Chapter 6
My jaw tightens. Saliva builds on my tongue.
“I’m correct, aren’t I?” Lowell prods, pressing a smile to my cheek. I worry he can feel how fast my heart is beating.
“I don’t understand what you mean,” I say, my hands trembling. I grip my fork discreetly, remnants of vegetables still clinging to the prongs.
He’s smart enough not to give me a knife.
Lowell’s tail swings behind him as he excitedly huffs my scent, dragging his nose from my jaw to my shoulder.
I slowly sway my wrist, gauging Lowell’s attention — or lack thereof — over any other part of my body.
He’s distracted. I think, watching his shoulders relax with another deep inhale.
“You smell delicious,” he mumbles, dragging his tongues across my chin. Goosebumps rise over my arms, a small shiver shaking my hips.
For a moment, I’m lost in the sensation, Lowell’s fevered breathing enveloping me in covetous warmth while his arms cage me to my chair. Despite every reason to be afraid, I find myself melting as though I’m back at home, wrapped in a plush comforter.
It’s been many years since someone has been this close to me, threatening or otherwise. A life of solitude has made me dangerously starved of touch, my thoughts and desires now bordering on irrational.
Like being splashed with cold water, I’m thrust back into reality when a fang grazes my jawbone. Muscles seize at the sharpness, a pinch of pain accompanying the softness of the pressure.
“Don’t like that?” Lowell teases, rocking his fangs back and forth.
I stifle a yelp when my skin gives in to the fang, breaking through the delicate barrier. Blood beads from the wound, hot and stinging.
I can’t just sit here and let him kill me.
Shifting my upper body in discomfort, I grip my fork tighter, my knuckles protruding.
As Lowell continues with his fixation on biting at my neck and jaw, the pliable scales of his neck reveal themselves each time he twists his head. The underside shines in the candlelight, open and begging to be speared.
I’m never going to get an opportunity like this again.
When Lowell’s jaw widens to deepen his bite, I take my opening.
I lift the fork up and behind my head, my elbow bent and eyes locked on his neck. With a sudden jerk, I throw my entire upper body weight into my throw, the fork prongs slicing through the air on their way to pierce the soft scales.
I gasp when a hand wraps around my neck, another pinning my wrist back down to the table. The pressure forces me to choke, my feet lifting off the ground.
Lowell laughs heartily, his shoulders shaking jovially. “Do you really think you can hurt me with a fork?” He rips the metal from my grasp. “You’re such a killjoy. I was enjoying myself.”
In a swift motion, he drives the fork straight into his upper thigh. He grinds the prongs deep into the scales before pulling it out, the silver devoid of blood.
“You’ll need a lot more than some shitty fork to hurt me,” Lowell snarls, tossing the fork across the room to clatter to the ground.
He brings me in closer, opening his maw as wide as it will allow.
“I even told you nicely to beg, and you still refused. I made it clear that if you’re even the slightest bit difficult, I’ll eat you.
And yet you push me.” His voice is muffled by the way his mouth hangs open, drool dripping to my face.
“Because I never trusted that you’d let me leave alive,” I rasp, swinging my feet beneath me. Lowell’s warmed hands are now searingly hot as his claws pinch my skin.
As I slowly lose air, a bolt of adrenaline bubbles through my blood.
Like an old engine starting back up for the first time in years, my brain recalls decades-old muscle memory I swore I’d forgotten. Using the tip of my foot, I kick into the space above Lowell’s groin that is just below his rib cage. A place that is particularly vulnerable for Lizardfolk.
Lowell sputters out a curse, releasing me as he stumbles backward with wheezing gasps.
Time slows as the heel of my shoe hits the stone floors, actions controlled by instinct rather than critical thinking. I scramble to find anything sharp, settling on a plate I break in half on the table’s edge, holding it by the blunt end.
I don’t give Lowell a moment to breathe. He can end me with one swipe of his claws, and I won’t allow him the opportunity. Running at him with my makeshift knife, I attempt to strike his chest. He dodges easily, recovering quicker than anticipated to maintain a defensive stance.
I swing again in retaliation but am tripped by something that sweeps at my feet: Lowell’s tail. I catch myself before I can stumble to the ground, the tail wrapping around my free wrist with a tug.
Shit.
Gritting my teeth, I drive the sharp end of the plate into his tail, but the porcelain doesn’t pierce the reinforced dark-grey scales. I keep striking until the plate shatters in my hands, slicing my palms open. A bright red streams down my wrist and forearm, shards still embedded at the seam.
Lowell whips me towards him until I collide with his chest, grabbing my arms in his fists. His smile is crazed.
“Wow, how entertaining. Most humans don’t even attempt to resist my strength, you know? They all accept the outcome. It’s less gruesome that way.” He laughs, his eyes wild. The amber color is almost-blinding. “Yet here you are, a fussy little human, trying your best to fight back.”
Lifting my palm to his lips, he laps up the dribbles of blood from my wound. I instinctively yank my hand away, the gentleness of his tongues ticklish, but his tail only tightens.
Lowell hums, bringing his tongues to his lips. “It only makes me want you more.”
No.
I have to fight back. Do something… I have to.
Leaning back as far as I can, I launch forward to headbutt his snout. My forehead connects with the cartilage and bone of his nose with a loud crack.
Lowell grunts in pain, falling backward from the force, dragging me with him as we tumble to the floor. I land on his chest, my face and hands slapping against the exposed scales, rattling my brain inside my skull.
With an exasperated exhale, Lowell flips our positions, pinning me to the ground by my neck as he straddles my waist. Hovering above me, a sinister smirk rests on his mouth.
“You’re feisty, aren’t you? It’s a shame it has to end here. I like a fight,” Lowell hisses, moist, hot air blowing from his nostrils. His eyes slip to my mouth, tongues wiping blood across his teeth. “Now be a good girl and hold still while I eat you.”
I reach for his chest, vehemently trying to push him away with the last of my strength. My heart pounds in my ears while my body rattles with fear. Fingertips claw at his neck, pressing into the squishy, bouncy muscles as deep as they’ll allow.
How can scales be so soft?
Air becomes difficult to breathe as my windpipe is slowly crushed, any words coming out as a hollow whine.
I flex my hands, the pads of my fingertips drawing a line down Lowell’s neck to his clavicle. The scales become harder and less pliable to my touch as I drag them to his sturdy, muscled chest.
My lips part.
The light in the room dims as Lowell’s maw spans farther over my face, his teeth inches from my nose. A bead of his saliva falls to the corner of my mouth, remaining there for only a moment until I lick it away, the taste salty from the meats.
I writhe and wriggle beneath him, my nails repeatedly scraping up his chest to his neck, following the silky-smooth scales up to his hardened jaw. I give a gentle shove each time my hands graze over his pectoral muscles. I don’t stop trying to push him off of me, no matter how useless.
Annoyed, Lowell grunts as he lifts his knee between my legs to halt my squirming. He inadvertently presses into a bundle of nerves that I didn’t realize were waiting to be touched, a sultry moan escaping my throat as my back arches off the ground.
The relief is euphoric, coupled with the taste of his saliva still on my tongue.
My chest collides with Lowell’s as I seek a deeper touch, hips grinding thoughtlessly into his thigh to prolong the shiver of pleasure that ripples through me.
As my heart hammers in my chest, my lower body continues to throb as the desire to press my face deeper into his throat takes over me.
The prickling fear mixes with Lowell’s addictive scent and touch, the intoxicating concoction making my brain spin in circles.
I can’t discern which body part to take orders from anymore.
His fiery breath dissipates my thoughts, wafting over me like fog over a lake in spring. The stillness that comes from being so close to finality calms my overactive, anxious mind.
Lowell pauses his carnivorous descent, pressing his nose to my neck to sniff it intensely.
“Ha!” he laughs, cocking his head to peer at me with one eye. The amber iris appears more like a blaze than a gentle pool of honey, illuminating me like a spotlight. “Fuck,” a growl rumbles from his throat. “The scent of your arousal is only getting stronger.”
My eyes widen so far I fear they’ll fall out.
“Huh?” I sputter in disbelief, wiggling beneath him.
Lowell sniffs the air, narrowing his eyes while he lifts his gaze in thought.
“I can smell your fear… but also the distinct sweet smell of arousal. It was faint before, but now it’s suffocatingly fragrant.
” He flashes his teeth in a crooked smile, tongues sliding over his fangs.
“You’re horny to be devoured, huh? Fucking filthy. ”
My palms push at Lowell’s chest defiantly, sinking into myself with embarrassment. “That’s not true,” I say weakly, swallowing the lump in my throat.
But it is true. Sickeningly so. I don’t have a clue why my body is so hot, why Lowell’s scales feel like heaven beneath my fingers, or why his maw around my neck and face make my heart race and my face blush.
All I understand is that I want his mouth around me, and his claws to grip tighter over my neck and wrists.
I don’t know who I am anymore, or what’s becoming of me, what he’s doing to me.
But I want to find out.