Chapter 280. Sweet Julie II

Chapter 280: 280. Sweet Julie II

Juliette

"Oh gods," the mercenary gasped, falling off Juliette with a high-pitched plea that sounded like he was praying. "Holy gods..."

He kicked frantically, slamming into the table, clawing at the rug as he dragged himself backwards, further away from Juliette, away from the still growing shadow that had encompassed the entire room.

He slammed into the heavy oak wardrobe, trapped, his gaze locked upward in absolute despair. A sharp acrid smell filled the room. It smelled like urine.

Juliette had just begun to wonder what it could be that would scare a mercenary into pissing himself, when an enormous black beast exploded over her in a blur of horns and fangs and talons from nowhere.

She shrieked, adrenaline finally giving her wings to flee, and she stumbled back as it slammed into the machinery, cracking down the furniture and the wall beyond it.

The beast sank fangs into the mercenary’s throat, grabbed his neck and ripped off his head, spraying blood everywhere.

Growling, it hunkered over the mercenary’s body and began to... feast.

Juliette hadn’t stopped screaming.

She was sure she had woken everyone in this wing of the Academy. And then it occurred to her that perhaps, if she didn’t stop screaming, she would draw the attention of the beast to herself, and it would decide maybe it didn’t want the mercenary’s flesh and wanted her own succulent flesh instead.

Juliette shut her mouth. She didn’t dare move. Or breathe.

If the beast had been standing upright--goddess, but it looked as if it could--it would come close to ten feet. If had two curved horns equidistant from either sides of its massive head, and hanks of long black, matted hair tangled around a face that was... For a poet, Juliette had no words to describe it.

It looked prehistoric, too grotesque to be called beautiful and yet, too sharp and delicate featured to be called ugly. It confused her senses between feeling fear and awe.

Its fangs were black, and its hands and feet were lightly webbed with long talons. Its skin was black, but smooth as leather. It was massively muscled and very, disturbingly male.

Juliette bet if it took a swing at her, it could decapitate. The thought of her head tumbling off her shoulders and being crushed like a watermelon made her uncoil to her feet very quietly.

If she was lucky enough, she could sneak outside without alerting it. She had barely lifted her foot off the floor when the beast’s head snapped up, and it looked straight at Juliette, blood dripping from its jaw.

Its eyes were glowing green. It seemed familiar and reminded her of her cat. But the thought barely registered as the beast narrowed those eyes at Juliette, watching her like it had found its next meal.

Juliette froze.

It was silly, but Juliette remembered her father saying once to her in a bedtime story that when bunnies weren’t trying to dig themselves into holes to hide, they sometimes froze to outwit bears. Here was to hoping this beast had no intelligence whatsoever.

Like it could read her mind, the beast’s expression grew curious, almost cunning, and it dropped the half-eaten hand from its muzzle. It shifted from its desecrated kill and began prowling for Juliette.

"Oh goddess," Juliette found herself whimpering as she found herself its new target.

She dropped into a crouch, fumbling for the discarded table leg, and hid her wince as she lifted it with her aching hand, switching her grip to the other as she pointed the useless wood at the beast, breathing way too fast. "Stop right there!" she yelled at it.

It didn’t.

She shuffled back. "Don’t come any closer!" she half-yelped. "I’ll hit you if you do!"

A chuff escaped the beast. It sounded like it was laughing at her. She supposed even she would laugh at herself given the situation. They both knew her puny stick was useless against it.

The horrific thing stopped abruptly a foot a away from her. Its green eyes narrowed and it snarled.

It was close enough that Juliette could feel the gust of its hot breath, smell the fresh blood on it. Its chest heaved in short, rapid pants, and in a sudden rippled motion that was both graceful and horrifying, it moved.

It began circling Juliette. She turned with it, never lowering the stick.

She braced for the moment it would eat her. Her mind kept whirling, trying to think of a way out, and for once she envied her friends. Maisie would have thought a way out. Regina would have screamed something like, "Take out his balls!"

Well. That wasn’t entirely a bad idea.

Her gaze jerked below its heavily corded stomach as it prowled closer and Juliette flushed. That was certainly interesting. She instantly felt like she belonged in the fiery pits of hell when she closely examined it, wondering if it was supposed to look like... that.

The beast chuffed again, and she yelped when it nudged her with its nose against her face.

She jerked back and fell hard on her ass. My fingers curled behind her as it took a massive step forward, dwarfing whatever space was between them.

It tipped its large face and Juliette shut her eyes, frightened. Only to pop them back open when it sniffed her.

What the hell was it doing? She thought, holding her breath. Its jaw parted and her pulse jumped at the size of its fangs up close. They were as long as her fingers.

A forked tongue slithered past its lips and... ran along the length of her neck, licking the blood off her skin.

"Oh," Juliette exhaled. "That was surprisingly... pleasant," she definitely didn’t think.

She bit her trembling lip hard enough to bleed when its tongue ran lower, down her chest, licking off her blood there, too.

Her spine arched when it curled close to her bared nipples and horror widened her eyes when she realized heat was blooming between her legs.

Juliette flinched back, confused, afraid and equally disturbed as she stared up into its monstrous green eyes.

But they were narrowed elsewhere. On the tangle of her limbs.

A webbed limb rose, shockingly gentle on her thigh. Her nightdress was hiked up and there was a shard from the broken glass embedded in her flesh, high up the inside of her thigh.

It must have happened during the struggle, but she had barely noticed it, and how much blood ran down her legs, having been just a second away from pissing herself as well.

The beast growled again and she tried not to flinch again at the angry sound. It seemed... upset by her wounds.

That wasn’t odd at all.

But she felt the strangest urge to pacify it as it continued to glower at her bleeding thigh.

"It’s fine, really," she tried. Her voice shook. She was quaking. "I heal pretty quickly," she said cheerfully. Not as fast as her brother, but faster than a wolf. "A few minutes and--Oh."

It had lowered its head to her thigh, to the very apex where the wound was. The shard was plucked out gently, and its tongue was now running up the gash.

Pain flared from the contact like alcohol had been poured into flames. At the sound of Juliette’s pained hiss, its tongue ran out the corner, awfully close to her center and involuntarily, Juliette’s hips bucked.