I Hate Myself but I Love You

Chapter 24

"We'll have to get food for your human friends," I muse as we walk through the forest.

It's a nice day; there are clouds in the sky blocking out the sun so it won't hurt or agitate Laura. There are birds chirping happily, which brings a smile to her face. No animals come near us. They can sense what most humans can't; they can tell we're unnatural. I spoke to a tiger once when one of the women I was supposed to seduce dragged me to a zoo. Me talking to a big cat like it could understand me (which it could) scared off the girl, luckily for her.

But Tigress (she insisted on me calling her that instead of the horrid name the zoo called her. Who names a tiger Clawdia? It's insulting and not funny when that's your name) did say that my kind feels off to her, makes her uncomfortable and not want to be by me. However, she was in a zoo in a small cage so she had to be near me. Once she told me that, Tigress begged me to either set her free or kill her.

I will admit that I have a soft spot for big cats, so I couldn't kill her. I gave the zoo an absurd amount of money and ordered them to make their "enclosures" larger and took Tigress to India (since she's a Bengal Tiger). I stayed with her as long as I could (sadly, only a couple weeks. Mother was furious) and helped her settle in to her new home. That was almost... forty years ago now. I went back once and she introduced me to her son. Hopefully Bagheera's doing okay.

"Hey." Laura says, gently touching my arm. "Where'd you go just then?"

I give her a small smile. "Sorry cutie, I was just remembering a tiger. She's probably dust and bones now."

"Wait an actual tiger?" Laura's eyes widen.

"Yeah, her name was Tigress. I'll tell you about her sometime." Laura looks disappointed and pouts. She's so adorable. "I would now but we're at town. We'll head to the mattress store first, then the gas station for food and cookies and then the hospital for more blood."

"Cookies?" She brightens and her steps are lighter as she steps forward and hugs me. I just shrug, trying to hide my grin by ducking my head. It doesn't work of course because my hair's up in a bun. Laura's beaming back at me and steps backwards, grabbing my hand. "Come on then, let's hurry. I want cookies!"

Laura sounds so joyful and so young in this moment that I can feel myself falling in love with her all over again. And for some reason it's not as terrifying as it was before because it's Laura, the determined journalist with a nerdy side. The gorgeous human that sacrificed her morals for me. It's her. Sure, I'm scared. I've never felt anything like this. But I love Laura Hollis with every fiber of my being and that makes the fear fade away until it's a tiny gnawing voice in the back of my head. It tells me nothing I don't already know.

She has no reason to feel the same way about me, but gods do I wish she does.