Had the wine been any other wine, Pan was sure he would have humored her by accepting a glass as she used hers to lower her inhibitions. They would have spent the night fucking like animals on every available surface of the room. But it hadn’t been any other wine, it had been...
He shook his head. Maybe his lust for the woman was distracting him too much to look at the bigger picture. He should be focusing on the mystery of the wine being present there, but he was hardening once more. If he kept it up, he’d have an eternal case of carpel tunnel by the morning. The best thing to do was try to ignore it. Unfortunately, because of the curse, ignoring it wouldn’t make it go away. It had never been gone; he’d merely distracted himself so he couldn’t think about the need. So, doing it again shouldn’t be too difficult.
Pan picked up the remote and flicked the television on, making himself comfortable on the double bed closest to the bathroom. As people on the screen came to life, bickering with each other, his thoughts immediately reverted back to Katerina. He’d nearly revealed the monster beneath the surface. That wouldn’t work very well in seducing her—which he still planned to do—unless she was into that sort of thing.
She’s not going to open her legs for a man with hooves.
It was no use. How utterly frustrating it was to not be able to refocus his thoughts on anything other than sex. Thirty years of fighting it, lost in one day. Tragic.
He stopped flipping channels when he came to some movie about the Greek gods and Perseus. It was fairly recent, considering the special effects, but way too modernized. At least they had one fact right in the film: Perseus was a selfish prick. Pan turned the television off.
There was no choice but to remain near Katerina and wait to see if someone from his past decided to show themselves or make a move against him. Although, his weirdness probably ruined his shot of bedding her with his human glamour. As far as the wine was concerned, if Katerina was planted here to seduce him, the best way to avoid a trap was to not take the bait. Having his wicked satyr way with her was most definitely taking the bait.
“And that is why they call it temptation, my son.” His father’s voice bombarded his memories. He’d said it the last time Pan saw him, not long after the curse. As much as he hated to take any advice from Hermes, it would be in his best interest to remember that Katerina was a temptation he needed to avoid.
Pan wanted her, but he’d wait until he discovered her true intentions. She was hunting him, well...hunting his other form. He would not walk willingly into a trap.
***
“Whatever it was, we never managed to get a look at it. We heard movement, wings flapping as a large animal took flight, and then the trees started to shake. More than likely it was a bird. There’s a good chance if there is a big animal in that area, the camera traps will catch something worthwhile. Maybe we will even find some animal tracks to make casts from or other physical evidence. Tomorrow when we pick up the cameras, we’ll see. After the encounter yesterday, we didn’t want to hang around and endanger ourselves.”
Rick shut off the camera and placed it on the extra bed which was covered by the gaudy maroon, gold, and green tribal print comforter. There had to be a secret hotel catalogue for finding the most hideous comforters on the planet. Fugly Hotels Unlimited.
“You’re not even going to say anything about it?” Cindy finally pushed, taking the seat opposite of Kat.
“Anything about what?”
“You can sit there, batting your eyelashes and looking as oblivious as the days are long, but you know what?” Cindy crossed her arms and glared at her. “You totally got it on with that guy, didn’t you?” She smiled, silently begging for juicy tidbits.
“Please say you didn’t jump in bed with some creepy dude you just met,” Rick added.
“He wasn’t creepy,” Kat mumbled. He was a bit creepy, but she didn’t want to admit it to Rick. “And no, we didn’t hop in the bed, but there were sparks. Definite sparks.” Until she scared him away.
At first, she worried he’d been a fruit basket, and she was lucky to have gotten through meeting him without being slobbered on. Then she remembered how badly she wanted him to...okay, not to slobber on her, but to put his mouth on certain areas. His weird reaction had followed the wine’s appearance. Perhaps he was in AA and the reminder set something off. That didn’t necessarily make him a bad person, but it was a history she would need to know before moving further with him. If that is what she even wanted.
For God’s sake, Kat, you’re in town for a few weeks. Not the time to shop for dates.
“Why would you say he’s creepy?” Kat asked with a frown.
Rick rolled his eyes. “Well, for starters, there was nobody walking over from the store next door when we got here.”
“Maybe he hadn’t walked out the door yet,” Cindy offered as she twisted open a bottle of bright blue nail polish. She’d been sitting Indian-style in the chair, but she shifted to rest one foot at the end. With her chin against her knee, she began beautifying her naked toenails.
Rick countered, “The whole front of the store is glass. There was no one even there, but the clerk who was reading a newspaper behind the counter.”
Cindy scoffed. “Seriously, who is that observant?”
“I didn’t want to be arrested for carrying a gun into the hotel. I was checking for witnesses.”
“Oh, because that doesn’t sound sketchy at all. If anyone has anything to be guilty for, obviously it’s you since you were, ‘checking for witnesses.’ Damn, Ricardo!”
“I was still on edge from the weirdness in the woods.”
“Of course you were. There was nothing on the footage but moving tree limbs and grass. It was some big, dumb animal you didn’t see, or it was the wind. Like I said earlier, you spooked yourselves.”
Kat sighed and opened her laptop, removing herself from the married couple’s conversation. She’d brought it with her to Rick’s room because she didn’t trust herself to try to work being next door to the new distraction. She’d never come so hard from masturbation in her life, but the things her fantasy Peter could do with his tongue, his hands, his penis... Her hormones really, really liked good ol’ Peter. And they really, really, really wanted to get intimate with Peter’s peter.
“You might not have seen him,” she cut into the conversation. “Peter was a perfect gentleman. He didn’t do anything untoward with me.” Except get crazy weird at the last second, but he didn’t seem like he’d hurt her.
Rick snorted.
Kat waited for the super slow Wi-Fi connection to figure out that it should do something other than nothing. “You’re just jealous of all Peter’s yummy muscles.”
“I have my own muscles.”
Cindy snickered. “Had. Then you got married. I mourn their loss every day.”
“So that’s why you always have flowers in the house?” Kat offered.
Cindy pointed her nail polish applicator at her. “Exactly. I live in the funeral parlor of lost abs.” At this, Rick sputtered indignantly.
Kat connected to Google and searched for recent Jersey Devil sightings. There were a few here and there. All varied. “The Jersey Devil was on my roof.” Yeah, and you saw him while you were watching Supernatural on television and freaked yourself out. “The Jersey Devil scared my dog, I didn’t see it, but poor Sparky was wigging out.” Because poor Sparky opened his mouth and told you, “It was him! I saw him, I know it!”
She honestly didn’t remember being as skeptical before the accident with the cougar. Kat hadn’t admitted it, even to herself, but a small thrill of excitement had followed her into the woods the day they hunted one of the elusive black panthers locals claimed were prowling about. When she accepted the invitation to be the zoological expert in the investigation, it was something different. An adventure.
A throb in her thigh brought her back to reality. When the black panther turned out to be a territorial, ordinary cougar...reality had paid her a visit. She’d gotten her
wake-up call back to the world of scientific fact, and all fiction had to be pushed aside. She looked forward to studying real cats, even cougars, in the wild once more. The one that attacked her had been acting on instinct. It had been her fault she’d been attacked, not the cougar’s. Kat should’ve been more careful, but she hadn’t paid close enough attention to the signs, and she suffered the consequences for it. One mishap shouldn’t prevent her from pursuing her passion forever.
After she finished hunting the Jersey Devil, she would immerse herself back into her work. Perhaps she’d start with cougars to prove the attack wouldn’t keep her down. A smile teased the edge of her lips at the thought.
Cindy twisted the lid back on her nail polish and set it on the table. “I heard there’s lots of weird shit in the Pine Barrens. The clerk in the lobby was telling me about all these urban legends in the area. Creepy dirt roads in the middle of the woods, secluded towns, and stuff. Maybe we should check some out. It could provide filler if we can’t find any better footage to use.”
Kat turned back to her computer screen and ran an Internet search for strange places in the Pine Barrens, and when the links popped up, all the words seemed to blur together. She stared at the screen while her thoughts remained in the past and future, avoiding the present. “Maybe. I mean, nothing can be weirder than this afternoon, can it?”
Chapter Five
Moonlight flooded the dirt path with subtle illumination, making the dense fog all the more eerie as it curled around the trees. It made visibility difficult for more than a few feet. In most instances, nighttime strolls through the forest filled Pan with a sense of tranquility. However, making sure Katerina didn’t find herself into serious trouble was becoming exhausting. For the sole purpose of entertainment value, she and her friends had been traversing through dangerous areas of the Pine Barrens with the intent of running into something scary. Well, if Pan were not around, they likely would. People who lived in those areas were not fans of trespassers wandering around with cameras.
Even worse, it had been three days since he met the woman, yet no one had dared reveal themselves as the reason for placing her there. To top it all, Pan still had not bedded Katerina. Not because he couldn’t, but because he didn’t want to be underhanded in his methods. He could have acted as an incubus and taken her while she slept. She would have remembered it only as a dream, so he could have knocked on the door after Katerina consumed the wine and taken advantage of her. Pan could have played her music on his panpipes. The music would have acted as an aphrodisiac, making her burn to have him inside her.
Too easy. Too desperate. She tempted him harder than anyone since Syrinx, perhaps more so. Which was why Pan made as little contact with her as possible since Wednesday, but he’d spied on her regardless.
Not knowing what else to do for material—the camera traps they set had only picked up deer and raccoons, big surprise there—Katerina and her posse had taken to exploring a few other local legends while they were in town. There were many places in the Pine Barrens bordering on the strange and unusual, and nearly all of them were dangerous after dark. Tonight they took a great risk in hiking dirt roads through privately owned property lines so far into the woods that, if anything were to happen, they would not be discovered for days or weeks, if at all. The road they currently ambled down was known as the hunting grounds of a serial rapist of the past.
The fog had thickened enough to conceal them without his help. Or it would have if Katerina hadn’t decided to wear a lime-green sweater with light blue jeans. She was a beacon of color proclaiming I’m a victim, take me now! Sure, it would keep her from being run over by a car, but did she have to prance around all vulnerable?
He palmed himself, wishing once more that he had given into the easy route despite knowing he’d hate himself for it later. Blue balls were becoming a fashion statement instead of a condition, and he didn’t wear them with pride. He wondered how Katerina would feel knowing a naked satyr followed her around through the woods, keeping her hidden from anyone who could do her harm. And he was currently walking the dirt road in all his naked glory. The discomfort had gotten so bad that clothing irritated him. Not like he could offend anyone when he was invisible anyway.
Would Katerina be appalled by his body?
Thoughts of his affliction, as they often did, put him in a foul mood. He supposed it was a side effect of the curse itself. He fidgeted from hoof to hoof as he waited for Katerina to cease talking to the camera Rick aimed at her.
Pan crossed his arms and glared at everyone, but at no one in particular. When that did nothing to enhance his mood, he perused the area around the group of humans, unable to see far enough through the fog to determine if any threat loomed in the distance. If he had hackles, they’d be raised. Was Katerina so desperate to catch a monster on film that she’d risk her life to do it? The residents of the area were known to chase people through the woods in their pickup trucks, to threaten them with firearms, and sometimes people weren’t seen again. On the other hand, the crazy inhabitants and stories surrounding the location were what made the Pine Barrens a superb place to blend in and stay hidden.
The group moved on, soon coming to another halt. The more he followed behind the filmmakers, the more ground his teeth together and felt the urge to do...something. Katerina droned on and on about the local stories. Rick said something about night vision cameras to which Cindy mumbled an inaudible reply. Soon after that, the fog provided a great ambiance for their footage as it gave the location a supernatural atmosphere without having to use infrared. Cindy carried a bulky flashlight with a wide, bright beam that could double as a searchlight. Pan made sure the light wasn’t seen by the residents.
Accident. Waiting. To. Happen.
None of them truly believed in the stories of the Jersey Devil, despite being shaken by his earlier display. Traipsing about in the daytime, hunting for creatures was one thing; willingly venturing into dangerous territories at night, with one gun—which was left in the truck as the humans were worried about the state laws on firearms being an issue—was beyond stupidity. A gun would not keep them safe if they didn’t have it with them. Pan was more than willing to give them the footage they craved by proving how reckless they were.
The need to act on a buried instinct, to take pleasure in what he wanted, damn all the consequences, became more difficult to deny by the minute. It was too late to stomp it back down. Pan knew, even before he made his move, he was making a terrible mistake. His impulsiveness had gotten Syrinx killed, and he’d lived with regret every damned day for centuries, but he was beyond reason. He’d fought his nature so long he barely recognized his own actions when he finally gave in.
There wasn’t time to think about the repercussions. Katerina wanted a demonic creature to jump out at her, well, her wish was his demand. Pan dropped all the glamour he had around him and transformed into the nightmarish Jersey Devil. Dark wings sprang from his back as a long, serpentine tail slithered behind him, forked at the end. His face protruded into a snout that, if it could be compared to any living creature, was a mixture of goat and horse in appearance. He let out an inhuman growl from where he hovered behind Katerina, Rick, and Cindy. The humans stopped dead in their tracks, and he mused that they knew running from a wild animal would incite the beast to attack.
They were right. Pan longed for Katerina to run. He craved the exhilaration in the chase, in the pursuit of that which he craved most of all. The hunt, the glorious chase, would thrill him in ways it shouldn’t. His breathing deepened as the anticipation mounted.
Rick’s hand went for the weapon he belatedly realized was not slung over his shoulder. Cursing under his breath, Rick started to turn when Katerina glanced over her shoulder at Pan. Her eyes widened in disbelief, and she looked away again with clipped breaths she didn’t seem to be able to take in fully. Pan heard her heartbeat increase to a rapid pace.
Katerina rasped out to her companions, “We have to run for the van. Now.” She did
n’t give them a chance to agree or argue. She took off.
Rick and Cindy, encouraged by her action, did the same. The van remained a good distance away, but the faint outline of the solid white vehicle was barely distinguishable in the glow of Cindy’s light. Unfortunately for Katerina, she didn’t realize how much Pan had denied himself the simple pleasure of the chase. Honestly, he shouldn’t have been as excited as he was in that moment, as it alone would horrify Katerina if she noticed. This glamour was beyond atrocious, and his desire would be obnoxiously evident.
Pan flapped his leathery wings, gaining air. He then swooped down in front of Rick, shielding himself from being filmed as he did. The footage would show no visible evidence to make believers out of the humans who would view it. As with the first time he’d toyed with them, he knew sound effects could be easily added from an unseen location, so he wasn’t worried about being heard.
Cindy noticed the threat to her husband and shined light in Pan’s eyes, hoping to blind him. He couldn’t blame her for not knowing he wasn’t a meager animal to be deterred by such a feeble attempt. His eyes adjusted easily to any location and most levels of brightness or darkness. But since he was going for dramatic...
Pan used his wing to slap the spotlight out of her hands, and it skidded across the dirt road with a loud clatter. The light flickered once, twice, dimmed, and finally went dead. The moon proved bright enough to outline the individuals present, but offered little more than that. Cindy took a few steps back and tripped, landing hard on her ass. She immediately scrambled backward, attempting to regain her footing while placing distance between them.
The Cursed Satyroi: Volume One Collection Page 5