Page 39 of Ravaging Red
The Cursed Ones were not bound by time. They could see glimpses of futures, sense bonds before they are marked, and they collected magic like trophies, always watching for the one that fate has chosen next.
Speaking to a Cursed One was dangerous. To owe them a favor was a death sentence.
“Careful, beast,” she hissed, tilting her head as her gaze locked on Red. “That one’s been touched by the Veil. The Hollow hums in her blood. Can’t you see it?”
“You see nothing,” I snapped, stepping forward, shielding Red fully with my body.
“Oh, but I do.” Her voice rolled like acrid smoke, curling under the skin. “She’ll need protection soon.Hispull will eat her alive, if it hasn’t already.”
She reached into the folds of her cloak and produced a small glass jar. Black wax sealed the lid, and inside, something faintly pulsed. Like a tiny second heart.
“Take it,” the witch crooned. “No cost. A gift, for the girl with the wolf’s scent on her thighs.”
Red stiffened behind me. I could smell her shame, her fear… and her arousal.
“I said, no,” I snarled, stepping between them, my voice laced with enough threat to instill fear in any one of these monsters.
The witch tilted her head, amused. “You’ll wish you hadn’t refused it, Wolf. Not everything that wants her will ask first.”
With a twitch of her hand, the jar vanished back into her cloak, and she dissolved into the crowd, feathers trailing like smoke behind her.
Red was silent as I grabbed her wrist and tugged her forward, guiding her fast through the maze of booths. She didn’t speak until we were deep in the food sector, where the scent of burning flesh was strong enough to mask even the witch’s lingering magic.
“Who was that?” she whispered.
“Don’t talk to witches,” I growled. “Don’t look at them. Don’t touch anything they offer.”
“But she…”
“I don’t care. You’re mine. You don’t need her protection. You have me.”
Red didn’t argue. She didn’t pull away. Her fingers slid between mine and stayed there.
But I could still feel the pulsing thing inside that offered jar. And I knew the witch wasn’t wrong. The pull was growing. The Hollow was stirring.
And something else was coming for us. For Red. Something worse than me. And the Cursed One had confirmed my fears, yet I would never let Red see it. I'd deal with it when I had to.
There were tables of twisted spices, baskets of sweet roots that bled sugar when pierced, oils that smoked when breathed in too deeply.
I had no idea what a human ate, but I knew they had fragile palates and weak stomachs. So I decided to watch and learn what she liked. And I’d feed it to her until her lips turned red and her belly round.
A hunched ogress with a mouth full of ivory fangs raised her head from behind a cracked counter. Her one good eye narrowed on Red, then on me. Her smile split her face, causing it to wrinkle. “New mate?” she hissed.
“Human,” I said, low.
“Let her taste,” she rasped, sliding a bowl of something soft and glowing across the stall.
I didn’t look at Red as I tugged her forward.
“Eat.”
She hesitated, her fingers hovering over the strange fruit. It was soft and purple veined and it pulsed once, as if it were alive. She looked up at me, questioning.
I growled. “Now.”
And she obeyed.
She took a small, careful bite. Then her lips parted on a moan so raw, so sensual, it sent blood rushing straight to my cock.
