Page 56 of The Wickedness of Man

“Don’t apologize.” I held her closer and kissed her forehead. “Are you all right? I wasn’t too rough, was I?”

Magdahmmed, but when I managed to open my eyes, she had already fallen back asleep, a smile still lifting the corners of her lips. Before I closed my eyes, I caught sight of the window, where the morning sun was just beginning to slip into the room.

How am I supposed to keep her safe if it means losing… this? Losing… her?

I pulled the sheet up around us, wrapping Magda and I together before sheer exhaustion claimed me, and I sank into a deep, dreamless slumber.

…I am such a doomed man.

Magda

When I woke up, the day was gray and overcast. My body… oh, the sensations running through it! Even more magnificent, however, were the arms wrapped around me, holding me tight to a muscular chest. I nuzzled into Caleb, unabashedly luxuriating in his scent and the firm feeling of him. I’d never felt so safe in my life; so welcomed.

He came back for me.

There was an insistent buzzing coming from the nightstand beside me, and I tried to ignore it at first, but it began again, and then reality jumped at me like an icy bucket of water to the face.

“Oh shit,” I said, spinning around and trying to pull myself from Caleb’s surprisingly strong grasp. I scrambled for the bedside table, grabbed hold of my phone, and then my gut clenched.

The caller ID showedFather. I looked at the clock on the screen—8:23 a.m. I should have been over there nearly thirty minutes ago.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck.” I slipped out of Caleb’s arms, and he didn’t even move—he slept so deeply I wouldn’t have been surprised to find that he wouldn’t wake up for a tornado siren.

I stumbled over to the bathroom and closed the door carefully. The call ended; another began. I turned on the shower, then answered it.

“Hello?” I said, a bit breathlessly.

“Magdalene,” said Father, “your mother and I are on our way to morning service. Will you be joining us? We waited as long as we could for you, but?—”

“I’m sorry, I overslept my alarm and lost track of time. I’m in the shower now?—”

“Then we will see you there at nine?” came Mother’s reedy voice.

I looked at the clock, then stared into the mirror. I studied my reflection in the mirror, touching the small, newly formed curved horns on either side of my head, examining my teeth—and the tiny scratches from where Dr. Lowe’s fangs had cut my breast. There was a curious purple light that shone in my eyes, but as I watched, waiting for the shower to warm up, the light, teeth, and horns all faded. And then, I was just Magda again. Only, I wasn’t.

“Oh, uhm, yes,” I said.

No fucking way.

“I might be a bit late, but?—”

“We will discuss this later,” Father said. “The terms of your living arrangement?—”

“Iknowwhat they are,” I snapped, surprising myself.

There was stunned silence on the other end of the line, then Father cleared his throat.

“We will see you at church.”

He hung up without another word, and I sank to my knees against the door, grabbing my head in both hands. I had never—never—spoken to them like that. There would be hell to pay, I was certain. But even worse, because I knew the next time I went to see them, they’d do what they’d done when I’d come back—against my will—from university. I’d been taken to a facility at Acolyte Seminary where I’d been drug tested and forced to submit to several increasingly invasive procedures, both mental and physical—the last of which had been the doctors examining me to ensure I was still “intact.”

Mortified, I covered my mouth with my hand. I couldn’t—wouldn’t—go back. If they found out about this… about my tryst with this stranger, about the frankly alarming amounts of him still inside of me, about the fact that I was some kind of actualdemonnow…

They’d kill me. I had no doubt of that.

There was something different about me. Like I’d hit a puberty a second time. I caught sight of my reflection in the glass before it steamed up from shower’s heat. My breasts seemed fuller; the shape of my body, which before had always been a bit slimmer, seemed curvier, more… feminine. My lips were also fuller, and my eyes, if it was possible, were almost… larger?

I studied my body in the mirror, eyes going wide with shock. My butt was slightly bigger. My skin, which was normally a bit dry and prone to breakouts, seemed to be perfectly creamy and blemish free. Not to mention, my hair had gone from being limp to holding a gentle wave—something the strongest hairsprays had only ever managed to accomplish for short durations.

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