Chapter Eighteen
Austin
“Austin, what’s changed?”
Austin opened his mouth, heart aching. He wanted to confess she’d scared him.
Made him see all the cracks and flaws that never used to matter…
because he’d never met someone he desperately wanted to find him appealing.
That was the truth, he realized, he wanted Hyacinth to like him.
He was attracted to her, but it wasn’t because she was a pretty vessel.
He liked her, the woman inside the pretty vessel.
Liked how literal and subtly funny she was, how excited she was to feed small animals, and how she worried about being liked by others but didn’t try to be fake—Hyacinth was Hyacinth and she desperately wanted that to be enough for people.
He liked how she always snuggled up against him and eagerly wanted to stand beside him.
Like she fit there, like she was always meant to be in the crook of his arm or up against his side.
The words fell out of him like water off a cliff. “It seems silly to say, but I was afraid you wouldn’t like me. I’m a monster, after all.”
“You’re a…” she trailed off, furrowing her brows as she stared at him in confusion.
Austin’s face fell as he watched her put her fist against her chin.
Her gaze flitted around the room, searching for something.
Hyacinth hummed thoughtfully as she stalked around the slabs.
Snuffles stopped to wiggle his nose at her before falling in step with her.
“Hyacinth,” he laughed nervously, following her. “What are you looking for?”
“Hmm.” She grew louder, flipping things over in her hand.
The dead woman even stepped up to a slab and looked under it.
She quickly moved around the room, inspecting it all, causing him to rush after her.
She rummaged through buckets then moved to the trunks.
Hyacinth opened a box with her bare toes, investigated it with a grimace, then let the lid fall closed.
She stopped to snoop on the gurgling liquid in one of the many regeneration tanks.
Austin caught up to her every time only for her to slip out of reach seconds before he could ask again.
She stopped at the medical examination table once more. Finally she turned on her heel and faced him, “That’s odd.”
“What is?” He glanced around, baffled. What was she doing? What was all that?
“I don’t see any.” She pouted, shaking her head.
“Any what?” he blurted out.
“Monsters. In this room. Not. A single. One.” Hyacinth dropped her hands to the space behind her, swishing her hips back and forth happily like a smug little cat. She beamed up at him and Austin’s heart nearly burst from his chest.
“Hyacinth—”
“Austin,” she purred right back and stole the air from his lungs.
Dressed in only his shirt, her glittering eyes watching his face, she caused his lungs to clench up.
Inch by inch, she crept toward him till her knees knocked against his.
His chest filled with angry butterflies again.
Hyacinth spared a hand from behind her to the front of his shirt.
“A kiss to the forehead is for sweet dreams?”
“Yes?” He wheezed.
“And a kiss to the cheek means good morning,” she giggled, tugging on his shirt a little. Austin leaned forward. Her wings fluttered behind her as she pushed up on her toes.
“Yes,” He confessed. His heart thumped against the front of his ribs, attempting to flee his corpse.
“Then a kiss on the lips means what?”
“I…I don’t know.” He was simply breathless. Maybe I also got stabbed in the lungs. Her lips curled on her face. Wings fluttering faster, the candles around them dimmed a little from the change in airflow.
“Care to find out?” Her whispered words made his heart float away on a cloud of magic.
Austin’s eyes only stayed open long enough to see her lift another three inches in the air.
Then they slid closed as her lips found his.
He kept his hands out to his side, panicked and unsure of what they would do…
then her palms cupped his face, and he snatched her out of the air.
His hands wrapped around her hips and dragged her into his chest. Her kiss was soft at first, delicate like a flower petal.
Austin crushed it and smooshed it and flattened it against his mouth, chasing her taste.
Orange blossoms. Her lips tasted like orange blossoms and tart lemons and Earl Grey tea.
Like there was something soft and subtle, a tea with a splash of honey, but it was mixed with a bright citrus that wouldn’t be ignored.
Her lips parted and his tongue invaded her mouth eagerly.
Wanting nothing more than to know every inch of her.
Then hers joined the dance and suddenly, he sat her on the slab so he wouldn’t be tempted to twirl around.
Calm down. You need to calm down. He dropped his hands from her hips to press his palms flat against the cold metal.
She wrapped her legs around his waist and dragged him down with her.
Till she was spread across the slab, hair spread around her head, lips damp and eyes glowing lavender.
Austin leaned over the worktable, letting her break the kiss to catch her breath.
He sucked in air rapidly, unable to fill his desiccated lungs. Everything tasted like her.
“I think it means I like you,” she murmured, still panting heavily.
“Agreed,” he nodded rapidly. When his world stopped spinning, and he could actually focus on her, he found himself smiling.
Broadly. Happily. Excitedly. Her fingers roamed his cheeks down to his chest. Austin steadily inched backward, bringing her with till she was sat up and he plopped down onto a stool.
“I really like you,” he confessed.
“Good, I hoped that’s what that kiss meant,” she giggled, ducking her head.
He watched her fingers play with the hem of his shirt again.
Austin was at a loss for words. And thoughts too; head empty.
The smile on her face made his stomach twist up and heart flutter again.
They lingered in that sweet, quiet bubble for a long time, the pair trying to relearn how to breathe.
He honestly opened his mouth to ask if he could kiss her again when they heard a loud thump that was followed by the panicked scratching of claws. Which really wasn’t all that disconcerting if it wasn’t cut off by a loud scream.
“What happened?” Austin froze in the hallway, having found Melody on top of one of the end tables, Agatha clutched in her arms. His attention darted between the two then toward Smith who stood with a hand to his face. Carl sat with his tongue lulled out of his face, panting happy as could be.
“Everything’s fine, Austin,” Smith sighed.
“No! Everything is not fine!” Melody barked.
“It-it-it just came to life. One moment it was just a regular spider plant, the next it was an actual spider!” Agatha jabbed a finger at the only thing at the center of the running carpet.
The turned-over pot of the house plant that tended to dangle in the hallway, suddenly no longer where it belonged.
It was a spindly little plant with a morph that made it inky black and smokey gray in color.
What was smashed against the ground was fuzzy.
That’s not supposed to look like that. He grabbed the broom from Melody and poked at the pot.
16 spidery legs snapped to attention and jerked the pot up and off the floor.
Austin and Hyacinth jumped back in unison, Agatha shrieked again and nearly clawed her way into Melody’s chest cavity.
Smith sighed again and stomped his foot onto the pot.
The thing in the pot screamed. It was a small, wheezy sound, like a ghostly shriek muffled by the walls. Smith stared at Austin, even without having eyes, and Austin stammered, “Don’t look at me!”
“What is that!” Melody demanded, jabbing a clawed finger at the legs writhing outside the lip of the plant. It kicked and thrashed, the black bowl shifting left and right underneath Smith’s shoe. Austin grimaced.
“It was a plant,” Smith grumbled.
“It’s not a plant anymore,” Austin swatted at the fuzzy legs with the bristles of the broom. It didn’t like that. The pot immediately rumbled, nearly knocking Smith to the ground. Austin rushed to put his foot down on it when the legs thumped against the floor and flipped the bowl.
It was all legs, several fuzzy, long legs like a tarantula.
The center of the plant, once where the main stalk and bulb used to sit, was a mouth.
Teeth upon teeth upon teeth gnashed at him, all jagged and broken up like they’d been shattered.
Agatha and Melody shrieked again as Austin and Smith scrambled to grab the creature.
It skuttled away from them. Smith got ahold of one of its legs only to yell and drop it.
He pulled back a hand full of needle pins that stood straight up.
“What is that? Smith!” Melody roared.
Austin tried to sweep the thing into a corner, no longer content to grab it with his hand. I just put this one on! I don’t need to lose two in one day.
Havershum exploded out of the floor like a spinning top and buried his blade into the open maw of the plant.
Over and over, he stabbed the creature until its screams turned to gurgles and there was potting soil spilling onto the floor.
All of its legs stood straight up then curled inward with one last wheeze. Austin panted for air.
“Right on, Havershum.” Austin slapped the wraith on the back.
“By the dragons above, your timing is impeccable,” Smith wheezed. “Sweet girl, would you do me the horrific honors of plucking the quills from my hands.”
“You big baby,” Melody murmured affectionately as she climbed down off the end table.
“Need I remind you, that you were standing on a table?” he teased right back.