Page 68 of A Very Monstrous Desire

And Theo did.

“The army base,” he said after a moment. “Will you take me there?”

The monster sucked in a harsh breath. “To return home? As I once promised you?”

Theo propped himself up on his elbow and looked into the monster’s moonlit eyes. He looked suddenly and beautifully worried. It hurt Theo’s heart a little but in the very best of ways. “Of course not,” he said, reassuring his monster. “And besides, you kept that promise, you did return me home.”

“Straight into a war.”

“A war I was always meant to fight.”

The monster kissed him again. “Then if not to return you, why are we going there?”

“I want to make sure my squad is okay,” Theo said. “That they made it through the infestation.”

“And if they haven’t?”

“I hope they have.”

“We will need to be very careful,” the monster said.

“Yes.”

“And you will need an inter-dimensional device of your own.” He gestured to his Garmin-like watch.

“Does it count your miles too?” Theo asked even as his heart gave a thud. Baku had said such tech could not be shared with humans. But then…Theo wasn’t quite human anymore he supposed and wouldn’t be for a long time.

“Why would it?” Baku asked.

Theo was imagining possible half marathon times as they made their way down to Cornwall. It was entirely possible he could achieve several personal bests. “Maybe that’s something we could work on,” he said.

“Anything for you,” the monster replied.

And he meant every word and Theo knew it.

Chapter

Thirty-One

Baku had mapped out every part of the army base weeks ago. It was important he told Theo to know where everything and everyone was and he’d spent some time creating little rips here and there, looking through, recording it all, and then had eventually found Theo.

He wasn’t looking for him, he was looking for any human who could help him, and though Baku was clearly not the type to boast about his accomplishments it had been his idea to try the serum on a human.

“Our biology is so similar,” he said. “But just different enough…”

Had he told the rest of his people what he was up to? Yes and no. The monsters didn’t have a system of government in the same way the countries on Theo’s Earth did, but the success of their mission had been reported along with their plans to continue on to the other infestations.

“Don’t you have to get someone’s permission?” Theo asked.

“No,” the monster said. “But we let one another know if we disagree with a course of action and often that is enough to sway a person in another direction. We all work towards the good of the whole though, Theo.” He paused. “Rarely is there a problem.” Another pause. “You also have not requested permission either.”

“Because they won’t give it!” Theo said. “They’ll lock me in a lab and extract the serum and then do fuck knows what with it!”

The monster nodded at that, and Theo sighed. They had discussed the serum in detail in the days leading up to their incursion into the army barracks. Baku had taken Theo through all the data on the experiments and the outcomes. Their computers worked almost the same way as Theo’s did, though theirs had some quantum components which Theo knew his government would pant to get their hands on. The upshot was that the serum could mimic almost anything if you aligned it to its dimensional vibrations. The munching monsters just happened to be their target.

“We must be cautious though,” the monster had said. “It is still experimental. We must monitor ourselves very carefully in between doses.”

Theo had thought long and hard about the possibility of growing an extra couple of eyes or his skin starting to glisten, or at least that being his perception of the whole thing, and he remained resolved.

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