He helped monsters steal her magic. Now, she’ll take his heart.
I shiver with every creak in the floorboards, wondering which hungry monster will slink through my chamber door and grab me in the dark. The lord of the manor, come to coax the magic from me with careful words and gentle touches? His fearsome daughter, who rips out my spells with an iron grasp, then fills me with her poison? Or will it be the human guardsman whose ravenous stare and vile tongue make my heart pound in unexpected ways?
To each of them, I’m prey.
All my devastating magic is useless against creatures powered by it. I’ll never escape. Not without becoming a monster myself.
And what a monster I would make.
The stronger their spells, the better they taste.
I ache with every whiff of magic, wondering what victim I’ll grope in the dark to satisfy my need. A mage whose spells I’ll drink with reckless abandon while he chokes on terrified screams? The brutal warrior who burns with more than rage when I caress her granite flesh and conjure sweet shivers in her core? Or will the woman I love sacrifice her strength to ease my endless hunger, though she suffers the same thirst?
Each of them is prey.
I don’t mind being a predator. Life treated me like an animal, prodding until I bit. It made me wild and ravenous. But this is different… Now, I’m something worse.
The world picked the wrong man to turn into a monster.
I’ll devour it all.
K.W. Bernard 