Page 55 of My Monster’s Keeper

Diablos breaks into the circle of flaring light and reaches me. He pulls me into his familiar arms and holds on as the white light sparks and then fades in twinkles that fall to the floorboards and disappear. I stare at his face, refusing to look away.

He’s so beautiful.

The pain eases to a throbbing ache that is bearable.

“Hart, Hart, are you okay?” he whispers urgently.

I nod into his shoulder, lifting my aching arms to wrap them around his shaking body.

“I love you, Di. It’s worth it, and I’m okay. We’re going to be together forever now.”

He buries his face in my neck and sobs.

***

I fold my arms over my chest and stare at the posturing, pissed off Fae in front of me. It’s taken almost two years to find these perfect candidates Diablos is so taken with. He believes if anyone can save an omega, it will be these four.

I have my reservations.

“Frost?”

“That’s not my name!” The white-haired man says with a cold wrath. He sends a spark of blue flames spearing out into the air. It’s gorgeous but extremely dangerous.

After all the alphas we’ve supported as they’ve transitioned here, I’m not afraid of the dramatics, though these four are something else. The danger emanating from them is off the charts, but Diablos doesn’t seem worried.

He’s good at this kind of stuff. I’m the research man, finding clues and whispers of omegas or new arrivals.

Wilder glares at Frost mutinously. Vines grow out of the ground, reaching for him. His green hair floats in the air around him. The Seelie Lord of the Hunt and the Unseelie Prince are never going to get along. I don’t know why he’s pushing them to try .

The Nightmare, Stix, is crouched on a bus stop, behaving like anything but a human. He’s the one that unsettles me the most, with his long black hair and intent eyes. There is something bordering on madness in his eyes.

Diablos looks at me and grins. I shake my head, amused despite myself. He’s got a soft spot for these four. They came through together a week ago, clearly an accident of coincidence. But fate couldn’t have shouted louder.

Diablos has fought hard to keep them together.

I’m not sure why, but I trust his instincts. He says there is something about this foursome that is so powerful they make the Siren brothers look like toddlers.

I’m not sure. The four of them are psychotic and vicious and hate each other more than they hate anything else. I watched a video once of two poisonous snakes duelling to the death, and that’s what this feels like.

Puppy walks past me, a huge, gigantic lizard-like creature called a Grim. He flicks his tail, whipping it in my face as he launches up the side of the nearest building.

I watch in amusement.

Diablos convinces them to listen, telling them about the omegas who are waiting, who are dying, who are needing them.

They go to the house he found for them. I stay near the fence line because Puppy finds my presence offensive. We all try not to upset Puppy.

Day after day, week after week, we continue in this vein, trying to teach them, trying to show them. Diablos has several near misses, but so do I. I’m starting to loathe them, but I really pity the poor omega stuck with these creatures. She’ll be lucky to survive a night with them.

Di keeps telling me to have faith and that it will be okay, but I’m not sure. The things I’ve seen these four do go beyond anything in the last two years.

But they are at least tolerating each other now.

Diablos comes out of their house an hour later with blood leaking from his lip and smoke curling from his nose, a sure sign he’s annoyed.

“You all right?”

“I don’t want to talk about them anymore!” he says shortly and takes my hand in his. Crimson colours the world as he steps between reality, taking us from here to there in seconds.

He grabs my shirt collars and spins me around and around until the back of my legs hit the edge of our bed .

“I am so sick of their bullshit. And do you know all I could think about while I was trying not to die?”

“No, what?” I whisper as he holds me up, unbalanced.

“I was thinking I just want to be inside you, fucking you, having you moan my name. Fuck these guys. They can eat each other for all I care. I just want my mate.”

I gasp at his words, falling backwards a little, but he catches me, holds me up with an arm around my waist. Our groins joined, cocks pressed together, and he is hard!

“You can have me,” I say hoarsely.

“Oh, I’m going to. Over and over. Tonight, they can all fend for themselves. Tonight is the anniversary of the day we met, and I’m going to fuck you so hard you can find the imprint of my cock in your ass.”

“Diablos!” I say faintly.

“I need you, Hart. I need you everywhere,” he whispers, and I melt as I always do because I’ve been his since the day I laid eyes on him, even if I did fight it for a while.

“I need you more. I always have, and I always will.”

And truer words have not been spoken. My life was grey and dull. I waded through it, never feeling too much, never hoping for more. Until him. He breathed hot life into my lungs and made all the wrong make sense.

I am something special with him. I’m his something special. I’m not a washed up cop who disappointed his spouse and couldn’t provide a lavish life.

I’m his partner, his confidant, his lover, his mate. I don’t need to be anything else for him.

He tilts us towards the bed, his long tail twining up around my leg, grazing over my balls, sending white lightning need through me.

Fuck, him having a tail is hot.

I fall backwards, but huge red wings unfold and catch us in midair. The bed is gone, we’re somewhere else, the air is warm, and I can smell the ocean.

“Are they going to be okay?” I pant out, needing to put a lid on those worries before we can continue.

“They’ll be fine. I don’t want to talk about them, though,” Diablos murmurs.

I touch my lips to his. “We need to talk first.”

“Oh? Can’t we do it later?”

“No, we have to talk now.” Before I get so wrapped up in you that I forget.

“Okay, what is it? ”

“There’s a rookie, a new cop. I got a message she’s going to be my new partner. It’s just strange how it all happened. Very quick and off the books.”

“What’s her name?” Diablos asks sharply.

“Becky. Becky Dawson.”

Diablos’ eyes flare with colour. “We found her. The girl from the shops, the one they left behind. Thank all the fires!”

I frown and open my mouth to ask him what, but he kisses me, and I suddenly don’t care about anything else.

All that matters is my demon and these precious moments we have together.

My back hits something soft. His wings disappear, and his face turns back to that familiar human one.

When he kisses me, I feel the heat of the flames that live inside him. It’s a heat that lives in me.

He pulls back, and smoke curls up into the air. He smiles smugly and runs a hand down my front. My clothes turn to ash and disappear.

His expression sobers. “Whatever will happen, happens. But it has been the most extraordinary time of my life with you, Hart, and I wouldn’t change it for anything.”

“Me either. We know the dangers, we’ve talked about it all. We’ve got this. We’ll be fine.”

He drops his forehead to mine. “Stay alive, little one. Please…for me…just stay alive. This is going to get very dangerous, but I need to know you’ll be waiting for me on the other side.”

“And you!” I growl, unnerved by his fear. “I’ll stay alive, but I need you here with me, too. Don’t you dare go where I can’t follow.”

When he leans down and kisses me, I kiss him with all the desperation in me, trying to show him without words that he is my everything now.

Tomorrow, we save the world. Tonight, I need my Diablos.

***

Diablos

I stare at the six of them. My four conscripts who are still sullenly sulking, the sassy girl who is so slight but carries all the potential to possibly save us all, and my beloved mate .

His eyes flick to me, and his lip tilts up at the side. He can sense me, of course, he can. I love that he always has that secret smile just for me.

I’m going to save this world so I can stay with him. So we can have somewhere to love.

He doesn’t know it yet, but the moment I saw him, I knew. And the mission I’d been toying with abandoning cemented in my heart the minute we met.

I’m going to save the world…for this human man.

Because he is my Hart, my love, and my mate. In my mind, he is above all, even in all the realms, mine of brimstone and hellfire, the pretty Fae courts, or the nightmarish shadows. I would sacrifice every single being in every single world for just one single minute with him.

For him.

If I am right, then shit will hit the fan. I need to keep him alive. That’s all that matters.

“Right, we’re all here,” I boom out of the shadows I’m standing in. “Let us begin.”