Page 5 of Minding the Minotaur (Monsters of the Labyrinth #1)

A RLO

Once my body stops shaking from the impact, I slide the cape off my head—only to see a wide green face inches from mine, eyebrows arrowing, red eyes ablaze.

Shit. It’s Otis.

I must have somehow landed in the sheriff’s office. What were the fucking odds of that?

I press my back against the wall as Otis plucks the cape off my shoulders and bunches it up in a huge fist. “How in hell’s demons did you get hold of this?” he growls.

I try to stand up so I’m at less of a disadvantage. We’re about the same height and girth. Not that he’s likely to punch me… At least, I don’t think he would… Still, best to be ready.

But the effect of being zapped through the portal at three times the speed of light has done weird things to my bones. For some reason, it’s always worse coming back down. Gravity maybe .

With a groan, I slide onto the floor, limbs splayed out like a newborn calf.

My collapse doesn’t stop his tirade. “Tell me how you got hold of this?”

He bends over me, grabbing me by the scruff around my neck.

He’s so close I can see the vein on his forehead pulse, feel the heat of his breath on my skin.

His temper doesn’t flare often, but when it does, beware.

And even though he’s only four years older than me, Otis can be an authoritarian prick at times.

Guess I don’t really blame him. After all, the guy doesn’t even want to be in this role.

He inherited the job of sheriff when his dad got killed in a wolf pack skirmish on level three.

Truth is, Otis is an inventor, a scientist. He’d rather be quietly dreaming up prototypes for weird machines than leading a motley crew of monsters. He’s shut down his brilliant brain and devoted himself to doing his duty these past few years.

I guess he’d prefer it if his duty didn’t include dealing with difficult pricks like me.

But right now, I don’t have time to empathize with Otis. My head is pounding, and his bellowing is doing nothing to help me regain my equilibrium.

“You’ve got ten seconds before I throw you in the equalizer.”

I stiffen. The equalizer really messes with you. It’s a sharp, short punishment, a way to teach transgressing monsters a lesson. Being churned inside that tub sure curdles your blood for a couple of days. The after-effects of portal travel are a walk in the park compared to the equalizer.

Even so, I won’t drop my best mate in it. I remain mute.

“It was Brody, wasn’t it?” Otis guesses.

I open my mouth, but nothing but a strangled gargle comes out.

I don’t seem to have the air in my lungs right now to argue the point.

My silence will drop Brody in the shit, but truth is, there’s really nowhere to go with this.

I’ve been caught red hooved, and Otis knows someone had to have given me the cape.

It’s kept in the Vault, under lock and key.

Where bear-shifter Brody just happens to work as security.

Not exactly rocket science to figure it out.

Otis mutters, “How much did you pay him?”

I stay silent. We both know how much Brody’s family need money.

Otis reads the silence again. “You stupid fucking idiot. Too much coin and no common sense,” he huffs. “So, where’d you go?”

“Only got as far as the Periphery,” I lie.

Otis appraises me shrewdly. “Is this the first time?”

I nod, keeping my expression blank. He drapes the cape carefully over the back of his office chair, where it winks and sparkles, as if taunting me.

I stare at it balefully, wondering how I will be able to use it again after this. Brody will be in trouble too now, and Brody was easily my best contact in the Vault.

A coil of longing hits my gut as I remember the girl, her hair, her smile. Her tits. Her ass.

I have to get back there. Soon. I have to find her again.

Sudden energy surges back into my body. I bunch up onto my haunches and power up through my thighs. I’m eye to eye with Otis now, and that gives me more confidence. I fold my arms across my pecs and brace my legs in a power stance.

Try to outglare him. Or at the very least, not to let my eyes waver from his fire-red orbs.

Orcs in a rage, I tell you, are fucking scary, even for us minotaurs.

I resist the urge to bow my head. Otis and I grew up together, and our parents were close friends, so our families hung out a fair bit.

While he was at university working on weird equations and mucking around with bits of old junk in his spare time, I was trying out new karate kicks and locking horns with other younglings.

Even though Otis and I have little in common, we hung out often enough.

We went on family picnics to One Moonbeam Lake most weekends.

Otis would come clambering up on the rocks to stare at the stars through the crevice.

It was the only time I recall him looking truly happy.

So no, the fucker is not going to intimidate me.

I decide to try a different approach. “C’mon Otis, it was only the once.

And it was really underwhelming.” I push away an image of those big baby blues blinking up at me.

My heart clenches. “Punish me. But don’t punish Brody.

He’s just trying to look after his family since his dad’s accident. You know that.”

Otis curses softly. His expression softens momentarily, a rare glimpse of the big heart that lies under all that green muscle. But then he turns his wrath back on me, digging a meaty green digit into the center of my chest.

“You know your problem?” Prod. “Since your sperm got picked for that human fertility drug, you’ve had tickets on yourself.” Another prod. “Just remember, you’re doing nothing but squirting into a test tube. No skill required.”

“It’s a pint bottle,” I sneer back. “And it overflows.”

Otis turns a darker shade of green. He curls his fingers into a fist, his huge shoulders menacing, biceps bunched.

I brace for a smack on the snout. I almost got myself out of this mess, but then I had to make sure I had the last word. I’ve always been like that. Never known when to shut my mouth and give up the fight.

Which is maybe why I won’t give up on my human.

It’s crazy, but I’ve never wanted anything as much as I want to see her again.

Luckily, Otis seems to think better of smacking me in the nostrils and backs off. I can see him reining in his temper as he grits out through tight lips, “Well, I guess there’s one way to find out. ”

He strides over to his chair, picks up the cape and flicks it inside out, so that the iridescent rainbow lining is on show. He unzips a pocket I had no idea existed, wiggles in a finger and hooks out a tiny scrap of shiny metal.

“What’s that?” I can’t help craning my neck closer.

Otis pincers it between finger and thumb and holds it up with a superior smile. “A chip,” he says.

To me, chips are crispy fried pieces of potato.

This is not a chip. I don’t argue though.

I watch intently as he unlocks a drawer and brings out what appears to be a large flat book, bound in a shiny silver cover.

He flicks it open, and I realize there’s a keyboard on the inside.

It’s kind of like a typewriter, but not. I scratch a horn as I stare at it.

“What’s that thing then?”

“A com-pu-ter.” Otis enunciates the word in a way that makes me feel like a dumb ass. “More precisely, a laptop.”

“Where’d you get it from?”

“The Vault. Let’s see if it works, shall we?”

He puts the tiny chip thing into the side and presses a key on the front. The screen springs to life with words and numbers.

I gasp. It reminds me of a television screen. Like the one I purchased for a vast amount of coin and use to watch pirated human movies on in my snug.

I go and peer over Otis’s shoulder.

Monster code: 4579. Shit. That’s me. That’s my code. It’s tattooed on the inside of my bicep, but I had no idea that it could be… spat out on a tiny little screen. Then a photo appears; it’s the same one as on my ID. A mug shot, head up, horns visible, the nose ring gleaming between my nostrils.

Another line of information comes up so fast I blink.

Illegal migrations. With dates and times next to them.

And places.

My jaw drops as I see the address of the diner on Opal Boulevard last month on a Wednesday at 7 pm, Belle’s beauty parlor at Emerald Plaza , the freakin’ pharmacy on Pearl Street. And finally, the parking lot below DeVines this afternoon at 2.30 pm.

Holy cow.

Otis slams shut the device. “Only one trip, eh? Just to the Periphery, you say.”

I scuff my hooves on the stone floor and avoid his glare.

When he speaks, his tone is low and calm, which frankly, is more of a worry than his ranting.

“Are you fucking insane, Arlo?” he says softly. “Or just plain dumb?”

That irks me. I may not have gone to university like Otis, but I’m streetwise. I’ve found ways to make more money than most monsters ever have, enough to give me hopes and dreams…

I jut my jaw. “I wanted to see who we’re all busting our asses for. That’s all.”

Truth is, it was more than curiosity. When you shoot your precious cum into a bottle once a week, which then gets turned into fertility treatments for humans, a species that lord it over monsters yet need a special enzyme from minotaur cum to help them procreate—well, you get to thinking these humans are not as powerful as they make out.

And if that’s the case, then… the daydreams of roaming through great swathes of green grass under a radiant sun, of hearing birds sing, the buzz of bees and insects…

of picnicking on a blanket with a golden-haired girl with eyes the color I imagine a summer sky to be…

Maybe these dreams are attainable for our kind after all…

This is what goes through my mind, but I don’t say it out loud.

“That’s all .” Otis derides. “That’s All. Have you had a knock to that thick skull of yours that’s addled your brain? Have you forgotten the words of the Covenant?”

“No,” I grunt. How the fuck could I forget the agreement we made with humans after the rebellion a hundred years ago? The final two lines hang on the wall of every school and workplace.

BLESSED FREEDOM BELOW

IS GIFTED FROM ABOVE

Which basically means we work our butts off, and in return, the humans generously let us live down here unfettered in these tunnels. Hardly freedom, but it’s what we’ve been forced to settle for.

A teeming warren of burrows and hive colonies stretching below the Earth’s crust, the Labyrinth is ten levels deep—officially.

No doubt, with the mutant monsters that have bred over the centuries, the tunnels go much deeper.

No-one from the upper levels explores any further. Why go looking for trouble?

And no monster since the Covenant was signed has dared to go above ground. Or if they did, they certainly never returned.

“I was curious, is all. To see what humans get up to. Not like in the movies, but close up, in real life…” I mutter.

Getting up close to that delectable human sure has changed my views on at least one of their kind.

“You really have no idea how much danger you put yourself in. Not just you, but the whole of level one, and below.” Otis looks so tired suddenly, a stab of guilt hits my gut. I realize what a burden it must be keeping up law and order down here.

And okay, yeah, secretly I have to admit I do imagine myself as some kind of hero.

The minotaur who led the folks of the Labyrinth to freedom .

Maybe Otis is right. I’ve got tickets on myself because of my day job.

I feel special in some way, like I have superpowers, because there are some bionic cells in my sperm that the humans need .

I guess I’ve always wanted to feel special. Noticed. And today, miraculously, I did—by that beautiful human.

And suddenly, she matters more to me than all my macho heroics.

“I need your solemn promise you will never go there again,” Otis says.

Never. The word grates on my ears. “Promise me, Arlo,” Otis growls when I don’t reply.

I hang my head. Bite my lip. “I can’t promise.”

Otis grits out. “Fuck your?—”

“—bull headedness?” I supply cheekily. That will get me an hour in the equalizer for sure.

But instead, Otis does a turn of his desk. Stops and stares at the cape, still shimmering, but losing its glow a little by now. “I’m going to put you under house arrest,” he growls finally.

I feel myself paling. “You’re going to incarcerate me?

” For years, we were confined in chains.

It’s embedded in our DNA, the genetic memory of being held against our will.

Worked to the bone. Eventually, when we signed the Covenant and promised to never return above ground, the humans let us work without being tethered.

Thus, there is a pledge in our own constitution that says we will never remove a monster’s freedom to move around the Labyrinth. We’re already stuck underground, with only the occasional grain of light that filters through the thick rock canopy. Why would we make it harder for our fellow monsters?

The worst punishment is confinement to your home for a period of up to a month. That probably sounds mild, but it’s not. It’s purgatory. Every monster dreads house arrest right down to their bones. It is tantamount to imprisonment.

“No one will take the job,” I challenge desperately.

“I’ll find someone. An ogre from level ten.”

“Gods, now you’re scraping the barrel.” My nostrils flare. “ What reason will you give? That I was the first monster to make it through the portal since the Covenant was signed? Yeah, right, and then you risk others attempting it.”

Otis rakes a hand over his cropped dark green hair, sending it spiking in all directions. “I’ll get a peripheral to do it.”

I feel the blood draining from my cheeks. The peripherals are low-life humans. They work between our two worlds, moving products. “You wouldn’t.”

“Just watch me.” For a moment we stand almost chest to chest, in a silent power struggle, then Otis lets out a ragged sigh. “You’re a danger to us and to yourself, Arlo. If they see you, the things we’ve worked to build here could be destroyed. Worse, we could be destroyed.”

“How?” I shout. “How exactly? They need us, not the other way round.”

“They have far more ways to harm us than you have a clue about,” Arlo says darkly. “I’ve no choice, Arlo. You will be on house arrest for a month. And in the meantime, we hope to the gods you were not sighted by a single human out there.”

I open my mouth. Shut it. There was much more than a sighting by a human. There was a connection… a chemistry I can’t make sense of. Even now, my balls tighten, and my cock thickens at the mere thought of her.

One thing I know: that girl will pull me back to Sparkle.

And no green sheriff or house arrest is going to stop me.