15
Larz
“I have so many questions.”
Ilona rested her head on my chest. Our legs tangled together under the sheets, still floating in the bliss of the lingering orgasms. I planted a kiss on her forehead, ready to completely open up to her.
“Ask me anything, beautiful.”
She flopped onto her back, staring at the ceiling. “I don’t even know where to start.”
“The giant tail, maybe? The pinchers? The eyes?” I chuckled when I spoke, but I was serious. She had seen all of me, and I was surprised she hadn’t asked already.
“Right, yeah. So…what…how?” She covered her face, “I don’t even know how to ask. I don’t want to say anything wrong.”
“Half-human, half-scorpion, I guess you would call it. I can shift between all three, though. But it's…all me.” I shuffled next to her, my gaze meeting the spot on the ceiling where hers were locked.
“Were you born like this?”
“Yes, I was born a shifter.” I swallowed the sting of grief; it had been ages since I’d thought about my family. “My parents and all before them were the same, but humans can be turned.”
“Were they…your parents…part of the massacre?”
All I could do was nod as I swallowed down the growing lump in my throat.
“I think I read about you in the Cutwood history book Bev gave me,” she looked over to a small, worn green book on her nightstand. “She told me to avoid the woods, that there are dangerous creatures who prey on whoever dares to enter.”
“I’ve lived in the Cutwood Forest for a little over a hundred years.
When the humans attacked our kind, they thought they killed us all, but a few of us remained.
The rest have all since died off, it's only me now.” I sighed, pushing away the painful memories.
“But it’s not me who attacks anyone. I mostly keep to myself out there. ”
“Hmm,” her brow scrunched in thought, “out there…where exactly do you live…in the forest, I mean?”
“I do have a house, it's deep in the forest, though. Far back and out of the way. I’ll take you there sometime.”
“I would like that.” She looked at me again, her big eyes sparkling. Everything about her pulled me in. I was ready to change everything for her.
“Last question, because I can barely keep my eyes open. How did you heal yourself? Those wounds, especially the one on your shoulder, it was so deep. I tried to stop the bleeding, but it just wouldn’t stop, and you just stitched it back together like it was nothing.”
“Everything I can do, shifting, healing, anything else, is all derived from the magic of the forest. Mother Earth attempts to preserve our kind. ”
“That’s amazing. I wish I could do that…Nature has always been my happy place. That’s partly why I chose this town. This house. I wanted to be able to just walk out my back door and be surrounded by the trees, dip my feet in a stream. But to live there permanently, that would be a dream.”
She trailed off, her cheeks tinged a gorgeous shade of red, like she was embarrassed she’d shared one of her biggest dreams. I had to bite my tongue.
I wanted to tell her that soon, very soon, she would be able to do that.
That she would be exactly where she wanted to be, at peace in the woods.
That she would be mine, I’d claim her, and she’d become just like me.
But it was clear she had learned enough for the night. Her blinks slowed, eyelids growing heavier as she settled back on my chest. I rubbed aimless circles on her back, watching her as she succumbed to sleep, thankful I had finally found something worth coming out of the shadows for.
“Don’t leave,” she whispered into my skin.
“Never,” I kissed her still slightly damp hair, “I’m right here. I’ll always be right here.”