Page 28 of The Monsters We Are (Devil’s Cradle #3)

Khloe Wallis jerked back from the toddler in her arms, evading the little hands that struggled to grip her throat. “Dammit, kid, what is your problem?”

Demons didn’t need to morally contend with the concept of killing, not even as children. But this young, they generally didn’t attempt to mindlessly murder whoever they came across. “If you really want to kill someone, there are quicker ways than strangling them. For instance—”

“No,”

Devon cut in on the park bench beside her.

Khloe blinked at her friend. “What?”

“Do not corrupt my daughter with your messed-up imp ways.”

“Imps are not messed up.”

Devon took Ana?s into her arms, her green gaze still on Khloe. “So you’d call them sane? Really?”

“And you’d call a hellcat mating a hellhound sane?”

Khloe shot back. “See, this here is what happens when you go mixing breeds that aren’t supposed to produce offspring together. Shit goes wrong. Psychopaths are born. Deaths soon after follow.”

“Ana?s is not a psychopath. And she doesn’t try to kill people, she just plays rough. She . . . what’s the matter, baby?”

Devon asked the hellpup as she melted into her mom’s chest with a scared whimper.

Khloe tracked the path of Ana?s’ gaze to see a couple stood a few feet away. A very pretty dark-haired woman sighed up at a hot-as-fuck dude who looked the epitome of bored.

“You don’t like the place, do you?”

the woman asked him.

He spared her a quick look. “It’s . . . not unbearable.”

A snort. “That’s probably the nicest thing you’ve said about anywhere we’ve been. I kind of thought that Vegas would be a hit with you.”

Exhaling heavily, she lifted her hands. “I’m just gonna take a wild guess here and assume that you aren’t all too enamored with the wider world so far.”

“You assume correctly.”

She leaned into him. “Why don’t we just head back home, then? I miss the place. Miss the Keep.”

“And your coven,”

he pressed.

“Them, too.”

“And you want to ensure they haven’t set the cottage on fire or gotten themselves killed,”

he hedged.

“Either is a very real possibility. Honestly, I can’t even say that potential threats to them will only come from outside sources. It’s highly possible that they’ve tried to murder the shit out of one another. But we can keep traveling for a little while longer if you’re open to it, or just go on another trip at a later point. You can come and go anytime you please now, remember?”

Satisfaction blotted his dark eyes. “I can.”

Those eyes skittered over to the bench, as if he sensed their scrutiny. He honed in on Ana?s, his expression unmoved.

His woman nudged him. “Don’t even think about trying to scare children because you’re bored. It’s beneath you.”

He frowned at her. “Sadist, remember?”

The two then walked away.

Khloe hummed. “Well . . . they were weird. And powerful. A little too powerful.”

She’d been able to feel it rolling off them.

Devon kissed her daughter’s head. “Did they scare you, baby?”

“She has good instincts. Killer instincts.”

Devon’s eyelid twitched. “You just had to add that, didn’t you?”

“I’m not wrong.”

“My daughter is not a—”

Devon’s words cut off as the hellpup wrapped her little hands around her mom’s throat.

“She’s not a what?”

asked Khloe, watching dispassionately as her friend choked.

Her eyes widening, Devon moved her lips as if trying to communicate something.

“Sorry, can’t hear you.”

Fury flashed in those cat-green eyes, and her lips moved faster.

“Still can’t hear you.”

Devon thrust her daughter away from her just enough to escape her grip. She coughed, glaring daggers at Khloe. “I loathe you.”

“Hate is part of your love language, so I’m good with it.”

Her nostrils flaring, Devon angled her daughter toward Khloe. “Anais. Kill.”

“You can’t use her like she’s an attack dog on a—”

Khloe cut off as the toddler grabbed her throat tight.

Devon grinned. “Sorry, I can’t do what?”