Chapter 17 Toothsome Monsters
Xiaoyu
Somebody’s guzzling down soy sauce beside me. And no, it’s not just the soy sauce, it’s the actual bottle. She’s pushing it down like it’s going out of style. She’s making odd, obscene noises that have me recoiling and backing away.
My eyes sweep all over the room, and I see white walls, white plastic furniture, a spotless canteen with uniform girls shoving Datu Puti soy sauce down their throats.
When I open my eyes from what clearly was a dream, there’s a tangy taste in my mouth. It feels weird, cottony like spiders just laid eggs on my tongue. It’s dark here so I sit up, squinting.
Fire crackles, the orange glow forming a fugue where it’s all I see. Slowly, a face comes to light. It’s Datu, but he’s not his usual self. He looks pensive. Almost regretful.
“You okay?” My voice is so raspy I had to clear it.
His gaze finds mine, and he smiles, the expression melting away.
I’m oddly disturbed at how easy he can just code-switch every time I catch him like that.
He stands and—without any warning—picks me up and carries me closer to the fire.
He settles us down in front of what looks like a wooden table cluttered with all kinds of fruits and meat over a banana leaf.
My stomach growls loud. It’s hard not to be embarrassed, but Datu doesn’t mind.
He even makes a chuckling noise like he thinks it’s endearing.
Memories of last night are starting to trickle back in.
If what I felt last night was any indication of his hunger, it makes sense why he would find mine endearing.
Mine is an eye of a needle while his is a crater.
He sits me upon his lap, and for some reason, I feel cherished. I lean into him, and before I know it, I’m counting calories. I feel disrespectful as I pick at the food that has just been given to me.
He makes a low, disapproving noise in his throat.
“I’m sorry, force of habit.” I smile before tearing the big piece of meat on the platter. Well, tried to.
He takes it from my hands and uses his long, sharp claws to cut my food into smaller pieces.
Something inside me flutters as he begins feeding me.
It elicits a weird emotion—a sort of camaraderie that cuts through my skin.
My heart is out of tune as he noses the crown of my head, his other hand stroking my waist.
I’m on my third bite when I finally hear him.
“I love filling you up,” his voice is a husky whisper.
My mouth clamps close and I clench my thighs together—just now realizing that I’m still smeared with whatever the hell is there.
“I noticed,” I respond dryly. I’m hyperaware of the hardness against my tailbone.
God, I can’t even put into words what the hell happened before I passed out. Looking back now, I had looked like I was being mauled by a demonic entity.
It’s difficult not to think of it without worrying about the job I was sent here to do. Some part of me just wants to get lost in the feeling, but I thought of the sprouts. Of Captain Moriarty coming to collect.
It’s enough to dampen my libido. When Datu holds another piece to me, I shake my head.
“You gotta explain to me what happened earlier. Why did the captain call you…” I trail off.
“My lord?”
I nod, my throat feeling tight. I can’t see him right now, but he’s too still against me.
“I told you before I knew too much of humanity. Not in the way of history, literature…but religion.”
The silence is so loud, I can hear the vacuum of space.
“I still retain godhood because many humans worship me.”
The tattoos. Mother was right. This is it. The bitter frosting on the moldy cake. The cherry on top of the steaming pile of shit. My skin prickles, goosebumps covering me. Before I do anything I regret, I push myself off his lap then turn to his direction.
He’s watching me with wary, glowing eyes. He threads his fingers together between his knees. His deep violet hair falls over one shoulder before my eyes begin to sting when I look at him too long.
“Humans…you mean bad humans?”
He doesn’t respond, stops breathing, even. I know I’ve been going with the flow, not making a big deal out of his contempt for us, but it’s starting to get to me. Why had I thought this was some sort of insane love story?
“Does it matter? They’re all the same in my eyes.”
A chill runs down my spine at how unbothered and indifferent he sounds.
This was it—those light-hearted smiles, the c’est la vie attitude had been to hide something dark.
I had liked Datu a lot because he’d been so open and amenable.
Now, I feel like a complete fool. Something ugly begins to fester in my chest.
A fury is sparked inside me, and it isn’t driven by hunger. The feeling washes away all the fuzzy feelings, and now, I’m fighting for my dignity that has been trampled on too much. A self-worth that had never shown manifests itself now.
“Is that what you think of me, too? Have you been thinking you’re just slumming it with a human because I can fix a few problems?” My voice is cutting.
He tilts his head down, the cold gaze turning into a glare. He doesn’t answer back, though, and I’m growing frustrated.
“Answer me!” I hiss.
“I have very strong feelings against your kind who worship me. They have distorted every single thing I exist for.” His answer is deflection.
“What did they do? Built a cult for you?” It’s a crazy thought, but I know as soon as it leaves my mouth, it’s true. My breathing becomes uneven as I think of all the men, women back home with all the full-body vine tattoos. I had thought it was just some sort of trend that got out of hand.
“Atrocious things are done in my name.”
He’s not saying no either. Whatever this cult is, it’s the reason why he has enough power to keep this island from dying. A noble act that stems from so many cruel deeds.
“I have never asked anything from the humans, but it seems like they are easily corrupted by power. They take more from me as much as I gain from their twisted devotion.”
Shakily, I pick up the toga from the floor.
The bed I had woken up from was just a hole on the ground lined with webs of silken leaves.
As I look around, I find that we aren’t at his altar in the forest at all.
We’re back inside that rooty cave where Teva had hid him.
The dais that he’d been trapped in is where he stares menacingly at me now.
“Alright, yeah, I agree. Some, but not all. For a god who is more than a millenia-year-old, that’s a very limiting point of view.” I snap.
His jaw clenches, and I can almost see shadows of a spiked cowl flexing like a King Cobra’s when he hears that.
He’s insulted by my words. Crazy how I’d never thought how much vitriol he had for me until now.
I cover myself before I tell him I’m going out to get some air.
I don’t want to say things out of anger.
My number one motive here is to save the sprouts, not to spare my feelings.
“Listen, I understand what you have to do and all, but I would appreciate it if you stop romancing me. Stop coming into my dreams uninvited. It’s confusing.” With that, I turn toward the mouth of the cave. “I need to think, give me a few—”
Like a coiled snake, he seizes me by the back of my neck with one hand. I’m twisted, dragged into him until his lips crushes mine. I’m frozen in place as he angrily kisses me, demanding my submission.
“You do not tell me what to do, Xiaoyu.”
I slam my hands over his chest, pushing him away, but it’s made in vain. His fingers dig into my skin, my hair, and I feel smothered and sacred at the same time. There’s a sharp nip, tug until my mouth drops open in shock. He just bit me!
Taking that opportunity, his tongue pillages me, and I can’t help it. I kiss him back…then bite him.
Like the freak he is, he doesn’t jump away in pain.
Instead, he pauses and presses his forehead against mine, breathing hard.
There’s a purple glow trickling down his lip.
Is that his blood? Our bodies have melted into each other, and I feel him.
His…thing. There’s a thrumming surrounding us that’s much like a chuckle.
“Let go of me.” I’m proud that I could still muster to sound so opposing when my body yearns to be dominated. My body’s a slut. Datu is smoke in my head. I don’t know how to recover when I’m so close to him. He makes me feel things that aren’t real.
“Why question your desire for me, my sweet dreamer? You’ve sought me out without even knowing me. Now, you deny me.”
He cradles my head and dips his lips to mine again. The kiss is chaos. I can’t tell which is left or right anymore as my nails dig into his shoulders. He yanks me up, and I wrap my legs around his hips.
The air wooshes. There’s unrelenting rage in the way he grips my neck. He forces me off him and buries my face against sheets. Shit, I didn't even realize we had moved. I squirm, and he lets up ever so slightly. Just a smidge enough that I could breathe.
“No one has ever talked to me the way you do, Xiaoyu.” He says as he rips the toga away from me. “So disrespectful.”
I’m there, naked, my face against the bed with my ass up in the air. Wrists in his tight grip. So, so vulnerable. I’m shuddering, but I’m not sure if it’s from fear or anticipation.
“Fuck you, Datu.” I spit out.
Oh, god, I should not have said that. Something moist and hard presses up against my ass, and it’s not his fingers. I know he’s still upright, so the only possible thing that could do that is—snap!
“Thank fuck.” He growls and something prods me harder against my back opening. “You’re making me want to fuck you in the ass the more you struggle.”
I panic, attempting to rise, but he keeps my head shoved down. He leans into me, covering my body and snarls against my ear. His chest thunders while his voice whispers a dirty secret.
“Your words mean nothing to me. Now, I only respond to what your body wants—and it wants me to fuck you in that tight little cunt.”