Page 63 of The HalloQueen

Contrary to his word, Yusuf had appeared at the Halloween Shop every day since reconnecting; he did not give me any time to process what had happened. He would stand around awkwardly, hungrily grazing on people’s exposed arms or staring slightly too long at someone until I’d snap and go to him and listen, once again, to his plea that I close up early and hunt for Monique with him.

I was drained, emotionally from the mental weight of him putting this burden onto me, and physically I was starving. I hadn’t fed from Annabel in days - I hadn’t even seen her since that night and the beast inside of me was ready to claw out of my skin to go to her. I needed to harvest and I neededher. I hadn’t intended on our argument lasting this long, I’d planned on going back to her house the next morning and making her breakfast and trying to communicate my needs and feelings, but Yusuf seemed determined to monopolize all of my time.

Sunday evening I’d finally snapped at him, demanding that he leave me alone, and he agreed to leave if I gave him one last night of help. He claimed that Monique was still in the area, but I was skeptical. I’d smelled an Other in several places around town, but it didn’t smell likeher.

All I wanted was to be with my Annabel. I wanted to hold her, and kiss her and talk to her. I wanted to plunge my cock so far into her that she apologized for ever staying away from me for this long, for thinking I was only good for sex. I wanted to dance in her energy. I knew she must have been anxious and I wanted to help, but day after day, night after night, my phone stayed empty. She never reached out to apologize for the hurtful things she’d said, and she’d never asked me to come over to feed. It felt like she was carving out pieces of my heart with a rusted spoon. I needed her - she was mine. Instead, I was running all over Massachusetts looking for a woman I had no interest in speaking with.

That last night had, as expected, yielded no results. We were no closer to finding Monique than I’d ever been before, and between my hunger and Yusuf’s obviously irritated bond, we were about to snap each others necks or have very angry sex. Once I’d felt his obvious lust permeating through the anger, I made him leave, refusing to add that log to mine and Annabel’s dumpster fire.

That was why early Monday morning, before the sun even rose, when I awoke to the very distinct feeling that someone was in my shop that I jumped off the air mattress ready to kill the bastard. He’d promised the night before was the last night. Yus’ scent was soft, but it was accompanied by another foreign perfume, the one I recognized as the one that had been floating around town.

“Thomas?” Yusuf shouted carefully.

“Just because it’s a shop doesn’t mean that you don’t need an invitation when the doors are locked you asshole,” I grumbled while pulling some sweatpants on.

“Just come out here, Thomas.”

I walked shirtless out to the front of the shop, yawning and scratching my chest, considering how difficult it would be to disconnect his head from his body so I could get back to sleep and then back to Annabel.

“Thomas!” I stumbled when a hard body launched itself at me and instinctively wrapped my hands around it to steady us both. I felt the softness of the white blonde hair. The slimness of their waist and the strength of their legs. “My love, I've been looking for you!”

I pulled back, eyes wide, to view the creature that looked correct but smelled all wrong, this one smelled of licorice, whereas the woman I’d known smelled of lavender and honey. When I inhaled her hair deeply, the faintest notes of lavender remained - but the sweetness, the honey, was gone.

“Monique,” I fumbled for words, taking inventory of her. Her eyes were pools of black and her hair was dirty, her clothes fit her body perfectly and were pristine like she’d just bought them, but her good looks couldn’t hide the fact that this woman was a predator. She had made no illusion of softness as she’d done in the past. This creature was like a razor blade. “What are you doing here?”

Yusuf stood awkwardly by the door, as if he was afraid she’d run and I tilted my head at him when his eyes widened to communicate his concern to me. I’d seen the look many times in our lives.

“I have been looking for you! I went home and you weren’t there - someone else was in the house and then I had to find you. I had to know you were okay.” She laid her cold hands on my cheeks and I cringed away from her touch. Too firm. She was too hard. She was like stone. “Now that we are all back together, we can go home. I took care of the people in the house - they will not bother us.”

My eyes flashed to Yusuf who was looking progressively more anxious, “Monique, are you saying you killed the people Yusuf sold the house to?”

She laughed, slightly too high for her typical laugh, more shrill, and desperate, “Yus would not sell our home. They were breaking and entering. I had every right to protect our property.”

“No darling, when you left and we couldn’t find you I sold the row house. That home belonged to them,” Yusuf paced his words slowly and spoke quietly as if she were a caged lion.

“Why would you do that? I was coming right back. Why would you get rid of our home? Our memories?” She tensed, eyes dialating and skin paling further, before she pulled herself back from the darkness, “No matter. They’re gone now, so we can go home.”

“Monique,” I spoke softly as she ran her hands lovingly through my hair. I dropped her waist and took a step back, “Monique, ma chérie, I’m not going anywhere with you. If you want to return with Yusuf, by all means, please do, but my life is here.”

She spat out the shrill laughter again, “oh yes, you are doing so well in your Halloween store, Thomas. Stop this, let us go and start over. The three of us together are perfect, we can fix anything. It is supposed to be the three of us.”

Gently, I cupped her cheek and lifted her upper lip with my thumb. My heart dropped at the elongated fangs. “Mo, put your fangs away.”

“Why? What does it matter?” She tightly wrapped her hands behind my neck, pulling me into her, and went to kiss my neck, which I quickly ducked away from.

“Monique, I need to see you put your teeth away, darling.”

“We aren’t going to hurt you, love, just do as Thomas asks,” Yusuf added from his guard station.

“No, this is ridiculous. I do not go around demanding to look at your teeth. Now pack your things, we have much to catch up on. I can hardly wait to hear of your adventures while we have been apart.”

I took another step away from her, “How long, Mo?”

She froze, her eyes widening, “How long, what, ma chérie?”

I sighed and dug my hands in the pockets of my sweatpants, “how long have you felt sick?”

Her tight, shrill giggle bounced and echoed through the large store, “I am not sick, Thomas. I was just ready for us to get back to life as normal so, here I am. I have you, and Yusuf, and the house, and we will go home and before you know it, it will be like none of this ever happened.” She flipped from anxious to lustful as she stepped toward me again, “I can not wait to show you exactly how much I missed you, my love.”

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