Page 33 of Stalked By Pestilence

With his beast hearing, Zelus picked out the nickname without any trouble. His smile had faded the second Darcy said it, and I couldn’t name the emotion that swam in his beast eyes.

But he shed it a blink later. One side of his mouth hooked up and his thumb brushed across my lower lip. “Could be fun, Ems,” he whispered low enough so that Darcy wouldn’t hear him.

Delicious shivers skittered down my spine with the husk he used to taint my nickname. He’d slathered it with nothing but sweetness. Instead of wanting to slap him around a bit for the audacity of using it, I was very close to forgetting I was on the phone and sticking my tongue down his throat.

“See you at three,” I told Darcy before hanging up.

Zelus stared at me, his yellow eyes beaming. “A lawyer, is it? That fits you, love. I bet you destroy men in the courtroom.”

A smile crept across my mouth. “You’d guess right.”

“So, you quit?”

I put my phone on the side table and laid my arms across his chest, dropping my chin on top of them. “I did. A few days before we met, actually.”

“Any reason in particular?”

I couldn’t help but sour at the thought. “Too many reasons.”

I expected him to pry, but he didn’t. And when the quiet stretched between us, I decided to do something I promised myself I wouldn’t do. I asked him a question in hopes of getting to know him better.

Outside of Dom, he’d be the first guy I bothered to get to know. I didn’t want to acknowledge what that suggested, so I conveniently blamed the fact that he was not only a monster, but the one who said he’d protect me from whatever bullshit I’d gotten myself into.

Least I could do was get to know the dude who was willing to use his fancy claws to punish my enemies.

“So, when a snake monster isn’t protecting some helpless damsel in distress against demons, what does he do?”

His grin broadened, eyes sparkling with delight. “Suppose he does whatever the fuck he wants.”

“Must be nice.”

“You should try it.”

I rolled my eyes and glared at him. “Some of us have bills.”

“Bloody capitalism.”

Laughing, I laid my cheek on his chest and felt his arm wrap around my back to pull me closer. “That’s why I quit. I’ve been saving for a few years so I could. I wanted to do something I chose for myself and not what was chosen for me. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a damn good lawyer. The best they had. But everywhere you go…men.”

His muscles tensed. “Did they—”

“No, nothing like that. I mean, Darcy is a real fucking tool, and sexism in that place is rampant, but other than uncomfortable comments about my body, none of them were stupid enough to touch me. I’d have them by the balls in every legal sense, so they only ever toed the line. Thing is, no matter how smart or good at my job I am, I’ll always be just a little woman to them.”

Zelus hummed and resumed playing with my hair. “Well, you have a snake monster in your employ now. I don’t have any qualms with making a few humans disappear.”

Itossed him a scowl of distaste. “I’m still a lawyer, Songbird. I’m meant to follow the laws.”

“You and I have met very different lawyers then,” he quipped astutely, and as much as I hated it, I couldn’t argue with him.

I’d seen plenty in the business cutting corners or exploiting their power and influence. It was part of the reason I hated being around them.

No matter how much I tried to stick to the letter of the law—Asha’s misadventures aside—there was always some asshole out there bending it to his liking. And really, it was what we were taught in school, how to exploit the laws to help our clients win.

His eyes picked out the agreement in my contemplative stare. “And I think you and I both know who those laws were truly meant to benefit, love.”

Again, I couldn’t argue, so I just glanced at my phone. “Guess I’ll go see what they want and enjoy the show after I tell them to shove it up their asses.”

The tickle of his laughter under my arms pulled at my own lips. “Can’t lie, pet. I’m looking forward to it.”