11. Arlo
CHAPTER ELEVEN
ARLO
“This is the most boring show I’ve ever seen. How do you watch this shit?”
I flick Micha’s ear, earning a grin. “You’ve been here five minutes. Can you shut up and enjoy it?”
He rolls his eyes, settling into the couch and crossing his arms. Micha got back from the graveyard not long ago, and the only reason I’m still awake is to catch him on his way in.
We do this most nights now, and I pretend it’s because of my sleep schedule, that I prefer being awake at this time, but that’s not the truth.
Frankly, I’m head over heels obsessed with my older stepbrother.
There’s no telling how he feels about me. Micha is hot and cold. He teases me and then ignores me. He playfights and then insults. I don’t feel like I’m ever on stable ground with him.
“How was your session today?” he asks after a short bout of quiet.
“It was good.” I hold out my hand to show the fresh tattoo, ink spreading from my fingers to connect with the other tattoos at my wrist. My sleeve is officially completed, thanks to Micha.
He hands me money without question for whatever I want; I don’t need to ask.
He leaves it in my bedroom. Micha may be hard to understand, but he’s always protected me.
Even if I wasn’t always able to see it.
“Do you have any space on your body for more?” he laughs, grabbing my fingers and twisting my hand to examine it. Sparks shoot up my arm, and I’m forced to bite my lip to stop myself from drooling over the smallest touch.
“The bottom of my feet?”
He looks at me, face deadpan and delicious. I think this man was genuinely carved by gods.
“You’re kidding, right?”
I laugh and bring back my hand before I cum in my jeans. “I’m too ticklish for that.”
“Oh, is that so?”
I already regret what I said before he lunges over, attacking my ribs with his fingers.
I fall back against the couch, trying to get away from him whilst unwelcome laughs mix with protesting shouts.
Micha covers me with his large build, pinning me to the cushions as he commits this crime against me.
“Had enough, Pipsqueak?”
“Yes,” I pant, hand on my heart as I try to catch my breath. “Never do that again.”
“Do what? This?” I slap his hand away as he reaches for my side.
“Yes. That. Stop it.”
He smirks, and the volume from the television seems to disappear. The darkness of the room envelops us, and now I understand how close we are. Micha’s between my legs, one arm beside my head holding him up, and it would be so easy to hook my ankles around his waist.
“What are you thinking?” he asks quietly, lowering the tiniest amount, eyes focused on the bottom half of my face.
I can’t take this. He loops me in, gets me close, and shoves me away. I know better than to let it happen a millionth time.
“Nothing,” I answer, and he finally looks into my eyes.
“Liar.”
“Am not.”
“Are too.”
“Not.”
His lips rise in a smirk, and it drags me to stare at them, unable to look away. He pulls the bottom one into his mouth, and I nearly lose all hope, my cock jerking behind my joggers.
“Your hair looks nice today.” That’s all he has to say? That my hair looks nice? “Very pullable.”
Oh.
Heat rises to my cheeks before I can tame it.
“Look at you blushing,” he whispers, leaning down to breathe in my ear. “So cute and pathetic.”
“Fuck,” I breathe out before I can stop myself, and he pulls back an inch to stare at me.
“Something the matter?” I shake my head quickly. “You sure? Because I can feel your hard cock against my leg, Arlo.”
My eyes widen. I didn’t realise he could feel it. I’m so done for.
“You embarrassed? Would reassuring you that I’m just as hard help you relax?”
I nearly choke on an inhale. “Micha…”
He looks like he’s about to kiss me, but then he stops, eyes scrunching shut.
My heart breaks as he pushes back, moving away from me and sitting on the other edge of the couch, rubbing his face with his hands. I stare up at the ceiling, heart cracking as I try to catch my breath.
Rage rises to the surface the longer I lie here.
“Are you kidding me?” I shout, sitting up and facing the unspoken business between Micha and me. “That was too far. You want to toy with my heart? Fine. It was okay when I thought I was misreading things or getting my hopes up. But that, Micha? That was cruel.”
He can’t look at me when he says, “Arlo, I—”
“No,” I snap in a rare show of anger. It takes a lot to upset me, but I’ve had enough. “Just stay away from me, Micha. Stop using me as some sort of entertainment. I’m a person with a heart. And despite you lacking that, it doesn’t make me want you any less. I can’t take it anymore.”
I shove off the couch and stride to my room, slamming the door behind me.
My back presses against it, and I slide down until my face is stuffed between my propped-up knees.
The tears creep down before I can wipe them away, and the sobs that break free are near silent, but I can’t keep it locked down anymore.
He said a new circus will be in town in two weeks.
He said he wanted to take me.
And I thought, stupidly, that my feelings might have been reciprocated.
I’m in love with Micha. I have been for years.
But I’m nothing but a toy to him.
Present Day
“Is she still out there?”
Micha pulls away from the window, letting the curtain drop. “Yeah, she’s there. She’s waiting for us.”
My heart slams against my chest. Nervousness? Excitement? I’m not sure.
I’d looked out the window to see Karma on the other side of the road, waiting beside a wall. If it weren’t for her green eyes staring directly at our window, I would have missed her.
“Why do you think she came back for us?”
He huffs, slipping on his jacket. “Probably to eat us, Arlo. Are you sure you want to go down there?”
I nod, tying my lace. “She was all freaked out last night. After…” I don’t finish that sentence, and Micha raises an eyebrow.
“After you fucked her mouth.”
“Yes, exactly.” I stand and take a key off the hook. “I don’t think she’ll eat us. And that guy was looking for her. I’ve been worried.”
“You are worried about her?” he asks dumbfoundedly, and I turn before I open the door.
“What is your issue, Micha? You talk like she’s some kind of monster, but then you’re holding her face as she sucks my cock?”
“She is a monster. You’ve seen her. She isn’t human.”
“So what?”
“So what?” He laughs, stepping back and rubbing a hand over his face. He does that when he gets frustrated; he’s never been good at expressing his emotions. “We saw her eat a person, Arlo. You were terrified of her despite your hard cock.”
He’s not wrong. I was—am—incredibly scared. But she’s different. In a way that I can’t quite comprehend. Sure, she looks drastically unlike most people, but it suits her so well. And yes, she eats people, but everyone’s got their flaws, don’t they?
Well, maybe not eating humans for dinner. I’m not sure how to wrap my head around that.
“Are you telling me you’re not the slightest bit curious about her?”
Micha turns his head to the curtained window. He looks deep in thought.
I sigh. “You were wrong about me. Maybe you’re wrong about her too.”
“How was I wrong about you?”
“You didn’t think I’d be able to handle you. You thought you would hurt me beyond repair.”
“Arlo, if she gets her teeth in you, you will be hurt beyond repair.”
I shrug and open the door. “Maybe. But if I can let my scary security guard stepbrother tug me off in an alleyway, then I can see what my sexy circus stalker wants. Join me if you’d like. I’m not forcing you.”
I walk out of the apartment without looking back, but there’s no doubt in my mind that Micha is following. He’s my protector before anything.
There is a semblance of truth in his warning. I am nervous. Karma usually waits for us to find her in the shadows, not the other way around, and it’s still morning. We haven’t seen her if it’s not nighttime.
When I’m on the roadside, looking at her from across the street, my nervousness starts to increase. My fear is what makes her hungry, so I take a deep breath and remember the feeling of her mouth around my cock. That immediately helps calm me down.
As soon as my foot steps onto the tarmac of the road, she takes a step back, like a challenge. She’s asking if we’ll follow her into the shadows.
The answer is obvious.
We keep walking, and we very well could be heading to our demise, but that doesn’t stop us.
“Karma?” I whisper-shout, turning the corner into the alley behind the apartment opposite ours.
For once, she isn’t hidden, crouched and assessing. She stands beside the wall, her lips pulled into that constant smile with little stitches, but the rest of her face doesn’t reflect happiness.
“Arlo. Micha,” she greets matter-of-factly.
“What do you want?” he asks as we stop in front of her, and I elbow his side.
“You are rude, Sssoul Guardian.”
“Soul Guardian?”
She nods. “You guard the sssouls in the gravesss.”
I bite back a laugh. “She means your security guard job.”
He stands frozen, mouth agape. “You actually think I guard souls?”
She responds with another singular nod, and I don’t think she quite understands why either of us find it funny.
“We’re not laughing at you,” I say quickly. Not because I think she’ll eat us if I don’t clarify, but because I feel guilty leaving her out of the loop. “Micha is a security guard. He’s there to make sure no one vandalises the graves or anything.”
She tilts her head, eyes blinking slowly at Micha, and it’s only now I can take in all the features of her clearly. She’s not attacking or hidden beneath the darkness; she’s standing before us, without her teeth bared, and it feels like a huge milestone.
She has a lot of piercings too. All over her ears and across her face. Eyebrows, nose, cheeks, cheekbones, lips—it’s clear she likes jewellery.
“How come you came to see us?” I ask.
“I don’t want to eat you two as much as I do everyone elssse.”
Micha raises his hands. “Okay, I’ve had enough. I’ve got to ask. Why do you have a weird tongue? Is it like surgically implanted? Are you a monster?”