Chapter 218: What Were Those Three Rules Again?
The queen let out a high-pitched scream, clearly seeing the same thing that I was. She jerked up the rope that was keeping me attached to the ceiling so that she could once again scream in my face.
"Look, I get that you aren’t happy, but it’s your own fault," I told her flat out. If she wasn’t impressed that my puke managed to make the bunny babies from hell multiply, maybe she should have tried harder to not make me puke.
She hissed at me, her long, yellow teeth out on full display. I was really not as impressed as I probably should have been, but I blamed her for that, too.
The babies under me let out a hissing sound of their own, clearly not happy that their meal was taken away from them. They continued to jump up and down, their own sharp teeth biting at nothing but air in their vain attempt to get to me.
But there was something bothering me about the creatures, something that tied in back to Earth myths, but what was it? What multiplies when it is wet? Because clearly, these things multiplied as soon as I got them wet.
"Rule number two: Don’t get them wet," I muttered to myself. "Rule number three: don’t feed after midnight." Was that what the queen was trying to do? Wait until the most opportune time to feed them? But what happens if they are fed after midnight? I remembered the rules, ish, but not why or what they were for.
She had also laid hundreds of eggs, according to Sha Shou, so why was she only concerned about these nine? Well, eighteen now.
I tried to think about what the queen could be doing and why my brain was harping on rule number two, but the more blood that rushed to my brain, the less I could think. My ears started to ring, and I could feel myself getting dizzier and dizzier.
A loud screech knocked me out of my thoughts, and the queen cut the string, keeping me tethered upside down. With nothing more than a flick of her wrist, I was sent flying, still wrapped in the webbing, into the nest of babies.
I clenched my jaw, refusing to scream or call out. I would not let the last thing I remembered be the sound of my own scream. I was better than that. I hadn’t screamed while I was being tortured, and I would damn well not scream now.
I could see the bunnies getting bigger and bigger the closer I got to them, but all of a sudden, something slammed into my side, knocking me away from the nest. There was a scream as the queen realized that I was no longer on the dinner menu for her children.
But why?
What was so important that my mind was screaming at me to not let them eat?
"I got you, Starshine," growled Midnight as he held me tightly in his arms. "And I am never letting go."
"Why is it important?" I asked, my eyes glazed as I looked up at him. Did he have the answer?
"What? You are my mate; of course, I am never letting go," answered Midnight in complete shock. Why was he upset? Did I do something to upset him? I liked him. I don’t want him upset.
I tried to reach my hand up to be able to touch his face but quickly realized that I was still trapped in the white sticky substance.
Hurt practically bled from him, but for the life of me, I couldn’t figure out why. But it didn’t matter right now. My brain was trying to tell me something; I needed to figure that out first before I went completely crazy.
"The rules are important," I said slowly, looking up into his bright yellow eyes as I tried to explain to the best of my ability. "I don’t know why they are important, but they are."
Understanding flashed in his eyes, and the air around him seemed to have softened. "What are the rules, Starshine?"
"Rule number two: don’t get them wet. Rule number three: don’t feed after midnight," I answered, my eyes practically begging him to understand what I was trying to say.
"What is rule number one?" he asked seriously, as if we had all the time in the world to figure this out. I knew that we didn’t, but the patience he was showing was appreciated like no tomorrow.
"I can’t remember it," I replied, the frustration beginning to get to me. I understood that my brain didn’t work the way most others did. It would fixate on a particular thing and not let up until it was satisfied by the answer. It worked out perfectly in school because it was fixated on learning everything about everything. But right now, it was fixated on two fucking rules that I don’t remember ever learning.
"Okay, that is okay, Sweetheart," purred Midnight, "We will figure it out. Do you know what it is about?"
"I think the babies?" I answered. I was pretty confident in that answer. "I got them wet, and they multiplied."
"Okay, that would explain rule number two: don’t get them wet, or they will multiply," he said with a nod of his head. He stood up, me still wrapped in his arms, as he walked us away from everything else.
"Where are the others?" I asked, my eyes closing as my ears continued to ring, and the world still seemed to spin around me.
"Having fun," he assured me, briefly looking over his shoulders at the others. I tried to see what they were doing, too, but he easily blocked me. "Don’t worry, they are fine."
"Can you tell them about the rules?" I asked, just as the darkness at the edges of my vision started to take over. I would take a nap, and then maybe my brain would let me know what it was trying to tell me.
"Of course, Starshine. Anything you want," said Midnight as he continued to walk me away from the nest and the Easter bunnies from hell. "Anything you want."
"Thank you," I said. I had a feeling that the rules were going to be really important.
