Caution Tape (Mutual Monsters Duet Book 1)

by Molly Doyle

I’ve never experienced this kind of crippling fury before. Something inside me has snapped, like a rubber band being stretched way too far. This is too far.

I have the upper hand. I have always had the upper hand. Who does this fucker think he is? Nobody controls me. Certainly not him.

I’m not a naïve girl to be toyed with; I’m a caged monster lost in all of time and space who has finally gotten the strength to break free.

Michael leads me to his office and as soon as my gaze sets onto the paperweight resting on his desk, my heart leaps into the back of my throat. It taunts me. I’m suddenly starring in my own cartoon. I see tiny black hearts floating around the small, heavy object, and it calls out to me.

“Come play with me, Cora!” it sings to me. “I don’t see anything wrong with you,” Nolan had told me. The paperweight says it, too. There’s nothing wrong with you! This is how you were born! The moment I pick it up from his desk, my heart swells. God, it feels so incredible against my palm. It fits so perfectly in my hand. It’s like it was made for me. It’s as if I’ve fallen in love. Give in to the madness! Embrace it! Set yourself free!

Unknown: I think I might want to be unhealthy. Unknown: Scratch that. I want to be a lunatic. Well, there’s only one person who would text me something like that. Cora.

The image of Michael the predatory therapist is complete. A husband and family man with a respected career. It’s clear that this is his night drive, his shadow life.

Is that what hiding all the malice does? Hollows you out until your only thrill is seducing your patients? How boring. How… Normal. It is now very important to me that I kill this man, and not only that. I want to make him suffer.

I watch as Cora raises the blade above her head while slowly rotating her hips, making Michael gasp, and then she slams the blade down, burying it into him. He screams, but so does she. She throws her head back and cries out, leaning back until her head is nearly upside down, and in doing so, she sees me. A twisted, satisfied smile breaks across her face, and a thin line of drool drips from her mouth. It is one of the scarier things I’ve ever seen. She’s stunning.

“What did you do?” She looks up at me, chest heaving, eyes bright. “I did it. I finally did it.” Together, we look down at the envelope opener buried in his flesh, just above the collarbone. The only sound in the room is Cora’s harsh, unsteady breath. I feel something tugging on my right hand, and I glance over to see that Cora has taken my hand and is holding it against her cheek. Some of Michael’s blood stains my fingers.

“Is this how you feel?” she asks. “I feel… here. Present. That sense of time being flimsy is gone.” She flexes her hands, looking at them in wonder. “It’s like I have more blood in my body.” I frown. He’s not dead, just in shock.

“I don’t feel that. Whenever I kill—” I grip the handle of the envelope opener and wrench it free with a wet squelch. “—it just quiets things down.”

Without warning, he reaches out for Cora. Moving quickly, I pounce on him, driving one hand into his chest and knocking him back, the blood loss making him weak and unsteady. I pivot around behind him, grabbing the top of his hair and dragging him away. “Don’t you fucking touch her,” I snap.

“Cora, would you be so kind as to tie his hands up for me?” “My pleasure.” I hold his hands up to her and she loops the rope around them, cinching them together and winding them up in an intricate knot. I smile at her handiwork. “Such a good girl. Now I’m going to take him with me. I need you to clean up here. Can you do that?” She nods. Her eyes have been widening this entire time, as if she’s coming down from whatever high the stabbing had produced and reckoning with what she has done.

“You’re going to get caught,” Michael says. “You’re going to rot in a cell.” He glares at me. “You’re just like her, aren’t you? A freak. You’re not even human.” Cora and I stand over him, and for the first time I’m fully aware of how naked she is. I had been caught up in the bloodlust, but now the back of my hand is touching her bare hip, and I can hear her breathing next to me. I want her so bad. “Why aren’t we covering his face?” “Because I want him to watch.”

“I don’t think he deserves to watch though…” My hand joins hers, my middle and ring finger sliding into her while she begins working her hand faster. “He doesn’t,” I state. “But let him see what he’ll never get to touch again.” “You’re both sick. Please. This hasn’t gone too far yet. I think you’re both in a manic, high-energy state and—”

“Michael, you know, I have some pliers. A great pair of pliers. They have this grip on the handle; it is just sublime. Now, I’ll be honest, I was going to rip your fingernails out with them, because frankly I think they can get a good hold. A firm hold, really. But…” I tug on the bungee cord. The plastic crinkles as Michael wriggles to get away from me. “If you don’t watch what I do to Cora, I will peel the skin off your face and make you eat it.”

pores. “Yes! Peel the skin off his face, Nolan!” Cora chants from behind me. “You’re going to watch while I make her gag on my cock. You’re gonna watch when I bend her over in front of you. Then I’ll make sure you’re listening to her moan my name while I take her on your office floor. Most of all? You will hear her beg me for more.” I grab his face in both of my hands, pressing my forehead to his. “And I know, I know you’re bleeding pretty bad. I know you feel possessive of Cora. But she is mine and if you don’t do what I say, Michael—if you don’t do what I say? Your family will weep when they see what I’ve done to you.”

“Beg for it,” I tell her softly. For the briefest second, her eyes narrow, and I realize I have forgotten she is a threat; all of this is a risk. Stabbing Michael, getting involved with something as volatile as Cora, the entire thing could so easily come crashing down around me. I should bolt; leave Cora to deal with her own chaos, and I could disappear into the American abyss, reappear as someone else, and slate my bloodthirst in such a way that would allow me to continue as long as I desired. This is how you get caught. Being careless, being involved, being known.