Lights, Camera…Monsters

by Lila Dubois

  “Oh. Well, mostly I can control it, sorry. Though if I get really tired, or forget to put up wards that hold the spell in place, I will change in my sleep.”

  “Really tired, like after having eight-orgasm sex,” Lena added, smirking smugly at her friends.

  “So you’ve seen him in his monster body,” Cali demanded.

  Lena’s smiled died. “I have. It’s scary, he’s scary. I’m the reason he has a bandage on his shoulder. When I woke up and saw him that way I was so terrified I almost passed out, then I tried to fight him.”

  “So you stabbed him?” Jane asked incredulously.

  “And she threw her shoes at me,” Luke added. There was a beat of silence before Lena’s friends dissolved into gales of laughter. Happy to have amused them, smiling at Lena to apologize for having revealed that embarrassing reaction, Luke got to his feet. Akta reclaimed her chair, and Lena moved to the arm of the couch.

  Luke retreated to change from his slacks to a pair of chopped up sweatpants Lena had given him. She’d found what she called her “fat pants” and cut off the legs. He’d worn them as he changed forms for her, as they were loose enough to adapt to his larger body, but offered him some privacy.

  He re-emerged into the living room to hear Lena say

  “—you’re going to be completely freaked out. He’s got wings, and fangs, and legs like a horse. He looks scary, and his voice is really deep, so go ahead and freak out. I’ve asked him to stay as a monster for about thirty seconds, then change back.”

  The women all looked to him again, and Luke had a brief flash of anxiety that they might ask him to talk, but Lena turned to him and said, “Whenever you’re ready.”

  He pulled the bandage from his shoulder, knowing it would come off during the transformation, and set it on the table.

  Bowing his head, Luke reached into himself, to the place where the spell lay. He could feel its connection to the markings on his back, as if small wires, fine as spider silk, connected the marks in his skin to the seat of the spell, a place just beside his heart.

  Luke tugged on those fine threads, using them to pull the marks into his body, withdrawing them to the nucleus of the spell. Experimentation in the mirror had taught him that the marks disappeared from his skin in truth as he started his change, and Luke obligingly twisted his shoulders so they could see the tattoo recede from his arm.

  Once he bundled all of the fine wires and marks into the place where the spell lay, it was a simple matter of relaxing. His human body took concentration to hold, his monster form was his natural casing.

  He closed his eyes and relaxed.

  Bones snapped, his kneecaps breaking and crumbling to nothingness inside him to allow his elongating legs to bend backwards. He felt himself shoot up, growing taller as his chest broadened and rounded, extra muscles sliding into place along his chest and back to power the wings that flared from his shoulders. His hair grew long and tangled, eyes changing. He now saw the world with second sight, colors dimming in favor of the pantone array of auras.

  The women now appeared as bright starbursts of color. Gold of intelligence banded each of them, while their base colors differed from blue to green and elegant indigo.

  There was another uniting feature among their auras, and that was the jagged slash of red and black fear that graced each of them. Even Lena was afraid, and that hurt him in a way that Luke didn’t want to examine.

  But then the fear started to fade.

  Luke dimmed the aura sight, looking at their sepia toned faces. Akta had her fingers pressed to her lips, Jane had both fists balled over her heart. Beside her Margo’s face was grim.

  Cali cocked her head to the side, then leaned to her right to examine him from a different angle. Finally she raised her hands, forming a box with forefingers and thumbs and framed him with it.

  “Oh yeah, this is going to look amazing on camera.”

  Chapter Nine

  Lena rinsed her bowl and stuck it into the dishwasher. Next she rolled the cereal bag down inside the box and closed the lid. Normally not the neatest housekeeper, Lena was using the mundane chores as a distraction.

  She hadn’t seen Luke in fourteen hours. Usually she despised women who moped if they weren’t with their significant other every second of every day, believing that people needed to have their own lives and interests if they were going to make it as a couple. While she still believed that, Lena couldn’t help but miss him. It was insane considering they’d only met a few days ago, but reminding herself of that didn’t make her miss him any less.

  Last night, after he’d shown them his monster form, Luke left, catching a ride with Cali, who was going to visit her sister in South Bay. After learning that they were squatting in a warehouse at the port, Cali, whose father worked in real estate, promised to find them a place.

  Jane had stayed for about a half hour after the others left. They’d talked about the ramifications of the project and made a list of questions to ask Luke, including what, besides monsters, were real.

  She’d slept fitfully, plagued by dreams of monsters that morphed uncomfortably into sex dreams, leaving her unrested and restless.

  The chime of her doorbell was unexpected, and Lena wiped her hands on a dishtowel before going to the door. A glace through the peephole got her nothing but an eyeful of flowers. Vaguely wondering if she had any cash to tip the delivery guy, Lena opened the door.

  Luke peered at her from around the flowers, and a delighted smile of surprise lit her face.

  “Luke! I wasn’t expecting you, come in.” She held open the door as he trooped in, carrying not only flowers, but a box of chocolates and a bottle of champagne.

  “For you,” he said, holding everything out.

  Flushed with pleasure, Lena sniffed the flowers before setting them on the counter along with the chocolates and sticking the champagne in the fridge. Then, ignoring his gifts, she threw her arms around him and kissed him.

  Luke lifted her by the ass and set her on the counter, teeth nipping her lower lip. Desire to have him slammed down on her, as bright and sudden as a fallen star.

  “I want you, I want you,” she chanted.

  Luke tugged at her tank-top, pulling it up to settle his hands against the bare skin of her back. “I couldn’t stop thinking about you,” he muttered into her neck.

  Lena grabbed the back of his T-shirt and started pulling, moaning in pleasure as she exposed the golden dark skin on his back.

  “I couldn’t sleep,” she admitted, ripping his shirt off.

  “Me either.” He pulled off her tank top and growled in frustration at her sports bra. His fingers zipped over the fabric, front and back, searching for the catch. Even that light touch through the heavy spandex fabric was enough to have Lena’s nipples pebbling. Luke raked his thumbnail over one of the distended peaks, and Lena sobbed out a breath of pleasure.

  “Luke, do it again.” He raked her nipple again before resuming his frantic search for the method to free her breasts.

  “How does it come off?”

  “Stretchy, just pull…”

  With her assistance Luke got her out of the sports bra. Cupping her ribcage he bent and sampled each nipple. That first brush of lips and tongue was enough to have cream flooding Lena’s sex.

  “Luke, please, now, now.” She fumbled open his button and zipper, the stiff denim and awkward angle not allowing her more. Luke pulled her off the counter, ripped her yoga pants down and off, and set her back on the counter. Lena cried out as her bare ass made contact with the cold granite.

  Lena spread her legs, watching as Luke’s jaw twitched as he stared at her dripping sex. Lena swiped her fingers through the wetness, giving her clit a quick rub, before holding her fingers out to Luke. He grabbed her hand and sucked her fingers into his mouth.

  Lena used her heels to shove Luke’s jeans down his legs, his cock springing up from behind the waistband of his tight-legged boxers. Before she shoved them too far down, Luke reached into the back
pocket and pulled out a slim little condom box. He ripped it open and threw the second foil packet onto the counter. Lena took the one he still held and ripped it open. She played with him first, running her fingers along the sensitive underside, pulling his foreskin back to caress the head and massaging his balls, before sliding the condom down.

  Once it was on, Luke grabbed her hips, dragging her ass to the edge of the counter.

  “Look at me,” he demanded, and when Lena looked up into his beautiful brown eyes, Luke slammed into her.

  Lena threw her head back, the pleasure of that first hard penetration almost enough to bring her to orgasm. Luke held his position inside her, and Lena reached down to explore the place where their bodies connected. She traced the tight flesh where his body held hers open, and spread her wetness up along what little of his cock was not buried inside her.

  He started to pull out, but Lena had him wait. “No, stay inside me, feel me.” She clenched her muscles around him, and Luke’s eyes widened.

  “You can do that at will?”

  “Yes,” she replied with both voice and a second squeeze.

  “Do it again.”

  She worked him as he held still inside her. The rhythmic clenching made Lena hyperaware of her clit, and since her hand was already down there, she started rubbing it.

  Holding herself up with one hand on his shoulder, Lena spread her sex open with her index and ring fingers, using her middle finger to draw tight hard circles around her clit. She relaxed her muscles, letting the slowly mounting orgasm tighten them for her.

  The enforced stillness was a form of bondage, his body her master, his cock inside her the focus of her attention. Lena rubbed her clit, looking into his eyes as she did so.

  Higher and higher she built herself, until she was there, the orgasm came, drawing her body painfully taut. She continued to rub her now ultra sensitive clit, her body clamping down hard around his thick cock, his presence inside her increasing the pleasure.

  With a last high cry she let her hand fall away. Luke, whose jaw was clenched, every muscle tensed from holding still, fisted a hand in her hair and drew her in for a kiss. His tongue fucked her mouth, lips moving wetly over one another, before he pulled out and slammed into her.

  His thrust caused an aftershock to ripple through Lena, and her nails dug into him.

  Luke started fucking her in earnest now. Slamming home in her orgasm-tight body. After that first high, hard, orgasm, this second one built slowly, from deep in her belly, curling her toes and tightening her stomach muscles.

  Luke pressed his sweaty cheek to hers and whispered, “I’m close.”

  She smile and kissed his cheek, “Good, come. I want to feel you come inside me.”

  “Not without you.”

  “I already—”

  He reached between them and pinched her nipple, giving it a hard twist. Lena yelped in pleasure and surprise.

  Luke tightened his grip on her hip, the other hand still on her breast, kneading her pale flesh and jackhammered into her, thrusting with wild passion.

  Lena came a second time, her legs tightening around his back to slam him home into her. Luke buried his face in her neck as he came, his own cry of completion muffled against her neck. They stayed that way, locked together, sweaty bodies wrapped around one another, Lena perched on the kitchen counter, until her back started to hurt from the odd position, and she nudged him away.

  Luke nearly toppled over, pants caught around his ankles, but caught himself just in time. Lena laughed and slowly lowered her legs, hopping off the counter. She was stiff, from toes to arms.

  While Luke was occupied removing his shoes and extracting himself from his pants, Lena wiped the pooled wetness from the counter. The kitchen smelled like sex and sweat, the countertop now body temperature. Luke was hopping around trying to get off his sock, so Lena took pity on him. Picking up his jeans she snapped them and held them up.

  What the…

  “Where did you get these? The Eighties called, they want their acid wash back.”

  “Uh, I got them at a vintage store.”

  “Vintage store? By any chance do you mean Goodwill?”

  Luke took the jeans from her and self-consciously folded them, a tint of maroon riding high on his cheeks. “I know they don’t look like jeans should, I couldn’t find even one magazine picture that looked like them, but they were the only ones that fit.”

  “I bet, you’re tall and trim and gorgeous.” Lena snatched the jeans from him and threw them over the counter into the living room. She looked him over, but this time it wasn’t with an eye for lust, but rather as a blank canvas.

  “New plan.”

  “What was the old plan?”

  “The old plan was sex, the champagne, then more sex.”

  “I like that plan, why are we abandoning that plan?” Luke asked piteously.

  “Because you need clothes.”

  “I have clothes.”

  “Better clothes. Come on, let’s shower, then we’re going shopping.”

  “Blue, you need to keep him in blue.”

  “I rather like the green,” Lena said, tilting her head to the side to consider the color combination.

  “All sea tones, only cool colors.”

  “What about grey?”

  “Ohhh, you’re right, and I have the perfect thing.”

  Her companion darted away, flicking through the sparse clothing racks, expensive wood hangers clicking importantly as he searched. Luke was positioned on a small platform in front of a tri-fold mirror. He turned to face Lena.

  She smiled and stepped onto the platform, fingers going to the buttons of the cobalt shirt she’d put him in. She brushed her fingers over the bare skin of his belly as she parted the shirt.

  “Do you have any idea how gorgeous you are?” She asked as she slipped the shirt off his shoulders and threw it over the vintage armchair that waited by the platform. There was already a pile of clothes gracing the tufted chair.

  “Thank you,” he replied, a faint blush heating his cheeks.

  He was just delicious. Lena nipped his jaw before stepping off the platform. Marco, an up-and-coming stylist and the owner of this posh boutique in West Hollywood, or WeHo as the locals called it, ambled up carrying a creamy grey sweater with a V-neck.

  “I just can’t get over the tattoo,” Marco purred as he handed Luke the sweater. The other man’s fingers flirted briefly with the skin on Luke’s shoulder and Lena snapped, “Hands off.”

  “You ruin my fun,” he pouted.

  “Find your own.” Lena advised, watching Luke’s abs flex as he pulled the sweater on.

  “There are more of them, aren’t there?”

  For a moment Lena had this horrible fear that she’d let something slip, that the “them” Marco referred to were the monsters.

  “Akta said that he had two friends. Either of them play for my team?” Marco prompted when she didn’t reply.

  “Ahhh, nope, sorry, they’re all on my team.”

  “They probably just haven’t met the right boy.”

  “If anyone could convert them it would be you,” Lena assured.

  “My, my, look at that.” They left the teasing banter alone in order to study Luke in the grey sweater. The color set off his skin and eyes. There was just enough cling to highlight his pecs, and the skin revealed by the V-neck was delectable. Lena could imagine him with a black jacket shrugged over the top or a white button up underneath. Luke turned to look at himself in the mirror. Lena and Marco both sighed as Luke’s ass, perfectly cupped by artistically faded and worn jeans, came into view.

  “You like this?” Luke asked Lena, brushing his hand over his stomach.

  “Your abs or the sweater?”

  “Both.”

  “The sweater looks great on you, we’re taking that too. As for your abs… I can’t wait to get home and examine them in further detail.” They smiled at one another in the mirror.

  “Gloating bitch,” Marc
o muttered as he turned away.

  Lena stepped onto the platform once more. She peeked over Luke’s shoulder so they could see one another in the mirror and slipped her fingers under the front of his sweater.

  “You ready to go?” she asked as she toyed with his belly beneath the sweater.

  “Yessss.” He shivered as she pushed the tip of her index finger into his belly button.

  “Good, because as much as I like dressing you, I like undressing you even more.”

  Luke frowned. “I do not need you to dress me.”

  “I know you don’t.” Luke had told her about using magazine pictures as guides to create outfits from things they found at thrift stores. She’d gotten Marco to open the boutique for them, telling him that Luke was an up-and-coming Hollywood star, and that Marco could hitch his wagon to that star. In exchange for Luke wearing Marco’s designs they would receive a deep discount on the clothes.

  Lena slipped around to Luke’s front to share a long, deep kiss, then hopped off the platform again. Luke exchanged the sweater for a vintage T-shirt she handed him, but left the jeans on. She took the rest of the clothes to the cash register, where, with a slight wince, she paid for them.

  Laden with bags they left the store, heading for the pay lot down the street. Luke wore the new sunglasses she’d purchased for him, and heads turned as they walked past. His build, his hair, the way he carried himself, all spoke of him being someone other than ordinary. In this town that air was usually associated with film-celebrity. No one save Lena would know the truth behind his air of mystery.

  Three hours later, they trouped back into Lena’s apartment. Luke was laden with bags from various Beverly Center stores. Dropping two “Large Brown Bags” along with a rainbow of boutique bags near the door, Lena, wearing the sunglasses she’d treated herself to, flopped down on the couch and propped her feet on the coffee table.

  Luke was shedding bags. He looked like sin in denim wearing one of the new pairs of jeans Lena’d bought him. They hugged his ass without being too tight, and the dark stonewash, pre-faded and frayed, set off his skin color.