Page 24

Chapter 24

Erik

W hat are you doing? I want to scream it, but I am paralyzed. Lillian’s eyes are blue-flecked orbs that dance with fear in the firelight as a powerful, prehensile limb that is entirely outside of my control caresses her face.

It is attached to my body. Without realizing it, I allowed Phorkys to transform my lower half into that of the monster, giant and writhing, curling its tentacles along the base of the shelter walls as far from the fire’s heat as they can manage.

Except for one. One of them has its suckers set on my treasure.

You do not need to be afraid, Lillian. This is what you asked for, is it not? You wished to know what Erik was afraid of. Well here I am.

“You… you’re on land.”

Yes.

“And you… you can take over his body.”

Yes. It is not difficult.

“I thought… When we had sex–” Lillian’s eyes search mine, and I realize she is speaking to me now, and not the monster. Looking to me for guidance. Reassurance. Truth.

I open my mouth to answer her, but I cannot form words. Another sigh rings in our minds as Phorkys once again loses patience with my inaction.

I granted you privacy, yes. But I did not disappear. I cannot. I have been very clear about the terms of the curse.

Lillian swallows, and I watch the movement as it slithers down her neck. “So that’s it, then? You’re taking my body, whether I want it or not? Just like you took his?”

The seconds that follow are long. Painful. I do not breathe as Phorkys keeps his silence, torturing us both.

No. I am not.

The gasp she takes in is one of surprise and desperation. She, too, was holding her breath.

“Why not?”

Has Erik told you there was another maiden once, a maiden that he admired?

She nods, sympathy in her gaze as she searches my face. “Yes.”

I do not want you to meet the same end.

Lillian closes her eyes, then takes a shaky inhale before nodding once.

The tentacle moves lower, brushing its tip over her collarbone, wrapping back upon itself to wind around her shoulder, then swirl around the curve of her breast. She trembles at its attention, and I hold back a curse as I watch.

I can feel it. Feel her soft, heated skin as the appendage skirts across it. I take in the supple weight of her breast as if I were cupping it in my own hand when the tentacle curls beneath the swell of it. And I can feel the slight resistance of her firm nipple as it plucks it with one of its many cups.

She gasps again, involuntarily this time.

Just as I use your body for my purposes, Erik, I will remind you: you, too, can use mine.

Another tentacle sweeps toward us, wrapping Lillian up by the waist and coiling about her, squeezing in a gentle embrace that has me reveling in the sensation of her soft skin all about me. It is me, I realize. My limb holding her, my cups plucking at the pebbled pink skin that peaks her luscious breasts, my insatiable tentacles itching with impatience to reach and feel every inch of her beautiful body.

Somewhere amidst the mass of powerful limbs, I feel my cock thicken with desire. I know without looking that it is, in fact, mine—my human organ—and that, if I wished it, I could bury it inside her as I did that night without impregnating her with the monster’s brood.

Her eyes, which fluttered closed in pleasure as I kneaded her chest, open hastily at the Phorkys’s words. There is heat there, so much fire that I can see is not just the campfire’s flames reflected, but from within.

You desire this? I ask her, using mind speak without realizing it.

Blood rushes to her cheeks as she seems to come back into herself. She had succumbed to the pleasure, as I had, and now she is taking in the absurdity of it all. The terror of my half-shifted form. The repulsiveness of it all.

This was a mistake. Phorkys never should have interrupted us, not when she is not yet well enough to escape, not when we were just beginning to repair whatever friendship between us could be salvaged?—

“Yes.”

She whispers the single word, and my very heart ceases to beat. I cannot have heard her correctly.

Phorkys purrs.

Enjoy, humans.