The Heart of a Monster: The Complete Series

Chapter 17

Rollick

Quinn hadn’t spoken since I’d brought her back to my suite. She’d barely moved. She’d sunk into what appeared to be her favorite armchair and had been simply sitting there for the past half an hour, her arms wrapped loosely around her knees, which she’d folded up to her chest. Her gaze stared aimlessly across the room.

I’d brought her a glass of water in case she needed hydration after the shock of her near-death, but she hadn’t touched it. She’d taken no notice of the backpack I’d retrieved and set near the base of the chair.

I’d lounged on the sofa near her for a little while in case she decided to talk and then wandered around the suite, hoping her tongue might loosen if I gave her some space. I couldn’t quite convince myself to leave. It’d been when I’d left last time that she’d set off on her desperate scramble around the hotel.

She had nearly died. If I’d tracked her down a minute later… I couldn’t remember the last time I’d felt alarm like the icy jolt of fear that’d stabbed through me the moment her grasp on the railing had slipped—or the wave of relief that had flooded me when I’d determined I could get to her in time.

But it hadn’t been enough. There’d been a moment when she’d seriously contemplated letting go rather than taking my helping hand. I’d seen it written in her expression, reverberating through her hesitation when I’d reached out to her. I wouldn’t have been able to catch her then. For all my demonic powers, I had no ability to fly.

Some part of her, a large enough part to override all mortals’ instinctive drive toward self-preservation, believed death might be a better option than returning with me.

It didn’t make sense, and my uncertainty gnawed at me. I’d thought I’d known what we were playing at between us. She’d taken on the role of defiant but tempted captive, and I’d been the seductive jailor, and we’d been cruising along toward our inevitable collision.

We’d bantered. I’d seen desire light in her eyes. She hadn’t seemed scared. I knew what scared looked like.

At least, I’d thought I did. There was something painfully broken in the slump of her shoulders now, something I’d had no idea she was hiding underneath that tartly rebellious exterior.

After another few minutes passed without her stirring, I returned to the sofa. Her gaze didn’t move to me as I settled onto the cushions. I gave her a moment to begin the conversation and decided I’d better take the first step if I wanted any to happen at all.

“It’s become clear to me that my understanding of the situation we’ve found ourselves in is flawed,” I said, keeping my voice smooth but serious. I was reasonably sure that she wasn’t in the mood to be cajoled with jokes or charm. “It wouldn’t have occurred to me that you’d go to the lengths you just did to escape what I thought I’d made clear was a safe haven. Has your time in my home been that awful? What do you need that I’m not offering?”

Quinn’s attention shifted to me slowly, but the disbelief etched on her features sent an uncomfortable twist through my gut. I wasn’t used to feeling this off-balance with any other being, let alone a mortal, and I didn’t enjoy it at all.

“Do you really think this is about whether the suite is properly luxurious or the meals tasty enough?” she said, her voice raw but steady. “You’ve made it clear that you’ve got some purpose in mind for me that you won’t tell me about. The only things I know for sure are that you’re determined to make me use a power that I hate even having, and there was a point when you wanted to murder me and eat my heart, if you’re not still considering that. That’s not even getting into…”

She trailed off with a shiver, but I was stuck on her initial point anyway. I knit my brow. “When have I ever indicated that I was interested in seeing you dead? Let alone snacking on your innards? I know the fiends after you have been devouring sorcerers, but?—”

Quinn’s eyes narrowed as she interrupted. “You told Torrent that you wanted to devour me, didn’t you? He and the others—all three of them are sure that’s what you originally meant to do. And you seemed awfully hesitant to explain what you did want with me when you first came to take me off their hands.”

The twisting sensation inside me pulled tighter. Ah. I hadn’t quite thought—but yes, I could see how I could have made a miscalculation there. Mainly in that I’d failed to consider how much information my associates would have shared with her. It was hard to think of their connection being more than carnal even after the evidence I’d seen, but I knew there was more going on there. I should have taken their closeness properly into account, as strange as it was.

I hesitated, debating my options. She might not believe me no matter what I said. But all my wry remarks and shows of power before hadn’t swayed her, so a different tactic was in order. What did it matter if I was a little more honest with this mortal than I generally was with anyone? She could hardly ruin my reputation.

I leaned forward, clasping my hands in front of me. “Quinn, I never had any intention of killing you. I’ve always very specifically wanted you alive. I sent those three mutinists out to Florida specifically to make sure you stayed that way. What I said to Torrent— The less anyone knows about my exact plans before I’ve carried them out, the better. It was the simplest explanation, and not one I expected him to have any concerns about.”

“You didn’t have any problem even with pretending you were going to ‘snack’ on me?”

I grimaced. “I’m a brutal, incredibly powerful demon who rules over my empire with an iron fist. Haven’t you heard? If I want to make sure that people fall in line with a minimum of additional brutality, which honestly is pretty tiresome most of the time, it’s best if I play into that perception rather than away from it.”

Quinn lowered her legs so she could fold her arms over her chest instead, but I could tell she was paying attention, evaluating what I’d said. “Why would a brutal, incredibly powerful demon with an iron fist care so much about keeping a random human alive?”

I shot her a baleful glance. “You know you’re not just a random human. You’re something more valuable even than the sorcerers who brought your donor into this world, and you’re worth much more than whatever minor power could be transferred by consuming your heart. As I suspect our opponents have figured out as well.”

Her forehead furrowed. “Torrent mentioned that an actual sorcerer would have more power than they get from consuming the organs. Is that what you mean?”

“It’s not just that. You have access to a sorcerer’s powers,” I said, motioning toward her. “A sorcerer with a long heritage of that power, compounded across generations. But you weren’t raised as a sorcerer. You weren’t taught techniques for shutting out shadowkind influence. You haven’t learned to despise us or to see us as nothing but tools. Which makes you the perfect combination of powerful and vulnerable. You could become a tool for shadowkind, if you could be convinced to use those powers on our behalf.”

Quinn studied me for a long moment. “That’s what you want me for too. So I can be your tool. So I can enslave shadowkind for you?”

“No.” I laughed, even though she wasn’t totally wrong about the tool part. “I have no interest in collecting slaves. I do have an interest in ensuring that no idiotic ancient shadowkind go off on some crusade that’ll ultimately serve only to their benefit and screw over the rest of us. There’s clearly something brewing. And you’re the only being I know who might be able to stop them if it gets to that point. We’re definitely screwed if they get their hands on you.”

Her jaw tightened. “I wouldn’t do anything for those beasts.”

“You probably wouldn’t have a choice,” I said gently. “They’ll have beings on their side like that siren who took all of two seconds to cajole you into taking off your shirt. They’d enslave you into being their slaver.”

As I might have done, if I hadn’t wanted to keep my interest in her secret. If I hadn’t had faith in my own ability to win her over by other means. I’d thought I could simply flatter and seduce her until she wanted to appease me—yes, that task had been made harder by her entanglement with my associates, but in a way her affections had also made things easier, since I could use them as motivation too.

But it wasn’t going to be enough. I could see that now. Maybe the suspicion had been creeping over me for days, and I hadn’t wanted to accept it.

I wasn’t going to delude her into going along with my goals. Wasn’t going to cloud her mind with passion to the point that she’d do whatever I wanted as long as I took care of those needs. She didn’t have an ingrained revulsion toward shadowkind, but she was sharp enough to stay wary no matter what desires stirred in her body. Stubborn enough to stand firm no matter what was at stake.

To see even losing her life as a viable option if it gave her the freedom she craved.

It was becoming increasingly clear to me how three of my most trusted and reliable men might have become so enraptured with her when they’d never strayed before. There was definitely something to her that most mortals didn’t possess.

Quinn swiped at her eyes. She hesitated for a stretch before meeting my eyes again. “I don’t want to be a tool—for them or for you. I don’t want to be in this war, if that’s what it’s turning into, at all. I just want to go back to my life, however much of it I still have.”

My mouth tightened with genuine sympathy. I could hear in her voice how exhausted she was from the unexpected trials she’d been put through, but I couldn’t give her a more reassuring answer.

“I don’t think you have a choice,” I said. “And I’m not only saying that because I’m concerned about what will happen to me and my domain if you don’t stand against these pricks. I suspect you won’t like where they’re going with their schemes either.”

“How so?”

I shrugged. “Maybe they’ll amass some more power and simply go back and mess around in the shadow realm… but I think that’s unlikely. Whatever they have planned, it’s probably going to affect the mortal realm too. Even if I could figure out a way for you to keep up your old life without them discovering you, which I can’t see doing regardless, this is going to affect you whether you like it or not. It’s better if we deal with them sooner rather than later.”

Or we might not be able to deal with them at all, even if she was fully committed.

I straightened my stance and decided I could offer a smile now without it rubbing her the wrong way. “I can promise you this much: I’m not going to force you to use your magic against your will. And not out of the kindness of my heart, but because I doubt you’d be able to reach your full potential without your will being totally behind the cause anyway. I will keep reminding you of why it’s important, and I’m not going to let you go running off to your doom. If that’s irritating, well…” I spread my hands. “I’ll attempt to be entertaining enough that you don’t mind too much.”

Quinn wrinkled her nose at me, but I thought her posture had relaxed a little. She seemed to believe me.

The fresh relief that spread through me at that thought was unnerving. As if it didn’t only matter to me that she believed me for my own objectives but because having her distrust me bothered me in some ridiculous way.

Why should she trust me? I was a demon, a monster. I’d played the villain enough times.

I needed to get a handle on this game again. Put myself firmly in control, ensure she was devoted to me or at least dependent on me. That was the only way I could ensure I protected everything that really mattered.

“Truce?” I said, adding a seductive lilt to my voice.

Quinn exhaled slowly. Then she tipped her head in a hesitant nod that opened all the doors I needed.

“For now,” she said.

Not a problem. I could take that and spin it into forever now that I’d gotten this potential disaster back on course.