Page 127 of My Monster’s Keeper

Fascinating. I make another mental note.

“Welcome, all teams of Earth’s Defense,” Diablos says out loud. My mouth parts, and I stare at the huge demon because he sounds so different, formal and tense.

“What’s wrong with you?” Stix murmurs.

“Such a stupid name,” I mutter evasively.

Stix turns and gives me his full attention. “You are adorable.”

“Today, I have some troubling news. It has come to my attention that we are finding a disturbing trend of criminal activities occurring.” Diablos narrows his eyes and glares in a sweep across the room. “It may mean hard times ahead and deeply penetrating investigations.”

The room gets quiet but not in a nice safe way.

“But no matter how hard this situation may seem, we will take it and come out on top.”

I spot Hartley in the corner of the room with a red face half hidden behind a clipboard. I almost wish he wasn’t here. There are far too many creatures taking note of him.

“We have over one thousand reports of humans who have been kidnapped and killed or sold. One thousand. In just a few weeks. This is unacceptable. We are guests in this world. I want to know who is doing this, who is behind it. I want them stopped. Does anyone have any information they wish to share?”

The room is strangely silent, and the skin on the back of my neck prickles with unease. Diablos scowls and paces the front of the room. He casts a look at Hartley, and I can almost feel the concern.

Something is wrong.

I lean back, stroking a finger down Puppy’s calf to get his attention. “Can you get the demon’s mate and bring him to our home?”

Puppy narrows his eyes, unhappy about my request, but he squeezes my hand and vanishes.

A moment later, Hartley is plucked out of the space by a shadow and vanishes.

I don’t miss the relief on Diablos’ face a moment before he refocuses on the group in front of him.

There is a surge of violence in the air. Stix puts a hand on my thigh. While Wilder discreetly threads a vine around the tubby stomach of the blue and white pit sitting on my foot.

The tension is there, and then it’s gone and people lean back, almost bored. Like a silent message was sent through the crowd that we all missed.

“So, no one has seen anything? No one else has seen a thing?” Diablos roars. “No omegas have been stolen and killed? Really, you want to go down this path?”

My heart thuds against my chest.

The room stays silent.

The stare down is powerful, but they don’t budge, and neither does he. I can see why he’s the right guy for this job. He brought us all here to test a theory.

“Well, then. Be on your way.” Diablos stares at them.

They stay sitting for a moment until a huge muscled guy with a ring of horns on his skull gets up and stomps out of the room. People abruptly scrape back their chairs and exit the room. There’s no friendly conversation, no chatter. They just leave.

Ninety percent of the room just walks out. The other ten percent look confused as fuck.

I’m not confused, though. I’ve been the person looking around the room full of bad guys trying to work out who was safe and who wasn’t.

From the back, I can watch as a few of them exchange discreet glances. The Siren’s stand up, but two of them that appear to be twins pause and look down at me.

“Her filthy presence is all over your person, human.”

I sigh. “My name is Becks or Becky. Or Dawson, even, but do not call me human, Siren.”

The twin with the intimidating glower narrows his eyes. “You’re lucky we’re choosing to forgive your ignorance in allowing that monstrosity to walk on the same dimension as us.”