Page 33 of A Very Monstrous Desire

“I will explain this all to you but first let us organise ourselves. Your clothes…” Baku shook his head even as he stepped closer to Theo. “They are filthy.”

“Are you asking me to remove them?” Theo asked and Baku nodded.

“Yes, I am.”

Chapter

Sixteen

Theo clutched the clean clothes he had been given a little closer to his chest but then realised he was probably making them dirty as well by doing so. Baku seemed to have the same thought as he leaned forwards and removed them from Theo’s shaky hands.

“There is what you call a shower in the bathroom,” he said. “We will clean ourselves and then eat.”

Theo could think of nothing better in that moment than a shower, some clean clothes, and a hot meal. If he could follow that by falling into a dreamless sleep, he would be all set. Only, Theo feared that his dreams were destined to be filled with the cries of the rages and that those cries were likely to follow him for some nights to come.

He shivered and held out a hand. “Can I have the soap please?”

“I will bring it,” Baku replied.

Theo blinked slowly as he realised then that by ‘we’ the monster really did mean that. He clearly planned for them to shower together. Theo took a step back, his priorities of shower, food, and sleep rapidly shifting to make way for another priority…one that was completely inappropriate!

“You want us to shower together?” he eventually asked.

Baku nodded. “Yes.”

“Why?”

“To ensure your wellbeing,” the monster replied, and Theo shivered again despite himself.

“We’re safe here, aren’t we?”

“Yes.”

“Then—”

“The soap is…medicinal,” Baku said. “When rubbed over your skin it will ease the ache of your bruises. I will not have you sleeping in pain. Not when that pain is the result of my negligence.”

“Are you blaming yourself for what happened?” Theo asked.

“I should have been more alert.”

“But you said that the spider mom usually sleeps in the forest?”

“Yes.”

“And the pincer monster was protecting its young?”

“Yes.”

“And the rages…” Theo shook his head.

Baku stepped forwards, magic soap in hand, and he pulled Theo into his arms. The action was so abrupt that Theo did not know what to say, never mind what to do. Their skin was touching again, the monster’s fingertips against Theo’s bare arms.

“It is very important to me that I am able to protect you,” the monster said.

That damn feeling… Theo was beginning to expect it now but that did not diminish the strength of it. He shivered and looked up into the monster’s moonlit eyes, which were suddenly more intense than Theo had ever seen. Baku was just so…big…and not just physically. His surrounded Theo in a way that Theo had never experienced before but truthfully had always longed to.

“I knew when I captured you into my world that you would be in danger,” Baku continued. “The shimmer surrounds you and marks you out as not from this world. The rages crave beings from across the dimensions more so than even my own people, and their craving for us has been…extreme. I knew that bringing you to this world would be dangerous, but truthfully, Theo, I did not expect that danger quite so soon.”

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