Page 24 of Monsters Within (The Creatures We Crave 1)
“I… What?” he asked, eyes wide and face draining of color. “No! I would never.”
Fucking liar. The way his gaze was flicking around nervously and his body tensed, it was so painfully obvious he’d done exactly what Lucien accused him of.
Blinding fury roared through me, and I pushed my way through the crowd until I was on Lucien’s other side, blocking the man from sight with the three of us forming a half circle around him.
My fists clenched at my sides, and I clenched my jaw as I felt the call to the shadows. I wanted to rip this man apart with my claws.
“I had a dream once of you,” Lucien offered, followed by a dark chuckle. “Do you want to know what happened in it?”
A dream? Did he mean a real dream or a memory he shared with Alexandra? I was willing to bet this was a story she had written and he had experienced in that state.
“Get your hands off of me!” the man yelled, putting his hands on Lucien’s chest and attempting to shove him off but failing epically. We had at least five inches on this man, and a lot more damn weight and muscle. He wasn’t moving us.
Lucien tightened his grip around his throat until the man could no longer speak and slammed him back against the wall harshly. “I saw you putting your hand on our girl’s leg and trailing it upwards. It was a sick, manipulative move to try to get her to exchange sexual favors to get out of an academic issue that wasn’t true.”
Sucking in a sharp inhale, I had to close my eyes and center my thoughts so I didn’t lose it. He had touched her. He had invaded her space and touched her without permission and for malicious purposes.
“But my favorite part of the dream,” Lucien taunted, “was when I cut your hands from your arms and watched you bleed out on the floor and die.”
For the first time that I could recall, I saw the same bloodlust that we normally saw in Lucien echoed in Kylo’s eyes as they burned brightly. There was no one besides me to get us out of this situation, and I wasn’t even sure I could hang on much longer. We were all dangerously close to losing our composure and exposing our true forms.
My mind whirled to come up with a plan that didn’t include killing this man while still getting justice for Alexandra and all of his other victims.
Flicking my eyes behind us and seeing phones still trained on us, a lightbulb went off. Quickly, I moved my hand to top of the man’s head and shoved down while commanding, “Get to your fucking knees.”
Lucien and Kylo’s anger was stunted briefly by my involvement, and I jumped on the chance to show them what I was trying to accomplish here. They helped push him to the ground with a hand on each of his shoulders until he finally crumpled.
Kneeling to the ground, I gripped his chin harshly and pulled it up. “Don’t cower from what you’ve done. Tell the world.”
An amused chuckle fell from Kylo’s mouth after he muttered, “Smart, Elwin. Very smart.”
Kylo and Lucien moved to the side, leaving the man exposed to the gathered crowd and their phones. He attempted to jerk his head from my hand, but I held on and dug my fingers into his jaw until he cried out in pain.
At the same time, Lucien leaned into his ear and began to whisper low enough that the cameras wouldn’t catch it on audio. “We are not leaving until you admit your atrocities or we bring my dream to life. Your choice, but I can guarantee you won’t live if my monster comes to the surface.”
Shaking my head, I internally laughed at how true his words were. None of these people had any idea how close they were to true monsters. If they did, there was no way they would still be standing around.
“I did nothing!” the man yelled, spit flying from his mouth. “I’m going to have you arrested for assault and damaging our property!”
Wrong answer.
As quickly as I took in a breath, Lucien had him flattened on the ground with an arm pulled tightly behind his back as he crouched above him. His other hand was flattened on the man’s cheek as he pressed his face into the ground and warned, “I will give you one more chance before I start breaking bones.”
“You won’t,” he bit back.
Ahh, once again, wrong answer.
A resounding pop echoed through the room, quickly followed by a snap before the man started howling in pain from his now dislocated shoulder and broken arm. Gasps and a few screams rang out around us as the humans witnessing this realized it wasn’t a prank or elaborate joke.
“You fucking psychopath!” he screeched as his face turned red and his eyes pooled with tears.
Lucien chuckled, no mirth in the sound whatsoever. “You have no idea.”
The man tried to push to his knees, and in response, Lucien sat on his back and wiggled his arm around. “Oh, I’m just getting started, and my schedule is suddenly free for the day. How about you guys?”
Kylo and I exchanged looks before answering. We truly did not have all day, because after all, there was a reason we felt the need to follow her, and at this point it was going to be almost impossible to find her.
But there was no fucking way we could just let this man go free after what he’d done.
