Breather...

Chapter 16 of BDO turned out to be a lot of running up and down and fighting and sneaking around and climbing, until Dirc and Irin were in a safe enough place to relax. And reconnect in full.

No sex in this one, just the two of them floating in an underground pool, embracing and kissing and supporting each other.

They are heroes in this story. Doesn't matter how many men they helped to kill. I think I've built not only empathy for them both but respect and a connection. They love each other, fully and completely, and it's shining through.

When I wrote How to Rape a Straight Guy, I let Curt take me places I didn't know I could go. He was a wounded animal loose in the LA streets, and he ruined people's lives...and I put him in prison for it. I've gotten responses to him where readers acknowledge he did horrible things...but to their horror they still felt sorry for him.

That was the first time I thought maybe I could write a story about a monster and have the reader connect with them, emotionally. I've come close to doing it a couple other times...but there was always a reason for them to be as angry and destructive as they were. I also had a moral platform to lay their actions on, and a punishment for their transgressions.

I also made the victims of their actions deserving. Like in Hunter, where he gets started in the MM Slave Trade with guys from Mexico who've been hurting local people...before segueing into just taking random men...until he's slapped in the face with the consequences of what he's done. Then tries to make up for it.

Not this time. The closest I come to excusing Dirc's and Irin's actions is they were killed. Dirc was shot in the back by a cop, who was them made into a meal for the Beast. Irin's death was due to a fall during a scuffle with another cop, which happened around the time of Dirc's trial. They're brought back to life and from that point they are out to help the alien in its endeavors. Not so much out of gratitude but because it pays them in gold.

Now they've lost everything and don't know what to do. All they have is each other, a bit of super strength thanks to being reborn, and a need for revenge.

And I have no idea what will happen from this point.