The Heart of a Monster: The Complete Series

Chapter 15

Quinn

Iwoke up in Rollick’s bedroom to the beeping of my alarm. As I sat up and grabbed my pill case, the memory of last night’s encounter with the three shadowkind men—whose bedrooms I’d rather have been staying in—rushed through my body with a pleasant achiness of muscles well-worked. Then I thought of the hour we’d spent afterward, dozing companionably and then talking about all the things we’d want to do together when I wasn’t being pursued by any kind of villains, and the heat turned into an ache of affection.

Maybe I really could someday swim in the ocean with Torrent, and fly over Crag’s favorite landscapes with him, and sample every flavor of ice cream in the supermarket with Lance. People had overcome worse obstacles than this, hadn’t they? I’d like to think so, anyway.

I missed them already, but something about the sensation gave me a fresh burst of confidence. I still had cards to play. I wasn’t a total victim. By the time Rollick showed up after I’d showered and eaten, I was ready for him, bolstered by my growing resolve.

He stepped into the room carrying a black carrier that looked a little larger than before. I remembered his suggestion that he’d bring a creature that was more of a challenge this time. My chest clenched up momentarily, but I stood firm, bracing my feet against the floor and squaring my shoulders.

Rollick took in my stance and paused rather than walking straight across to the terrace. He raised his eyebrows. “You look like a woman with a mission,” he said with a smile as if he enjoyed seeing it. “Still plenty of energy to spare, I see.”

I wasn’t sure what he meant by that comment when it was first thing in the morning. What would I have been expending my energy on before now? But the demon could shove his charm up his ass regardless.

“Before we do any more training, I want to see my parents,” I said.

Rollick’s eyebrows arched a tad higher. “I thought we’d already covered very thoroughly why any interaction with people from your regular life is a bad?—”

“I’m not asking to talk to them,” I interrupted. “I know I can’t do that without making a big mess. But they’ve been right here in this hotel for days. You’re a super powerful demon. There’s got to be some way you can let me get a look at them in person, even if they can’t see me. I just want to confirm with my own eyes that they’re totally okay.”

And it was an excuse to take a look at more of the hotel itself as well. What surreptitious ways would Rollick bring me through the building that I might be able to make use of on my own later?

Rollick set the carrier down on the sofa and leaned against the arm in a casual stance. “Unfortunately, that’s impossible.”

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes at him. “Impossible, or you just don’t want to?”

“Your parents aren’t here anymore,” he said. “I arranged for their trip home yesterday, which to the best of my knowledge went perfectly smoothly. The activity happening back in Florida that concerned me petered out, and there was no sign that they’d be in any further danger there. Frankly, if the idiots after you aren’t looking for you over there any longer, your parents are safer outside your current orbit.”

“Oh.” I didn’t know what to say to that. I didn’t know what to even think about it. He’d given up a major point of leverage over me… Probably because he’d decided I was cooperating enough that he didn’t need the immediate threat to propel me along. It wasn’t as if we didn’t both know that if he wanted to hurt my parents, he could have them in his clutches again in a matter of minutes.

But the information had taken the wind out of my sails. I couldn’t stand firm and make demands when fulfilling those demands actually was pretty much impossible. I sucked my lower lip under my teeth but caught myself before I’d worried at it more than a few seconds. Then I narrowed my eyes at Rollick. “How can I be sure that you really did send them home and you’re not just saying that so I won’t insist on seeing them?”

“I don’t know,” he said, sounding not at all bothered by the possibility that I might consider him a liar. “It’s very difficult to prove the non-existence of something—in this case, the non-existing of your parents within this city. I could take you on a tour of the entire hotel and no doubt you’d accuse me of tucking them away someplace else. We have more important matters to focus on.” He tapped the top of the box he’d brought.

My hackles rose. “Important to you. I didn’t want to be throwing my sorcerer powers around in the first place.”

“But look at how much progress you’ve made already! It really is impressive. If you have another horde come at you like I’m told has happened a few times already, you’ll at least be able to deflect a few of the lesser creatures without any trouble. Maybe even send them after their own allies.” He motioned toward the terrace. “Let’s get on with it. I’d rather not conduct this experiment inside. I like my furniture enough not to want to see it clawed up.”

My frustration at yet another failed strategy boiled over. My back went rigid. “No. I don’t want to participate in any more ‘experiments’ until you tell me what it is you’re hoping to gain out of all this. I know you’re not just looking to help me protect myself. You wanted me. You think I’m going to be useful to you in some way. I think it’s about time you properly explained.”

Rollick cocked his head, still smiling. My hands clenched against the urge to smack the grin right off his face. I could practically hear him thinking how ridiculous it was that I thought I could demand anything from him.

I wasn’t sure what I would do if he refused. At what point would he claim I was reneging on our deal and bring out more concrete threats to my own safety? But I was so tired of him assuming he could call all the shots here.

To my surprise, he didn’t threaten or argue. He pushed off the sofa and strolled closer to me, his grin turning sly.

I backed up a step, but I was already just a couple of feet from the bookcase. I stopped before my shoulders hit it, my pulse thumping faster. And, damn it, when he loomed over me close enough for the warmth of his body to touch me even though no part of him had actually brushed my skin, the adrenaline rushing through me wasn’t only apprehension.

“Is my sorcerer so restless that she needs other kinds of stimulation?” the demon asked in a crooning voice. He traced his fingers through the air following the line of my arm but not quite grazing my flesh, and a shiver ran through my nerves. “Have I not been giving you enough attention after all? You only need to ask for what you’re craving.”

“I’m not craving you,” I spat out. Some stupid part of my body was curious about what he could do for it, sure, but I had no problem ignoring that part when it came to how I actually acted.

“Maybe I just haven’t found the right approach yet,” Rollick suggested. “Would you like me better if I took the decision away from you? Tied your arms over your head so you had nothing to do but respond to me? Hmm, from the look that just came into your eyes, I think that might be just the thing.”

“Don’t you dare—” I started, and then froze with a rush of cold that washed away even the flickers of attraction I’d been suppressing. The image he’d presented sounded way too specific. Way too familiar.

He’d never said anything about restraining me before, and now, the morning after Torrent had “tied” my arms over my head on Lance’s instructions, the demon was bringing it up out of the blue? And bringing it up so confidently too, as if he’d been sure I’d react well.

I jerked away from him, moving around him into the more open area of the room where I had space to maneuver. My heart was suddenly thumping twice as fast, but it was only horror reverberating through my veins now. “Were you watching?” The men had said that Rollick had left town for the night, but it could have been a set-up—had he suspected and wanted to catch us?

But he hadn’t confronted us then or even now… What was he playing at?

“What was there to watch?” he asked, but I thought his gaze had gotten more intent as he studied my reaction. “Have you been naughty, my little mortal?”

My teeth set on edge. Every nerve in my body was screaming to run from here, but there was nowhere to run. No way of getting away from him. And what if I was just imagining the connection?

My mind tripped back through our entire conversation and stuck on that odd remark he’d made about how much energy I still had. As if he knew I’d been occupied in a rather intense physical encounter last night.

No, it couldn’t be just a coincidence. Maybe we’d been idiots to think he wouldn’t find out.

“So you’re a pervert and a liar,” I shot at him. “You can’t even own up to… to…” To violating my privacy. To leering at us from the shadows. Just thinking about it made my skin crawl.

Something shifted in Rollick’s expression. A hint of a fiercer light glinted in his eyes, a glimpse of the monster lurking behind them showing through. “I know everything that goes on in this building, no matter how clever the beings within it think they are. A prime sub-penthouse room doesn’t stay empty just by happenstance. And I have every right to record what goes on within my property.”

To record… Then he hadn’t been there in person. He really had left last night, but he’d had some kind of cameras running. I didn’t know if that made the situation better or worse.

It occurred to me in another icy splash of revulsion that the first time he’d been particularly provocative with me, when he’d shown off his demonic form not just as a threat but a sort of promise of sexual gratification, it’d been the morning after my first interlude with Torrent. My stomach churned.

“So you treated me like pornography and then decided to use what you saw to advance your own agenda, whatever the hell that is?” I snapped.

The demon blinked slowly, that fucking smile still in place if cooler now. “I’ve never hidden the fact that I believe in drawing on every advantage at my disposal. You’re a difficult one. But if I understand you better, then it’s to your benefit as well as my own.”

Because he still thought I was going to let him put his hands on me. I suppressed a shudder, backing away one step and another. Rollick prowled after me with languid steps, his grin turning wry again. Like he figured he could charm away my horror.

I had my silver sort-of dagger in my pocket, but I couldn’t imagine stabbing him with it doing any real good. I tried to picture jabbing it into his eye—but then what? Even if I pulled off that move without him stopping me, I’d have a furious demon on my hands and nowhere to go.

I wavered, definitely not at all predator now no matter how I’d taken charge with my men last night. In Rollick’s presence, I felt all prey—and it wasn’t a comfortable feeling.

The demon advanced again, and instinct took over. I darted into the bedroom and slammed the door. It was a useless gesture against a being who could slip right through the tiny gap beneath it—or smash the whole door down—if he wanted to, but the gesture gave me a fragment of a sense of control.

“Leave me alone,” I shouted through the door. “I’m not doing anything for you or with you, so just—just go away.”

And then I braced myself for the retribution to come.