My instinct was to get closer.
I moved with the crossbow at my shoulder height. Whatever was out there moved as well. I could see a shadow amongst the trees ahead. I began to stalk it.
Erasmus clamped his mouth shut and sniffed the wind.
When it cleared the trees, I could plainly see it, walking in a shaft of sunlight. It had a deer skull for a head with tall antlers branching out wide. Its body was emaciated and though it didn’t walk on all fours, it was slumped so far over it might as well have been. It seemed to be wearing ragged clothes made of something like transparent buckskin, and a necklace of what looked like children’s skulls, bone white against its rather ruddy appearance. Every one of its bones, every rib, every joint, was evident through its translucent membrane, yet instead of lumbering, it walked gracefully on two unnaturally long, thin legs. Until it stopped. The skull seemed to sniff the air and slowly turned…toward me.
Why wasn’t I used to this by now? Why didn’t I just fire?
It looked me over and slowly approached.
“Fire, Kylie!” Erasmus hissed behind me.
But I didn’t. A dark wave of sorrow, of regret, of shame, suddenly flooded me, all blending together in a bone-deep sense of pain. And the hunger. I couldn’t escape it. I almost doubled over in agony. It was so hungry. And it was shamed by it, too.
There was no expression on a skull with its empty eye sockets, and yet it seemed to be pleading with me. It didn’t want these feelings any more than I did. It seemed to be asking me, Why?
I was overcome with the need to comfort it, to say that it would be okay. At the same time, the confusing mesh of hunger and longing emanating from it repulsed me. My skin crawled even as I was drawn toward it.
And then fear took over, because I knew what it wanted. It seemed that its hunger would only be satisfied by one thing. For human flesh. For me.
It wanted to eat me. And I was torn… I wanted what it wanted. I wanted to give in, not only to eat human flesh myself, but to let it eat me, to give myself to the creature. The utter horror of it froze me to the spot. I couldn’t lift the crossbow. I couldn’t fire, even with the faint call of Erasmus behind me.
Its skeletal hands landed on my shoulders, every joint of each finger digging in. I couldn’t stop picturing tearing the flesh off of a human arm with my teeth…and liking it. And then picturing the creature doing the same to me…and liking it just as much.
With a strength that came from god-knows-where, I cried out and flung my arms up, dislodging its hands from me. It stared at me with a grim sense of sadness, before dropping its mandible to its chest and screaming. It was the sound of a thousand regrets, of unimaginable desire.
The scream was so high-pitched and so jarring that I nearly dropped to my knees. If it weren’t for Erasmus’ strong hands holding me up, I would have folded to become that thing’s dinner. Pulling myself together, I raised the crossbow, but with another unholy scream it bounded away, disappearing into the long shadows.
I stared into the woods where it had gone, shamed by the hunger that churned in me, that couldn’t be quenched with normal food. A hunger for the forbidden.
About the Author
Jeri Westerson is the author of the Crispin Guest Medieval Mystery and the Booke of the Hidden series. Her books were finalists for several major mystery awards, including the Agatha, the Shamus, and the Macavity. She lives in Menifee, California.
ALSO BY JERI WESTERSON
BOOKE OF THE HIDDEN
Booke of the Hidden
Deadly Rising
Shadows in the Mist*
The Darkest Gateway*
CRISPIN GUEST MEDIEVAL MYSTERIES
Veil of Lies*
Serpent in the Thorns*
The Demon’s Parchment*
Troubled Bones*
Blood Lance*
Shadow of the Alchemist*
The Silence of Stones
A Maiden Weeping
Season of Blood
The Deepest Grave
Traitor’s Codex
Cup of Blood, a prequel to Veil of Lies
*available as a JABberwocky edition
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