Prey Drive (31 page)

Selene sneered. Her face turned a deep red. She looked like she was about to attack him.

“I thought we would be together, Joseph.”

Joe struggled to make eye contact with her. Her fury was so evident it was like a fiery wall between them, like staring into a hot oven.

“We
can
be together. But, if I don’t change, every second you’re with me your life is in danger. If I hadn’t already eaten, do you think I would have stopped at just biting off your nipple? I would have killed you, Selene.” Joe gestured toward the backseat. “I would have killed both of you.”

Selene nodded. Her face relaxed and her shoulders slumped.

“Okay. Okay, Joe. We can do it your way. Here, I bought you some milk like you asked for. You should probably take it with this instead of the energy drink. You never know about chemical reactions and stuff.”

Selene handed Joe a small, quart-sized carton of milk. It was opened. Joe thought about it for a second and then figured it was just her way. Nathan’s container had been open too. Joe didn’t notice that Nathan had not moved since he drank the cola. He popped the Riluzole and chased it with milk, chugging down the entire container.

“All right,” Joe said, shifting the car into drive. “Let’s get back on the road. I think I can drive straight through.”

Joe fastened the seatbelt and turned the steering wheel. His arms suddenly felt weak and the road blurred. He never made it out of the parking lot.

Forty-Six 

The smell of frying meat was the first thing Joe noticed, before he opened his eyes. The smell and the screaming. The next thing he noticed was the man in the shiny, dark-gray, pinstriped suit. He had an oily ponytail, just like the last guy, only he was balding in the front and the gray had clearly been dyed out of his hair. He had a scar in one corner of his mouth as if someone had tried to widen his smile with a knife. His eyes were the same beady, black orbs, staring out of a face hardened by life. Joe guessed there was probably a line in the man’s face for every cruel thing he’d ever done or bore witness to. It looked like a roadmap.

Joe tried to move but his arms and legs had been duct-taped to his chair. His clothes were missing. He was naked and helpless. He looked around, surveying his surroundings. They were in some sort of warehouse. Dust-covered machinery sat in shadows just beyond the glow of a naked incandescent light bulb. Beneath the cone of light emanating from the bulb, Nathan lay duct taped to a wooden table, crying out in mortal anguish. He was bleeding from what looked like a dozen or more wounds. Pieces of him were piled in a foil container on a small table. Selene stood beside him, sticking the poor man’s arm into a big, stainless steel fryer. His arm was covered up to the shoulder in a thick cream. It took Joe a few seconds before he realized what it was— batter. Selene was deep-frying him … alive.

Nathan was already missing one arm. Joe looked around and found the missing appendage sitting beside him on a platter, roasted to a flaky golden brown. It smelled marvelous. Nathan’s fried limb was the scent that had greeted him when he first awoke.

Selene stood beside Nathan wearing nothing but a pair of thick, blue, rubber gloves rolled up to her elbows. Two empty gallon containers of peanut oil lay overturned on the floor. Two more unopened containers sat beside those. Joe assumed those were for him. A five-pound bag of Bubba Jake’s Fry Batter Mix sat beside a large stainless steel bowl. Joe had been correct. She had batter-dipped Nathan. Despite himself, Joe’s mouth began to water.

“What are you doing, Selene?”

She didn’t hear him. She was too preoccupied with Nathan. He was thrashing about and the duct tape had begun to loosen, splashing hot oil everywhere. A few drops landed on Selene’s naked flesh and she danced away, cursing in pain. The guy with the ponytail ran over to help restrain Nathan so Selene could continue to cook him.

“WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?”

This time she heard him. She turned toward him with a smile that looked like a horror show. She had obviously started eating without him. She walked over to Joe, carrying a large buck knife in one hand and what looked like a half-eaten pectoral muscle in the other. It too had been batter-dipped and fried.

“I’m making dinner for us, lover. I promise you’ll love it.”

Ponytail pulled Nathan’s hand from the deep fryer. The fingers looked like fried chicken strips. Nathan made eye-contact with Joe and his pitiful expression was absolutely heartbreaking. Joe could not imagine his pain. It made him think of what he’d done to Cindy. She hadn’t deserved to suffer. Neither did Nathan.

“Why are you doing this, Selene?”

She smiled and took a bite of the fried meat. It was tender and moist. Grease drooled from the corner of her mouth as she chewed. She swallowed and licked her lips and then her fingers, one by one.

“Because I want to. Because it gets me off,” she finally replied.

“You’re just a spoiled little girl, Selene. You want it all. Your daddy’s money. Me. But why Nathan?”

She shrugged.

“He was there. I wanted it to be the bartender, but you had to go develop a conscience and let her go. You didn’t really leave me with a choice, Joseph.”

“Who’s your helper?”

“He’s the guy who helped me clean up the hotel room after my little meal. That poor piece of shit you killed was just a chauffeur I hired.”

“So what happens now, Selene? You going to fry me up too?”

Selene frowned and shook her head. “No! Of course not.”

“Gaining all this weight to look more like Alicia, giving me that taste of your flesh, hiring a lawyer for me, getting me moved to general population, helping me escape. It was all so you could get the curse? Just so you could get off, you spoiled, over-privileged, little slut! You did all this for pleasure? Well, it’s bullshit, Selene. There’s no curse. You did all this shit for nothing. There’s no werewolf or vampire virus. I’m just fucked up! I’m crazy, just like they said I was and so are you. We’re both a couple of psychos!”

Selene scowled. Tears welled in her eyes. She shook her head vehemently.

“No. No! Why would you say that? Why are you being like this? I love you! I just want us to be together. I want you to be like you were!”

Joe shook his head.

“That’s not going to happen, Selene. I’m done with all this.”

Selene slapped Joe hard.

“Stop saying that! You think you’re not a killer anymore, just because now you conveniently feel remorse? Now that you’re free? Did you feel anything but your own hard dick and that bitch’s meat when you were fucking and eating her? A lot of good this conscience of yours did her. Now that she’s dead and you’ve already cum. Just like a fucking man.

“And what about all the people you killed to get out of prison? Don’t tell me you wouldn’t do it again given half a chance. You’re not rehabilitated. You’re not fucking cured. You’re not sensitive or misunderstood. You’re not the hero, Joseph. You’re the fucking monster! All those people you murdered, you think there’s redemption for what you did to them? You think it matters one bit that you’re sorry for what you did? You did it because it gets you off, the same reason I’m doing this. It’s okay for you to treat women like a piece of meat, but when the roles are reversed then I’m the bad guy? Fuck you, Joe!” She slapped him again and wagged her finger in his face.

“You don’t get to sit there acting all morally superior! You’re the bad guy, Joe! You! Not me! You talk about how much you loved Alicia, but you didn’t love her, Joe. You objectified her. You used her like you use everyone. I’ve never heard you mention a single conversation the two of you had. All you talk about is her ass and her tits and how wonderful she tasted. You loved her pussy, not her mind. Don’t you get it, Joe? You’re not some romantic hero. You have no idea what love is. All you know is lust. I just want to know it too.”

She sighed and covered her face with her hands, looking up at the ceiling as if expecting some bloodthirsty deity to come to her aid and force Joseph to kill again. “Can’t we just be bad together?”

Joe looked away. His face twitched and he closed his eyes several times and took deep breaths. Her words had wounded him.

“I’m done, Selene.”

Selene’s face hardened again.

“No, you’re not.”

Selene reached out and took Joe’s limp penis in her hand. She began stroking his manhood, languidly at first, and then faster and more aggressively, commanding his dormant flesh to rise. It responded immediately, lengthening to its full eight inches under her impatient yet talented ministrations. When he was fully erect, Selene straddled his cock, easing it up inside her sopping wet pussy. Her juices flowed down her thighs in a honey sweet cascade, dampening Joe’s lap. He had to admit, it felt like heaven inside her.

There were goose bumps on her arms and legs. Her body trembled as she pressed herself against him. She was practically vibrating with sexual arousal like a high-voltage battery.

“Oh, Daddy, I love the way you feel inside me. Your dick is fucking amazing.” She contracted her kegels in rhythm with her hips as she rode his cock.

Joe closed his eyes, lost in sensation, his own flesh betraying him, unable to resist the feel of Selene’s voluptuous body. She leaned over and lifted the crispy fried arm from the plate on the floor, brought the meat to his lips, and placed the buck knife against Joe’s throat.

“Eat!”

The knife wasn’t necessary. The smell of the meat, Selene’s luscious body, had already roused the monster. He bit down savagely and tore a chunk of the meat off the bone. Selene took a bite as well, trying her best to duplicate the moment Joe had once shared with Alicia in the woods outside Tacoma, Washington. Joe knew what she was doing and it was reminiscent of that long ago evening, but it wasn’t the same. He didn’t feel the same way about Selene as he had about Alicia and Alicia hadn’t tied him up and practically raped him. Still, the moment was no less exciting. Selene impaled herself on his hardened penis, bouncing wildly up and down, desperately racing toward orgasm as she ate Nathan’s severed arm. Joe responded, meeting her thrusts with his own.

They finished the hand and forearm, but Joe was in a satyriacal fervor. The monster was off its chain and it was insatiable.

“I want more!” Joe growled and Selene leaned down and kissed him.

“That’s my Joe! Welcome back, my Cannibal Cassanova.”

Hearing that corny tagline repeated almost took him out of the moment. He looked over at Nathan, who still lay on the table, eyes glazed with shock. It looked like he was watching them and Joe thought he saw the man smile.

The old, Italian leg-breaker took a knife and cut off the arm he’d just fried. Nathan screamed again and then went silent. Selene’s hired muscle brought the arm over to her. She quickly took a bite then and fed the rest to Joseph. She leaned over and bit off one of the fingers. Her eyes rolled back in her head and her breathing sped up. She was almost hyperventilating. Her legs began to shake and she threw her head back and let out a scream. Selene’s entire body tensed and shuddered and her nails dug into Joe’s chest. Her pussy contracted so hard it felt like it would snap Joe’s cock like a carrot.

“I-I’m coming! Oh God, I’m coming! I’M COMING!” She thrashed and convulsed as seismic tremors rolled through her body like a series of earthquakes. Tears rolled down her cheeks and she began to laugh before falling against Joe’s chest and sobbing uncontrollably.

Nathan was still staring at them and Joe was shocked to see the gravely wounded man’s own erection swell. It wasn’t exactly an oven, but Nathan had gotten what he asked for. He’d been eaten alive by his hero.

“I love you, Joe. I really do. That was incredible. I want to do it again.”

“Untie me first.”

She paused and looked over at the old Italian with the ponytail and the pinstriped, sharkskin suit. He held up his hands and shrugged, and then gestured to her, indicating that it was her call. This was her show.

“Uh—I—you won’t hurt me, will you?”

“Do you love me, Selene?”

Fresh tears rolled from her eyes and she nodded. “I do. I love you so much, Joe.”

“Then you have to trust me or you’re going to have to kill me.”

She nodded again then and waved Ponytail over to untie Joe. The big cannibal rose, with Selene still straddling his cock. He wrapped his arms around her waist and she wrapped her legs around his. Joe walked over to the table where Nathan lay breathing rapidly, clearly in shock. He took the knife from Selene and used it to cut off Nathan’s other chest muscle. It was pale and blubbery with excessive adipose tissue. It felt soft to the touch, like a woman’s flesh. Joe held the bloody meat up to Selene and she turned up her nose.

“Fry it first. I don’t like it raw.”

“You will. You’ll come to love it.” Joe laid her across Nathan’s belly. It rippled and jiggled beneath her. Joe lifted her legs up onto his shoulders, thrusting harder as he offered her the meat again. This time she took it. She bit off a small piece, chewed it slowly, then swallowed it, and bit off another. Joe grabbed her by the chin and turned her head so she was looking down into Nathan’s eyes while she ate a piece of him and Joe fucked her hard using Nathan as a mattress. She came again, just as Nathan stopped breathing. Joe withdrew his still-erect cock and left her lying on top of Nathan’s corpse as he walked over to Ponytail and shoved the knife into his stomach.

Ponytail reached for his gun, but Joe easily knocked it from his hand and grabbed him by his throat, crushing the man’s windpipe in his powerful grip. Joe ripped the knife upward, opening the old Italian from his belly to just under his chin, bisecting him like he was gutting a hog. Ponytail’s intestines spilled out onto the floor. Joe reached a hand inside the gaping wound in Ponytail’s torso, fishing through his organs and pushing aside his stomach, bladder, and lungs until his fingers found Ponytail’s beating heart. The heartbeat was rapid. The tiny muscle was doing its best to keep blood flowing to the dying man’s organs, succeeding only in hastening his exsanguination. The heartbeat stuttered when Joe’s fingers closed on it. He met the man’s eyes and smiled at the shocked and appalled expression, the rictus of horror and agony twisting Ponytail’s face before Joe wrenched his heart from his chest along with much of the old Italian’s internal organs.