Page 25 of The Howl
“I thought you didn’t like lying, Eliana. This isn’t the first time you’ve run from me. Did I do something wrong? Kill your pet rabbit or something?”
“What? No. It’s not anything you did. It’s me. It’s always me.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I know. And I’m sorry for that, but I really need to go.”
He released my arm.
“Run then. I won’t chase you.” His cocky grin reemerged. “This time.”
Not amused by his wolf humor, I hurried away before I went full succubus on him.
In the first session, I should have been okay with his scent absent. However, I wasn’t any better. Even though there were no humans present to tempt me, I was still inhaling lungfuls of lust emanating off the troll in front of me. It didn’t taste good, but I couldn’t stop.
Second hour was worse. A giant was crushing on a druid hard. The potency and unnatural taste of her lust told me it was spell induced. My hunger didn’t care. It wanted to be fed.
Fine trembles coursed through me from head to toe. A girl to my right noticed and giggled. Jenna, one of Fenris’s devoted females, leaned forward in her seat behind me.
“You okay?” she asked softly,
I wanted to be, but I knew I wasn’t. My time was up. I’d held out as long as I could. I needed to feed.
Instead of answering her, I walked out of the room.
The ability to leave whenever we wanted was one of the few perks of Girderon Academy. That and being able to make up any missed work online. Not that many of my classmates chose to leave once they decided to attend.
Graduating Girderon was our ticket out of Uttira. And it wasn’t just passing grades that were required in order to graduate. Each and every one of us would need the Council’s approval, which was heavily based on Adira’s assessment. I would be at Girderon until I was fifty at the rate I was going.
As soon as I opened the kitchen door to the Quills’ house, I paused and tried to calm my shaking. One breath after another, I focused on my dad. The memory of his smiling face. The memory of his laugh. The haunted look that crept into his eyes at any reminder of my mother. The way he would cry in his sleep.
It took about five minutes to get myself under control. I pressed the button on the intercom in the kitchen.
“Mrs. Quill, would you meet me in the living room?”
My voice echoed throughout the house. Without waiting for an answer, I headed for the seldom-used room.
Mrs. Quill was just turning on the television when I entered. Her concerned gaze swept over me, and she held out her hand.
Reluctantly, I took it. I didn’t need to touch to feed. In fact, I preferred not to. However, Mrs. Quill insisted. She said she didn’t want me to ever think what she did was with any detachment. She did what she did because she loved me as much as she would love a daughter, and she wanted me to feel that love every moment we spent in this dumb room.
I sat beside her as the image of her and Mr. Quill appeared on the screen. The first time we’d done this, I’d been terrified that she was going to show me a bedroom home video. It wasn’t ever anything like that, thankfully. This time, it was a video from her perspective, flying on Mr. Quill’s back. I could hear the joy in her laughter as he dipped suddenly then launched upward again to soar through some clouds.
“I love you, Lander,” she said in the video. “You are my everything.”
He cried out sharply then dived again.
The video looped back to where it started and played again. Mrs. Quill’s lust, a subtle, steady energy, called to me. Without turning toward her, I opened my mouth and pulled it into me. My shaking eased with the first swallow. The hunger demanded so much more. I only allowed myself five pulls, though. The sweetness of what she felt for Mr. Quill settled into my belly. With their love filling me, I closed my mouth and released her hand.
“Thank you,” I said.
“Eliana, that wasn’t enough,” she said with concern.
“For me, it is.”
I left the room quickly. She didn’t try to stop me.
Locked in my bathroom, I stripped and got into the shower, not bothering to let it warm. There, I curled into a ball and quietly cried, cursing the gods for making me into the monster I was. It didn’t matter that Mrs. Quill was immune to my abilities because of what she was and her bond with Mr. Quill. What did matter was the fact that I would ruin anyone else I fed on.
