Page 74 of Devour
Hubs shrugged in response to me and snuggled closer. Of course, he didn’t care now, while still wrapped in a post-feed afterglow. First time he’d done that to me—I wouldn’t have moved out of the way for an eighteen-wheeler about to run me over.
“Hubby… you sure you feel okay?”
Eli nodded into his pillow.
“Okay,” I said, rubbing his arm. That much I believed, for now.
He conked out right next to me in only minutes and I smiled. Hubby was a light sleeper, and a sweet one at that. Whenever I shifted around to get comfy, he’d move with me. If I snuggled closer, he’d wrap me up tighter and kiss my head before passing right back out. Even while barely conscious, hubby remained a good person. I wanted so badly to believe that goodness would extend to when his mind stopped working rationally the next time he got hungry. With unease brewing in me, I slid out of bed and let myself out of his house.
The next morning at my apartment, I typed out a whole paragraph to Gaia, then deleted it. Then typed it again and deleted it again. Finally, I settled on: We need to meet.
After what felt like ages, a response lit up my phone. Old woman might even have a hard time texting. The priest?
Ugh. Deacon.
Now a shrugging emoji. If I weren’t amid our version of an existential crisis, I’d probably find the fact that she used emojis entertaining.
Gaia agreed to meet me halfway, literally, which ended up being in a random diner off the highway. I had just started my second cup of coffee when she arrived. Did I need coffee? No. I didn’t need to eat or drink anything to stay alive. The act would be solely for the pleasure of it and nothing more. After yesterday’s developments, I needed coffee. Maybe even something stronger.
“Lord in hell, what happened to you?” Gaia sat across the table from me and looked the closest to actual concern I’d ever seen. “You’re shaking like a beaten dog.”
Yep. Crisis. Couldn’t stop shaking the more I thought about it.
“And who have you been with?” Gaia made a face and leaned closer to me. “Mina? No. Wait… Louis? No. Maybe ah… is Lilly still around?”
“I don’t know,” I muttered.
“Look at that. Just when you think you know everybody, somebody new pops up.” She shrugged, then leaned back into the faded and beaten vinyl of the booth.
“The smell is from him. And he wants to eat me,” I whispered. A whole new wave of shivers arrived after that terrifying admission.
“Who wants to eat you, honey?” She frowned—something else I’d never seen her do.
“The deacon. He wants to eat me.”
“Why would you think that?”
I could only sigh and shake my head. Maybe because I heard him thinking about it. He more than considered it. He wanted it. And, yeah, I knew I sounded like a hypocrite after exposing him to those desires for years, but being on the other end was fucking terrifying.
“Okay… so bring me up to speed,” Gaia said, pushing her cutlery and paper placemat aside then setting her arms on the table.
“So, he’s always been sorta cranky between the good feeds. And in hindsight, he said he could always tell when I was actually hungry or just wanting to snack for the sake of snacking. He wasn’t indulging me, though. He always got a mood reset after, too.” I cringed, knowing full well just how bad this sounded once said out loud.
“That’s… not normal.”
“No shit,” I snapped. After sipping my coffee, I resumed. “Sorry, a bit on edge here.”
“I can see that.”
“Anyway, after the mind link issue last time, he forced me to figure out how to block him out, which gave us at least a semblance of privacy. Now we both can tune in and out to each other at will.”
Gaia raised another brow.
“Yeah, I know. The evidence is really piling up. Just pretend you’re as much of an idiot as I am and keep in mind this happened over the course of years, not overnight.”
Gaia nodded along, likely to humor me. I appreciated the effort.
“Maybe for the last six months or so, he’s been bitching about his teeth nonstop.”