Consume

  "I didn't bring anything pretty or sexy."

  "Sure you did," Finn said cockily and grinned from the door. "Good old Finn's here to save the day."

  Ten

  "Give me your skirt," he ordered.

  I handed him my school uniform skirt from the bathroom sink, confused. He took it and rifled through the hotel drawers until he found a pair of scissors. Oh, no.

  "You can't cut my skirt! That's my uniform," I argued.

  He poised the fabric on the edge of the scissors and paused. "Do you have another?"

  "Yes, but-"

  He snipped. I bolted into the room and groaned as he finished, taking the hem shorter all the way across, but leaving one side slightly higher than the other on the thighs. Eli stood in front of me to block my toweled body from their eyes. Finn held it up, letting the excess fabric fall away. I wanted to be mad, but…it was so darn cute with the off kilter cut and ruffles, though it was pretty short.

  "Why did you do that?" I asked anyway.

  "Because you can't go in there all school girl, though it is pretty hot. You need to look like a mate does. And a mate looks like someone who wants to please their Devourer. If Eli was your mate, he'd want to dress a certain way."

  "I still don't understand."

  "Sluts," Enoch provided. "The mates dress like sluts."

  "Well put, Mister Tact. Thank you," Finn laughed. "Yes. Sluts."

  "Why do they dress that way? Why would my Devourer want me to show all of my goodies to everyone else?"

  The bird squawked from the corner, "Goodies. Show 'em your goodies."

  They all burst out laughing. Eli tried to stop it with a fist to his mouth, but it was no use. I looked at him and chuckled a little, too. They got the gist though, right?

  Finn answered through a laugh, "To show off your mate's goodies is to brag to others about what they can't have."

  "That's kinda dumb. And not very logical."

  "Either way, go put this on."

  He held it out to me. Eli took the skirt and held it up before looking back at me with a frown. "You don't have to wear this."

  "I want to blend in as much as possible…wait! What about the string? How are we going to hide it there?"

  "Well," Eli drawled and turned to me. "For one, I'm not letting you out of my sight and you're not leaving my side. For two, we'll both wear long sleeves and hold hands. It's so dark and smoky, no one will notice."

  "Are you sure?"

  "It won't be something they'll be looking for."

  "Ok," I agreed. "I'll get changed."

  "So will we," Finn said as he began to unbutton his shirt. "You aren't the only one who needs to look good. Eli, I'm snagging a shirt."

  I grabbed my bag and closed the bathroom door without saying anything. I put on my make-up and clothes. There was only a sink mirror, not a full length, so I had no idea what I looked like head to toe, but above the shoulders was acceptable. After slipping in my silver wing earrings, I put back on Ariel's boots. I could only assume it worked for the look I was going for.

  My skirt was short, but it seemed to look cute as I looked down at myself. I picked a red long sleeve, tight sweater that I usually wore under my uniform vest. It worked, so I opened the door, but Eli and Enoch were gone.

  "Where's Eli?" I asked.

  Finn jerked his gaze to me in an uninterested motion, but then did a not-so-subtle double take. He straightened from where he was doing the laces on his boots.

  "Can I just say…Wow."

  "Stop," I complained and tried to pull my skirt down further. "Where's Eli?"

  "He went to get you a soda," he advised, never removing his eyes from me.

  "Where's Enoch?"

  "Enoch is Enoch. He goes where he wants to."

  He moved towards me, every inch the predator he was. I tried not to gulp as he stalked me across the room. My back hit the wall and I waited with my hands out as he slammed into me with his chest, his hands moving mine to my sides with inhuman speed. His face was not even an inch from mine as he watched me with blazing purple eyes. He licked his bottom lip and I couldn't remember ever being so scared in my life as he made a low noise in his throat.

  He didn't care about me at all. He thought I ruined Eli, tricked him somehow. And now, Eli was nowhere to be seen and Finn apparently had something up his sleeve.

  "Eli told me to test you," he told me.

  "Test me? Test me how?"

  Enoch came through the door with a loud bang. We both jerked our attention to him and he stopped. He smiled and chuckled under his breath. "So, he really asked you to do it?" he asked Finn.

  "Yes. Now please leave so I can get on with it."

  He left and I felt my heart jump at the implication. "Get on with what?" I asked breathlessly.

  And then he pushed his lips to mine.

  I was overwhelmed with a sense of need to kiss him. It was like it was planted there, but I could sense it and recognize it for what it was. Finn was forcing lust on me, or out of me, whatever, but it wasn't working the way he planned. I felt it, harnessed it, and pushed it back to him.

  Well, that was a huge mistake.

  He was definitely fueled by my actions and instead of trying to feed himself off of my fear and need, he was…feeding me his. I felt it as he pulled me to him and used his lips in caresses instead of harsh, biting moves. He groaned and let one of his hands move from my hand to the back of my neck.

  I wasn't kissing him back, but he didn't seem to notice or care. I tried to push him off when I realized what he was doing, but I was too late and too weak. He opened my mouth, tilting my head to the side and letting himself in. I pushed harder against his chest and heard my noise of complaint, but he kept at it.

  The idea seemed to plant itself in my mind, like it was its own entity, its own force: Make him fear me. So I thought of the scariest thing I could think of at the moment. I remembered what it felt like to think that car was going to hit me. I remembered the fear and anguish on the woman's face - even though it had all be fabricated by Finn - it was real enough to me. I let it loose on him, and when he whimpered, I knew I had him.

  He jerked back and looked at me with wide, fearful eyes. He went backwards until he sank onto the bed. "How the hell did you do that?" he said, his voice hateful and loathsome as he looked at me.

  "Do what?" I said innocently.

  "You know what? How did you do that? Answer me!" he yelled and began to come at me again, with a whole new set of intentions.

  Of course, that would be the moment my Eli came back.

  I heard the growl from the door and watched as Eli slammed Finn into the back wall. His body left an imprint in the plaster and a tacky picture next to them fell, shattering the glass to the floor.

  Finn wasn't even fighting back as he watched me from over Eli's shoulder. "What are you doing, Finn?"

  "Not a thing," Finn drawled, shoving Eli away from him. "I'll meet you at the club."

  He left, keeping his eyes on me at all times. He slammed the door and I jumped as I fought to steady my breath after what just happened. Eli came to me quickly and pulled me to him with a sigh of relief. "Baby, I'm so sorry." He leaned back and looked horribly guilty. Too bad it didn’t help anything. "Love, say something. Did he hurt you? What happened?"

  "Where's my soda?" I sneered, my hands shaking with anger as I pushed his hands off of me.

  "Oh," he said and looked around in confusion, "I must have dropped it in the hall when I saw Finn coming for you. I had to walk all the way over to the… What's the matter?" He sucked in a breath and grit his teeth. "You're pretty livid. Please calm down."

  "Why? I can still feed you this way can't I?" I asked and grit my teeth, too. "Anger is still a food group for you."

  He made a noise between pleasure and pain and then commanded in a stern voice, "Stop, Clara. I don't want to feed off of your anger. What's the matter with you? You're acting like you're angry with me instead of Finn."

  "Should I be?"
/>
  "Why would you be?" he asked incredulously, his pierced brow jumping.

  "Whatever." I took a deep breath. "Let's go."

  "Not until you tell me what's wrong."

  I pushed his chest once more, harder this time to get him to move. "I want to go. Now."

  He looked torn. Was he really going to pretend that he hadn't asked Finn to test me? Kiss me? Even Enoch knew about it. It boiled my blood all over again and I stalked towards the door. "I'll be waiting outside."

  "Fine," he fired back and held his hands up in surrender as he went to his bag.

  I made my way down the hall and waited near the front door for him. Enoch was nowhere to be seen, Finn was gone, thank heavens. The clerk eyed me - well, he eyed my skirt - with intrigue. I glared back at him. He was new. Their shifts must have changed. He smiled at my glare, seeming to be amused by it.

  Eli bolted from the stairs and searched the room quickly for me. Once his eyes found me he tried to act like he hadn't just been searching frantically for me. It almost warmed my heart. Almost. I couldn’t remember being so pissed before. My insides were fighting for the forefront. I wanted to just forgive him. He probably had a reason, he always did, but there was another part of me that wanted to just be angry.

  "Ready?" he asked.

  "Yep."

  "We've got to take a taxi."

  "I figured."

  He sighed and led the way. He held the door open for me and then a taxi pulled into the driveway. I looked at him in question. This wasn't exactly New York where taxies jumped on the curb to give you a ride.

  "I called them while I was getting you a drink," he advised as he swung his arm for me to enter the cab first.

  I hopped in, attempting to keep my skirt covering everything as I did so. Eli explained to the cabbie where we wanted to go before turning to me. He reached out and took my fingers in his hand slowly. "I didn't get a chance to tell you how great you look."

  "You were busy, I guess, making sure everything was thoroughly handled, right?"

  His eyes went wide. "I just gave you a compliment, love. How can you possibly be mad at me?"

  I huffed and turned to stare out the window. I felt him caressing my promise ring with his thumb. It burned at his touch. I jerked my hand back in aggravation.

  Then the next words out of his mouth were the dumbest words any human male could utter, but then, he wasn't human, was he? "Did we forget to bring some medication for you? Is it that time of the month? Because I am completely confused right now."

  I felt my face flush with heat. I wasn't embarrassed, I was just about to go ape-crap on him. I looked at him slowly, but before I could say anything, the cabbie beat me to it.

  "Ah, man, you're such an idiot," he said and chuckled in that you're-so-gonna-get-it way.

  I decided to not say anything and watched as the scenery flew by out my window. If I spoke, I wasn't sure what would come out of my mouth. Eli stayed silent, too, on his side of the car. When we arrived at the club, I wasn't impressed, but I could feel a weird hum around me. I knew it was the place.

  We were at the Consumed Club, Eli had asked his 'friend'- who he knew hated me- to kiss me for a test of some sort, his brother hated me, too, and was here as well. Eli rejected my advances, my skirt was ruined, I was dressed like a hooker, Eli was on my crap list, and the only one who seemed to be on my side was the freaking cabbie.

  Eleven

  The air was teeming with energy, smoke and all sorts of creatures I never knew existed.

  Eli had pulled me from the cab and said he didn't understand what I was so upset about, but he needed to lay down some ground rules. I wasn't supposed to have 'the sight', which was being able to see how things really were instead of what was being glamoured for me to see. He said just to try not to stare at anybody or anything and, even though I was mad, I had to stick to his side.

  He said we couldn't stay too long because the Elves smoked and the smoke was intoxicating, especially to humans. It made you be crazy, he said. I was barely listening to him. I was just ready to go in.

  There was no doorman and the building looked heinous from the outside. No one would ever think to go there for a party, but once Eli opened the back door in the alley, the low light and smoke hit us. I sucked in a startled breath at the burn in my lungs. And the music pounded when moments ago, I could hear not a sound outside. It didn't make sense, but I guess that was the point.

  Eli held my hand as we entered the room. Our long sleeves covered our wrists and he was right. The lights were so low, you could barely see anything. But what I could see scared the hebedejebedees out of me. There were Witches, Elves, and all sorts of other creatures. And the only way I knew what they were is because it looked like Halloween was in full swing.

  The Witches were short, stocky and ugly. Their noses were long and over pronounced, just like cartoons made them out to be. The Elves were tall and too slim, their ears pointy and large. They smiled, showing teeth that were big and white as they guffawed over a card game. The others, I wasn't sure what they were, but you could tell something was off.

  And then the humans were easy to spot.

  The girls were skinny and pretty, or you could tell that they used to be. And Enoch and Finn had been correct in that they were all dressed in barely-there clothing. The human men were the same, wearing no shirts or just tanks and jeans. They clung to their Devourers like lovesick animals who couldn't be separated, hanging on their every word, even when they weren't speaking to them.

  I cringed and knew that I was supposed to be acting that way or people, and I used that term really loosely, would be suspicious soon. Eli stopped at the bar and ordered us waters. I draped my arm around his neck and let our chests touch. Eli looked at me with a dull expression as his hands went to my hips loosely. So he understood what I was doing. He knew I wasn't over my fit yet, and he apparently was a little peeved himself.

  Good.

  The bartender gave us our waters and when he spoke, he hissed like a snake with his words. "Six dollars, Devourer."

  And then a long, snake like tongue emerged from his mouth. I gripped Eli tighter as he paid, not turning away from me. I tried not to look at the snake man. I didn't know if I was supposed to be able to see that or not. Eli, ever the gentleman even if he was mad, opened my water bottle for me and rubbed a soothing hand down my arm to tell me it was all right.

  I took a big sip, letting the cool take some of the edge of the heat off. The room was stifling and crowded. I closed my eyes and enjoyed a moment's peace, but Eli stopped me. "Don't do that."

  "What?"

  "Don't give them the opportunity to drag you into a reverie. Some Devourers who like to cause trouble would do it just to start a fight with me."

  He nodded to a group of Devourers in the corner. They watched the room, circling it with their eyes.

  "Oh." I cleared my throat. "Ok. Now what?"

  "Now we find a Witch who'll give us a stone."

  "What do we have to do for it?"

  "That's what we need to find out." He slipped an arm around my waist and pressed his face into my neck. "I'm going to have to treat you like I would my mate. They don't always play nice, but it's just an act. I want to make that perfectly clear. I'm not doing this because we're in a spat. I need them all to believe and if they don't, even for a second, we're in trouble. So you can't be obstinate to me, not even a little. You have to act as though you want me like nothing else, even if that's not actually true right now. Do you understand?"

  I leaned back and smiled coyly. I rose up to kiss his neck and let him know without words that I heard him loud and clear. He tried not to respond, but he didn't last long. He sighed raggedly, pulling me closer, and murmuring something I couldn't hear over the depressing music. I leaned back to see him and saw how torn he was about everything. I was bumped by someone who came to the bar. She grinned at the bartender and asked for something in a different language. She leaned over the bar to flirt with him and I saw i
t. She had a tail.

  Eli turned us away from the bar and I tried to remind myself not to notice these things. We spotted Enoch and Finn in the back chatting up some others there. They were laughing and carrying on about something. Finn had a girl in his lap, but she was not human. Her ears and chin were too pointy, and her skin was too white. She laughed, throwing her head back and wiggling solicitously on his lap. It was then I saw her fangs. I turned to Eli's chest and stared at it.

  This was impossible. How was I supposed to pretend not to see any of this? "Let's find a Witch and get out of here."