* * *
Minutes turned into hours as time slipped past without notice.
Hot water poured over my skin. I shook my head, blinking in the darkness.
“Come back to me, MeeShee,” La La whispered within the downpour of water.
Should I come back? I asked the cheetah.
No, he said. I like her touching me.
Touching?
I rushed out of the darkness and surfaced to witness La La sponging my naked body with soapy water.
At some point, while my beast was in control, he had shifted us back to Human form.
La La hated being immersed in water for long periods of time. It made her weak and unable to create fire minutes later. The fact that she’d gotten in the shower with me melted my heart.
I stiffened, wondering what else had happened between her and the cheetah, while I had lain within the darkness.
Does she know you’re in control? I asked.
Yes, and she is not afraid, the cheetah said triumphantly.
I gazed at La La through his amber view.
Water soaked her violet nightgown. The fabric stuck to her skin like glue, outlining every delicious curve. Her hard nipples poked out through the material.
I silently thanked the god Shango for giving me a distraction from my sorrow.
Give me rein, I said.
Later, my beast groaned.
Now!
He howled. It came out deep and rose throughout the bathroom, startling La La.
Her eyes widened. She held the thick, brown sponge a few inches away from my chest and gazed at me as if unsure of what to do next.
“What’s wrong, Beast?” she asked.
They’d also been communicating somehow. A tiny bit of jealousy pinched at my gut.
The full moon comes next week, I said to my beast. I’ll give you control on that night.
The cheetah retreated back into my core, dragging his claws against my ribs.
I gritted my teeth at the pain.
Don’t you think you’re being a bit petty? I asked him.
He didn’t respond.
“MeShack?” La La whispered, staring into my eyes.
“Yes.” I let my head fall back into the shower’s aim. Blistering water sprayed along my face and trickled down my shoulders. I shook my head. My long, drenched hair splashed around, dripping water onto La La’s face.
She wiped the drops away with her hands.
“How did you know I came back?” I leaned down to her and slowly rubbed my chin against her forehead, tracing her X brand.
“The rims of your eyelids were black, and all the gold in your irises disappeared.” She sighed, put the sponge down in the soap dish, and turned to leave the shower.
I seized her waist. “Where are you going?”
“I’m going to heat up some food. You have to be hungry.”
“I’m naked with you in the shower.” I turned her around and pulled her to me. “You really think all I want is food now?”
“Stop being crazy.” She gently tapped my hand away. Her heartbeat sped up, banging against her chest. She avoided my eyes. “We need to talk about tonight.”
“Let’s talk about why I’m naked and you’re not.” I put my left hand back on her waist and turned off the shower with my right.
She cleared her throat and fixed her eyes on the purple Captain Habitat bathroom stickers decorating the shower wall. “You were covered in blood so I decided to wash you.”
“Please look at me,” I whispered.
She didn’t move at first, like she was considering if it was a good idea or not, and then she turned those beautiful coffee-brown eyes to me.
“Did you kill him?” she asked, her voice more anxious than I wanted it to be.
“I don’t want to talk about that right now.”
“You were completely covered in blood and shaking,” she said.
I growled.
“Fine, but we do need to talk about this,” she insisted as I wrapped my arms around her, bringing her in closer to me and inhaling that lavender scent.
I began to purr. The noise hummed loudly from my neck down to my chest.
She shivered underneath me.
Was it fear or need?
“MeShack, what are you doing right now?” Her eyes shimmered into that flaming orange glow.
“Doing what I’ve always wanted to do.” I pressed my body into hers.
“You’re using me as a diversion for your real feelings.”
I grunted in aggravation.
“I hate that you’re taking that psychology class.” I kissed her cheeks, leaving a trail to her ears. “If you don’t want me to touch you, then say it.”
A tiny sigh left her lips as I licked the tip of her ear.
The desire to make her more vocal charged inside me, waking my body out of its agonizing slumber. I hardened at the mere thought of her saying my name in ecstasy.
“My dad is going to tear you into tiny little pieces if he walks in on us,” she muttered.
I didn’t even tense at that possibility.
“Do you know how many nights I lay on the couch in the dark, contemplating whether I should act on my feelings for you?” I buried my faced into the curve of her neck, licking the drops of water from her skin.
She moaned, her body trembling within my arms. Her stiff peaks pressed against my chest.
My hunger for her rose to an impossible height. I had to have her tonight or I wouldn’t be able to eat or sleep.
“I won’t fear death anymore.” I nipped at her flesh, savoring the luscious texture. “Life is too short. Besides, you’re all I have left now.”
She gently pushed me away, catching her breath. “I really don’t think we should. Let’s wait and make sure this isn’t just—”
“No.” I looked at her nightgown and considered tearing it apart. “You want me. That’s something I’ve known for a long time.”
“I also want more than sex. Has that been clear to you too?” She brought both of her hands to her face and wiped more water away. “Let’s just discuss this later. Too much has happened tonight.”
She tried to climb out of my arms.
“Wait.” I scowled and tightened my grip.
Be careful with our mate, my beast said.
“I love you. That shouldn’t be hard to believe, right?” I kissed her X brand.
“No. Let’s just slow down.” She averted her eyes. “And…I love you too.”
“Then stop trying to move away.” I pressed my lips against hers and thrust my tongue between her lips.
She bit it hard.
I jerked back. “What was that for? You want me to stop?”
Her eyes widened as she shook her head. “No…I’m just not that…experienced with kissing.”
“Well, you don’t bite when you kiss.” I chuckled.
“Shut up,” she muttered and pulled away from me.
“Wait, La La. I’m sorry.”
Some of my sadness left, and for a few seconds everything was back to normal as she returned and faced me.
“So you don’t know how to kiss at all? What about Kris?” I asked, enjoying our playful banter. I touched her bottom lip with my finger and traced its fullness.
“I bit him too.” She sighed. “And also the others—”
A deep, murderous growl boomed from my chest. “Others?”
She moved her mouth away from my fingers. “Well, I’m done confessing if you’re going to react like that.”
Who were the others?
I tried to direct my concentration back to her, shoving away the thoughts of someone else touching those lips. Regardless of whether she’d injured their tongues or not, I didn’t like it. However, tonight I’d let myself go over the edge. I hadn’t yet decided if murdering Joe was right or not, but I had to control my rage.
I looked down at her.
I have to make sure I don’t hurt her.
“You’re being ridiculous,” she mumb
led under her breath. “You made out with half of the cheerleading squad last year.”
I grinned.
I’d actually made out with the whole squad and a few of their friends, but I doubted she wanted to know that.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I don’t like to think about anyone touching you.”
“I’m sorry about Fiona.”
Sorrow swam inside of me and threatened to take me under.
Why did she have to remind me?
I tilted my head forward and rested my forehead against the wall behind her, hiding the tears that began to well up in my eyes. Part of me wanted to go back into myself and let the cheetah take over again.
The cheetah perked up as if waiting for me to decide.
La La embraced me, tightening her grip around my waist and surrounding me with her soft, sweet-scented flesh.
Fuck. She feels so good.
I’ll stay for now.
The cheetah snarled.
My hands slid up to the center of her back, caressing her damp skin.
“Promise me you’ll never leave me,” I whispered.
“I promise.” She kissed my chest once, stopped as if unsure of what to do next, and then kissed me again.
“Promise me we’ll always stay together, whether you’re mad at me or not.”
She paused for several excruciating seconds and then said, “I can’t. You’re going through your Season. We should wait until you’re done. Maybe try this again when your mind is more clear.”
“Fuck waiting.” I picked her up and devoured her lips, exploring her mouth with my tongue.
Every now and then she accidentally bit me, but it was worth it to my beast and me to finally take our mate in our arms.
I wish I’d told Mom that my beast chose La La. She loved La La like her own daughter and would have approved of the union.
Minutes rolled by as we savored and tasted each other until our lips went numb from the kissing. My tongue ached from the workout.
Tiny love marks covered La La’s neck and chest. I smiled with pride at the plum-colored bruises.
Graham, her father, is going to kill us.
Let him try, the cheetah said.
She climbed out of my arms. “We should stop. Dad will be home soon.”
“He’ll probably be high and pass out on the couch.”
“Please let me down, MeeShee.”
I put her down and was forced to calm my beast’s complaints.
Relax, I told him. We’ll hold her again.
My mom’s face flashed through my mind. The last time I’d seen her, she’d told me to take care of La La and stick together because the habitat life was rough and would swallow us up whole.
I’d snorted and left her standing there in the rain without a reply.
But now I understood what she’d been trying to say. It all clicked in my head. If we stuck together, we’d be stronger to deal with life’s heartaches. We wouldn’t have our parents’ fates. We could charter our own destinies.
I will take care of her, Mom.
I will.
THE HEART RIPPER’S SONG
Zulu
“Zulu, we do this quick and easy,” Ray said. “No ripping his chest apart, taking out his heart, and painting his blood across the pavement.”
“Come on. I did that once, and you still won’t leave it alone.” I shrugged my shoulders and leaned back in the van’s backseat.
Ray wiped sweat off his wing forehead brand that identified him as a Fairy. He’d been sweating, burping, and farting our whole stakeout. The brown carpet lining that covered the van’s walls and floors reeked of Ray’s watermelon candy scent.
“You’ve ripped several hearts out,” he argued.
“I have not,” I insisted and pushed open the van’s tinted window to air the space out.
“No, mon,” Nona said, on my right, in her thick Rebel dialect. “Me think it was six times.”
I didn’t respond.
If Nona said it was six, then it was probably true. The Were-dog was many things; the Rebel Shifter’s fierce leader, a mom to three rowdy Were-pup boys, and, most of all, a painfully honest observer.
“Me think you go too far, mon.” She took off her hunter-green sunglasses that matched her emerald-green Mohawk. Those black eyes peered at me as her tan fingers stuffed the glasses in her suit pocket. “You roar and bang your white hands upon your chest like a crazy mon and—”
“I got it, Nona,” I muttered.
She and the Fairy exchanged worried glances.
“What now?” I held out my hands.
“The little mon and me,” Nona said, pointing to Ray as he peeked around the driver’s seat and faced us. “We think you need to change your look.”
This from a six-foot female with a green Mohawk and flashy dress suit.
“I’m not a little man,” Ray corrected Nona. “This is just my fairy glamour. I’m bigger than five feet.”
I chuckled.
Nona hadn’t seen Ray’s real form yet, the one he hid under Fairy magic. It would give her nightmares, which was saying a lot considering I’ve watched her eat a man while he was still alive.
“What do you both mean I need to change my look?” I crossed my arms across my bare chest.
“When we do these missions, everybody knows it’s you afterward. We might as well hold up signs over your head,” Ray said. “There aren’t that many white Mixbreeds running around the habitat with blond dreadlocks.”
“I won’t cut them.” My lips curled down at the edges. My fangs pierced my gums.
“No. We want you to put them in a ponytail or something,” Ray explained and launched a bag of rubber bands at me.
They landed on my lap with a thud.
“You can’t be a thug anymore. Now that you started Mixbreeds for Equality, you have to act more like an upstanding individual,” Ray said.
I gathered all of my blond dreadlocks into one hand and attempted to stuff them into a rubber band. The end result was a huge haphazard dreadlock ball the size of a melon that stuck to the back of my head.
I groaned. “Anything else?”
Ray pointed to all of the multicolored cords sewn individually into the muscles on my arms. They covered the majority of the space from my shoulder to my wrists.
“You know I can’t get rid of these,” I said.
They were permanent. I’d had them since I was a kid. My existence without the cords would cause misery and bloodshed to the Santeria habitat.
“I know you can’t take them off.” Ray pulled out a black jacket. “But you can just as easily cover your arms. You can’t just walk around the habitat all the time with no shirt on. It’s not normal. Even Shapeshifters wear shirts.”
Nona nodded in agreement.
“My cords like the sun.” I snatched the jacket from Ray. My arm cords glowed to bright blues, reds, and purples before I slipped the rough jean material on.
Aggravation flowed through me, almost reaching to my boiling point.
There better not be anything else, or I’m going to roar.
The fabric tore as I wrenched it over my biceps.
I grinned at Ray. “Oops. I ripped it. Maybe I should take it off.”
“This was the worst day to stop drinking.” Ray rubbed his eyes with both hands.
I snorted.
Ray stopped drinking every Friday and started right back on Monday.
“Just keep the jacket on,” Ray said. “It’s a temporary fix anyway. Besides, X-large was the biggest I could get. I’ll get you something else later.”
“Like a cape? Or a tight polyester suit with a big Z sewn on my chest?” I gazed out of the window, focusing on the corner across from the middle school where Tango was dealing Hemo Drop to little kids.
Oya District was named and themed after the goddess Oya. Every building had bricks in some shade of purple, her favorite color. It was why Tango was so easy to spot as he hung out in front of the violet-bricked store.
&n
bsp; He wore an all-white linen short set that matched his ivory-colored shoes and fedora. An auburn beard wrapped around his chin and was so long, it hung all the way down to the center of his chest. Every few seconds, he would twist the tip of his beard.
Watching the Were-wolf had been the most boring thing that I’d ever done in my life.
For the past five hours, he’d yapped away to his entourage and chewed on a cherry root stick, which was typical behavior for a Were-wolf since they loved to gnaw things. He’d moved from the area only once, and that was to run next door to Lightning Market for their specialty sausage-stuffed eggplant. Any time he had to urinate, he would simply turn around, paint the store’s violet bricks with his piss, and return to his conversation.
I exhaled loudly.
“Relax, Zulu. We’ll get him.” Ray twisted around in his seat. “Just wait till it gets a little darker. The habitat police end their patrol of the school at dusk.”
I can hardly wait.
The habitat police officers, or habbies like most people called them, didn’t patrol the school to keep the kids safe. They were out there making sure that no other drug dealers violated Tango’s territory. The Were-wolf had been paying the habbies for over a year now. He thought he was untouchable.
We’ll see about that, Tango.
I’d already given him two warnings to stay away from the kids. The first time, he’d left for a week and then immediately returned. The second time, he only stayed away for a day.
You’ll regret that.
Most dealers only got one warning before I ended their existence.
Tango and I had history. We’d done Green Goblin together when we were teens. It had been a popular drug that got most addicted with one spoonful of the lime-green gel. After we tried that drug, we hung out together, putting any harmful thing we could find into our bodies.
I’d been clean for three years now.
Tango remained in the drug game.
“You just had to be so hardheaded.” I tapped my fingers against the window over and over, getting Nona and Ray’s attention.
They both stared at me.
“What? I’m ready to get this over with,” I said. “I have things I want to do later.”
“You’ll see your Mixie tonight. Don’t worry,” Ray said.
“She’s not mine yet,” I murmured.
“By the way, does she know about this?” Ray asked.
“No.”
Ray sniggered. “Well, then, you better behave yourself.”