Page 48 of Starve
“That’s unnerving.” Is the only thing I can say, and it brings a snort from Cairo. “What about your eyes?”
“I told you we can see in the dark a lot better than you. Look, there aren’t really any explanations that would make sense to you. None of us know how this started.” Cairo’s voice is hesitant. Like he doesn’t want to explain all of this to me right now.
“So you guys just woke up one day andbang, you’re not human anymore? That’s really how this works?”
“No,” Agatha says, not giving Cairo a chance to speak. When he makes a noise, she glances his way, gaze pointed, and he shuts up. “No, you don’t get to lie to her about this one. If yourlittle birddoesn’t know, she can’t make an informed decision on if she wants to see you again.”
Something in her words makes me feel the cold even more acutely, and I shiver in my hoodie, with my legs pressed together.
“She needs to go home, Agatha. Unless you’ve forgotten that humans still feel the cold,” Cairo retorts weakly. “She’s going to freeze to death by the time you get done explaining anything.”
“Then you tell me.” I’m tired of feeling like a ping pong ball. I whirl on Cairo, chin up as I advance on him, even though my heart flutters at talking to him like this. “I’ve asked you so many times. So come on, Cairo. Give me a real answer.” I don’t push him. That didn’t work out how I thought it would the last time I tried to use physical force to catch him off guard.
“Fern…” He reaches out, his hand cupping my jaw and his thumb brushing over my lower lip. “Little bird, you don’t know what you’re asking for. Can’t you let me have this? Let me have you not knowing, so you keep looking at me like that instead of how you’ll look at me after?”
I search his face, wishing I understood what he was getting at, and shake my head. “I won’t look at you any differently,” I breathe. “You’re still a terrifying, flesh-eating creature of the dark. And I’ll always look at you like one.”
His smile is small, but genuine. He taps my bottom lip, opens his mouth to answer, then suddenly hisses. His expression turns aggressive and Cairo shows his fangs in irritation, looking past me again. “Your timing is as terrible as always.”
This time I don’t think for a second he’s talking to me. I turn around, looking for Agatha, who’s still standing where she had been before. She taps the ball of her foot on the ground, but she’s no longer looking at Cairo. Her eyes are narrowed, reflecting light more brightly than I’ve ever seen from one of them, and she’s staring without amusement at the newcomer sitting on the railing of the stairs, perched there like he belongs.
“Oh, come on, Cai.” Tyler laughs, twisting his hands over the metal. “You’re not being very friendly. And it’s so nice to see you, Fern.” He grins, showing off fangs like Cairo’s, though his mouth is bloody, not clean like the other two. “I was a little scared foryou when you didn’t stay with Hattie like she told you to. I tried to help you, too, with that,” he adds, glancing back at Cairo.
“I don’t need your help,” Cairo insists, pushing away from the door. Then he curls an arm around me as Moro suddenly growls, her ruff bristling and her tail straight up over her back. “And neither does she. She’s not like your crazy, broken doll who you keep locked away from the world.”
Does he mean Hattie? I resolve to ask him about it later, but for the moment I just stare between them, unsure and confused.
“You need someone’s help,” Tyler taunts with a chuckle, in a rather unfriendly way. But then his gaze goes to Agatha, and I swear I see a hint of uncertainty in his eyes. “Areyougiving him yours?” he asks, though it sounds more like an accusation than anything.
Agatha doesn’t reply, though she gives Tyler alook, as her stance and gaze change subtly, though I can’t tell exactly why or what she means by it. But either way, it makes Tyler drop his eyes to the ground, and his posture becomes less aggressive.
“You shouldn’t make humans part of your game,” is the only thing she says, with a quick glance in Cairo’s direction as well, though she only seems a bit frustrated with him, rather than the look of actual dislike she gives Tyler. “You shouldn’t let him have this game at all.”
Tyler snorts at her words, pushing off the railing. “He ran to an asylum to hide from our ‘game,’ Agatha. What is it you think he’s going to do, hmm?” He jerks his head in a sidelong motion, baring his fangs. “But I’m starting to get bored of the rules you play by, Cai. They’re just as boring as hers.”
Cairo makes a noise in his throat. “Don’t call me that. We’re not friends.”
“No,” Tyler agrees. “We never were, were we?” Without warning he lunges for me, causing Cairo to intercept him a bit awkwardly so he can’t make contact. But protecting me lets Tylerhave the advantage, and he grips Cairo by the throat, jerking him back to throw him over the railing of the front steps. When he turns back to me, Agatha suddenly snarls, and she’s beside me in an instant.
“I said no,” she sneers sharply, and the vehemence causes Tyler to stumble backward, but he recovers quickly. By the time Cairo is on his feet, Tyler lunges for him, another snarl on his lips and his claw-tipped fingers outstretched.
“Cairo!” I shout, jerking forward like I’m going to do anything. At least, until Agatha grabs me by the arm, holding me in place with another soft growl.
“No,” she tells me in a voice that sounds like so many people and no one at the same time. “You are not going to make this easier for Tyler. If you go over there, I won’t protect you from him ripping you apart.”
Moro barks high and sharp, standing in front of me and dancing back and forth, looking for an opening. The sounds Cairo and Tyler make are primal, feral, and not very human. They grapple, with Cairo shoving Tyler back into one of the doors that shatters from the impact. But when Tyler lunges for him again, teeth sinking into Cairo’s shoulder, I realize why it seems so one-sided.
Cairo is fighting to get Tyler to stop, to shove him away, and repel his attacks.
Tyler, on the other hand, is fighting to kill Cairo, or at least lethally wound him, judging by the way he’s going for Cairo’s throat and chest.
I don’t know what to do. I don’t know how to help him, when Cairo is being so hesitant about actually hurting Tyler for some unknown reason. “Cairo!” I shriek, reaching up to grip Agatha’s arm for support, though I don’t try to tug her off of me. Somehow, her hold is reassuring, and so is her solidness behind me.
Finally, Moro gets tired of dancing around. She jumps forward just as Cairo stumbles back, and in the small space between them she lunges at Tyler without any kind of fear. It’s a good thing, I realize belatedly, because as blood arcs through the air from a wound in Cairo’s shoulder, I know that he is definitely injured.
Moro takes additional offense at that, snarling and nipping at Tyler. It helps that he’s already worn out, and Moro’s quick, darting movements only serve to tire him out more as she blocks Tyler from getting closer to Cairo and causing him to spit in frustration. He looks at Agatha, then me, and bares his teeth when he meets my eyes.
“You’re always so lucky,” he spits at Cairo, who’s curled up on the ground with a hand over the bleeding wound on his shoulder. “But you won’t be forever.” He fends off another of Moro’s quick lunges and growls at her, causing the dog to start backward momentarily in alarm. It gives him the chance to turn, and he quickly disappears around the wall of Bluebone Ridge’s main building, with quick and graceful movements. But I only watch for a moment. As soon as I feel Agatha’s arms loosening, I bolt for Cairo.
