herself in the language of thoughts, yet.

He knew she was awake.

She would talk. He could do this forever. All he needed was plentiful live flesh to transform into more Willows. It wasn’t an act he’d indulged in before. However, before this, before he lost half of his body, he’d been focused on merging with a queen and going to the stars when she erupted.

Now he had a hobby, because his hopes of reaching the stars had faded. Hobbies were a curious human activity.

He grabbed another passing human and began to inject Willow DNA, using the likeness of her stored in his memory as a template for this next delightful and, no doubt deliciously wriggly copy.

Why?

Ah, she speaks. Hello, Willow. Why what?

Why must you torture me and force me to watch? It damages me to see this. There was a heavy, expectant silence where he sensed her need to say more and so he waited, still curious. She continued. Why is pain better than pleasure?

Interesting. You have interesting questions.

Why was pain better? He didn’t know. All he knew was that watching the succulent curves of a female body writhe and squeal and drip blood was nice. The pain was a part of the dripping of blood, the tearing of flesh, and the eating.

I cannot eat without causing pain, Willow. Can you?

Well…

Ah, had he stumped her? Avidex continued creating his new Willow while the brain thought to itself.

Sometimes we eat plants. They do not feel pain, I think.

Hmph. But humans eat animals, do they not? You must kill to eat.

I admit we do. We try to do it as quickly as possible… most of the time.

I sense a falsehood in your thoughts. Which amuses me.

He left her alone, and only when he had the new body standing before him, bright of eye and glowing of skin, when he probed the first tentacle between the female’s legs and made her open her mouth in an O of pleasure… only then did his Willow brain speak.

I admit not all humans are nice. Not all have ceased to play with their prey, but we try.

Hah! He stuck tentacles in the female’s two other holes and held her upright and in place, watching her gasp for breath.

We also take time to admire the colors of a setting sun, the flutter of a butterfly’s wings, the music of master composers like Beethoven.

Avidex grinned and snapped his triangular teeth.

Today, there is no Beethoven. Today, you will watch yourself be eaten.

Willow sighed, somehow, though it was not the true exhale of air, as it was only a thought drifting by. And how did she manage that trick?

Again? she whispered, sounding tired.

Again. He made the body ascend into pleasure while he wrapped a tentacle around the throat, choking it. Once it shuddered into death, he started to eat. For some reason it seemed a short, unsatisfactory feast, and left him feeling…

He searched for the right word and could only find a human one.

Grumpy.