Page 154 of Monsters in Love

The torches flared with his passing as he neared his destination, a comforting presence that brought to mind the ancient wanderers before his time who descended into the depths to experience the mysteries of the underworld. On some level, there was comfort to be found by those inhabitants who walked its halls despite the labyrinth’s violent and deceitful nature.

His eyes sought on the carvings on the stone wall that marked the entrance to his abode. The rough-cut dancing figures gleamed within the light, but, to his surprise, he experienced only a fading echo of his usual pain at the sight of them. At the sight of his sister’s likeness, carved into the stone by Ariadne when she had still been very much a girl and had helped him forge his abode with her budding magic. The girl on the stone who danced the labyrinth’s crane dance of its hidden mystery, kept well-hidden his own secret—his entrance.

Tracing a claw over the complex path twined around the carved girl, Asterion’s brow furrowed as the wall of the labyrinth thinned and became no more substantial than a membranous passage. It had been centuries since he had become accustomed to the peculiar sight and feeling of Ariadne’s portal. That was not what bothered him. Instead, he worried that the easing of his pain meant that he was losing the last pieces of his sister that he had jealously preserved within his memory and heart.

The thought alarmed him, even as he experienced a sense of relief that he refused to acknowledge. Instead, he focused on his loss, feeding his grief with his regrets and anger at being deprived of what little he had left of her. He did not understand why this was happening, and his sorrow soon matched his growing confusion as he passed through the barrier, feeling the light touch of his sister’s magic still woven after all these centuries into the stone.

What was different?

The female.Hisfemale.

A female that did not want him and would not love him, and yet whom he would keep anyways to stave away his loneliness. This was what was dimming his memory of Ariadne?

He snorted and coughed, the air thickening around him and in his lungs as he breathed it in. Asterion’s eyes rolled back, a haze filling his mind as his lungs labored with each breath. Something insidious snaked up from where it was coiled deep within his belly, making saliva drip from his fangs as he was filled with a ravenous hunger and helpless rage that seemed to spring fully formed from his sorrow.

A bellow built up in his chest as he passed through into his abode, his eyes rolling as he attempted to look everywhere at once for the culprit.The satyrs were right. Destroy and feed upon the female and free yourself from the female’s sorcery.

The voice seemed to come from within and outside of himself all at once. It was a familiar voice, and Asterion clung to it. At that moment, it seemed like the only thread of sanity in the overwhelming unfamiliarity of the new situation he had found himself in.

What do you know of caring for a female, anyway? Even Ariadne would not stay, choosing to be a foreigner outcast among her lover’s people. She chose to die on distant shores rather than remain forever with you within the labyrinth. Your female will also seek to escape. She will not wish to be tied to you even as she steals the memory of your sister. Better to paint the corridors with her blood.

Blood. A red spring that you can drink deep from once again and keep her essence forever within you where she cannot escape. She will be a part of you forever, and a part of the labyrinth forever if you but drink and feed upon rich meat when you release her from her prison of flesh.

Shaking with the intensity of the violence filling him, he strode heavily through the room, the hunger for sweet, life-giving blood filling him. He snorted and grunted, his hot breath expelling sharply through his nostrils as his bellow worked its way up… and then died in his throat when his gaze landed on a sight that stole the breath from his lungs.

She slept.

Curled on his bed, her brown hair splayed out around her as if she were a nereid floating in wait for her lover on a placid sea, she evoked such a sharp longing through him that he fell to his knees, the sharp thump of them hitting the floor echoing in his ears, his labrys falling at his side. The roe lay a short distance away where it had tumbled to the floor unnoticed and forgotten.

Staring at her—needing her—his thoughts churned with confusion and denial even as another hunger roared through him, engulfing the mad bloodlust and driving it from him. Bile rose, burning through him as he stared at her.

He stumbled back away from the sleeping platform, his eyes rounding in horror. What was he doing? He had nearly been overwhelmed by the terrible blood hunger. He would have torn her apart with his fangs and claws, and she would have stared at him sightlessly as so many others had, her hand laying limp at her side from where she had reached out to him in entreaty just astheyhad.

On the bed, she sighed, stirring in her sleep. Although she was still nameless, it mattered little to him. He would have her name eventually. She was his.

When she stretched and turned in her sleep, the cloth of her clothing stretching tight across her breasts, his cock thickened beneath his chiton, his desire thrumming through his blood as a carnal hunger rose sharp and swift through his senses. He breathed in deep, seeking to consume her natural perfume. A pungent scent instead filled his nostrils, wilting his desire.

Despite the smell, shame filled him.

He had neglected to show her where to relieve herself. He wondered how long she waited in complete discomfort before she gave in and found a spot to empty her bladder. He was not entirely sure why she did so in the primary chamber rather than choosing one of the antechambers, but it mattered little now. He would make sure that she knew all that she needed.

Hanging his labrys in its place on the wall in passing, Asterion walked back to the garden chamber to fill yet another jug with water. The good thing was that the edges of the walls were designed with fine grooves that drained liquid so at least there wasn’t a mess to sop up, and any water poured out to rinse the stones would likewise be carried off. It made cleaning in general easier for him.

As he filled the jug, a sense of purpose found root within him. He was caring for his female and protecting her. Smiling to himself, he shouldered the jug and carried it back into the main room chamber. He felt her gaze on him, and he glanced over at the sleeping platform to see her curled in the middle of it, far from any of the edges and buried under the furs, watching him warily as he strode over to the wall. Moving slowly as not to startle her, he poured out the water over the spot, washing the traces of waste away as he watched her from the corner of his eye.

Slowly, she lowered the fur pulled up to her chin, her cheeks blazing red as she openly watched him. As unnaturally red as she was, he was beginning to become concerned for her health when she surprised him by speaking.

“I’m really sorry.”

Vicky cringed at her pitiful apology, shame crawling through her as she watched the minotaur wash away her mess.

How freaking embarrassing.

It didn’t help that he appeared nonplussed about her apology, the only reaction being the ear that flicked at her seconds before he turned his head fully to gaze at her curiously.

“Why do you apologize?” he asked. He gestured to the draining water. “This was result of my neglect, so it is my duty to clean it.” He appeared to hesitate, his expression growing thoughtful from what she could distinguish in the purse of his wide lips and the upward movement of his brows. “I am curious, though, why you did not choose another room where you would not have to suffer with the smell… unless human senses are deplorably dead.”

The right corner of her mouth quirked at his observation, and a tiny chuckle escaped her that made both of his ears prick toward her. Her smile grew at unexpectedly being the center of such a powerful creature’s attention. There was a thoughtful light in his eyes that hadn’t been there that morning, and his focus was so absolute that it almost made her giddy to have a being so dangerous speaking softly to her and attentively listening to her.

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