Chapter 60: Humans are for Playing

Blair slowly turned around, the damp soil crunching softly beneath her bandaged feet.

The sight before her made her blood run entirely cold.

A few feet away, Jasper Silver was bathed in the dim, filtered moonlight. Tiny, iridescent blue scales caught the faint light, scattered beautifully across his pale, naked skin. His long blue hair cascaded down his back, intricately woven with pearls and diamonds that clicked together as he moved.

He was feasting.

Pinned beneath the Fish noble’s knees was a feline beastman. And...he was still alive. His golden eyes were blown wide with terror. Blood bubbled past his lips as quiet, gurgling pleas for help escaped his trembling mouth.

Blair’s entire body began to shake. Her wide eyes took in the gruesome scene. She recognized Jasper instantly. This was the popular, incredibly wealthy noble that Heather had mentioned. He was the "free spirit" who didn’t discriminate, surrounded by swooning human women who bragged about getting lucky enough to spend a night in his bed. He was supposed to be the fun, carefree prince of the academy.

Heather had definitely failed to mention this part.

It was a crime for a beastman to murder another beastman, policed just as harshly as human-on-human crime in the past. But looking at the casual, unbothered way Jasper was tearing into the beastman, Blair realized the terrifying truth. The wealthiest predators clearly had ways of making the laws disappear. They had adapted the worst traits of human corruption.

Blair stood perfectly still, terrified to even draw a breath.

She had been shifting around for the last five minutes. How had he not noticed her? Or worse, did he just not care? If he didn’t care that she was there, maybe he wouldn’t care if she just quietly slipped away into the shadows.

Trembling, Blair slowly picked up her foot and took a single step backward.

Jasper paused.

He didn’t turn his head, but his bright blue eyes slid sideways, focusing on her. A small smirk tugged at the corner of his blood-stained lips.

"So," Jasper purred. "You’ve finally noticed me."

He raised his hand. Thick, bloody intestines dangled from his fingers. He didn’t even bother to stop his meal, casually taking another bite as he watched her.

Is this cannibalism? Blair wondered. He was a fish, and the guy on the ground was a cat. But still, they were both beastmen.

Jasper slowly stood up to his full, towering height.

Panic flooded Blair’s veins. What do I do? What do I do?! She was definitely next on the menu.

With zero other options and no brighter ideas...

She locked her trembling knees. She thrust her stiff, bandaged arms straight out in front of her. Dragging her right foot across the dirt with an unnatural scrape, she tilted her head to the side and let out a hollow, rattling groan.

Jasper stared at her. It was a stiff, shambling mummy impression.

Then, he threw his head back and burst into a fit of bright laughter.

"Oh, you are a very funny human," Jasper chuckled, wiping a tear of mirth from his eye with a bloody wrist.

Blair kept her arms locked out, dragging her foot backward to retreat as he began to step toward her. She stared fixedly at his collarbones, doing everything in her power not to look down as he approached.

Jasper chuckled again at her obvious terror. "You shouldn’t worry, little mummy. I don’t eat humans."

Blair took another stiff step backward. Her heel caught on something hard and buried in the dirt.

She pitched backward, her arms flailing as she crashed hard into the earth. A sharp pain flared across her spine as every wound on her body re-opened. She gasped, looking down at what had tripped her.

It was a human skull attached to a half-buried skeleton.

A shadow fell over her. Jasper stood over her fallen form, the moonlight catching the blood smeared across his chest.

"I only like to play with them," Jasper whispered, his smirk widening.

He crouched beside her. He reached out with wet, slippery fingers. Blair tried to squirm away, but her back was in too much agony. She could do nothing as he grabbed the edge of the bandages wrapped around her head and began to slowly undo them.

Blair looked at him as the fabric loosened. Even covered in gore, he was undeniably the prettiest beastman she had ever seen. His features were so soft and delicate, his eyes as deep and mesmerizing as the ocean. He looked... harmless.

She felt herself being drawn into his gaze, a strange lethargy pulling at her mind.

And then, a single thought pierced through the trance.

A siren.

No, sirens weren’t real.

But the species of fish they were based on were. They were called "Beautiful Monsters." It was a specific breed of fish that used its bright, sparkling colors and ethereal beauty to hypnotize humans and animals alike. They lured their prey in, creating a false sense of security, before their jaw unhinged to reveal rows of razor-sharp, concealed teeth. They ripped their victims to shreds in seconds, feeding exactly like a piranha.

They were so dangerous that both humans and beastmen hunted them.

Heather had claimed Jasper was a betta fish. But looking at the carnage behind him, Blair knew exactly what he was. He was a Ghoul Fish.

The realization hit her like a bucket of ice water. Even if he didn’t eat humans, a monster like this who should no longer exist, would never, ever let a witness live.

The bandages covering her mouth fell away.

Blair made up her mind. She drew her knee back and kicked upward with every ounce of strength her battered body possessed, planting her foot squarely into his exposed crotch.

Jasper’s eyes bugged out of his skull. The ethereal beauty vanished as his face crumpled into breathless agony. He keeled over, dropping to the dirt and clutching himself with a strangled wheeze.

Blair scrambled to her feet and ran.

She didn’t know where she was going.

Her body ached with a burning intensity on every breath. The wounds on her back throbbed, warm blood soaking into the fresh dirt on her skin. Within minutes, she was forced into a limp, her back hunching over as her muscles screamed in protest.

The wind whipped past her, catching the loose ends of the bandage around her forehead and tearing the rest of the fabric clean off her face.

As if the universe had decided she hadn’t suffered enough, the sky broke open. Freezing rain began to pour, instantly turning the forest floor into a slick, muddy sliding rink.

Blair slipped, her knees hitting the mud. She scrambled back up, sliding and catching herself on tree trunks. Her breathing grew terribly shallow, her chest heaving as black spots danced at the edges of her limited vision. Her head felt dangerously light.

She finally hit a tree and stopped, leaning her shoulder against the bark. She squeezed her eyes shut, taking deep, ragged breaths as the rain washed the blood and dirt from her skin. Calm down, she ordered herself. Calm down and think.

But thinking was impossible.

"Why did you stop running?"

The melodic, whisper-soft voice sounded directly behind her ear.

Blair froze, the blood icing over in her veins.

"I was enjoying the chase," Jasper breathed into the rainy night.