Page 91 of Solivagant

“Tu… Khorli?” His voice was lower, spoken on the edge of a growl.

I inhaled deeply and nodded. “Hello, my Jo.”

“Khorli,” he repeated. His eyes dropped from me to his hands, then to the deer bleeding into the dirt. “I didn’t mean… I just… I’m so hungry.”

He was confused. Ashamed. But there was nothing for him to be ashamed of, and no part of his new nature that should frighten him.

His eyes remained locked onto the deer as I approached and knelt beside him. I tucked blood-wet hair behind a perfectly pointed ear. “Then feast, my Jo. You are a predator. You are strong. You are perfect.”

When he looked back at me, he seemed to be seeking something in my eyes. Permission perhaps? Approval? He had both, always. Whatever it was, he seemed to find it, and resumed his meal. Good. He needed it and more to get stronger.

His tail flicked around, whipping me as it swayed back and forth. Though not in agitation this time. He was happy. He seemed to have very little control over it, and it brought a smile to my lips.

It would take time for him to adjust. And I would be here by his side for all of it. Every instinct, every need, every desire, I would be here to help him with them.

My hand continued to comb through tangled locks of hair as he feasted. When he was done, he pressed his head further into my touch.

I’d done my best to clean him up while he slept, but with the limited resources I had, and now all the deer blood, he needed a proper clean.

“There is a place in my world where heated water bubbles in glowing pools. The cleansing caves. I think you would like them very much, my Jo.”

He wiped the blood from his face with the back of his hand. It did little to help. I smiled. My messy little monster.

“Mmm,” he hummed, angling his head further into the gentle scratches my claws delivered. “Yes. I want to go there with you.”

Warmth filled my chest. “You would leave this place behind, and come with me?”

Jo froze, red eyes slowly opening. He looked at the carcass of the deer, at the blood on his hands, at the tail still swishing behind him. “I don’t belong here anymore. Humans… they wouldn’t take well to seeing me like this.”

I frowned. Would he miss his people? His home?

“Besides…” He turned to look at me again, a smile on his bloody lips. “I think you promised to show me the sky.”

My chest tightened. “You remember that?”

He nodded. “I… I remember everything. His memories. I have them.”

Heat built behind my eyes. Of course he did. He’d absorbed Jem’s soul, and with it, his memories.

“He meant it, you know. Even if he knew that’s how things would… he’d have done it anyway. He loves you. So much.”

My throat tightened. “I love him too. I always will. I… wish I could have told him one last time.”

I cared not about the blood smeared over my skin as his hand raised to gently cup my face. “He knew.”

46

JOSIAH

My mouth was filled with the taste of blood, of raw meat, and I liked it.

When I woke up, my stomach had twisted with a hunger unlike anything I’d ever known before. I couldn’t think, couldn’t process anything in my head or the foreign memories that now filled it. I needed food. Meat.

My body was stronger. Faster. Even in my famished state I could feel that. It was evident in the corpse beside us and the blood that was turning tacky over my skin. I’d outrun a deer, then I’d killed it with my bare hands. It had been easy.

Now that I’d eaten, I felt better than I’d ever felt before. More durable. There were no lingering aches or pains. Instead, my blood pumped through my veins so strongly I could almost feel it. I wanted to run, for no other reason than to run. I wanted to test the limits of what I could do.

“My Jo.” Khorli’s deep voice felt like a caress to my brain. It sent a shiver of pleasure down my spine. My tail swayed faster without my permission. “I’m truly so sorry for the pain I caused you. I wish I could have explained. I had to do what I did to save you.”