Page 204 of Monsters in Love

He'd saved me. I would have died at the fangs of that creature, and now he might.

No.I wouldn't let that happen.

“Tell me what to do,” I said, steeling myself.

I didn’t know where to touch, where to look. Where to start. His whole body was something different, new. Did he have the same organs as me? The same places I should be concerned about?

“Please,” he hissed the word out, the pain obvious. He pointed with one hand, and I turned to follow his finger. “The flowers.”

I bent to pluck some from the vines and edged closer. My body tremble, as if mere proximity to this beastly man was enough to trigger my fear response. He took the flowers from my palm and shoved them into his mouth as if they were the most delicious thing in the world.

A moment later he sighed, his body relaxing a fraction.

“I need you to free me,” he said. “But be careful. Its spines are poisonous.”

Right, well, that was delightful

I raised my hands, fingers twitching as I tried to decide where to start. The spined beast was embedded deep in the satyr’s torso, and it was going to take a lot of effort to get it out.

“You promise you won’t hurt me?” I flicked my gaze to his, winced at what I saw there. His eyes were even duller than before and I knew I had to move now or he might die, and with it, my chance of getting out of this place alive.

He sighed, looking at the ceiling as if steeling himself, fuelling his patience enough not to crack my neck then and there. His horns scraped against the walls but he didn’t seem bothered by that.

Finally, I reached out and gripped the wolf beast on either side of its head, careful not to touch the thorns. Its fur was damp with blood, sticky and congealing as the body cooled. I tugged hard, cringing as the satyr groaned. He shoved with his hands, aiding my plight, but I had to move my body, press one leg against the wall of the hallway in order to get enough leverage to tug.

With the wet, sucking noise of open wounds, the creature came away and the satyr tossed it to the side, his breath coming deep and hard as he pressed his hands to the wounds in his torso. He couldn’t cover them all though.

I stood up, wiping the blood onto my pants, unable to cleanse them of the gore, of the liquid that should be inside this creature before me. He was huge but vulnerable, slumped against the wall, the pain obviously threatening to overwhelm him.

“What do you need?” I asked. My voice cracked, suddenly dry. I needed more water. Needed light. Needed to wake the fuck up and get back to reality because this was too much and if I didn’t find a way to keep breathing, I was going to pass out or start screaming.

This was a horror movie. A strange, surreal thing that could not be real.

“Just tell me how to get out of here and I promise I won’t intrude on your place again. I just… I need…” I gasped for breath, and then all of the strength left my legs and I crumpled to the ground. Nausea roiled in my stomach, but I didn’t think I’d eaten enough to actually vomit.

“You’re a satyr, right?” I asked, the words spilling out of my mind and into the space between us.

He laughed, the sound so low that it vibrated through my chest. “That is what your kind have called me, yes. You may call me Kavi.”

“Kavi?” The name felt softer in my mouth than I’d expected. “I’m Tamara.”

“Tamara,” he said, as if testing my name out as well. “Thank you.”

I exhaled, some of the tension leaving my body. I think my mind was struggling to wrap itself around the fact that I was sitting here talking to a satyr. Who spoke English!

“I need you to help with this.” Kavi groaned as he twisted his back slightly, showing me where another spine had pierced his side, impaling him below the ribs. The wound oozed blood and the surrounding skin had reddened as though an infection was already taking hold. But it couldn’t be, not that fast.

I rubbed my face, then remembered how dirty my hand was. Focus, Tamara. You have to get this out of him while trying not to touch it. I stripped off my top, ignoring the way his body seemed to stiffen at the sight of me shirtless, a sudden tension flooding through him at the sight of my bare skin.

Maybe I was having the same effect on him as this strange creature was on me.

I pushed those thoughts aside and wrapped the cloth around my hand before gripping the spine protruding from his body. I tugged experimentally, but it barely budged.

“I think you need to lie down,” I said. “So that your body is stretched out. It might help.”

Kavi grunted, then moved so that he was stretched along the ground rather than propped against the wall. He turned his head so that his horns pointed away from me. I wanted to touch them, to know the texture, and feel them beneath my skin. Instead, I focused on the spine again, kneeling to pull it out.

Still, I couldn’t get it free.

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