The Heart of a Monster: The Complete Series

Chapter 7

Rollick

“The nymph said the one she was around briefly never showed his shadowkind form, but he had a sort of earthy vibe to him,” Crag reported, standing stiffly by the door to my office. “And a strong vibe in general, very large and powerful. The ground shook with his steps. She never saw any other being that was clearly in charge, but the earthy one referred to ‘we’ a few times in a way that made her think he wasn’t making his plans alone.”

I strolled through the room, turning over everything he’d told me in my mind. “Earthy and very powerful… Could be a particularly established giant or troll, or an earthen elemental… Dwarf seems unlikely given the size. I can’t think of any specific being I’ve crossed paths with who’d be a definite candidate. But then, I haven’t traveled much overseas in recent decades.”

I’d been focused on the hotel and establishing my business ties here in L.A. Putting down roots as well as one ever could in the mortal realm. I didn’t expect this location to stand the test of time across centuries, but if I continued solidifying my network as I’d always done, it’d take no time at all to rebuild wherever I liked. I’d been through that cycle more times than I could count as human society shifted, rolling with the punches and coming out back on top.

But these new fiends… they were a problem I’d never encountered before.

“At least we have more information?” Crag said, giving me a hopeful look.

I’d have appreciated the gargoyle’s dedication to this quest more if I hadn’t known it was mostly for the mortal woman’s benefit and not my own. I stopped by my desk and leaned against it, folding my arms over my chest and holding his gaze. There were other plans I needed to set in motion. I could never have kept my spot at the top of my game if I wasn’t juggling a dozen balls at once.

“It’s a start,” I said. “Too early to tell how much of one when we don’t know how long a trail we’ll need to follow. You’re impatient to tackle these fiends.”

I definitely didn’t like the firmness with which Crag gazed back at me, totally at ease with the admission he was about to make. “I want to know they won’t get near Quinn ever again. They’ve hurt her enough as it is.”

I raised my eyebrows. “And do you think that playing her protector is going to stop her from getting bored with you? You expect that her gratitude will make her feel obliged to continue that dalliance even after the initial thrill has cooled off?”

Crag’s mouth twitched into a frown. “That wasn’t something I’d worried about to begin with.”

“Oh, my poor fellow. You’ve never associated with mortal lovers before, have you?”

His hand rose to rub his rocky jaw. “I haven’t had the opportunity. But Quinn doesn’t mind—she accepts the?—”

I waved off his protest before he could even finish it. “Of course she doesn’t mind. You’ve found one of the curiosity-seekers. Rare but predictable. She gets off on how unusual you are, but they’re just like the shadowkind tourists in reverse, you know. Dabbling with the fun of the other side but never committing to anything. It’s just a way to get her kicks until she’s tired of that and on to something new.”

I expected the gargoyle to look concerned or embarrassed, but instead he only drew up his ample frame straighter with an air of undeniable and irritating defiance. “You don’t really know her. She didn’t seek us out as lovers. Lance was the one who pushed for that sort of intimacy. She trusts us—she cares for us. And I will be worthy of that trust.”

“I’m only trying to look out for you in your inexperience, friend,” I said with a tsk of my tongue. “How long have you known her, really interacting with her rather than watching from the shadows—a little more than a week? Humans don’t typically form long-lasting bonds even with each other in that short a time. How could you fit into her regular life if you can win it back for her?”

“We would figure it out,” Crag said gruffly but without hesitation.

I didn’t want to harp on the subject and risk building more animosity toward me. The best thing was to have planted the seed so it’d have time to sprout and grow. Not that the soil appeared at all fertile. I supposed it wasn’t surprising that the gargoyle could be stubborn as stone.

Well, that too had been only a start. I made a dismissive motion, and he wavered into the shadows without another word.

Time to work on yet another angle of my plans. I gave my humanesque body a little shake to dispel any tension from the unsatisfying conversation, flashed my brightest smile just to warm up my expression, and headed downstairs to my private rooms.

I didn’t bother knocking. It was a careful balance between showing consideration for the woman’s preferences and keeping her just a little off-balance. She should never forget whose generosity she was relying on right now—who these rooms belonged to.

Quinn didn’t notice my arrival at first anyway. I spotted her sitting in a patch of shade on the terrace, her sketchbook propped on her lap. Her head bowed with concentration as she moved a pencil over the page. She didn’t react to my presence until I eased open the sliding door to step outside.

Her head jerked up, her pencil stilling. I ambled over to peer at the picture she’d sketched: a tower that curved like a narrowing helix up to a magnificent spire. I couldn’t say I’d seen a mortal building quite like it before, but that might mean it wasn’t especially practical. She did have a taste for grandeur.

“I expected you to relax and recover after your ordeal,” I teased. “And yet it seems you can’t help putting yourself to work.”

Quinn shrugged and closed the sketchbook. “It isn’t really work. I love imagining what I might be able to see built from my designs—it’s fun. Anyway, it makes me feel a little better about the fact that I can’t do my actual work since you’ve confiscated my laptop.” She narrowed her eyes at me.

I had to grin. Her obstinacy did make my life a little harder, but her boldness was enough of a delight that I wasn’t sure I minded. Most humans—most shadowkind, even—automatically cowered at least a little before me, sensing instinctively that in the universal hierarchy they were prey and I was predator.

This woman had definitely acclimatized to the idea of monsters very quickly during her time with my mutinous underlings. She was wary of me, absolutely. But she didn’t see me as enough of a threat that she felt the need to kowtow—or at least, she didn’t give enough of a shit about the consequences to rein in her snark.

It was very refreshing.

“Give you that laptop and I might as well throw you straight to the wolves,” I said. “You wouldn’t want that. Not only would it be very painful, you’d also lose out on more of my delectable company.”

Quinn tried to control her reaction, but I caught the flicker of a smile before she schooled her expression into blandness. She did enjoy the banter whether she wanted to or not.

“You think very highly of yourself,” she said dryly.

I grinned and leaned against the doorframe. “I’m simply drawing the most obvious conclusions from the available evidence. Are you deprived of anything—other than disastrous contact with the outside world? Let’s see if I can’t provide it.”

Quinn raised an eyebrow. I had the sense that she was debating trying me—seeing what she might get away with. The thought invigorated me more than it probably should. I did love a challenge, and so little challenged me these days.

She looked as if she were about to say something, her lips parting in a way that sent a twinge to my groin, but then she shut her mouth again and shook her head. “Okay, I’ll admit you’ve been catering to my needs very well.”

I stepped closer, letting her absorb the heft of my presence without actually touching her. It’d be so much better if she crossed that final distance first if we were going to mesh that particular way. And if we didn’t, well, I’d survived worse disappointments. There was no denying she’d be fun, though.

“What about your wants?” I said, letting my voice turn silky. “Your desires? There was something you almost asked for. Don’t hold out on me now.”

If I’d turned that voice on another woman—or man, as the mood took me—I’d have expected them to melt into a puddle of compliance in a matter of seconds. I thought I saw a little quiver run through Quinn’s body, but then she simply shrugged. Fascinating. Maybe that sorcerer heart of hers gave her extra resilience against my innate demonic magnetism.

“I guess I’d just like to know when you’re going to get on with this plan of yours that I factor into somehow,” she said finally, studying me with the distrust I knew to expect.

I kept my stance casual and chuckled. “I was under the impression you needed time to get accustomed to the idea of taking on your natural role. But if you’ve had enough time, I have the necessary pieces ready to begin our experiments into human sorcery.”

Her posture stiffened automatically at the word, a most unusual response. She should have been glad to have access to that kind of power—the opportunity to potentially work it against her enemies.

Instead she was mulishly worried about how it might affect my three traitors.

I didn’t actually believe what I’d said to Crag. I’d watched many bouts of human affection come and go, and Quinn clearly cared about a lot more than what my mutinous men had in their pants. It wasn’t the thrill of being with a monstrous being that made her so reluctant to experiment with a magic that might hurt them.

No, she was genuinely concerned about their well-being. I didn’t know how it had happened or how long it would last, but the devotion was there on her side as well as theirs.

And it was highly inconvenient.

“I’ve been thinking about that,” she said, drawing out the words.

“Yes? And what conclusions have you drawn?”

“I still think it’s a bad idea.”

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes and instead tilted my body forward, resting my hand on the back of the lounge chair just an inch from the cascade of her light blond hair. Tipped that close, I caught her scent: a tang of sunscreen mixed with something fresher, like spring wildflowers just coming into bloom.

“Maybe you’ve forgotten,” I said. “Our deal—the whole part where I keep you and the men who defied my orders safe—is dependent on your cooperation with me. You wouldn’t want to violate that over some vague fear of the unknown, now would you?”

Quinn gazed up at me, a hint of sharper warmth flowing from her skin just for an instant. She wet her lips, drawing my attention to that lovely mouth again. Her eyes darted away from me momentarily before returning to meet mine.

“I was thinking about that too,” she said. “And I wondered… since you did swear not to cause us any harm, and you can’t know for sure that my powers won’t harm them—or me… if I honestly believe that the sorcery could harm us, then wouldn’t it violate our deal for you to insist that I try anyway?”

I blinked at her, my mind abruptly whirling. She couldn’t really have found a loophole—surely that logic couldn’t hold?—

But I was abruptly certain that it did. She’d found a weak spot in our agreement, one that gave her a free pass to ignore me without consequences over her own worries. Frustration prickled through me, my teeth itching to shed the veneers that hid the vicious points.

This was a little more of a challenge than I’d have preferred.

I kept my composure, because I hadn’t lived millennia by losing my cool every time events didn’t go exactly my way, and let my grin widen instead. “I suppose I’ll just have to soothe those fears to the best of my ability, then.”

“Not sure how you’re going to do that,” Quinn said steadily, but her pupils had dilated. Oh, I did have some effect on her. No being mortal or shadowkind was totally impervious to the impact of my presence.

“Hmm.” I straightened up and took a couple of steps away, rubbing my chin as if debating my options. But I’d already known one move I wanted to make, and this gave me a reasonable opening.

I turned to face her, flexing my shoulders in the fitted suit that would have been sweltering in the summer heat if I hadn’t been built for climates even hotter than this. “Maybe you need a little help wrapping your head around the idea that using those powers could protect whoever you want to save more than they’re likely to hurt them. Because the beings we’re up against could very well be even more imposing than me.”

“I don’t think you’re—” Quinn started, and then her mouth snapped shut as I shifted into my shadowkind form.

I loomed even taller and broader, my shadow stretching across the terrace to her feet even under the midday sun. I swiped my hand past my mouth to remove the veneers, revealing the rows of razor-sharp teeth. My clothes vanished, leaving behind only a landscape of ruddy skin over bulging muscles. It was marred here and there by paler scars, including a slash of one just above the side of my waist where this particular mortal had stabbed me a few days ago, but those added character to the terrain. A reminder of how much I’d survived without faltering.

My horns shot up from just above my ears. Claws jutted from my fingertips. My tufted tail lashed beside my hip, and my feet condensed into cloven hooves most mortals associated with pure evil. I flexed my shoulders and grinned.

It was always a relief, letting my demonic self loose. Filling all the space I was meant to.

Quinn’s eyes had widened. She couldn’t disguise her reaction now—both the horror and the spark of interest that danced alongside her animalistic panic. Especially when her gaze dipped to particular endowments.

“You have two,” she blurted out, and flushed flame-red, jerking her eyes upward again. “I mean—I’ve never seen—it’s no big deal.”

I smirked wider, letting my pointed teeth gleam in the sunlight. Oh, let her just imagine how big a deal two substantial cocks could possibly be. She liked her men monstrous—she might as well know what she was missing out on if she passed on the most monstrous of those on hand.

“My apologies,” I said in the more resonant voice that came with my true form. “We monsters tend not to go around clothed while we’re being monsters.” I flicked my tongue over my teeth. “Lucky for you, I’m on your side. But imagine facing off against a being like me—or even more savage—and knowing you could have defended yourself and everyone with you… if only you’d figured out how to purposefully draw on your accidental powers.”

Her throat bobbed as she swallowed. She tucked her legs closer to her chest, but her pupils were still huge. A little frightened? I should hope so. But also so very, very curious.

“That’s a lot to think about,” she said, keeping her voice steady and even a bit tart.

I had to suppress a startled guffaw. She’d pulled most of her composure together with incredible speed.

This one was going to be hard to crack. But I’d get there. I was more than familiar with playing a long game.

“I’ll leave you to that thinking, then,” I said in a low rumble, and gave her a wink before ducking to step back into the lounge.

As I reached the far door, I shifted back into my human-like body, conjuring my clothes around me again. The full demon presence would lose a little of its impact if I went around flashing it everywhere.

Besides, I kept my phone in my trousers, and I couldn’t hear it ringing if I dismissed it to the shadows. It did start ringing now when I was halfway up the stairs to my office. I checked the number and raised it to my ear.

“Yes, Aspen?”

The lackey on the other end drew in a hasty breath. “I’m sorry to bother you, Rollick, but there’ve—there’ve been some new developments in Florida that I figured you’d want to hear about sooner rather than later.”