Page 68 of My Monster’s Keeper

I snarl, but he ignores me.

“You can’t sleep with her.” Diablos drops the decree like he’s god.

Stix draws himself up. The shadows shift on the walls, clinging to him as his true power rises to the surface. He lets out a malevolent hiss that echoes around the room.

“You can’t sleep with her unless she asks you!” Diablos squeaks. “She has to say the words. You can’t do anything, and you cannot do it while she’s teaching you. You have to wait untilyou’re all back at home, and you know what this place is like because if you tie yourself to her, this is the only place you’ll be calling home. Humans can’t survive anywhere else.”

Puppy rattles his scales in warning, but it’s Stix who looks at me, silently asking me.

I’m surprised to be included. I incline my head. What other option do we have?

He looks to Frost.

“Yes, I agree.”

“Puppy?” Stix says softly.

“I don’t mate with meat.”

I think all of us hear the lie under the words, but the Grim springs away.

“Two weeks. Until we’ve learned, and then you stay out of our business. If we want to mate her, then we will,” Stix warns.

“Agreed.”

“Why are they walking in groups?” Stix’s curious question brings me back to the here and now.

“Because humans are social creatures,” Becky says in exhaustion.

“And those two, why holding hands?”

“They are,” she pauses for a second, “mated.”

“Ah. Why buy everything? When do they hunt? Aren’t there predators that pick them off?”

Becky sighs, and I wonder if this is harder than she anticipates.

“Humans are generally the apex predators on Earth. Things don’t hunt us, we hunt them.”

“Ridiculous,” Puppy scoffs and glowers at the humans on the TV in disdain.

Becky sits down on the lounge and stares at Stix. “Humans buy things because that’s what we do. We don’t need to hunt or do anything anymore. So we shop.”

“Why is there no green? No life?” I murmur. “Where are the great forests and the trees? Where are the animals and birds? The insects? Why is this place dead?”

She looks at me as if surprised by the question. “People are dumb. We destroy, and we pour concrete on everything, seeking to tame it and bring order to it. Wilder? Do we need to go someplace else?”

I hesitate and shake my head, but it means something to me that she asked. She treats me with a kindness I’ve not experienced before, like I am worthy and not wanting.

I turn back to the window, hiding my thoughts, looking at the barren concrete world and all its glass windows.

“It’s not all like this,” she murmurs. “We can go to places that are still wild.”

“No, I know. It’s just…so sad.”

And now I’ve made her sad. No, enough of this. I whirl towards them and sit on the couch beside her. “What is a human's strength?”

“Intelligence, compassion, empathy?” She blinks a couple of times and shrugs.