Page 33 of Monster Mansion

I rolled over to get a better look at Nox in his dreamy post-coital state. He didn’t even appear to me as a monster. Not anymore. The dark, shadowy tendrils that snaked off from his back were nowhere to be seen as he laid next to me looking more human than I had ever expected to see him. He had illusioned a loose-fitting pair of black sweatpants over his bottom half, but left his top half exposed for me to lazily caress with my fingers.

“Thankyou,” I insisted in response. “I think you’ve probably turned me off human men for the rest of my life.”

Immediately after the words left my mouth, I wondered how literally Nox would take them. I wondered how literally I even meant them. There was something about this ancient creature from another world that drew me in and held my attention. His presence was addictive, and I was already plotting in my head when I could next convince him to use me like that again.

“We’ll see about that, Logan.” Nox smiled. “There are a lot of things that human men can offer you that I’ll never be able to.”

I swore I heard a flicker of sadness in his tone, or maybe regret. There was something in his voice that made me feel justified in my unusual attachment to the creature—that maybe he was feeling it as well. We were both caught in a limbo between what we wanted to say and what we felt like we were allowed to say considering the circumstances.

Neither of us said anything for a while and just laid next to each other in a place where if we refused to mention it and refused to acknowledge it, I could be a human, and he could be a monster, and that would be perfectly acceptable to the world.

Chapter12

Nox

Nox didn’t want to let his frustration ruin the moment with Logan, so he had let it go when it happened, but the moment the girl fell asleep on her little bed next to him, the shadow man went hunting for Thorn. The animal knew better than to lurk around in places he wasn’t wanted, and hisobsessionwith the girl had gone on long enough. Now that Nox had connected with her so deeply, he would be damned if he was going to let some half-wild nature-beast salivate over her like she was nothing more than a freshly scavenged meal to enjoy.

She was so much more. She was everything, Nox wagered. She had taken the chance on them and wanted to help them to be free, which was enough in itself, but when combined with her luscious body and willingness to trust him with her safety and her pleasure, there was little Nox wouldn’t do for her.

Including beating the teeth out of his unusual woodland companion. That’ll teach him to overstep an obvious boundary.

The afternoon sun cast through the great windows in the foyer, sending long lines of shadows through the main part of the house. Nox used them to his advantage to slink into Thorn’s attic hideaway, only to find the attic entirely empty. The creature’s bed had been tossed about in what had to be sexual frustration, and a twinge of worry shot through Nox’s body. If he and Ruse couldn’t get the beast under control, he would risk putting the entire plan and the entire possibility of their freedom in jeopardy.

Nox knew he had to find the beast and accomplish two things: talk him off the edge and make sure Thorn wasn’t going to hurt her, and come up with a plan moving forward. If those things didn’t happen, Nox would be forced to make the hard decision between Logan, with the sweet taste of her sex and the possibility of freedom, and Thorn, who had been his companion for so many years he was practically a little brother.

Ruse would be heartbroken at the loss of Thorn if it came to that. Or maybe he wouldn’t. The only thing that was certain about Ruse was that nothing was certain, and that fact made him a very difficult creature to navigate. Of the other two monsters on the property, Ruse was the one that Nox felt was a genuine threat. The shifter kept the intricacies of his power under lock and key, so Nox was unsure what his laws of nature were. Sure, he could shift into animals and people—easy things. Tangible things. But could he shift into even greater monsters? Demons? Nox wasn’t sure he could go head-to-head against another one of himself, or something worse.

Musing over the complications, Nox left the attic in search of Thorn. With limited places for a creature of his size to hide, Nox knew that there was only one other place for Thorn to sneak off to lick his emotional wounds: the garden out back. He was right, and Nox found Thorn almost immediately, pouting behind the toolshed trying to distract himself by digging a hole. The similarities between Thorn’s behavior and that of a human’s canine companion were sometimes too close for comfort. It was no wonder Ruse habitually referred to Thorn as “dog” or “pup.”

“Go away, Nox,” Thorn growled without even turning around to face his visitor. “I don’t really feel like having a conversation with you right now.”

“Funny that you don’t feel like having a conversation with me, but you feel perfectly fine watching me during an incredibly private time,” Nox responded, quick to get to his point. “I don’t know why you felt that was at all appropriate, but I really thought you respected me enough to not stare and literallydroolover Logan and me.”

“Wasn’t it you just last night who suggested that you were… what was it, again? ‘Babysitting’ Ruse and I at all times?” Thorn barked as he turned to face Nox. “Let’s just say I was ‘babysitting’ you two as well. By the way, really glad to see that both you and Ruse have helped yourselves to her. It’s like the both of you just enjoy rubbing my nose in it.”

“Inwhat, Thorn?” Nox demanded as he dropped his shoulders in exhaustion. “Do tell!”

Though he knew exactly what Thorn was referring to. He just… couldn’t understand why it gave Thorn suchownership. He wasn’t the only one with a right to yearn for the strange girl.

“Every single day she is here is the longest day of my life,” Thorn explained. “And I’ve been alive a very,verylong time.”

The creature lurched out of the ditch he had dug in the ground and let out a pained groan.

“I know you mentioned that she is doing odd things to all of us, but I really need you to understand how hard this is for me,” Thorn continued, trying his best to be still, despite feeling wildly uncomfortable. “This isn’t just, ‘oh, she is interesting, I want to know more about her, she’s definitely a more attractive specimen than some of the other offerings we’ve been given.’ This is me having to distract myself and literallyfightagainst something that is in my nature.”

Nox leaned against the toolshed without saying a word as he sensed, sensing his friend needed to let out his frustrations verbally. The more he talked and the more Nox understood about what he needed, the easier it would be to move forward without resorting to violence.

“The males of my kind all go into heat at the same time, and it’s a wild bloodbath between one another, from what I understand.” Thorn spoke steadily and scratched the loose dirt around him. “I never got to witness their rituals or how it worked because I was still a juvenile back then. Now that I’m here and I’m really feeling it for the first time, I’m navigating it on my own.”

Nox’s heart sank as he watched Thorn nervously scrape the earth. Unlike himself and Ruse, Thorn was the only one of them who’d had a real community before being trapped in the house. For years, his herd wandered the surrounding woods, but as more and more humans moved in, they were pushed further and further out, leaving Thorn alone. Nox hadalwaysbeen alone, therefore the absence of his nonexistent family never stung him. But poor Thorn had been given a taste of community before it had all been ripped away. As the maned creature’s story sunk into Nox, he realized this beast was not out to cause harm to anyone. He was simply an animal who had no way to relieve himself or embrace his nature. Nox’s fingers began to drum on his thigh, and his leg bounced in thought.

Logan was open-minded. She had proven that and more earlier today, allowing him to penetrate so much of himself so deeply inside of her. She reveled in it, loved it, and he could smell that she wanted more. Nox wondered if there was a possibility, with his guidance, that she could help Thorn help himself. It was a cruel, sick thought, but then again—so was pulling her legs apart and holding her still.

“I don’t want to make any promises, Thorn,” Nox mused, still nervously tapping his leg. “But I might be able to get her to come to you.”

“You really think so?” he asked, his demeanor immediately brightening at the possibility. Then, he immediately caught a glimpse of his arms and claws and slumped back to the ground. “Actually… don’t let me get my hopes up.”

“Come on, now,” Nox said in a voice so chipper he wasn’t even sure it had come from his own mouth.If this is what sex does to me, perhaps I should reconsider, he thought. How was he supposed to continue with his reputation as a horrifying monster sounding like that? “We won’t know unless we give it an honest shot, and acting like you’ve already been defeated is not giving it an honest shot.”

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