31. Nora

31

NORA

His cock pulsed inside of me, the two of us still catching our breath. My skin burned, but I enjoyed the pain. Enjoyed the marks. There was something about it that made me feel like he’d claimed me throughly, had possessed me.

I stroked the side of his face gently, then reached up, feeling the rivets of the mushrooms and horns. Tracing every line and appreciating him.

He let out a soft sigh, his gaze meeting mine.

Seeing him like this was different than any time before. He felt more…

He felt like Alec.

“Will you carry me to the greenhouse?” I asked softly.

“Yes,” he said without hesitation.

I swallowed hard as he slowly pulled out of me, his cum pooling on the altar. My muscles ached as I sat up, looking around at the church. I snorted.

“I don’t think they’ll be very happy we did this here.”

“Good,” he grunted.

I smiled, amused as he began to gather everything. He put the chains and my torn clothes in a bag and left the candles on the floor.

I studied him as he moved. “How old are you?” I asked.

He let out a soft hum. “I don’t know.”

“Do you know how long you’ve been here?”

“I don’t,” he said.

“Why don’t you leave?”

“I can’t.”

“Who is it, Alec?” I whispered. “Who is keeping you here?”

He raised his gaze to mine, his eyes burning in the dark.

He didn’t know.

Once again, there was something separating him from the truth. And therefore, separating me as well. I didn’t want to pry into his mind, but simply waiting to find the answer wasn’t working.

“You can’t keep killing,” I said. “The house… there were so many.”

“I am a monster, Nora,” he said.

“Then will you kill me?”

He was suddenly pinning me beneath him, his hand behind my head before it could smack the stone. “I will never kill you,” he whispered, his lips brushing mine. “You’ve become part of me. You have become everything to me.”

My breath trembled. “I’m scared they will hurt you.”

“They can’t.”

“They can,” I insisted. “They can and they will. This separation between you and him has to stop.”

“It will hurt us.”

“I know,” I whispered. “I don’t understand it. How did this happen? You are the same, but you aren’t.”

He shook his head and drew back.

“Let me speak to him,” I said firmly. I glanced up, eyeing a heavy iron cross that sat on a table.

“No,” he growled, turning away.

“Please?”

He let out a dark sigh. I knew he would do this for me. I slipped off the altar and went to the table as he started to change, the vines disappearing and his muscles and bones cracking. I grabbed onto the cross and watched his transition.

I moved fast the moment Alec fell to all fours, his moan following. “What the fuck?” he rasped.

I lunged and hit him hard across the back of the head with the metal cross. He slumped forward, hitting the ground hard.

“Fuck,” I whispered.

Doing this after some of the best sex I’d ever had was unfortunate, but I needed to trap this part of him. I had to question him and I had to do it in a way that would violate every moral a psychologist was supposed to have.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered to him.

I struggled to put his clothes back on and then remembered the bastard had ruined all of mine. I ended up pulling on his jacket but was naked otherwise.

It would have to do.

Dragging a fully grown man through the halls of a university while naked in the middle of the night—on my monthly, no less—was not how I’d planned this to go. Then again, I hadn’t planned this at all. I thought we were going to meet at the library and have sex and conversations . I should have known better.

By the time I managed to get us to the greenhouse, my entire body was covered in a sheen of sweat. I shut the door behind us and locked it, still panting.

He let out the softest groan.

Fuck.

I grabbed onto his ankle and started to drag him again. Oh, how the tables have turned, you pretty son of a bitch.

Finally I made it to the tunnel door. I winced as I opened it then dragged him down the steps. He was going to have one hell of a headache, but I was trusting the fact that his monstrous part could heal with ease. I picked a room and dropped him, doubling over to pant.

“Hello?” a musical voice called.

I jumped and spun around. The voice was coming from another room.

The creature he mentioned…

Alec was still out cold. I winced as I used a set of chains on the table to lock him to it.

“I promise I won’t bite.”

The voice drew me in like a siren. I left the room and wandered down the hall until I came to another room. The door creaked on its hinges as I pushed it open.

A being was chained to the wall, and he certainly wasn’t human. His eyes were black, his teeth sharp. He was alarmingly beautiful in a way that reminded me of Alec, but more severe. Silver blonde hair was matted with blood, his head leaned against the brick wall as he breathed slowly. He licked his lips as I stood there.

“Ah, it’s the pretty, curious woman. Alas, you’ve been marked,” he sighed. “I cannot eat you then.”

“Who are you?” I asked.

He cocked his head. “Unchain me.”

I snorted. “I am not that foolish.”

He studied me for a moment and then hummed. “I will give you answers to the questions you ask.”

“How many questions?” I asked.

“Three. ”

“Ten,” I said. “And I will unchain you. And you cannot kill me or Alec.”

“Five. And I won’t kill either of you. I am too weak. He has poisoned me with something I am not certain I will recover from, but dying in this place is not right.”

I contemplated his words. “He poisoned you? And you don’t want to kill him? Or me?”

“Is he your mate?”

“I don’t know what that means,” I sighed. “And it seems unfair that you can ask me questions and expect answers without an equal exchange.”

The corner of his mouth lifted. “Unchain me, human. I will not kill you or him, and I will answer your five questions if I am able to. As for revenge, I knew what I risked by coming here. I tried to reason with him but he could not hear me.”

I hesitated for a moment. “He has… there is a separation between his monstrous side and human side.”

“He is not human,” he said. “That is not his natural form. It is a learned form because of what he is. Or what he was.”

“Will you help me chain him down on a table? I cannot lift him alone.”

“Yes,” he said.

I stared at him and then decided it was worth the risk to make a temporary alliance with the man. I looked around for the key and pressed my lips together. Where would Alec keep them?

“He kept the keys near the entrance,” the creature said. “I heard their jingle before.”

I nodded and stepped out in the hall, heading for the stairs that led up to the greenhouse. A ring of keys hung on the wall. I plucked them free and went back to the room, uncuffing the creature. He fell forward and hit the ground with a thump, letting out a soft groan.

“You don’t look well,” I said, feeling a pang of worry.

“I am not,” he said sourly.

I winced. “I don’t know how to help.”

He shook his head. “I cannot allow you to help me. This was enough. You unchained me and now I might stand a chance. Your beast is broken,” he said. “He does not know what he is.”

I fought the urge to laugh. As if I didn’t know that. This entire week had already been a testament to the fact that Alec was broken in ways that I wasn’t sure I could help mend. If anything, helping would hurt him more. “Do you need help standing up?”

He was still on his knees. He looked up at my hand and then shook his head, getting to his feet. A stake still pierced his stomach and he pulled it free.

“Would you like me to pull this one free?” I asked, gesturing to the one through his shoulder.

He nodded and I grabbed onto the end, pulling it free. I winced as blood dripped to the floor, his body shivering with pain.

“What are you?” I asked. “A fae? A demon?”

“You’re really going to use your questions on me?”

Fuck. “No,” I said quickly. “Forget what I asked.”

“Come,” he said. “Let’s go chain him up before he wakes.”

It should have sounded bizarre to hear that, but instead, I just nodded. Having the extra set of hands would help me get Alec how I wanted him.

He would be furious when he woke up, but…

It was a risk I would take.

I was formulating a plan. A line of questions that would very possibly push him over the edge. I wasn’t sure what would happen then.

We exited the room together and went to the one that held Alec. He was still sprawled out over the floor, his chest rising and falling slowly, his arm chained to the table. I undid that one and then together, we lifted him onto the metal table. We used the chains to hold him down, and I pushed away the flicker of guilt I felt.

It wasn’t like I hadn’t just been chained down too…

I thought about the candles and cum on the altar for a moment and stifled a giggle. I was certain the staff would hear about it at some point this week.

The stranger gave me a wary glance. “Ask your questions before I leave you.”

“Is he a changeling?” I asked.

“I believe he might have been,” he answered. “But what he is now is something entirely different.”

“I found his… his den of sorts. Do all monsters kill like that?”

“No. Most do not. Most of us have no qualms with humans. However, some fae feast on animals or humans,” he answered. He frowned as he studied Alec. “But there is something wrong with him. Something unnatural. I’ve heard of the great beastly god of St. Thorn, but I didn’t not believe him to be real. It is said he even hunts others like him.”

“How do I break that connection?”

“I do not know,” he said. “Perhaps if he knew himself, he could do it himself.”

“How old is he?”

He was quiet for a moment and then frowned. “I’ve heard of this legend for at least a century in human time.”

I shook my head, trying to comprehend that. The mysteries were stacking up.

“What is a mate?”

He scoffed. “Do you really not know? You cannot feel it? Perhaps he is too broken and that is why. ”

“I feel connected to him in a way that I can’t explain scientifically,” I said. “But only when he is in his monster form.”

“Not everything needs to be explained the way you believe, human,” he said. “Your souls are bound together.”

“I don’t believe in souls.”

He gave me a sad smile. “Your disbelief means nothing. Good luck. You will need it.”

He moved in a blur, disappearing before I could ask another question. I breathed out and looked down at myself.

I’d forgotten I was naked.

I sighed and went to Alec, leaning over him. He was still breathing, at least. Maybe I’d hit him too hard…

I needed my journal and pen.

Then, when he woke up, the experiment would begin.