Damaged Gods

And in a few minutes, she will walk out of here. And maybe she thinks about me on that drive into town, but the moment the sheriff shows up, her mind will be wiped. She will swoon over him.

This is my last chance to stop it. Not by forbidding her from going, either. That will just make her like him more. I take four steps and close the distance between us. She looks startled for a moment and takes a step back. But there’s nowhere to go in this little bathroom. She’s trapped.

“What are you doing?”

I reach for the string of the amulet and then tug on the top of her dress to open it up. I dangle the amulet pouch over her cleavage—our eyes locked on each other—and then I drop it down inside.

She lets out a breath. “O-kaaay. What’s this about?”

I don’t take my eyes off her. But my hand comes up and my knuckles gently swipe down the side of her cheek. “You will be careful tonight.”

She tries to swipe my hand away, but I grab her wrist.

“Do you hear me, Pie?”

“Yeah. I hear you. I said I would.”

“You’re not taking this seriously. You’re up here, dancing around, doing your hair, putting on makeup like this is going to be fun.”

“It could be fun.”

I stare at her for a long moment, nodding. “It could. But it’s unlikely, Pie.” My hand slips down and I place my palm on the side of her neck, my thumb caressing the little dent of her throat. Then I slide my fingers around the back of her neck and squeeze just a little. She gasps. Her eyes are locked on mine. Like she’s powerless. Like she’s caught. And she is. The satyr blood coursing through my veins might not be good for much, but it is good for this. I can hold them captive with my sexuality. And I do that now.

I feel myself starting to become excited, so I close my eyes and will that desire back into submission, then open them again, completely in control when I lean down and touch my lips to hers. I do not kiss her. One breath. That’s what we exchange. One breath of my essence slips into her mouth and she swallows. I feel the muscles of her throat move when she consumes my claim.

Then I pull back, release my hand, and back out of her room, only turning around once I reach the stairs. I go down, leave the cottage, and walk up the hill where I sit on the ruin of a stone tomb and watch as she leaves her cottage, walks through the gate, and goes into town for her date.

Then I walk back to her cottage and wait for her to come home.

Because I am going to make her tell me everything.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN - PIE

What did he just do to me?

It wasn’t a kiss. Our lips barely touched. It was something else. He… I dunno. He gave me a breath. It’s like the way he breathed into the amulet pouch earlier today. Magic. He filled me up with something. I could feel it enter me. He’s inside me now.

For a moment I’m not sure if this is creepy or erotic. Then a familiar throbbing begins between my legs and that mystery is solved.

Wow. My life is seriously weird.

And the weirdest part isn’t that I was given a breath of magic from a satyr chimera. The weirdest part is that I’m standing in a bathroom getting ready to go on a date with a cupid so I can distract him from the fact that I now live in a cursed cemetery filled with stone monsters and my master is now a guy called Pell who has horns and hooves.

No. That’s not the weirdest part. The weirdest part is I might be OK with this.

Oh, sure. I’m putting up the good fight. I tell Pell that I’m gonna break that curse and move on.

But… is that really what I’m doing here?

I just stand there in the bathroom, looking at myself in the mirror for several minutes. Thinking about how I got to this moment in time. Because this is when I fully internalize that I might actually be insane.

Sure, I always kinda knew this. But it was a little bit cute, right? My quaint imaginary talking friend, the sparrow. It was like how some people embrace a stupid hairstyle or have a thing for ugly vintage clothes. Just a fun, quirky piece of me. Part of my character that made me unique.

But I dunno if I buy that anymore.

I let out a long breath, then turn and look at the room. It’s so pretty. I like it. I like all this stuff, actually. I might even like that sheriff. I’m even starting to turn the corner on Pell. I’m not sure how he did it, but that breath-kiss didn’t hurt his likeability score, that’s for sure.