10. Did you miss me?

"What…what did you do?"

I turn to look at Lucian. He's sitting on the floor, blood around his mouth and all over his chest and neck.

Yummy.

He most certainly is, especially knowing whose blood that is, but…his eyes are wide and his expression stilled.

"I…did I do something wrong?"

He blinks.

"Wrong?" He gets up and comes to stand in front of me.

I tower over him. It feels strange. It feels weird to be so much taller than him, so I pull back the tentacles from the floor and put my feet on the ground, setting the world order back to rights. Where Lucian is taller and handsomer and stronger, and I'm just Yu-jin.

"My darling boy, that was brilliant." He grins from ear to ear and wraps his arms around me. "I told you. You're magic."

The tentacles wrap around Lucian's chest and cuddle him closer to me. I won't lie. That feels hot.

Delicious.

I have to agree with the monster inside me.

My cock jerks against his, and he purses his lips. He's just as hard as I am.

He licks his lips and then teases mine. The coppery taste of Kevin's blood pinches my taste buds. It should disgust me. It should be the last thing I want to taste. But he's dead, and tasting his blood is all sorts of intoxicating.

After so many years of being his plaything, being able to taste his blood fills my body with something I've never felt before.

Something like retribution.

I tug Lucian even closer and bring my lips up to his, blood be damned. I want Lucian's flavor in my mouth. The man who gave me my life back. The man who gave my freedom.

His tongue lashes out, and I drink every part of him I can get, like a vampire thirsty for his fix. And I guess that's what I am right now. I may not be a blood bonder, but drinking Kevin's blood feels a little like I'm taking back my power. The power he stole from me every day for the past five years.

My cock jerks. The tentacles pulse with an equally drunken need, and suddenly, kissing Lucian isn't enough.

I pull back and look into his eyes. He's staring right back at me, desire in his eyes.

I want him.

I want him badly.

I want him so badly it's illogical, nonsensical even. Because I've known him less than twenty-four hours, but I want to give him everything I've got. I want to give my all, and I want to take his.

He freed me. But it's not just that. It's the way he burns for me every time he looks at me. It's the way his body reacts whenever I touch him. It's the words he uses to reassure me.

I'm his darling boy. And I don't want to be anything other than that.

Maybe that's what finding your soulmate is really like. Maybe this is how it's supposed to feel. This feeling like you're going crazy but wouldn't have it any other way.

But I'd rather be crazy and free and his than someone else's puppet.

"Come here." I take his hand and pull back the tentacles. "If I'm going to be free, so are you."

I step up to the edge of the circle and bite my lip. "Can you help?"

Lucian steps forward. I shake my head. "Not you."

What do you think?The monster takes back control of the tentacles and slices away at the spell until there's not a shred of it left, sucking in all of its magic.

"I have to admit. You're even more charming as an eldritch witch. Power suits you."

I smirk and pull us both out of the previously magical circle and toward the hall.

"One moment." Lucian stops and whistles.

Brimfang appears right in front of us.

"Hey, girl." He stretches his free hand, and Brimfang steps into it. "I thought you'd like a snack."

Brim enjoys Lucian's ear scratches for a moment or two, then demands some from me with a purr. I use both my hand and tentacles and her purr gets louder.

Kitty.

"Kitty indeed." I laugh when Brim sets her eyes on the pieces of Kevin's body.

Her purr turns into a roar, and she jumps across the room at him, wasting no time chomping on the dead bastard.

"There's more food in the cellar, dear. Enjoy." Lucian's eyes turn into slits, and while I'd love nothing more than to enjoy seeing Kevin and company turned into cat food, I've got more important things to do.

Like free my soulmate.

I find the book that came with the kit in Kevin's room, of course, and take it upstairs to the attic. Lucian sits by the bed while I redraw the circle on the floor and light the black candles.

"You truly don't have to do this," he says.

"Yes, I do."

His smile gets bigger, brighter, like the fucking sun, and I can't stop staring at it, even if it threatens to blind me.

I would never be happy if he was bound to me. I would never feel good about myself. I have to do this, for both our sakes.

And if he chooses to leave me…then that's okay too. I'll find a way to live without him. I'll always burn for him though. Always.

I take the knife and cut my other palm. The blood pours over the chalk and the monster inside flexes its muscles.

It's stronger.

Blood sacrifice doesn't only invoke the eldritch monsters. It strengthens them, if that's even possible.

"You've heard my call, our pact is done.

Though you're bound, now you're not.

Hear this chant, you are released,

Our contract is forever unleashed."

I blow out the candles in the opposite order they were lit and smudge the edges of the circle, breaking the barriers and the connection Lucian has to me.

Lucian stares at me.

"Thank you," he mouths and falls back, vanishing in a blaze of fire before I even say thank you back. Or goodbye.

The weight in my stomach retreats, replaced by an emptiness, a hollowness, in my chest.

I watch the bed for seconds, minutes, hours maybe. I can keep it together. I can live without him. I've been doing it all my life. I know I can. I can fight this pain. I can tame it.

"My darling boy, why are you crying? Did you miss me?" The voice comes from behind me, and no sooner than I turn around does he grab me around the waist and kiss me.

"You're back." I can barely breathe, but somehow, I manage to speak.

Maybe I'm just hallucinating.

"Of course I am. I told you. You're my soulmate, darling boy. And I'm going nowhere."

"Good. ‘Cause we won't let you." The monster speaks through me, but I can't complain. I won't complain. It's exactly what I was thinking. It's exactly how I feel.

I pull him back in for a kiss.

He brings his hands around to my butt cheeks, lifts me off the floor—his erection rubbing against my growing one—and carries me to the bed.

He puts me down. I look up at him. Goosebumps cover my body under his watch, but I welcome the feeling.

"I want you," I tell him. "I want you in all your glory."

I open my legs, and one of the tentacles wraps its tip around my cock, making me even harder.

Lucian licks his lips.

His wings materialize behind him, and he climbs into the bed.

Gorgeous.

Don't I know it.

I wrap my hands around his waist and grab his cock with another tentacle. He moans in my mouth, and it reverberates through me.

His wings flutter above the bed, and I use my monster extremities to touch them. Their soft texture is so decadent against my suckers that I cry out, and I don't care if anyone hears me. There's no one to hear me. No one I'm afraid of anymore.

I stroke us both and use my free tentacles to explore the rest of his body as he kisses me. I wrap around his legs, his hands. With each restraint, his groans become more intense. I guide him to my entrance. Another tentacle rubs against my taint, leaving behind a slick trail that makes my pucker wet and throbbing.

I drive him inside me and put my arms around his neck. I want him so close it hurts both of us. I want him so close we become one.

He breathes into me and that only makes the heat within me more scorching. And the fact that I can feel every inch of his body with all my extra appendages makes my desire even more dangerous.

His cock breaches my ring of muscle, and we moan in unison. His wings flutter, and I feel his grip around my waist tighten as we soar above the bed.

Four of my tentacles are holding his hands and feet, the fifth is stroking me off, and two more wrap around Lucian's hips.

Fuck. How good can this get?

We ain't even started.

The eighth tentacle slips between Lucian's legs, teasing his entry. I feel the muscle of his hole pulse against my suckers but even more so in my mouth as Lucian's breathing intensifies.

"Is this okay?" I ask him.

Yes!

Lucian slowly blinks, a look of nirvana on his face. His lips curve into a smile, and I push the tip farther inside him. Slowly at first, but soon, I match his thrusts inside me, and we fuck each other in unison.

The pleasure of having him inside me is only outmatched by the sensation circling my suckers as they rub against Lucian's prostate. It's like they can absorb his desires and emotions and give them back to me tenfold.

Or maybe it's just what having tentacles feels like.

If this is what it's like, I don't think I want any other eldritch monster in my bed.

But then again…

Who knows what other monsters can possess me and how good they'll feel.

Don't worry, sweetheart. We'll take good care of you. Both of you.

The reassurance only drives me deeper into Lucian and further into bliss as desire claws at my stomach, desperate to get out.

I pull back from the kiss and look into Lucian's eyes. I let go.

My load shoots out of me at the same time Lucian's fills me with his heat, and we set each other's bodies on fire.

Literal fire bursts through Lucian and wraps around us both. But I'm an eldritch witch. His fire can't hurt me. Instead, it licks my skin with its sweet decadence, and as Lucian sets us back down on the bed, I melt into a puddle.

"That…was…" I start.

I slide my tentacle out of him but keep him inside me.

"It was," he rumbles in my ear.

His wings cover us like blankets as the tentacles withdraw into my body. I inhale. Exhale. Shivers cover my body with each breath.

Until next time, sweetheart.

The monster retreats to its dimension, and I'm left cold and vulnerable. But it's okay.

Lucian hugs me close. His kisses pepper my neck and face.

"I've never felt so wanted," I tell him because it's true.

He smiles and kisses my mouth.

"I've never felt so alive," he replies.

I know he means it. I know he does because I do too. Because that's exactly how I feel. Alive, strong, and free.

"I love you, Lucian. Is that too weird to say?"

"Weird? Why would it be weird?"

I shrug.

"Because we just met."

He brings his hand up to my face and caresses my cheek.

"My darling boy, we may have just met, but our souls? They've known each other for millennia."

I trap my tongue between my lips and tease his.

"I love you too, my darling Yu-jin. And I'm here to stay," he says before allowing me entry into his mouth.

We kiss the whole day and the whole night.

And if I have anything to do with it, we'll kiss forever after.