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  Seth put a dollar in the cauldron near the rack of swords and daggers. Then he put in another. Paltry tip for a man risking the integrity of his sinuses, but Seth only had so much cash and would probably want to share some singles with the ladies too. This was just the opener.

  Excitement clenched in his abdomen as he and Lars followed the arrow signs to Oddity Row. Given the low-rent nature of the circus, David’s description of Arcanium had probably been built up to impossible standards by now, but Seth couldn’t help it. He couldn’t wait to see the weirdness, especially if some of the freaks were as hot as David had promised. Hot or not, everyone loved a good freak show, right?

  Seriously, the Lizard Man? The average person would think he’d be just another guy with bad skin or wearing a poor attempt at a rubber suit. Instead, the Lizard Man—named Bale, according to the placard—totally looked the part, with crocodile teeth dense in his mouth and scales all over his dome head, bare chest, arms and back. Seth assumed it was prosthetics and makeup, made more real under the softer golden light of the lamps, but it was done really well. It must have taken so long to put it on, Seth wouldn’t have been surprised if the poor man slept in full costume.

  And when he went all Ozzy on the dead white mice in a jar… Genius. The guy was a genius. Seth was unashamed of buying a Lizard Man key chain from the vendor next to the exhibit tent to guard his car keys. The guy was pretty damn cool.

  As they walked on, it felt a bit like a peepshow, with the individual tents and the theatrical lighting. The tip jars overflowed from all the appreciative patrons as they moved from tent to tent for the next bit of salacious or grotesque exhibitionism.

  Seth couldn’t stop staring at the Human Torso, a Chinese woman in her thirties who, according to the placard, had been legless and armless since birth. There were nothing but stumps where her limbs should have been, but she was surprisingly mobile, her abbreviated thighs working her ass under the corseted leather leotard as she walked around the platform. She had to wriggle to climb onto the low chair, but she managed to get up and recline, her leg stumps parted by nature.

  He was caught between sympathy and fascination watching her get around the tent. He thought he was probably going to feel that way a lot along Oddity Row. But hey, these people had signed up to be here and be stared at, so he wasn’t going to overthink things too much.

  Seth wondered if she and the others realized that almost every single guy that passed them probably thought about what it would be like to have sex with her, with a Bearded Lady and definitely with a snake charmer. What it would be like to have something different. It was an idle but powerful curiosity.

  The barmaid’s breasts faded to the back of his mind while the oddities took over his mental screen.

  “Jesus Christ on a cross,” Lars said almost under his breath as they stared and panted at the snake charmer.

  She was Elizabeth Hurley gorgeous, of course, but there was something else—a quality about her that brought the early summer heat to a boil inside him. Sweat formed on his upper lip and forehead and dripped down his back under his shirt. When Seth tore his eyes away from the sight of the snake charmer’s body being caressed by her serpents of choice, he noticed that Lars was in a similar state, his mouth parted and his lips wet.

  He didn’t check, because that would just be weird, but Seth could guess that Lars’ shorts were probably just as tight as his. A guy just couldn’t help it when presented with such a pin-up visual feast as that.

  He adjusted himself and nearly groaned out loud, wishing to God that he could touch his erection directly as he watched her dance in the golden light and shadow, her tits and ass exactly as ripe and exposed as described. Little imagination needed, and it was somehow better that way. Nothing his imagination came up with would be better than what was right in front of him, and how often did that happen? There was no doubt why a considerable crowd had formed in front of her tent.

  Seth had to convince Lars to leave to visit other oddities on the Row. They could always come back. And cross their fingers that she also had an act during the evening performance. She looked like the kind of woman with an act—probably the kind of act they had all those ‘Adults Only’ signs up for. Seth was surprised that she wasn’t ‘Adults Only’, period, but he wasn’t going to complain.

  No one was going to complain, because if Lady Sasha got a woman’s dander up, that woman would probably have to hold her hypocritical tongue when she reached Lord Mikhail. He had his own considerable audience that consisted of mostly women, and the Lord wasn’t any more clothed than the Lady.

  Seth could appreciate the strength of the strongman and the discipline needed for his singular craft of lifting heavy things in bodybuilder poses. But Seth was uncomfortable staring too closely at the contours of those muscles, impressive though they were. He was overly conscious of the intensity of the female and male eyes sharing that sight—practically drooling like he and Lars had before the snake charmer. He didn’t resist when Lars gave him the hook and pulled him farther down Oddity Row, thankful for the excuse to move on.

  They passed a Tall Man and a Short Man walking together on the Row to show off their disparate sizes in the flesh rather than confined to an oddity tent. The giant was pretty massive, but tall and short men weren’t exactly in the ‘wow’ category, no matter how much like a hard-headed alien the tall man looked.

  After seeing them and getting some distance from the snake charmer as they checked out the contortionist—whose body did things that conjured up…images—it occurred to him that these people were cool, but only the Lizard Man was unique and nothing he’d seen before. The rest were kind of standard fare. He guessed expecting the transcendent was asking a bit much from a traveling circus that latched on like a parasite to cheesy Renaissance faires, but David had said it was amazing.

  Maybe it got better during the evening performance. Or maybe it would be just a bunch of acrobats doing the same tricks, clowns doing the same pratfalls and trapeze artists doing the same jumps. Seth hoped not or else he was going to be seriously disappointed—jerk-off fodder aside. He’d been promised marvels, but while most of these people were certainly different, ‘marvelous’ wasn’t the descriptor he’d use.

  Lars moved on to the Bearded Lady at the next tent, but Seth found himself pausing during his inner grumble in front of a pair of twins facing away from each other on a cushioned ottoman. They were glitzed up in pink satin dresses that showed off their trim figures and an offering of cleavage that couldn’t be called generous but could be called healthy.

  The skirts were shorter than the average Renaissance costume, displaying sweet, pale legs marked with a few dark freckles, one twin’s leg mirrored in the other.

  If Seth hadn’t been looking for something odd, he might not have even noticed where their lower backs were pressed together. The satin dresses had been expertly sewn to make the connection look natural.

  Seth thought they had a girl-best-friend or girl-next-door kind of vibe. They weren’t hot the way that the snake charmer and the contortionist were hot. Twins were hot, of course. Twins were one thing, though. Conjoined twins were another thing entirely.

  Seth’s interest was piqued.

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  About the Author

  Aurelia T. Evans is an up-and-coming erotica author with a penchant for horror and the supernatural.

  She’s the twisted mind behind the were/shifter Sanctuary trilogy, demonic circus series Arcanium, and spiritual gothic urban fantasy series Meridian (publication TBD). She’s also had short stories featured in various erotic anthologies.

  Aurelia presently lives in Dallas, Texas (although she doesn’t ride horses or wear hats). She loves cats and enjoys baking as much as she dislikes cooking. She’s a walker, not a runner, and she writes outside as often as possible.

  Email: aureliatevans@yahoo.com

  Aurelia loves to hear from readers. You can find her contact information, website and author biography at http:
//www.totallybound.com.

  Also by Aurelia T. Evans

  Calling the Dragons Home

  Red Queen

  Sanctuary: Winter Howl

  Sanctuary: Cry Wolf

  Arcanium: Fortune

  Frost Bite: Gravedigger

  Totally Bound Publishing