Chapter 13 #3
“Is Hattie dead?” I don’t mean to interrupt him, but I can’t help it. My face turns toward the shower, and something like hope strangles in my chest, for a girl I barely knew but who probably saved my life.
“I don’t know.”
“Oh.”
“Was that your second question?”
I lean back again, the top of the tank digging uncomfortably into my upper back. “No.”
His sigh is audible over everything, even Moro’s panting. “Of course it wasn’t.”
I consider throwing something at him, though I’m sure it would lose its efficacy when I have to lob it over the glass shower door.
Not only that, but I don’t want to risk knocking over the mess of half-empty bottles in my shower I will undoubtedly have to deal with in the morning, along with the blood.
“Something was calling my name. But it sounded weird, you know? Sort of recognizable, but sort of not. That’s why I went to the stairwell.
But when I got there, it was just one of them.
One of you.” God, I don’t know how to refer to them, when Cairo seems so different from the creatures that ripped Sam and the others apart.
“I can’t really explain it right to make it make sense, I guess. Sorry. That’s not really a question.”
There’s silence in the bathroom, apart from the spray of water and Moro’s panting. She’s stretched out on the bed and mostly asleep now, not looking like she has any intention of going on another midnight jaunt in the woods.
“Fern?” The voice that comes from the shower makes the hair on the back of my neck stand on end, and I nearly choke on air. It’s a strange mix of many voices and nothing all at once, just like that night.
“They’re starving, Fern.” Hattie’s voice echoes in the shower, and I give a full-body shudder and bolt to my feet on the floor.
“How are you?—”
“Any allergies?” It takes a few seconds for me to remember the voice of the cook in the staff kitchen.
“Stop.”
“We’re all sort of unwell here. I’ll need a little more than that to know who you mean.” I have no idea how he’s mimicking my conversation with Sam so perfectly, or how he heard it, but my heart races in response.
“I said stop!” I all but yell. Every part of me is on edge, but thankfully, Cairo doesn’t do it again. The shower door opens, hitting me with a face full of steam. Before I can go anywhere at all, Cairo is in front of me and his hands come up to cradle my face as he drips onto the bathmat below us.
“I’m a monster, Fern,” he purrs, in a voice that’s barely human. “No matter how you want to look at me and differentiate me from the others that night, I’m still just as much of a monster as them.”
“But you look?—”
“Mostly human?” He strokes his thumb over my lower lip, and my brain unhelpfully reminds me that he’s naked, and all I’m wearing is my sleep shorts and thin t-shirt.
“Don’t you think that’s the point? It’s much easier to get close to you like this, to get close to any human, when we don’t look like monsters. ”
I have so many questions, but the only one that comes out of my mouth is the one I didn’t want to ask.
“Why did you save me?”
We stand there, with his hands on my face and my fingers coming up to grip his wrists, though I’m not pulling him away.
My heart rushes in my chest, protesting and trying to get free from the monster in front of us, who has the most beautiful eyes I’ve ever seen.
Especially in the dark, when they catch and reflect little bits of light.
“I don’t know,” Cairo admits finally, and there’s a raw honesty in his words I can’t help but believe.
“I don’t think I’ve decided yet. But you should be more careful, little bird.
” The nickname makes my stomach twist, and I tell myself it’s from fear, even as he pushes me a step back so I’m pressed against my bathroom counter and Cairo is only inches from me.
“Why?”
“Because I haven’t decided if I’m willing to save you again…
or if next time, I’ll be the one coming to kill you.
” Without warning, he lunges forward in a smooth and graceful motion that’s too fast for me to even register, and his lips press against mine.
It’s sweet for all of a second until I feel the prick of his teeth on my bottom lip.
Cairo takes advantage of my small, surprised sound, by licking his tongue into my mouth like he’s trying to taste me. The realization that he is, sends a shiver through me, and I grip his wrists tighter until my nails are digging into his skin—not that he seems to mind.
When he pulls away, it seems to be difficult for him, and he gives a little sound that’s not entirely human while running a hand through his hair. “Go away, Fern,” Cairo sighs, eyes flashing as he looks at me sidelong. “Let me get dressed and leave before I do something I’ll probably regret.”
“Like what?” I can’t keep the words from coming out of my mouth, and his strangled scoff is half exasperation, half amusement.
“Like eat you.”
The following click of his teeth is enough to send me walking out of the bathroom, though I do, at least, manage not to run as I stride past Moro with a quick, nervous touch to her fur.
Then I head back to the living room, as if distance will protect me from the creature in my bathroom and his taste that lingers on my lips longer than it should.