Page 17 of My Monster’s Keeper

Becky

S o that happened.

I sit on the porch the next morning with a coffee and a desperate wish that I had grown the ability to turn invisible overnight.

I’m not sure what I should think about what happened. I rub my hand over my face and grumble at the sun shining so brightly. Flashes of last night keep disrupting my morning thoughts, and, with each recalled memory, my temper frays a little bit more.

I have to work with them, I…look up and find Wilder sitting in front of me, frowning. I close my eyes. I had been hoping to avoid our confrontation a while longer. At least until the end of my cup.

“No matter how long your eyes remain closed, I shall not disappear.”

I growl and open them. He doesn’t smile, just watches me with curiosity. I think it's curiosity, it could be that the Fae is plotting my murder. His expression is impassive.

“What’s the matter, Wilder?” I say with exhaustion.

“Last night happened. We would talk about it.”

“Nope.” I cut him off before he can go any further with this nonsense. “We don’t need to talk about it at all.”

“You engaged in mating rituals with two-”

“MATING RITUALS?”

Wilder folds his arms over his large chest and glares at me. “I need to know that you are okay to continue our working companionship whilst you court the Grim and the Unseelie Lord.”

Damnit, damnit, damnit! “If there’s going to be courting, I’ll court all four of you,” I snap without thinking. Personally, I blame the lack of coffee for my poor thought processes this early in the morning.

But, then again, it could be the lack of ‘action’. The last time anyone ‘courted’ me was well over two years ago. And they are all extremely hot .

Stop. It.

I glance up and find Wilder in the exact same position. But, this time, his intent gaze takes my breath away.

“You’d court all four of us?” Wilder confirms.

My cheeks blaze. I’m not even touching this conversation, not for all the coffee in the world. I climb to my feet and turn, only to find the others lined up. Stix and Frost are smiling, Puppy is baring his teeth in what could be a smile.

“I’m ordering waffles. Who wants to try one?” I say suddenly. Throwing out a different bait.

Not even Frost is tempted. I should be flattered. Alas, my temper is this side of catastrophic.

Diablos walks out of our house with a huge iced cappuccino. I stalk over to him and steal it from his hands. When he bares his teeth, I bare mine back. His growl is drowned out by a symphony of four masculine warnings.

Holy hell.

Hot. So freaking hot. I sip the drink and smirk up at the demon boss.

“I have a job for you,” Diablos growls. “There’s an abandoned house, it’s got links to the police who tried to kill you. I believe there is something living inside, and there may be clues about what’s going on with the omega. Go get it.”

I narrow my eyes. “You’re being testy.”

“You stole my drink,” Diablos growls.

I roll my eyes.

“Go do my will, human!” Diablos thunders and stops short of stomping his foot when he vanishes in a puff of smoke.

I stare at the spot, feeling a whole lot better. I glance over my shoulder at my four monsters. “Well, you heard the man. Waffles, and then we go and kill shit.”

Stix snorts and inclines his head.

***

Waffles are amazing. Especially with syrup and ice-cream. Puppy doesn’t appear to be a fan, but I’ve ordered the four of them a hamburger with the lot, too. I love places that sell breakfast for dinner and dinner for breakfast. It’s all kinds of wrong that my stomach loves .

The hamburgers arrive, and Puppy, much to my dismay, gives me a look that borders on shock before he devours it.

I finish my waffles in peace. Ignoring everything, including the small child that is staring at Frost with huge eyes.

“That man is white, Mama.”

The child’s mother turns red. I almost say something but manage to keep my mouth closed at the last minute.

“Ben, don’t say things like that, it's rude,” the harried woman hisses.

“Why? Look, he is white.”

Frost slowly turns around and raises an eyebrow at the suddenly silent child. I snicker and pick up my milkshake and drink it down.

“Okay, you ready to go fight bad guys?”

Stix tilts his head to the side. “We don’t fight them, poppet, we destroy them.”

The child that I’m still watching has turned in his seat, glued to our conversation with huge eyes. I wink at the kid and stand up.

“Come along, then.”

Puppy hesitates, and then his tongue flicks across the table and snaps up the last of my waffles.

The kid sits up straight, his eyes wide, and his mouth open. “Mum!”

“Not now, Ben,” his mother says distractedly.

Puppy smiles, showing off far too many teeth, stands up from the chair and leaves the diner with a bounce in his step.

I look back at the poor kid and shrug. “Radioactive spider,” I mouth.

The kid’s eyes get even wider. I snort to myself as I get outside, right up until I walk straight into a wall of muscle.

“Oomph.”

Wilder grips my upper arms and ducks so he’s down at my level. “Was that satisfying to you, human?”

“I wanna say yes.” I try to shrug out of his hold, but he’s got me tight. “Wilder!” I pant.

He stills, and then he abruptly lets me go and steps back. “The Shadow will take you.”

I turn, but Stix is gone. “He’s gone-” I turn back, and so are the other three. Great, these mother fuckers have left me here alone.

I pull out my new phone and scroll the contacts until I get to our illustrious lord and leader’s name .

The phone rings. “Diablos,” I whine, full bitch whine because I am fucking pissed, and if I have to be standing here embarrassed, he’s going to hear about it. “Your toys left me at the diner all alone while they went off to eat your crime scene.”

Diablos curses. “I leave you to sort this out. You’re the human. This is your planet.”

“I don’t have a magical ability to teleport or keep up with them or I would,” I snap back. “What am I supposed to do? Perhaps you should have put in some time training them.”

“I did! You should have seen the half feral wrecks they were. Fuck. I’m getting a massage. A really nice one from a woman named Jolene. She has magical hands.”

“Am I supposed to care?” I ask coldly.

“Fuck. You,” he grumbles, and I can hear him moving. “Hartley never said you’d be this much of a bitch, Becky.”

“Hartley knew me when I had shit to live for,” I snap back. The phone screeches and Diablos appears in a towel in front of me.

Ew. Ew. Naked Diablos.

I attempt to jerk back, but he grips my arm and yanks me into a puff of smoke. Travelling with Diablos is like falling down a hole when you were sure your next step was solid.

The ground appears with jarring force.

“Do not abandon your human,” Diablos warns darkly, and then he vanishes just as fast.

I retch and stagger away from the spot. “That was foul. So foul. I’m never, ever doing that again.”

It takes a moment for me to recover, but when I do, I fold my arms over my chest and narrow my eyes on the four distinctly unguilty faces in front of me.

“You abandoned me,” I snap.

“You smell like blood,” Puppy says like it’s the most logical thing in the world.

“And receptive to breeding smells,” Wilder adds in a growl.

Oh, you fuckers. The tips of my ears get really hot, and I peer up at the silent Stix.

“And you?”

His lips turn down unhappily. “You are vulnerable.”

I snarl and pull out my phone, quickly placing an order for seven DVDs, a TV, and a laptop. It’s just so lucky I had this list saved as I was going to gift it to the assholes who I used to work with as a joke, not joke, gift .

“What did you just order?” Frost asks.

“The answer to how you're going to remain alive to see the next few days,” I say coldly. I pocket my phone, pull out Frost’s knife, stand up and walk into the house.

“Hello, the house!” I call as loud as I can.

“I like this attack style,” Puppy says from above me.

Wilder reaches for my arm, but I snatch it away from him. A man comes towards me. He doesn’t look like your regular drug addict or alcoholic. In fact, with his muscles bulging and the expensive jewelry, I’d say he’s the supplier.

“Who the fuck are you?” he says, and I notice he’s got a pistol in his hand. His jeans hang low, and I visually check him over for other weapons.

“This is the police. Put your weapon down,” I say in a cold, clear voice.

He laughs. “Nice try, lady. Now, who the fuck are you?”

Well, that answers that question. “What the fuck is going down here?” I ask and walk towards him. He lifts the gun, casually aiming it at my chest.

“You’re going to die. That’s what’s going down here.”

“Lower your weapon,” I warn him.

“Fuck you, lady.”

“I warned you.”

I snort a laugh and throw my knife. It buries itself in his upper shoulder, and I think of fire. I don’t mean to think of fire that strongly, but it just happens.

“Huh.” Frost toes the pile of ash.

“It just happened,” I sulk.

Puppy giggles manically on the roof.

“I think perhaps you should let us-”

I whirl on Wilder and find him smiling at me. My anger fades as he puts a finger under my chin and tilts my head up.

“Let us apprehend the suspects for you, warrior,” he murmurs and leans down, brushing his lips against mine.

I’m frozen, and my stomach has fallen from a drop a mile high, but one brush of the lips from the Lord of the Hunt and I’m weak, I’m brain dead. He’s magic.

Gah!

“Okay,” I find myself agreeing.

“Just wait right here, and we’ll bring them to you,” Wilder purrs. “Let us flush out the prey for you. ”

I stare up at him, dazed, and why is the air around him sparkling? Oh, that’s me. I need to blink. With effort, I tear my face from his, clear my throat, and nod. Wilder turns away, and when he comes back, he reaches for my hand and puts my knife back into my palm. I swoon.

“Okay,” I whisper.

The four of them disappear. Cold air rushes in from the front door, and the house throbs with a violence, taking on a darker and more sinister tone. The longer the silence drags on, the more uneasy I get. I cautiously step into the house defying that feeling.

A movement in the corner of the room has me glancing that way, but my instincts scream that something is behind me at the exact same time. I throw myself away from both, hitting the side of the wall.

A shadow appears, its orange eyes spark, and when it exhales, orange lights up the back of its huge throat. It’s easily close to ten feet tall with horns that scrape the roof, raining paint down on us.

He’s built like a brick shit house. But perhaps that old adage of ‘the bigger they are, the harder they fall’ is still true. Guess I’m going to find out.

“Omega,” he whispers, and the sound is the one you hear in your nightmares before you wake screaming, it’s the sound when you’re alone in a dark street, and there’s no one around, it’s the sound when you wake up and find your front door open, and you know you locked it.

Fear locks my throat closed.

I take a step to the side, giving myself more room. He reaches out, slowly, slow enough that I can easily dodge the blow.

“Omega, you don’t belong here. You belong on your knees, waiting for a death blow.”

I raise my eyebrows, surprised at this familiar line. “We haven’t even been on a date yet,” I say with a smirk. “At least take me to coffee.”

He snarls in frustration. “Your time of freedom is limited, Omega. It is time to fulfill your destiny.”

I back away, feeling something other than amusement. This is the third time I’ve heard this line of conversation, and it’s starting to get under my skin.

“What destiny?” I ask warily.

The demon’s eyes flare with triumph, and he smiles wider, showing that gaping orange hole that is his throat. “You will kneel and die as the consort to- ”

Stix launches between us, shoving me back. His long fingers rip through flesh and into the body of the shadow in front of me.

“I warned you, Briox. I warned you not to cross me.”

My shadow sounds different. He sounds monstrous and so very deadly. He pulls pieces of shadows off the monster in front of him, causing the creature to scream.

“You should never have come here,” Stix growls, low and menacing.

I watch as the shadow monster collapses and then vanishes. Stix is almost eight feet tall, he’s not hunched like he normally is, but I realise this is the real him. I make a sound, a small, weak sound of awe in my throat.

He whirls and advances on me. I slam up against the wall, and he bends, lifting me and wedging me between the wall and his body.

“I want you,” Stix growls, and his mouth presses against mine.

I open to him, allowing him to take, to devour, to destroy me. I cling to him and hang on as he shakes my world and remakes it.

He pulls back and rubs his nose against mine. “I would take you on the blood-soaked ground. I would fuck you while our prey screams a lullaby. Here, now, in the den of our enemies, I should make you mine.”

His threat makes my blood heat, and I flex my fingers, moaning and pulling closer.

“We can’t,” I protest and nip his bottom lip.

“We can. We could,” Stix growls. “Tell me you want me to make you mine,” Stix growls into my mouth.

He doesn’t need my words. My kiss is answer enough.