Page 29 of Loved By the Orc

“Ahh, so tasty!” Mr. Price said, smacking his thin lips.

“What are you doing to me?” I demanded. “And how the Hell are you doing it?”

“What? Feeding on your emotions? Quite easily, Miss Ward—you see, it’s my nature to feast on the negative emotions of others. And up until recently, yours were quite tasty and nourishing.” He scowled. “Until you fellin love.”

He spat the words like they tasted nasty and he wanted to get them out of his mouth.

I shook my head.

“I don’t understand.”

“Of course you don’t. Never fear, we have time so I will explain. You see, I’m a special kind of Creature I’m sure you’ve never heard of. I live by extracting pain, fear, sorrow, shame—all those tasty negative feelings—from humans like yourself. And for ages, you’ve been my main meal ticket! All the sorrow you felt every time I was cruel to you…all the anger you suppressed…and most of all, the deliciousshamethat overcame you every time I pointed out your weight issues.” He made a smacking sound with his thin lips. “Delectable! Shame is myfavorite!”

“Oh my God, you’re a Sin Sucker!” I exclaimed, remembering the term Tark had used.

Mr. Price lifted his eyebrows in obvious surprise.

“So youhaveheard of my kind. How very strange.”

“Not as strange as you might think,” I said through gritted teeth. I was still scared but I was beginning to get mad too. So all this time he had beenfeedingon me? Sucking up the negative emotions he caused by belittling me and putting me down? What an asshole!

I squeezed my hands into fists. I was beginning to feel some tingling in my fingers—probably because my hands were going numb from the tight zip-ties.

“Ah yes—anger too! It’s not as tasty as shame or pain or fear but it’s still quite delectable!” Mr. Price—if that was even his name—pursed his thin lips and began inhaling again—sucking up my negative emotions like they were a rare treat.

“Hey—stop that!” I struggled to get free, even though I knew it was useless. “Let me go and leave me alone, you freak!”

“Nowthatis not very nice language, is it?” Mr. Price frowned at me. “Also, I think I’m tired of anger—it’s too spicy for my palate. How about we try some morefear?”

As he spoke, something happened…he began to change. The business suit he was wearing began to stretch and lose the texture of fabric and the gray color of his jacket and pants spread to his face and hands.

At the same time, his narrow face started distorting itself. His nose became much sharper and longer and his narrow lips spread to reveal rows of razor-sharp teeth. His thinning hair disappeared altogether, absorbed into his scalp which was now gray as well. And his hands…his hands were now claws—each finger tipped in a razor-sharp point that looked capable of slicing my throat with no effort at all.

But it was his eyes that were the worst. The watery pale blue irises disappeared as a thick black film covered them. It covered the whites of his eyes too until they were nothing but two flat, black, obsidian voids staring at me.

Shark’s eyes,I thought, feeling sick.Predator’s eyes.There could be no reasoning with a monster that had eyes like that. Because Mr. Price—orwhatever his real name was—had no pity in him. No remorse, no mercy or sympathy.

There was only hunger in that flat, black gaze and it was all centered on me.

“Yes…fear! How Iloveit!” The narrow lips parted again, revealing his jagged teeth and he inhaled deeply, sucking the nearly invisible vapor of terror from the center of my chest.

I was so scared I was afraid I might start crying and I knew if I broke down, I wasn’t going to be able to defend myself. But defend myself how? I was zip-tied to the chair and the ties were so tight my fingers were going numb. Or at least, they were tingling even more than they had been. In fact, the tingles had become almost painful.

I spared a moment from staring in terror at the monster my boss had become to glance down at my fingers. To my surprise, they wereglowing.

What the Hell?I thought, looking at myself. What was going on with me?

I remembered that Tark had said I was glowing after I had passed out earlier. And how Madam Healer thought it had something to do with my magic. She had also said that I would find my magic when I needed it.

Well, I needed it now!

I twisted my wrists desperately, not caring that the plastic zip-ties were digging into my flesh. My fingers started tingling even more—in fact, it felt like they were gettinghot.Experimentally, I twisted my right hand under and managed to get my fingertip to touch the thin cord of plastic binding my wrist to the chair’s arm.

I heard a thin sizzling sound and then the smell of burning plastic wafted up to my nose. What the Hell? Had my fingers gotten hot enough tomelt plastic?

I didn’t have much time to marvel at my new magical skill—whatever it was—though. Because Mr. Price was coming towards me.

“Let’s see now, how about a littlebite?”he asked, grinning at me toshow those jagged teeth. “I like the taste of emotional pain but physical pain is extremely tasty too!”

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