Chapter 9
Chapter
Nine
DAPHNE
There were definite benefits to having a galactic horror for a girlfriend.
This was the honeymoon stage. Knowledge was currency and Daphne was richer with each new revelation.
Celeste was truly celestial. She’d descended from the stars, a true cosmic being who’d chosen Earth as her hunting ground.
She was a creature who manufactured pheromones according to their prey of choice and exuded a natural aura that unraveled their victims from existence.
There were exceptions to that aura, which Daphne proved the longer she spent in Celeste’s company.
Because Daphne didn’t just remember Candace—she remembered Beth as well.
Celeste posited that it might be due to Daphne’s proximity to the feedings, building an immunity of sorts to Celeste’s aura.
Daphne found the idea fascinating. She found everything about Celeste fascinating.
If building an immunity to her aura was possible, perhaps one day she could see Celeste’s full true appearance.
“I wouldn’t dare risk your beautiful mind,” said Celeste, stroking lazy fingers across Daphne’s naked chest. They spent a great deal of time together naked these days.
Once Daphne fulfilled her daytime obligations of classes and assignments, she turned up at Celeste’s room.
She preferred the cozy space to her own room, even if it came in several shades of eye-smarting pink.
Celeste really loved the color, another small detail Daphne found charming.
They were possibly the most unlikely black cat/golden retriever relationship to exist. Celeste was bubbly, color-coordinated, loved Gossip Girl and Gilmore Girls and every teen drama in between.
A personality utterly at odds with Daphne, but she couldn’t deny how well they meshed.
Celeste peeled away her prim, tight layers until she reached the gooey center—in more ways than one.
Their bedroom play brought a blush to Daphne’s face whenever she thought about it, and she wanted more.
Sex with human men and women paled in comparison to the full body invasion that was Celeste.
Her biggest fear was wondering if she could ever reciprocate that mind-bending pleasure.
How could she ever be enough for something so wondrous?
There were definite downsides to having a galactic horror for a girlfriend too. Celeste didn’t rest like a human. Part of her mind was always aware though she would enter a meditative state while watching one of her shows. Daphne could tell by her stillness.
It was during those moments that other thoughts crept in.
She’d never lost herself in past relationships.
It was something Alex had complained about during their time together.
Perhaps Daphne was too adept at compartmentalizing the different aspects of her life.
She never lost herself in a partner’s arms for the weekend, carefree and thoughtless of her responsibilities. Or she hadn’t until Celeste.
Daphne wanted to spend every waking moment plastered to her side.
Being away felt like a physical ache. If she stayed away too long, her hands began to shake like an addict denied their favored substance, a comparison that might not be far from the mark.
Daphne was already enamored with Celeste, but that didn’t mean those pheromones weren’t still working on her.
Celeste admitted to her that she often emitted them without conscious effort.
It wasn’t like she had a history of dating humans rather than eating them to gauge biological consequences.
The resistance to Celeste’s aura was another matter, and Daphne wasn’t sure that it was a net positive.
It didn’t bother Daphne that her girlfriend ate people.
Her moral compass wasn’t built like that.
She was someone who had to study how others reacted to make sure she maintained a socially acceptable personality.
In many ways, being in Celeste’s company was a relief.
She didn’t have to pretend at social niceties with her cosmic horror girlfriend.
But during the quiet moments, Daphne found she hated the empty half of her dorm room.
She’d cleaned out Beth’s belongings quickly, in case the presence of physical objects exceeded the power of Celeste’s aura.
But none of Beth’s friends stopped by looking for her.
For the rest of the world, she’d never existed.
Daphne knew Celeste continued to feed because she began to note the missing faces in class or around campus.
The number seemed to spike with the frequency of their intimacy.
The correlation was not lost on Daphne. She was the literal lamb cuddling up to the lioness.
It left her with a strange, nebulous guilt.
Celeste was denying her instincts to be with Daphne, and from what she’d gleaned of her lovely cosmic entity, she’d been stalking the halls of this campus for decades.
The thought of their evidently differing lifespans left a hollow knot in Daphne’s stomach, which made her feel ridiculous.
They’d just begun to date. How could she be so tangled up in the future?
Maybe because a small, secret part of her could see a future with Celeste. A strange, somewhat bloody future, but a future to be sure. Something she’d never seen with Alex or anyone else.
Another unfortunate byproduct of Celeste’s accelerated feeding schedule was now there was a lack of curvy bitchy buffers between her and the ex.
Daphne didn’t realize how dangerous this was for her until she had to stay late to finish her labs.
At her request, Celeste hadn’t devoured her lab partner, but Daphne had spent so much time with her new squeeze, the work was starting to pile up.
Finally turning in her work with minutes to spare, Daphne emerged into a mostly empty building, the lecture rooms dark.
A lone janitor buffed the linoleum at the far end of the hall.
Shouldering her bag, Daphne lamented missing the dining hall, hoping to snag takeout with Celeste, when Alex popped out of the unisex bathrooms.
“Daphne, you’re still here?” His gaze crawled up her form, his leer making her skin crawl. Now that his conquests were snuffed from existence, she was suddenly a viable target again. “You’re looking good lately. Like you finally got a good night’s sleep.”
Ugh, how had she ever found him charming?
He wasn’t wrong, though. Celeste left her well and truly fucked and tucked in every night. A small smile played on her lips at the thought. “Good night, Alex.” She started to move past him when his fingers clamped on her arm. She stared up at him, brows knotted in annoyance. “Let go of my arm.”
“Don’t be like that, Daphne. Why don’t you come have a drink with me?” He released her to run his fingers along her skin. She shuddered at the touch. “We used to have a lot of fun, you and me.”
A number of responses ran through her mind, witty retorts where she stripped away his manhood with every word, but she couldn’t seem to push through the seething anger that choked her.
Her fingers twitched with the urge to squeeze his neck until his eyes popped out of their sockets.
But Daphne wasn’t Celeste, and assaulting a faculty member would get her booted out of here and probably arrested.
You could ask Celeste to eat him.
The thought immediately soured. Celeste wasn’t an attack dog. She was brilliant, bubbly, and beautiful. Alex was Daphne’s cross to bear. Plus, if anyone was going to take revenge, Daphne wanted to carry it out herself.
Finding her voice, Daphne looked up at him. “I’d rather eat shit.” Not an eloquent reply but it got the message across. Alex’s fingers stopped their pitiful dance over her arm and clamped down with bruising force.
“You stupid bitch,” he sneered, leaning in so close she could smell the dining hall curry lunch on his breath. “You think I want anything more than a pity fuck? You couldn’t do better if you tried.”
“Let go of me!” Daphne shouted the words in his face, prying at his hand. She was seconds from kneeing him in the balls when the janitor perked up at the commotion.
“Everything okay here?”
The coward immediately let her go. Alex plastered on a mollifying smile, turning slightly to address the janitor.
Daphne didn’t wait for another opening, bolting from the building.
Her arm throbbed. A distant pain compared to the cold rage festering in her gut, a pit of ice that sank down to her toes.
She was shivering when she arrived at Celeste’s room.
It was empty, and for once Daphne was grateful.
She kicked off her shoes, stripping down to her underwear before she crawled into the tangled blankets on the bed.
Surrounded by their commingling scents, Daphne hugged a pillow against her face and let out the scream that had been building since she fled the building.
She screamed and screamed until her throat was raw.
It wasn’t enough.