Succulent Prey (17 page)

fear for his own safety. The best thing for him to do, he reasoned, would be to get the hel out of there and cal the cops. He started to back out of the room and

the woman's pleas became more

insistent. She shook her hands violently at him and pounded her feet on the floor. Her eyes began to tear up with

frustration as Frank scuttled backward

out of the bedroom. The more panicked

she became the greater Frank's resolve

grew that he was definitely in the wrong place and in danger of getting far worse than he had bargained for if he didn't

leave now.

Frank's eyes darted from the woman to

a painting that sat on the floor outside the bedroom. This one was larger than

the rest and it was of a voluptuous

woman chained up on a bed like this

one. Only the woman in the picture had

no breasts at al and her chest was

opened up like a rose in bloom.

This was the only painting where the

face was rendered clearly. It was almost ultrarealistic, like a snapshot. And it was obviously the woman on the bed. The

same wounded eyes. The same dimpled

cheeks. Only the woman in the painting

was screaming in some twisted

marriage of pain, terror, and ecstasy. It was a powerful image. Frank wondered

if the woman had seen it. It was what her future would be if Frank didn't come

back with help. The smel of death and

decay was now omnipresent and

seemed to rise like a warning siren,

singeing the hair on his nostrils and

tel ing him to get out.

"I'11 get help. I'l be back. I promise," Frank said, speaking both to the woman

on the bed and the one in the painting. The present and the probable future.

His eyes drifted away from hers, trying to avoid her silent pleas, and as they swept the rest of the apartment he suddenly

recognized himself in one of the

paintings. This one was even worse than the rest. It was painted in mostly whites and reds. Bones and blood. Almost al

the flesh had been completely re moved. Only the face remained, the eyes staring heavenward as if in rapture, the mouth

slack as if in the aftermath of orgasm. Frank's legs trembled and threatened to buckle.

Chapter Twenty-three

Joe had just left to get gas in the van when he spotted Frank in his rearview

mirror, crossing Folsom Street, heading for the front door of his apartment

building. He was instantly enraged by the intrusion. He had given the little man a chance to walk away from this yet here

he had come, sticking his nose back

into Joe's business, begging to be

murdered. He had heard of deer that

would bare their throats to the wolf when they became old or sick, seeming to

long for the predator's jaws at their

jugular to end the misery of their lives. Long pigs apparently had the same fatal instincts.

Circling the block rather than risking a dangerous U-turn in the middle of

Folsom Street, Joe felt his adrenaline

pulse and his heart rate quicken. The

monster was awakening. By the time he

made it back to the front of his building Frank was nowhere to be found and the

front door was wide open. Joe punched

the dashboard so hard that it cracked.

"Shit!" he roared as he pul ed the van to a halt and dashed out onto the sidewalk and into the building.

The lobby was empty. Frank must have

taken the stairs up to the top floor,

looking for him. Joe punched the button for the elevator and waited impatiently for it to descend. His mind went over

different scenarios for Frank's

destruction and disposal. Joe smiled

when he noticed that he had gotten an

erection. Perhaps this would be just what he needed to tide him over for the long trip to Seattle. Another fresh kil to snack on. He stepped into the elevator and

rode it to the top floor, pacing impatiently, anxious for the kil . The doors whooshed open and Joe stepped out into the

hal way, in time to see Frank backing

slowly out of his apartment with a

trembling hand clutching his mouth and

the other thrust out in front of him as if to ward off an attack. Yet the one thing in that building in any condition to attack him wasn't in the apartment but in the

hal way behind him.

Joe charged him, sprinting down the hal at ful speed with his head low and his arms outstretched as if preparing for a footbal tackle. The last thought Frank had before impact was just how much

the big col ege kid real y did look like Superman, especial y when he was

flying like that.

Joe leapt forward and struck the little man in the solar plexus with his shoulder, knocking the wind out of him and driving him straight through the door across the hal , which turned to kindling under the tremendous impact. As soon as Frank

felt the squishy wetness beneath him, he knew what that horrible putrid smel had been. It hadn't been a dog or a cat after al , rather what the cats and dogs had

been feeding on.

Frank screamed as he looked down to

see his arm sunk up to the elbow in the flayed and ruptured chest of a female

corpse. Her eyes stared at him, frozen

wide in terror. Her lips and much of her cheeks had been eaten away, as had

most of the flesh on her torso, arms, and thighs. The scant flesh that remained

was mottled with purple and blue spots

and bloated where it had not been torn

open. Frank looked from the feral felines and diseased vermin scurrying away in

the dark to the handsome and enraged

giant storming through the open door

toward him. He was unsure which of the

animals had eaten the most of the dead

woman's corpse. Fortunately, he had

little time to consider it before a fist col ided with his jaw and he slipped into darkness.

Joe looked down at the little man who lay draped unconscious over his most

recent meal and tried to consider what to do with him. He was stil fat off Emma's flesh and though he was powerful y

aroused by the thought of fresh meat, he knew that his hunger would be tenfold by the time he reached Seattle. Perhaps if he could somehow keep Frank's body

fresh he'd have something to snack on

along the way to give Alicia a better

chance of surviving the trip. Joe

considered for a moment how much

easier it was becoming to make these

kinds of decisions. He was rapidly

becoming a monster, a calculating kil er. Stil , he reasoned, as long as he kept

Alicia alive, as long as he could resist the temptation to devour her luscious

body, then the transformation was not yet complete. He was stil human, at least

partial y.

He already had one hostage so it made

no difference to him if he had to increase that number to two. If he kept Frank alive then he wouldn't have to worry about his meat spoiling and the rats and other

scavengers getting to him the way they'd gotten to the librarian. Most of her meat had been wasted. He'd managed to

save a little of her buttocks and organs in his little hotel-sized refrigerator before the rest of her had become cat food.

Stil , he'd found Emma's cold flesh

unsatisfying. He hadn't yet progressed to the point where he could get the same

joy out of carrion. He preferred his meat alive and kicking. He'd try to preserve Frank, eating only smal rations of his flesh for as long as he could keep him

alive.

He dragged the smal man's body

across the hal , removed al of Frank's clothes, and began wrapping him in duct tape. It disturbed him to see Alicia

staring at him as he trussed up the little man so he picked her up and placed her

back on the bed facedown. Then he

dragged Frank's limp body into the

bathroom and slammed the door shut

behind him.

Frank didn't awaken until Joe dumped

him into the shower and turned the water on ful blast. The little man's eyes darted in every direction, seeking a point of

reference and an avenue of retreat. He

gagged as water rushed into his nose

and squeezed his eyes shut as it flooded them. When he felt the hand slide

between his legs and lather up his

genitals he opened them again.

The huge man was leaning over him and

washing him as if he were an invalid.

Frank started to protest but then realized that there was a gag over his mouth.

Next he noticed the silver tape cinching his ankles and wrists together. His cock sprang to life as the huge hands stroked it with a fistful of suds even as his

asshole clenched tight in fear. When he saw the hunger that leapt into

SuperPredator's eyes, he tried

unsuccessful y to wil his throbbing organ to wilt.

Joe began to stroke the man's cock

more aggressively. He held it under the shower and washed al the soap away

as the little man's thick penis swel ed to an impressive length and girth. It was

beautiful. Joe wanted to taste it right now. To grind it up with his blunt little teeth and swal ow it. He was

mesmerized, watching the impressive

organ swel even larger as the little man struggled in vain to free himself,

obviously aware of the purpose for which he was now being prepared.

Frank felt a bizarre combination of fear, elation, and deep sexual enjoyment as

he considered his predicament. Naked,

bound and gagged, being jacked off by

a gorgeous muscular young man who

was apparently a cannibal and murderer

who had already tasted of his flesh and enjoyed it. The giant was staring at

Frank's cock with undisguised hunger

and Frank tried hard not to think about what it would feel like when he inevitably bit it off. Then the cannibal lowered his head between Frank's legs and Frank

felt the man's tongue slide the length of his cock. Frank felt the orgasm rip

through him as the big man licked and

sucked on his cock as if he were tasting him rather than trying to bring pleasure. Frank's semen doused the big man's

handsome face.

The powerful y built cannibal paused to look up at Frank with cum dribbling

down his nose onto his lips. He licked

the man's seed from his lips and smiled in a way that seemed to be more a

baring of teeth than an expression of joy, then knelt back down between the little man's thighs.

At the last second Joe changed his mind about biting off the man's cock and

instead knelt down and took a soft,

wrinkled, hairy testicle into his mouth and bit through his scrotum. The little man screamed as Joe sawed through his nut

sack with his teeth, ripping away the skin and sucking the smal round testicle into his mouth, severing it from his body with one bite. Frank was unconscious when

Joe dragged him back into the bedroom

chewing on one of his rubbery testes,

which tasted to him like calamari. Joe

was disappointed to see Alicia crying

when he entered the room with the little man in tow. Her eyes zeroed in on

Frank's hideously wounded, bleeding

crotch.

"Don't worry. He's stil alive." Joe wiped semen and blood from his chin then

sucked the cocktail from his fingertips. Alicia felt her stomach turn.

Joe swal owed hard. He smiled and

Alicia watched the big predator's tongue probe his bloodstained teeth for bits of flesh as his grin widened. She started to retch and Joe leaned over and removed

the gag from her mouth just before she

regurgitated into the bucket on the side of the bed.

Part II

Chapter Twenty-four

Detectives Montgomery and Volario

stared down at the smoldering skeleton

the firefighters had dragged out of the inferno and tossed on the sidewalk.

There was little flesh left on the

carbonized bones and half of what

remained had been charred to a cinder.

They were both grimacing as the smel

of burnt hair and barbecued meat roared in their nostrils.

"Do you think this was a homicide?" One of the firemen who'd recovered the

body from the ashes was leaning over

Montgomery's shoulder, peering down at

the sizzling corpse. He didn't look so

good. Shock had leeched al the color

from his face and his pupils were wide

as bul et holes. Montgomery was afraid

the man would vomit al over him. He

wouldn't have blamed him. The smel

alone was stomach-churning. The

detective moved over just in case.

"I'm pretty sure the fire didn't do this," Detective Montgomery said, turning to

his partner and pointing down at one of the corpse's legs, which seemed to have survived the fire relatively intact except for the absence of meat on the thigh

where something had cut away at it.

There were long scrapes on the femur

where someone had obviously shaved

the meat off of it with a sharp blade.

"Are those teeth marks?" the wide-eyed young fireman asked. There were

circular bruises on the calf, with

indentations that had broken through the skin where something appeared to have

bitten down hard. It looked like a human bite mark.

"Yeah. It kinda looks like it, doesn't it? I think this one was dead long before the fire started."

The young fireman began to weave back

and forth, like he was going to faint. With his curly red hair, explosion of blotchy freckles, and dimpled cheeks, he looked more like a choirboy than a fireman. His innocence added a surreal quality to the horror they were slowly piecing together.

"It almost smel s sweet, doesn't it? Like barbecued pork," Montgomery said.