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“We were not certain where you lived,” Phineas adds like he’s trying to mitigate some alarm on my part. “And given… everything, it wasn’t advisable to risk a hospital.”
My heart pounds. “What ‘everything’?”
One eyebrow arches like he’s Mister Spock. I’m getting the impression that he’s scary smart on top of being a killer.
To say nothing of how he looks like he could bench-press my car.
“You saw us, right?” Huck takes a step farther into the room, appearing alarmed and confused in equal measure. “In the alley? Why are you asking what we?—”
“How is she?” Zeb’s voice comes from behind him, and Huck half turns toward the sound.
The dark-haired guy steps into the room, a tray in his hands. There’s a plate of pancakes. A glass of orange juice. Even a little bud vase with a single white flower in it.
What the fuck?
“What is this?” I watch them all warily. “Who are you guys?”
Now they all share a glance like they’re weighing who should be the one to speak, and maybe even what they should say.
Rising to his feet, Phineas backs away from the bed while Zeb sets the tray on a dresser and Huck just exhales sharply like he’s excited for something. With a short motion, Phineas tugs his t-shirt away and then kicks off his shoes, while Zeb does the same.
My alarm grows. “What are you?—”
They shift before my eyes.
Where Phineas stood, there’s now a seven-foot-tall creature from a nightmare. His head is shaped like a wolf, but with bone protruding past the black fur near his cheekbones and jaw, like the flesh couldn’t contain the skull of the monster beneath. More fur covers his body, but he stands upright like a man, so he’s no wolf shifter. He’s muscled as hell, from his massive chest to his equally enormous arms and legs, and he has pointed ears atop his head that twitch like they’re picking up every sound for a hundred miles. Something green that appears highly poisonous drips from his enormous teeth, while emerald mist rises from his gaping jaw. His hands are massive and end in dark claws longer than my fingers. His feet are longer and covered in fur too, with toes tipped by claws as well. A tail sways behind him, darkly furred but with the end turning white.
Huck is leaner. Almost deathly thin, like an emaciated corpse with his cheeks sunken and his skin drawn tight over every muscle. His arms are too long, like they were stretched on a rack, and his hands hang down by his knees, each finger far longer than it should be. His nails extend like knives growing from his fingertips, and even from here, I can tell they’re terrifyingly sharp. He’s taller as well, only a few inches shorter than Phineas. He’s still got his blue-tipped hair, only now it’s solid and spiky like sharp icicles rising from his head. His eyes are huge and shocking electric blue, and they move independently of each other, one rolling to the left and the other to the right and then back again of their own accord.
And Zeb only barely looks human. I mean, he still has a head, shoulders, knees, and toes, but from those shoulders, he doesn’t have arms. No, he has tentacles. Huge ones, each coming from his shoulders and stretching to the floor with plenty more rising from his back, all fanning out around him like boneless versions of spider legs. They have suckers on their undersides, each circle dark purple like a bruise, but their other side is deep green like algae. His eyes are white, no iris to be seen, and his dark hair hangs around his face, casting his sharp features in shadow. He looks like an octopus hybrid from hell.
Creepy stirs sleepily in my mind. I swear she purrs with satisfaction. And gods help me, I’m right there with her. I know they should look horrifying. That they would, to a human or even another supernatural.
But I’m a Jekyll. They’re Hydes.
Gods help me, they are incredibly hot.
The three of them shift back. They watch me like they’re waiting to see what I’m going to do.
I don’t know what to say. I have more questions than there is air in the room to voice them, and the way my body is burning around these guys isn’t helping.
Plus, Phineas and Zeb really need to put their shirts back on.
But what makes me freeze isn’t just the lust currently scorching me or the way Creepy wants to lick each of their bodies like they’re candy-coated treats. It’s not the way Huck has this eager grin like a puppy who wants me to be excited as well, or how Phineas looks like he’s challenging me to shift too, or even how—of them all—there’s a guarded tinge to Zeb’s expression, like past all his confidence and bravado, I swear he’s worried I’m going to run screaming now that I’ve seen his other form.
Or how it all melts my heart a little.
It’s not just any of that. There’s something magnetic about these guys. A strange draw inside myself that’s pulling me to them—mind, body, and soul.
And it’s terrifying.
But meanwhile, I’m sitting on this enormous bed in a tight dress, Creepy is stirring stronger in my mind, and my body is tingling at how I’m the fixation of all their stares.
I push away from the mattress and climb from the bed, keeping it between us. My leg throbs like a motherfucker, reminding me I was shot some indeterminate amount of time ago, but my healing spell clearly is working better than I expected because the wound is okay enough that I can stand. “You… How…”
Zeb and Phineas share a glance, and then Zeb gives a short shrug. His confident attitude is coming back into place. Maybe he figures if I haven’t run yet, I’m probably not going to. “Phineas and I met at college. We, uh, picked up Huck about a year after we graduated.”
My eyes narrow. Picked up? Something about the way he says it makes me think there’s more to it than meeting on a dating app or whatever. But while Huck doesn’t react to the abbreviated description, he’s also drifted closer to Zeb, his body half turned toward the guy, either to protect him or be protected I don’t know. But he’s barely taken his eyes from me at all.
