Chapter Ten: Fang

It wasn’t often a pretty, lost girl showed up at my door. Never, really. She was the only reason I stopped what I was doing and answered the door to begin with. I didn’t care about Big Mike or whoever that other guy was. No, it was only for her.

The pink and blue-haired girl who was missing the majority of her pinky and ring finger on her left hand. The girl whose blue eyes seemed both sad and furious at the same time. The girl who was currently staring at my mouth with a mixture of horror and curiosity.

She was young. Younger than should interest me, but there was something about her…

“What’s the matter? Cat got your tongue?” I sat on the small table in front of the couch, leaning forward, my knees apart, staring at her. I wore a smile, flashing her my teeth. It’d been a long time since I’d used them, a long time indeed.

She fidgeted a little, unable to take her gaze off me. “Your teeth. They’re…” Her right hand held onto the glass of water I’ d gotten her; she hadn’t taken a single sip yet, and now that she’d seen my teeth, I doubted she would.

“It’s just the two. The rest are all natural, Princess.” I couldn’t help but call her that. With her hair, she looked like a cotton candy princess I wanted to take a bite out of.

Maybe a few bites.

“Um.” She sounded startled, a bit confused, but mostly curious. “That’s why they call you Fang?” Those eyes of hers lifted, finally drawing away from my mouth and rising to meet my stare.

“I called myself Fang long before I did this to myself.” I leaned forward a bit more, my lips curled into a smirk. “Do you want to know why?”

She swallowed hard, but she was unable to take her eyes off me. She managed to nod.

Suddenly I was so very glad I’d only extended an invitation to her. She was cute. Small. Very… delectable. “You know how some kids like to bite when they’re young? Well, I found I never really grew out of it.”

“So, you just… go around, biting people?”

I chuckled. “Not exactly. I’d offer to show you, but I have the feeling your guards out there will throw a fit if I leave a mark on you.” Even as I said it, I detected the blush creeping up her neck, to her cheeks. “That’s what they are, am I right?”

The girl’s head looked down to her lap, and she slowly lifted the glass and took a sip of the water. “Yeah. My dad put Kieran on me and Lola—”

“Gave you Big Mike,” I spoke with a nod. “I see that. Why do you need two guards, Princess? The city’s a dangerous place, I know, but the two guards make me think you’re important—but I don’t know who you are, still, so you must be new.”

“My dad’s the mayor,” she said, lifting her eyes up. “I was kidnapped two years ago. I just got out. I… I managed to escape, and…” She bit her lower lip, probably unaware of how enticing that small gesture was.

I could tell she didn’t like talking about it. “That’s how you lost your fingers?”

“Yeah.” She took another sip of the water.

“May I?” I asked, extending a hand toward her.

Her right hand curled around the glass harder, her knuckles white. I could tell she was semi-uncomfortable with me, but still, she nodded. Without saying a word, she moved her left hand into mine.

The moment her fingertips grazed my palm, I could feel how soft her skin was. Like satin. Soft and smooth—well, save for the last two fingers, which had been cut off just above the first joint. An ugly scab graced the skin there, in the process of healing, telling me the wounds were still quite fresh in her mind and her heart.

“What’s your name, Princess?” I asked, not for the first time. I had no idea about politics; I really tried to stay away from it all. The one time I’d poked my nose in it had been when the DeLucas were trying to upheave the whole damn city a few years back.

“Laina,” she whispered out, letting me hold her hand longer than I should’ve.

I couldn’t help it, though. Her hand was soft, and the wound… it was a clean cut, just above the joint. How she’d gotten an injury that lucky while I assumed she’d fought off her kidnapper, well… it was almost astronomical.

Was she lying, and everyone around her was too happy to have her back to pay attention to the details ?

“Laina,” I spoke her name softly, well aware her gaze had fallen to my mouth, to my teeth once again. “I hope you killed him on your way out.”

She pulled her hand away from mine, looking away. “I didn’t. That’s why I have two guards outside.” Laina took another sip from the glass, but she seemed so sad all of a sudden, so downtrodden it made me feel for her.

Ah. I understood it now, although when it came to Laina, I was still a bit unclear. She looked like cotton candy on two legs, but deep down she had a darkness to her. I could tell. Perhaps that’s why Lola had taken such an interest in her, why she’d given Laina my info and sent her to me.

Laina let out a soft sigh. “I don’t even know why I’m here. Lola said you did something for her, but she didn’t tell me what. It looks like you work on sculptures. I don’t know how that’s going to help me at all.” It sounded as though she was trying to convince herself to get up and leave.

“Let me grab something,” I said, getting to my feet. I walked around the couch, to my desk on the far side of the room, where I often sketched out my sculptures and plans for whatever I wanted to work on next. I dug through the drawers of older sketchbooks. When I pulled open the bottommost drawer on the left, I found it.

It wasn’t displayed, because it was an early prototype. My work had gotten much better over the years. I worked with metal, yes, but I didn’t just create sculptures. I did work for my brother, on multiple occasions. I did work for Lola, too. Anytime someone needed something along these lines done, they came to me.

I picked up the prototype, its metal aged, and carried it to the couch, where Laina sat, eyes still on her lap. She jumped when I set the prototype down on the coffee table before her, the glass nearly falling from her hand.

“What—” She sounded breathless, in awe and full of fear simultaneously. “—is that?”

“You can pick it up, if you want,” I told her, standing there beside her, watching her reaction. I found her a strange sort of mesmerizing, this Laina. Perhaps everyone else in her life saw only what they wanted to see when it came to her. Perhaps no one saw the real Laina, and that’s what she was searching for.

Laina leaned forward, scooting to the edge of the couch. She set the glass of water down beside the prototype, carefully picking it up. “Whoa,” she muttered. “It’s heavy.” Though it wasn’t made for her hand, she slipped her right hand inside all the same. The metal glove dwarfed her hand completely.

As it should, since it was for my brother, the Beast.

“I made it as a prototype for my brother years ago,” I told her. I had a thing for biting while my brother had a thing for tearing his enemies apart, for feeling his metal claws sink into their flesh. Yeah, neither my brother nor I were particularly sane, I guess, but that’s what made life fun.

“You made this?” Laina sounded breathless. She looked silly with the claw on her hand, but she was amazed by it all the same. “Is your brother Freddy Krueger?”

I chuckled at that. “No, he’s not. More like a beast.” She struggled to take it off, so I knelt down to help. I gripped the gauntlet and helped her hand out of it, carefully setting it on the coffee table afterward. “So, you see, my work can be quite practical, too.”

I still knelt beside her, and I ran my tongue along my sharp canines when she turned to look at me. Damn it. I really could imagine sinking my teeth into that pretty, porcelain skin and marking her up. “I could make something like that for you, if that interests you.”

Would this girl like to tear into someone? Would she like inflicting pain? I couldn’t say for sure, but I hazarded a guess: yes .

“I don’t think that’s something I could get away with,” she was slow to say.

“Princess, you’d be surprised at what you can get away with in this city.” Her name was Laina, but I think I liked calling her Princess. “How about I sketch up some ideas and send them to you? We can find something that works for you, I’m sure of it.”

“How much do you cost?”

I smirked at her, flashing her my teeth again and, once more, drawing her focus to them. “For you, Princess, I don’t cost a thing.” I should get up, should put some distance between us, but I rather liked kneeling before her.

Her cheeks flushed again. “I meant how much for your work.”

“Oh, well, that’s something you and I could discuss later. I’m sure we could come to an arrangement, you and I.” I lifted a hand to her hair. She was so small, even sitting on the couch with me on my knees before her brought us to about the same level. My fingers took some of her bubblegum pink hair between them, and I let out a hard sigh. “I could eat you up, Princess.”

Laina breathed a little harder after that, but she didn’t pull away. “Do you always say that to your possible future clients?”

Again, I grinned at her. “Only the ones I could eat up. You just happen to be the first. Normally my clientele are a lot less…” My fingers twirled her hair between them, catching some blue strands with it. “…adorable.”

“I’m not adorable.” She pouted at that, but I could hear how half-hearted her resistance was.

“Cute, then?”

“I’m not cute, either.”

“Hmm. I think I’ll beg to differ on that one.” The hand touching her hair fell to her arm, drawing down it and causing the girl to shiver. “You’re like a Barbie doll. Tell me, do you taste like cotton candy, too?”

Okay, that was probably a step too far, but I couldn’t help myself. This girl was like a light in the middle of the night, the lone brightness in an otherwise dark world, and I was nothing but an insect drawn to its flame.

The breath Laina let out after that was shaky, almost like she struggled to keep her composure. “I don’t know,” she whispered. Based on the fact she wasn’t pulling away from me, I’d bet anything she felt it, too. She was curious about me, attracted to me, in ways words couldn’t describe.

“I bet you do,” I spoke, the hand dancing along her arm moving to the top of her hand, in her lap. “I bet anyone who has a taste of you is addicted for life. All sugar and sweetness, how could anyone resist? I bet I’m not the only one who’d like to eat you up either.”

She didn’t say anything to that, not for a few moments, at least. Eventually, she breathed out, “You’re… not what I thought you’d be.”

Taking my hand off hers was perhaps the hardest thing I’d had to do in a while. In reality, all I wanted to do to this girl was toss her over my shoulder, carry her to my bed, and show her what I did to candy.

I ate it. I sucked on it. I devoured it.

And then I’d do some things I’d never do to candy.

I still knelt before her, though my hand now rested on the couch beside her thigh. “And what did you think I’d be, Princess?” I was very glad I’d only let her in; I didn’t think either of her guards would appreciate the way I was staring at her, how I’d touched her, or the things I’d told her.

I know, I know, it was all very unbecoming, very inappropriate for someone I’d just met, let alone the mayor’s daughter who’d just escaped being held captive. But, again, I just couldn’t help it. Something about her pulled at me in a way no one else had.

“I don’t know,” she whispered. “Just… different.”

“Am I a disappointment?” I asked, slow to grin at her once more. “Do you find me disappointing?”

“Disappointing isn’t the word I’d use,” she was slow in saying, fidgeting with her hands to hide the way her thighs clenched together. “You’re very, uh, intense and—”

“And?”

“And your teeth are… they’re a little scary.”

Every nerve in my body practically screamed. It took every ounce of willpower inside me to not be all over her right now. “So, you think I’m scary?” It wouldn’t be the first time my teeth had made someone uncomfortable and frightened.

“I didn’t say that.” Laina held my stare after that, unflinching even though she’d started to lean a bit closer to me. “I think you’re,” she paused, biting her bottom lip and drawing my gaze to her mouth, “trouble.”

It was like our bodies were magnets, like we couldn’t help but be drawn to the other. That’s why fighting it was pointless. I much preferred the way animals did things; if you liked someone and they reciprocated, why wait?

“Oh, I am trouble,” I agreed. “Trouble for everyone… except you. I’d never be trouble for you, Princess—unless you wanted me to be.”

Laina’s lips puckered a bit. “If I wanted, how much trouble are we talking?”

She walked a thin line, didn’t she? I loved it.

Where had this girl been? Well, kidnapped, obviously, but I seriously meant where—because if I got my hands on her kidnapper, I’d take a page out of my brother’s book and tear him apart.

“If I went into detail, I’m afraid we’d be here all day, and I don’t think those two downstairs would appreciate that very much.” Even though it physically pained me to pull away from her, I stood up and took a step back. “They’re probably already chomping at the bit to get in here, especially that one—not Big Mike. What’s his name?”

“Kieran,” she spoke his name with a sigh as she stood up. “He’s actually my step-uncle now, since his sister married my dad while I was gone.” Laina didn’t sound too happy about that. Not one bit. “He’s very protective.”

A step-uncle, huh? Well, that didn’t make him off-limits, or her off-limits in his eyes. If I felt like this after one meeting with her, I couldn’t imagine what Kieran felt. It had to be hard, resisting her day in and day out. Perhaps he was a stronger man than I’d realized.

Or perhaps not.

“I’d be careful with him,” I told her. “Something about him isn’t right, Princess.”

She chuckled, but when she saw I was serious, the laughter died. “What? How can you tell that after seeing him for like ten seconds?”

“I saw it in him,” I whispered, stepping closer to her even though it was a mistake. “Just like I see it in you.” One of my hands lifted to her face, drawing down the side of her cheek softly. Her eyebrows came together, and I could tell she wanted to fight me on it, argue with me, so I added, “It’s nothing to be ashamed of. We are who we are, and the sooner you accept it, the sooner you can start living your life the way you were meant to.”

Pulling away from her, I walked around the couch. “I’ll sketch up a few things. Come see me in a week.” I didn’t want this meeting to be over, but we’d made Kieran and Big Mike wait long enough.

She trailed after me, walking through my place in a hurry to catch up. “Does it matter when?”

“I’m always here.” I gave her a smirk before opening the door to the stairwell. “Princesses first.”

Laina rolled her eyes. “I don’t know why you keep calling me that. I’m no princess. I don’t think anyone in this city is a princess.” She walked past me, starting down the winding stairs.

“You can be my princess, then.”

She stopped on the landing between floors, turning and looking up at me. The stairwell was dim, but I could see her well enough. She was on the shorter side, around five feet tall. Thinner than she should be, so it wasn’t a wonder why she’d been so weak after climbing up five flights of steps. Even in the shadows, she was a cotton candy daydream.

“Why would you… you don’t even know me,” she spoke, faint traces of suspicion in her voice. And yet, I could tell she was still curious, curious as to what being my princess would be like.

I shrugged. “I know you well enough.”

“Do you?”

“I do. We may have just met, but I think I know you better than most people out there. Take, for instance, how you act. You want everyone to believe you’re fine, but you’re not. I can tell you’re not. Anyone who really knows you knows you’re struggling. Maybe you even wish you’d never escaped your captor to begin with.”

It was like my words hit her physically, because she took a step back, her mouth falling open. “I don’t wish that,” she declared, holding her head high.

“You might be able to fool others, but you can’t fool me. Regardless, the offer stands. If you ever want to be my princess—”

But she wasn’t listening to me anymore; she was stuck on what I’d said before. Laina let out a harrumph and turned to walk away from me, hurrying down the stairs as if she couldn’t wait to get away from me, which I knew wasn’t the case. If anything, she fought to resist the same pull I felt toward her.

I kept pace with her; her short legs had to work overdrive to hurry along. Her hurrying was my normal pace. We emerged out of the stairwell, into the dark hall of the ground floor, and she turned the wrong way, marching off.

“Uh, Princess, if you want to leave, you need to go that way.” I tossed a thumb over my shoulder as I grinned at her, watching as she froze, turned around to face me, and huffed in silence.

“You—” She pointed at me. “—you have some nerve, saying all that. Don’t bother with the sketches. I don’t want your services.”

I cocked a single brow at her, letting her storm around me, toward the exit. I waited a few more seconds before saying, “I’ll see you next week, then.” My smirk morphed into a full-out grin when I turned around and found her staring at me, her mouth hanging open. “Maybe, if you ask me nicely, I’ll show you what I can do with these.” I ran my tongue along them, aching to put them to use now. “Only if you’re my princess, though.”

She barked out a laugh that sounded fake, through and through. “Good luck with that.” Laina said nothing else, reaching the door and yanking it open. She stepped out in the bright light of day, where Big Mike and her step-uncle, Kieran, were waiting for her.

Before the door swung shut on its own, Laina tossed a look at me over her shoulder. We locked eyes and then, just like that, the door closed.

I thought of Laina a lot as the day wore on, and I knew I’d think of her even more in the coming days. Something about her called out to me, made me want to lose it in the best way. Like the animal inside had taken one look at her and made the split-second decision: mine .

She was young for me, of course, but I’d seen a lot of women come and go, and none had ever interested me long-term. I much preferred being alone with my work. But for Laina… maybe my darkness could help her come to terms with hers.

Because it was there, make no mistake. Underneath that adorably cute exterior sat a darkness waiting to come out and play. Maybe being kidnapped had formed it and helped it grow, or maybe it’d been there from the beginning. Either way, I knew it in my soul.

My princess was hiding something.