Unnatural Lover Boxed Set #2

by Flynn, Mac

  Contents

  Title Page

  Part 6 - Separation Anxiety

  Part 7 - Doppelganger Night

  Part 8 - Mountain Mysteries

  Part 9 - Permanent Changes

  Part 10 - Welcome Home

  Other Books

  UNNATURAL LOVERS BOXED SET #2

  by

  Mac Flynn

  SMASHWORDS EDITION

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  PUBLISHED BY:

  Mac Flynn on smashwords.com

  Copyright © 2013 by Mac Flynn

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  Smashwords Edition License Notes

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to the site where the book was purchased and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author's work.

  Note: This story contains sexually explicit material, and is intended only for persons over the age of 18. By downloading and opening this document, you are stating that you are of legal age to access and view this work of fiction. All of the characters involved in the sexual situations in this story are intended to be 18 years of age or older, whether they are explicitly described as such or not.

  "So have you decided who's going to be staying with you while I'm up battling the dragon on the mountain?" Tony asked Amanda after they'd got through cleaning the dinner dishes. Amanda paused while putting away the last dish, and there was a frown on her lips.

  "I haven't really had time to decide. Maybe I don't even need anybody to stay with me if I stay at your apartment."

  "Unless you plan on going out a lot on your last day away from work, I'd feel better if you had someone to entertain you, here or at your apartment," Tony insisted. "You know, someone to acclimate you back into the real world." She tilted her head and looked at him with her hands crossed over her chest.

  "And you're not one of those people?"

  "Hey, maybe I'm not real, either." He raised his hands over his head and wiggled his fingers. Then he puckered his lips and made a soft oohing sound as though he was a ghost. "I'm the spirit of your boyfriend come to haunt you." Amanda flung the drying towel across his face.

  "You sound like something from a cartoon, and those never scared me," she countered, but there was a smile on her lips. He tore off the cloth and was glad to see that pretty mouth turned up in amusement.

  "Well, even if I don't make a good ghost I still make a great boyfriend, and because of that I'm begging you to find someone to stay with you while I'm gone. It could be anyone, just pick them and make sure I have their cell phone number, too, in case I call while I'm out hunting for monsters."

  "Skip the hunting and just do some poking around like a good, safe sleuth," she scolded, though he noticed there was a devilish glint in her eyes. "And as for inviting anyone, would you still be such a good boyfriend if I asked a guy to come over here?" Tony frowned and the towel in his hands got the worst of his displeasure when he twisted it in his hands.

  "I'd prefer you not do that," he warned, but Amanda didn't take his tone seriously. He wasn't the jealous type, and indeed she laughed when he flung the towel over his arm and held it out in front of him like a dastardly cape. He leaned down and his eyes barely peeked over the edge of his arm. "I might have to kidnap you and hold you my prisoner until you learn your lesson."

  "And by the time that happens I'll be an old woman and you'll be wanting somebody young and pretty," she pointed out, but her laugh rang out through the apartment. Tony couldn't verbally express how grateful he was to hear that sweet sound again. It'd been gone too long, even before this whole cabin incident, back when she'd heard about her inability to have children.

  "Well, maybe I'll just stick you in the home and order you to cook and clean for me." He tossed the towel aside, along with his evil persona.

  "I suppose that could happen, but your job's going to have to start paying more if you want to afford me," Amanda joked. She primped up her hair with one hand and tilted her head to the side as though she was posing for dozens of paparazzi cameras. "I'm a glamour girl, you know."

  "My pay might go up if I get a big scoop." Amanda frowned when she recalled his attempts to use her suffering for the scoop. He backed away and held up his hands. "But not on you. I swear it'll come from somewhere else." She partially turned away from him and again folded her arms across her chest.

  "It better, I don't want my face plastered on all your newspapers next to sightings of UFOs and the yeti."

  "We don't do yeti, we do Bigfoot."

  "Either way, it's a no-go, got it?" At her order he clicked his heels together and saluted.

  "Yes, ma'am. Anything for you, ma'am."

  "Are you ever going to run out of those old jokes?" She didn't realize he had such a large supply of cliched personalities.

  "To be honest, I'm running on empty." His shoulders slumped and he glanced at the time. "Only seven o'clock and already I feel like an old man. Tomorrow's just gonna be worse, too."

  "Are you still going to go up there tomorrow for sure?" Amanda asked him, and he nodded.

  "I still think I have to do it, scoop or not scoop. I've still got the day after tomorrow off like I said, so I can check out what I miss tomorrow and then get back here with plenty of time to tell you what I found, if anything."

  "That's if you come back," she whispered. He frowned when he recognized the familiar dreary tone of the last few days.

  "I am coming back, hell or, well, hell creature. I promise I'll do everything I can to avoid being up there at night so it can't grab me. Besides, I'll be able to get back your food that you left up there. I noticed it all looked okay when I went in there the other day." Amanda shuddered at the thought of those items laying in there so close to the thing coming back to her. She already had enough complications with a rock, she didn't want to think what a box of cereal would do to her sanity.

  "I think you can just leave that stuff up there. I didn't take much with me, so it won't make too big of a dent in my grocery bill."

  "All right, if that's what you want." She frowned and shot him a glare.

  "What I want is for you to know go up there at all."

  "Come on, Amanda, do we really want to be fighting the day before I'm going to leave on this super-secret, dangerous mission?" She just turned her head away and hunched her shoulders up to block him from her sight. He wouldn't be put off so easily, and moved over to wrap his arms around her own. His voice dropped to a low, soothing whisper. "Come on, Mandy, have a little faith in me. We can both make it through this with our lives and sanities intact." Amanda held out for a moment longer, but couldn't fight his encouraging words when he gave her a squeeze. She melted beneath his hopeful attitude, and he was glad to feel when her tense body softened. "I'll take that as you believing in me, because I definitely believe in you."

  "I guess I'll believe in you, but you'd better not let me down." Her voice was lighthearted with a tinge of seriousness. She was still worried, but she'd let him go off to find the answers he so desperately wanted.

  "Good." His voice was chipper and he gave her a shake to know her out of her thoughts. "Now about where you're staying, my place or yours?"

  "To be honest I should probably stay at my place. I have to go to work the day after tomorrow, and my apartment's a little closer to where I work than yours."

/>   "And you'll definitely get somebody to stay with you while I'm gone?" Amanda winced at the thought of a babysitter. For one, she didn't want to be coddled like she was a child, and for another, she wanted to see what that small chunk of the rock would do, if anything. That would require privacy, particularly if the effects she hoped for came true.

  "Actually, I'm not really sure that's going to be very easy. I mean, what am I supposed to tell them about coming over? That I'm suddenly afraid of the dark and don't want to be alone?" That sounded incredibly stupid and infantile to her, and went back to her wish not to be treated like a kid that needed babysat.

  "How about you ask them to comfort you about your, well, um, your other problem."

  "My other problem?" Amanda blinked and glanced over her shoulder. "What other problem?" Possibly not to Amanda's credit, the entire episode with the doctor and her very reason for traveling up to the cabin had completely left her mind.

  "Your visit to the doctor, remember?" For the first time that night Tony looked her over with genuine concern. He couldn't see how anyone could forget something as important and life-altering as finding out you were barren. Her forgetting gave him a glimpse into how terrifying a distraction the creature had been for her these last few days.

  Amanda's hand flew to her mouth, which was agape from his recalling words. She, too, couldn't believe she'd let that slip her mind, and for remembering she was left with the depression such memories brought her. Tony noticed her crestfallen face and her quivering shoulders beneath his hands.

  "I-I'm sorry, really. I didn't mean to bring that back up. I just didn't realize you'd forgotten about it."

  "It's...it's all right." She turned to look up into his apologetic face, and her own reflected a soft, trembling smile. Her tears simmered just below the surface. "I had to remember some time, right?"

  "Yeah, I guess, but I wish I wasn't the one to remind you..." Tony countered.

  "You're going to feel worse when I tell you that nobody's knows my reason for taking a vacation. I had to tell my boss about it because otherwise he wouldn't have given me the time off."

  "You're right, that does make me feel worse." His face fell and his hands squeezed her shoulders, as much to comfort her as for himself. "That also leaves me out of ideas for how to get someone to stay with you."

  "Why don't I just ask them for a girl's night out on the town and a sleepover?" Amanda suggested. His eyes narrowed and his lips pursed together.

  "Does that really work, or are you just teasing me?"

  "Why wouldn't it really work?" She was insulted that he wouldn't take her suggestion at face value.

  "Well, because it sounds just too, well, girly to work. You know, like a cliche from a movie or something." Tony struggled to explain his reasoning without displeasing his girlfriend, and from the look on her face he was failing miserably.

  "Well, it might sound girly, but it's just our way of hanging out. You know, like guys do, but without all the beer."

  "What's the fun in that? Without beer that means you remember all the stupid stuff you did the night before. We men rely on our hangover amnesia to get us through our wild romps with the guys."

  "You are such a, well, a guy." Tony puffed out his chest and let her go to flex his non-existent muscles.

  "Yep, as manly as they come."

  "Well, use some of that manliness to get yourself out of any trouble you get yourself into tomorrow, all right?" Gone was the jesting in her voice, and back was the dire seriousness.

  "You don't think I'd not come back and let another man step in my place by your side, do you?" He wrapped one arm around her waist and hugged her to his side. She laughed when she looked up into his face and he waggled his eyebrows at her. "Nobody's going to get between us so long as I'm around."

  Amanda held her smile on her face, but inwardly she was swallowing her heart. Only an hour before she'd broken off a bit of the strange rock to keep a part of the erotic pleasures it offered. If that wasn't a betrayal of Tony's undying affection, she couldn't guess what was worse. She felt doubly dirty now, the first for enjoying the touches of the creature, and the second for actively seeking out those same sensual feelings the thing stirred inside of herself. She felt like a housewife that was cheating on the milkman to liven up her life.

  "You okay?" Amanda was jerked from her thoughts by Tony's concern. She hadn't even been aware she'd zoned out, but he noticed the vacant look in her eyes.

  "Oh, yeah, I'm fine. I was just thinking about what to do about getting one of my friends over here, that's all. That, and who to get over here."

  "What about that twittering one? The one who's always all bubbly and scary?"

  "You mean Sylvia?" Amanda guessed, and Tony snapped his fingers.

  "That's the one! What about her?" Amanda winced at his suggestion and bit her lip.

  "I don't know. She's okay, I guess, but her keeping me company might be a little much."

  "Then she's perfect. You need to have a little too much happiness to make up for what's happened these last few days. I know I haven't been much help cheering you up."

  "I'll admit you haven't-" Tony flinched at her honest admittance, "but you haven't been that bad. I mean, you didn't get us killed when we went up to the cabin."

  "Thanks," he replied with a roll of his eyes. "Makes me feel so much better."

  "I try to help," she countered with a snicker.

  "Yes, well, how about you help me by telling me where you're going to be staying while I'm gone, and then getting some shut eye?"

  "I already told you I was going back to my apartment. It's closer to work and Sylvia would need to get to work with me." That, and a distinct shortage of underwear was occurring because of her frequent trysts with the creature.

  "Then all the more reason for you to get some sleep right now. You'll have to get up with me and get out, because I can't remember where I put my spare key."

  "You gave it to me, remember?" she replied. Amanda nodded toward her bedroom. "I think it's in my purse as we speak."

  "Well, that's one mystery solved. I hope I do a better job on that place up in the mountains." Amanda suddenly prodded him in the gut and he winced at her pointed finger with those long nails. "Ouch! What'd you do that for?"

  "For you to keep your promise and get your butt back here."

  "Hey, I'm going to keep my word. Monster or not monster, you're going to see me at your apartment the day after tomorrow. Probably some time in the evening, since I've got a lot of snooping to do around there. You know, look into dusty old libraries and talk to that even dustier old man."

  "Just don't rough him up too much. He seemed like a nice guy."

  "Yeah, if a little bit weird," Tony replied. Then he let out a yawn and stretched his arms high above his head. "But let's say we hit the hay? Got work and that drive tomorrow, and you have to try to get Sylvia to room with you for at least a night."

  "I don't think it'll be that hard. She likes any excuse to chatter, and having me as a captured audience at my apartment would be a dream come true for her." After her long, harrowing day, Amanda had to admit she was also utterly exhausted. She covered her mouth to hide her yawn, but Tony noticed.

  "And that tells me I'm not the only one who needs some rest." He grabbed her shoulders and turned her around toward the bedrooms. Then he gave her a little push for encouragement. "And don't let me catch you sneaking out here completely naked. I'd hate to have to tackle you and have my way with you."

  "Only in your dreams," Amanda shot back with a laugh as she made her way to her bedroom door. However, Tony had one last subject to bring up.

  "Oh, where's that rock, anyway? If I'm leaving directly from work I'd probably better put it in my car," Tony reminded her.

  At his request Amanda froze. Now she knew he was completely serious about ditching that rock where it'd come from, and she felt her heart beat a little faster. She had the impulse to tell him it was all right to keep the rock, that she wanted a memento of
her harrowing experience. That was partially true, but she lusted for the affects that lovely piece of stone promised her.

  "You still have it, don't you?" he asked.

  "Oh, yeah, definitely. Let me go get it. I stowed it away just so I wouldn't have to look at it." Amanda scampered off to her bedroom and hurried into the bathroom.

  The young woman looked into the tub and jerked back at the surprise that awaited her. The rock had shattered into several small pieces, the largest of which she'd taken for herself, but now she found that all the small pebbles and flakes had been vanished. She knelt down beside the tub and looked around for even a speck, but nothing presented itself. Her only assumption, insane as it was, was that the bits had been reabsorbed back into the main portion of the rock. Nothing on earth would convince her the pieces had merely slipped down the drain, not with a stone as strange, wonderful and frightening as this one.

  Amanda grabbed the rock, held it in both hands and turned toward the door, but her eyes first glanced over to the cupboard at her right side. The largest fragment of the stone lay in there, and she wondered if it wasn't worth Tony's affection to shove the broken off piece back into the main portion. He was willing to put himself in danger up there on that mountain to find the answers to her problems. She couldn't just have an affair with a piece of stone while he was gone.

  While she sat there pondering her decision, she hardly noticed how closely she clutched the rock to herself. The smooth sides pressed up into the valley between her breasts and through her shirt she felt a soft, soothing heat radiate off the stone. Her hands trembled and her breath quickened. The room around her faded into the background, swallowed by the shadows which pulsed from the rock. They washed over her and wrapped her quivering body in a warm, soothing blanket. She felt the shadows massage her bare skin and creep beneath her clothing. Her eyes closed and she bit her lip to suppress the groan which begged to be released.